Map of King George Sound drawn using Paint

Princess Royal Harbour is a part of

King George Sound King George Sound (Mineng ) is a sound (geography), sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came in ...

on the

South coast of Western Australia The south coast of Western Australia comprises the Western Australian coastline from Cape Leeuwin to Eucla. This is a distance of approximately , fronting the Great Australian Bight and the Southern Ocean. Components The Bureau of Meteorology ...

, and harbour to Albany. On its northern shore is the Port of Albany. The name ''Princess Royal'' also appears in Albany in Princess Royal Fortress and Princess Royal Drive.

History

The first European to explore the waters was

George Vancouver Captain (Royal Navy), Captain George Vancouver (; 22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for leading the Vancouver Expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern West Coast of the Uni ...

in HMS ''Discovery'' in September 1791; he named the harbour after Princess Charlotte Augusta Matilda, the first daughter and fourth child of King

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

. The harbour was surveyed 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 ...

in 1802,

Jules Dumont d'Urville Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842) was a French List of explorers, explorer and French Navy, naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist an ...

in 1826,

John Lort Stokes Admiral John Lort Stokes (1 August 1811 – 11 June 1885) was a Royal Navy officer who served onboard for almost eighteen years.Although 1812 is frequently given as Stokes's year of birth, it has been argued by author Marsden Hordern that Stok ...

in 1848, and

Henry Mangles Denham Vice Admiral Sir Henry Mangles Denham (28 August 1800 – 3 July 1887) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station. Early career Denham joined the navy in 1809. He served on between 1810 and 1814, initially ...

in 1858. The harbour was less than two metres deep until it was dredged in 1901, and its entrance was dredged in 1952. The Princess Royal Harbour was the departure location for a large convoy of Australian troops in November 1914. The entrance to the harbour was named

Ataturk Channel Atatürk Channel, also known as Atatürk Entrance is a water channel named after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and located at King George Sound (Western Australia), King George Sound leading to Princess Royal Harbour in Albany, Western Australia, Alba ...

in 1985 (for

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

); it is also known as Atatürk Entrance.

Ecology

Water quality has been tested and monitored over time. The harbour is the location of a

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...

meadow of

Posidonia ''Posidonia'' is a genus of flowering plants. It contains nine species of marine plants ("seagrass"), found in the seas of the Mediterranean and around the south coast of Australia. The APG system (1998) and APG II system (2003) accept this ge ...

References

External links

{{Coord, 35.0575, S, 117.8960, E, source:wikidata, display=title Albany, Western Australia King George Sound 1791 establishments in Australia