Cockle Bay is a small bay within the

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

of Picnic Bay on south-western corner of

Magnetic Island Magnetic Island ( Wulguru: ''Yunbenun'') is an island offshore from the city of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. This mountainous island in Cleveland Bay has effectively become a suburb of Townsville. The island is accessible from Townsvi ...

City of Townsville The City of Townsville is a local government area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. It encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas. To the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, Woodstock a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia.

Geography

Cockle Bay lies on the western side of Nobby Head, a headland which juts out at the southernmost end of the island. The bay is populated with a number of small residential premises. Access to the bay is gained via an unsealed road which leads through the mangrove flats to the north of Cockle Bay to West Point Road, which in-turn connects to Picnic Bay and

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

. Access to the bay can also be gained by boat, and a channel through the offshore reefs is provided for access by boats with a larger draft.

History

Most notably, approximately 300 meters (330 yards) offshore in Cockle Bay at is the site of the wreck of , a fire-damaged former passenger steamer and

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storage

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which was wrecked in the bay in 1915 while under tow from

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

to Picnic Bay for

scuttling Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull, typically by its crew opening holes in its hull. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel ...

as a

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. On 24 December 1971,

Cyclone Althea Severe Tropical Cyclone Althea was a powerful tropical cyclone that devastated parts of North Queensland just before Christmas 1971. One of the strongest storms ever to affect the Townsville, Queensland, Townsville area, Althea was the fourth sy ...

struck the area, causing the partial collapse of part of the wreck's iron

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

, but the wreck has become an artificial island hosting a variety of plant and bird life.

References

{{Reflist Bays of Queensland Magnetic Island