Moncrieff 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, circular bay with a nar ...

in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

located at the east end of the

Dudley Peninsula Dudley Peninsula (known as Presquila Gallissoniere and as the MacDonnell Peninsula from 1857 to 1986) is the peninsula forming the eastern end of Kangaroo Island in the Australian state of South Australia. It was occupied by Aboriginal Aus ...

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southw ...

in the gazetted locality of Willoughby overlooking

Backstairs Passage The Backstairs Passage is a strait in South Australia lying between Fleurieu Peninsula on the Australian mainland and Dudley Peninsula on the eastern end of Kangaroo Island. The western edge of the passage is a line from Cape Jervis on Fleur ...

about south-west of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

and about south-east of the municipal seat of Kingscote. It was named in September 1908 after

A. B. Moncrieff Alexander Bain Moncrieff (22 May 1845 – 11 April 1928) was an Ireland, Irish-born engineer, active in Australia. Moncrieff was the son of Alexander Rutherford Moncrieff, and was born in Dublin, Ireland. His family was of Scottish ancestry. H ...

, the Engineer in Chief of the Department of Marine & Harbors. It was one of eleven places in South Australia so named at the time as part of an effort “to name some of the more prominent features on the coast of South Australia which had been left blank in the Admiralty and land charts…” It consists of the section of coastline which faces east and runs in a north-south direction between the headlands of

Cape St Albans Cape St Albans (also called Cape St Alban in some sources) is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located on the north coast of the Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island in the gazetted locality of Willoughby about south-east o ...

in the north and

Cape Willoughby Cape Willoughby is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located on the east end of the Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island in the gazetted locality of Willoughby about south east of the town of Penneshaw. The cape is described ...

in the south. It includes one inlet –

Pink Bay __NOTOC__ Pink Bay is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia and is located at the east end of Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island overlooking Backstairs Passage in the gazetted locality of Willoughby about south of the state cap ...

. The coastline is described as “rugged” and as “predominantly composed of steep, 100 m high vegetated bluffs.” Water depths within the bay are less than with a maximum depth of shown as single sounding in an official source. The bay’s coastline is described as being “boulder beaches’ with the exception of two beaches composed of sand at its southern end. The beach at Pink Bay in the west has a length of while the other one known as 'Cape Willoughby' in the east has a length of . Both are unpatrolled swimming beaches which are considered by

Surf Life Saving Australia Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) is an Australian not-for-profit community organisation that promotes water safety and provides surf rescue services. SLSA strives to create a safe environment on Australia's beaches and coastline through patrol ...

to be respectively ‘least hazardous’ and ‘moderately hazardous’ while the "boulder beaches" being considered to be "extremely hazardous." The bay’s bottom is described in 2002 by divers doing a fish population survey as consisting of “blocks (1-2 m) and boulders going to sand at 5 m depth” and there was a “rocky bottom at southern end of (the) bay 250 m each side of beach.” Also, the following algae genera and species were considered to be the dominant alga present in parts of the bay surveyed - genus ''

Ecklonia ''Ecklonia'' is a genus of kelp (brown algae) belonging to the family Lessoniaceae. The genus name of ''Ecklonia'' is in honour of Christian Friedrich Ecklon (1795–1868), who was a Danish botanical collector and apothecary. The genus was cir ...

'', genus '' Cystophora'' represented by C.siliquosa, C.moniliformis, and C. intermedia, genus ''Acrocarpia'' and '' Sargassum fallax'' from the family ''

Sargassaceae Sargassaceae is a family of brown algae in the order Fucales. See also *''Carpophyllum maschalocarpum'' *''Halidrys siliquosa ''Halidrys siliquosa'' is a large marine brown algae. Description ''Halidrys siliquosa'' is a large brown alga g ...

''. As of late 2012, the waters adjoining its shoreline are within a habitat protection zone in the

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

known as 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 state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the ...

References

{{Kangaroo Island, state=collapsed Bays of South Australia Dudley Peninsula Backstairs Passage