Moonlight Head is a locality located on 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 ...

in southwest of Victoria on the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

. It is believed to be the headland seen 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 ...

from the '' Investigator'' during a break in showery weather, on the night of 20 April 1802. It is notable for the vertical cliffs up to 50 metres high, which in some places overhang, and expose geological structures such as

cross bedding In geology, cross-bedding, also known as cross-stratification, is layering within a stratum and at an angle to the main bedding plane. The sedimentary structures which result are roughly horizontal units composed of inclined layers. The original ...

, scour and fill channels and variable sizes of concretions. There is also a sea cave and a massive active landslip, which extends inland for 500 metres. As a consequence amethyst stones, which give the place its name, can be found on the pebbly beach. This stretch of the coast is renowned for its

shipwrecks A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

, with the ship, ''Fiji'' wrecked just off the head in 1891 and the ''Marie Gabrielle'' wrecked on 25 November 1869. An Aboriginal shell midden was excavated in a rock shelter at Moonlight Head and was found to have been occupied between 1030 BP and 180 BP when excavated by archaeologist

David Frankel David Frankel (born April 2, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He directed '' The Devil Wears Prada'' (2006), '' Marley & Me'' (2008), '' Hope Springs'' (2012), '' Jerry & Marge Go Large'' (2022), and the first and fourth episodes of the Netflix mi ...

. This was probably one of the places occupied by the Ngarowurd gundidj clan identified by

George Augustus Robinson George Augustus Robinson (22 March 1791 – 18 October 1866) was an English born builder and self-trained preacher who was employed by the British colonial authorities to conciliate the Indigenous Australians of Van Diemen's Land and the Po ...

’s Gadubanud informants. The find extended the known period of Aboriginal presence on this part of the Otway coast.Lawrence Niewójt Gadubanud society in the Otway Ranges, Victoria: an environmental history
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References

External links

Official Website for 12 Apostles Region of Victoria
Towns in Victoria (state) Coastal towns in Victoria (state) Headlands of Victoria (state) Great Ocean Road {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub