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Cape Bridgewater is a locality in the Australian state of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
located on the western shore of Bridgewater Bay about south-west of
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
*Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon
*Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine
*Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel
Portland may also r ...
and about west of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
.
The area was settled in the 1860s by the
Henty family who had settled nearby Portland, and a post office opened in 1863 (closed 1968) though known as Bridgewater Lower for some years.
Both Cape Bridgewater and Bridgewater Bay were named after the
Duke of Bridgewater (1756-1829), by
Lieutenant James Grant sailing on the ''
Lady Nelson'' on 4 December 1800.
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Cape Bridgewater includes the following protected areas within its boundaries - the
Discovery Bay Coastal Park
The Discovery Bay Coastal Park is a linear protected area of coastal land in western Victoria, south-eastern Australia. The park extends along the coast of Discovery Bay from Cape Nelson north-westwards for to the border with South Australia ...
and the
Mount Richmond National Park.
[
Cape Bridgewater is home to a colony of up to 650 ]fur seals
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family Otariidae. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears ( pinnae), relatively long a ...
and has the highest coastal cliff in Victoria. These cliffs are a suitable spot to observe
Observation in the natural sciences is an act or instance of noticing or perceiving and the acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perceptio ...
southern right whale
The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20� ...
s in winter and spring. The cape itself also boasts a large blowhole and karst solution pipes, colloquially known as the petrified forest,[Lipar, M., Webb, J. A., White, S.Q., Grimes, K.G., 2015. The genesis of solution pipes: Evidence from the Middle-Late Pleistocene Bridgewater Formation calcarenite, southeastern Australia. Geomorphology, 246, p. 90-103.] but now known to be hollow tubes of limestone, eroded as a result of millions of years of rainfall. Bridgewater Bay and the adjacent Cape form a partially submerged volcanic caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...
. To the west is a large area with huge sand dunes. For these reasons the Cape and the nearby coastal area is classed by the government as the second most important coastline in Victoria, after the 'Twelve Apostles', along the Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage-listed stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia, between the Victorian towns of Torquay and Allansford. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and dedica ...
Wind energy
Construction of wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
s by the company Pacific Hydro
Pacific Blue (formerly Pacific Hydro) is an electricity generation and retailing company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1992 and was soon floated on the Australian Securities Exchange. It was later bought by a ...
were constructed on the cape after some controversy. This is part of the Portland Wind Project
See also
* Great South West Walk
Notes
External links
Cape Bridgewater
Towns in Victoria (state)
Coastal towns in Victoria (state)
{{VictoriaAU-geo-stub