Encounter Bay is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

located on the state's south central coast about south of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. It was named by

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then ...

after his encounter on 8 April 1802 with

Nicolas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 175416 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. He carried a few corms of Gros Michel banana ...

, the commander of the Baudin expedition of 1800–03. It is the site of both the mouth of the

River Murray The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the n ...

and the regional city of Victor Harbor. It is one of four "

historic bay Historic waters in the law of the sea is a concept designating the waters that are treated by a coastal state as a part of its internal waters, contrary to the established international law, but with acquiescence of other states. Historic bay is a ...

s" located on the South Australian coast.

Extent

There are at least two definitions of the bay’s extent: *Firstly, the US

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to support national se ...

states that Newland Head is its westerly extremity while the mouth of the

is the easterly extremity. *Secondly, Australian authorities consider the bay’s extent consists of all of the

sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

north of a line running east from the southern tip of

Rosetta Head Rosetta Head, known as Kongkengguwar by the Ramindjeri people but more commonly known as The Bluff, is a headland located on the south coast of Fleurieu Peninsula in Encounter Bay, South Australia, within the local government area of the City o ...

to the

Younghusband Peninsula Younghusband Peninsula is a long narrow peninsula in South Australia. It separates the Coorong Channel, the Tauwitchere Channel and the Coorong which are part of the estuary of the River Murray from the Southern Ocean which including water bo ...

. Encounter Bay is one of four bays on the South Australian coast considered by the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

to be a "historic bay" under the ''Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973'', and was proclaimed as such in 1987 and again in both 2006 and 2016, with the result that the mouth of the bay is on the territorial seas baseline and the waters within the bay are

internal waters According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes wa ...

as per the definition used in

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 169 sov ...

History

Aboriginal occupation

Although

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

hip has long been ascribed to the

Ramindjeri The Ramindjeri or Raminjeri people were an Aboriginal Australian people forming part of the ''Kukabrak'' grouping now otherwise known as the Ngarrindjeri people. They were the most westerly Ngarrindjeri, living in the area around Encounter Bay an ...

clan of the

Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...

people, linguist

Rob Amery Robert Maxwell Amery (born 1954) is an Australian linguist and specialist in Australian Aboriginal languages, in particular language revitalisation of endangered languages, and focused primarily on the Kaurna language of the Adelaide Plains r ...

of the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

suggested in a 1998 paper that

Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kau ...

traditional lands "may have extended as far eastward as Encounter Bay and that the occupation of Encounter Bay by the Ramindjeri in the late 1830s may have been a response to the activities of whalers in the area". He also notes that the "Encounter Bay people" mentioned in 1836 by

Colonel Light William Light (27 April 1786 – 6 October 1839) was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He was the first Surveyor-General of the new British Province of South Australia, known for choosing the site of the colony's capi ...

and his party at

Rapid Bay Rapid Bay is a locality that includes a small seaside town and bay on the west coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. It lies within the District Council of Yankalilla and its township is approximately 100 km south of the stat ...

in 1836 spoke the

Kaurna language Kaurna ( or ) is a Pama-Nyungan language historically spoken by the Kaurna peoples of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. The Kaurna peoples are made up of various tribal clan groups, each with their own ''parnkarra'' district of land and ...

. The Ramindjeri language name for Encounter Bay was Ramong, although some sources ascribe this name to The Bluff only.

European arrival

Encounter Bay was named by

on 8 April 1802 after his encounter with

, both of whom were charting the Australian coastline for their respective countries (

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

). The encounter between the

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

s was peaceful, even though they believed their countries were at war at the time. (Both parties were unaware that the

Treaty of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set t ...

, ceasing hostilities, had been signed on 25 March 1802.) After

British colonisation of South Australia British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...

, shore-based bay

whaling station Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

s operated on the coast of Encounter Bay from June 1837 at Police Point, Granite Island and

. The last of these closed down in 1855. They were the most successful and longest lasting whaling stations in South Australia. An attempt was made to re-establish the fishery in 1871–72.

Description

The bay's coastline is the site for the following settlements: Victor Harbor,

Port Elliot Port Elliot is a town in South Australia toward the eastern end of the south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It is situated on the sheltered Horseshoe Bay, a small bay off the much larger Encounter Bay. Pullen Island (South Australia), Pullen Is ...

, Middleton and Goolwa. The

Murray Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American bicycle manufacturer * Murray Motor Car Company, an American car manufacturer * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trus ...

, Inman and Hindmarsh Rivers drain into the bay. Islands located within Encounter Bay include (from west to east):

Wright Island Wright Island () is an ice-covered island long, lying at the north edge of Getz Ice Shelf about midway between Carney Island and Martin Peninsula, on the Bakutis Coast, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Location Wright Island is on the seaward si ...

, Granite Island, Seal Island (also known as Seal Rock) and Pullen Island.

Protected areas

The following

protected areas Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

exist within the bay’s waters: the Granite Island Recreation Park, the

Pullen Island Conservation Park Pullen Island Conservation Park is a protected area that includes all of Pullen Island about south of Port Elliot in South Australia and about south of Adelaide. The park was proclaimed in 1972 under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 197 ...

and the

West Island Conservation Park West Island Conservation Park is a protected area occupying both West Island and Seal Island in coastal waters near Victor Harbor in South Australia. The park was proclaimed in 1972 following the enactment of the ''National Parks and Wildlif ...

, while the bay’s waters are within the boundaries of the

Encounter Marine Park Encounter Marine Park is a marine park in South Australia. It is in the Fleurieu Peninsula in state of South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part ...

. The following protected areas adjoin the shores of the bay: the

Coorong National Park Coorong National Park is a protected area located in South Australia about south-east of Adelaide, that predominantly covers a coastal lagoon ecosystem officially known as The Coorong and the Younghusband Peninsula on the Coorong's southern s ...

Extent

History

Aboriginal occupation

European arrival

Description

Protected areas

See also

References

Further reading