Shoalwater Bay is a large bay on the

Capricorn Coast The Capricorn Coast is a stretch of coastline in Central Queensland, Australia and is part of the Shire of Livingstone (formerly part of Rockhampton Region). Geography The Capricorn Coasts takes its name from Cape Capricorn () on Curtis Island ...

Central Queensland Central Queensland is an imprecisely-defined geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Cap ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

100 km north of the coastal town of

Yeppoon Yeppoon () is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Livingstone, Queensland, Australia. Yeppoon is renowned for its beaches, tropical climate, and the islands out on the bay. Located from the city of Rockhampton, Yeppoon is the seat of ...

and 628 km north-north-west of the state capital,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. Since 1966, the land surrounding Shoalwater Bay has been under the ownership of the

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the Armed forces, military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia and its national interests. It consists of three branches: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and the Royal Aus ...

, for the purpose of military training exercises. Shoalwater Bay is also a noted

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest ...

habitat and is part of the

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...

.Captain Cook's Journal during his first voyage round the world
. James Cook. Chapter 8: "Exploration of East Coast of Australia". April 1770. The bay is bounded by the Torilla Peninsula to the west and the Warginburra Peninsula and

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

and Townshend islands to the east.

History

Pre-colonial

The traditional inhabitants of Shoalwater Bay are the Darumbal people.The Darumbal (Tarumbul, Tharoombool) language region includes the city of Rockhampton extending south towards Raglan Creek and north towards the Styx River and inland along the Broad Sound Ranges. Specific tribes that lived and in some cases continue to live in the area include the Cookeeburra (green-headed ant people of the Warginburra Peninsula), the Risteburra (the sandfly people of Raspberry Creek), the Cooinmurburra (the plains people of Torilla) and the Woppaburra (the people of the islands in the region).

Colonial

The first recorded European to sight Shoalwater Bay was

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

navigator

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

on 28 May 1770. Cook referred to the entire region, from Cape Palmerston (south of Mackay) to Cape Townshend, including Shoalwater Bay, as the "Bay of Inlets", a name which is no longer in use. Cook bestowed the name "Shoalwater Bay" on the southeasternmost of these bays, a reference to the number of sandbars in the bay. Following Cook,

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 ...

conducted further exploration of Shoalwater Bay in 1802, landing on Akens Island (a small island on the western side of Shoalwater Bay) and exploring the head of the bay. Flinders described the land as such:

The hills are stony, but some of them are clothed with grass and wood, and the pine grows in the gullies between them. The low land is sandy or stony, but covered with wood & herbage. Fresh water stands in ponds at the foot of the hills.

European colonisation of the land in Shoalwater Bay region commenced in 1858. By the early 1860s, it had been divided into four pastoral stations: Tilpal, Raspberry Creek, The Peninsula and Torilla. The process of colonisation was violent with the killings of settlers and the massacres of local Aboriginal people being recorded frequently until the mid 1870s.

Tilpal

Tilpal was formed as a

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

in the late 1850s by "Hobby" Elliott. Not long after establishing Tilpal, Elliott and his shearers had a skirmish with the local Aboriginal people which resulted in the death or severe wounding of two of his workers and seven Aboriginal men being shot. The Native Police were called in and they tracked down "the blacks" to Torilla Hill where some more were shot. Elliott later sold Tilpal to James Black and a minor gold rush occurred on the property in the late 1860s.

Raspberry Creek

Raspberry Creek was initially taken up by James Ross and James Hutton. Hutton commenced building the Raspberry Creek Homestead and brought his family to the station in 1861. The resident Risteburra people speared Hutton's cattle and the

Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...

were called in to "disperse" the tribe. Many were shot or fell from cliffs after being pursued by the troopers into the Polygon Range. Raspberry Creek remained under the ownership of the Hutton family until 1917.

The Peninsula

The Peninsula Station was taken up by Edward Hampton Baker (also known as "Cranky" Baker), which encompassed the entirety of the area today known as the Warginburra Peninsula. Baker was consistently at war with the local Cookeeburra people who took his rations and speared his cattle. Baker booby-trapped his house with self-firing rifles and poisoned the Cookeeburra with arsenic-laced flour.

operations occurred frequently in the 1860s on The Peninsula with Baker being pleased with the efforts of Inspectors Aubin and Compigne "to inspire the natives with a wholesome respect for their Majesty's colors." Baker offered money to Rockhampton residents to shoot Aboriginal people on his property, and threatened to place an advertisement in the local newspaper offering "a premium for scalps" if the government did not provide him with even more assistance against "the blacks." In 1873 Inspector Alexander Douglas of Native Police led a large patrol through The Peninsula and around the adjacent islands. A local colonist later described the operation:

"the blacks were robbing huts and doing other damage on The Peninsula, when the owner asked for police protection. The authorities gathered several detachments, and by marching in open order from one end to the other of the Peninsula, actually drove them, like a RABBIT OR KANGAROO DRIVE into the sea, shooting any that broke back. The rest took to the sea to swim to an island, but a boat was handy, and the police got in and shot all they could when swimming. When the Inspector wired to his chief to inform him he had "dispersed" seventy blacks, a reply was received in writing as follows: — A native police officer is supposed to do his duty without making it public."

In 1876, Baker sold The Peninsula to James Hutton owner of the neighbouring Raspberry Creek property, and became a travelling photographer.

Torilla

Torilla was formed by British colonist Frank Newbold in 1858. Newbold did not allow the local Cooinmurburra people to be present upon what was now viewed as his property and conflict ensued. In 1868, around forty Cooinmurburra attacked the Newbold's homestead, fatally wounding his son William Newbold. Around twenty Aboriginal people were shot dead. The Newbold family and their relatives, the Rogers family, retained the Torilla run for many decades afterwards. The town of Stanage on the Torilla property was established by the Rogers family in the early 1870s and was named after their hometown in the United Kingdom.

Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area

The Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area encompasses 4,545 km², which includes the Warginburra Peninsula, the Torilla Peninsula east of the Stanage Bay Road, Townshend and Leicester Islands, and a sizeable chunk of the Shoalwater Bay hinterland north of the village of Byfield. Suggestions that the Shoalwater Bay region be acquired for the purpose of a training ground first appeared in 1960. The army formally took control of the land on 1 July 1965; by the following year, the last landholder had vacated his property. The training area was used by troops who were deployed to the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. In 2005 the federal government entered into a long-term agreement with the US over the use of Shoalwater Bay for military training purposes. Similar agreements over a shorter time span have been agreed to with the Singapore Ministry of Defence, with a new military camp being completed in 2024. Military exercises with the United States have aroused considerable controversy in the Rockhampton-Yeppoon area, due to the threat of environmental damage to the Shoalwater Bay region. In recent years, concern has been raised, although unfounded about the possibility of

depleted uranium Depleted uranium (DU), also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy, or D-38, is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope Uranium-235, 235U than natural uranium. The less radioactive and non-fissile Uranium-238, 238U is the m ...

weaponry been used during training exercises at Shoalwater Bay. Peace activists protesting

Exercise Talisman Saber Exercise Talisman Sabre (also spelled Talisman Saber, the US English alternative title) is a biennial, multinational military exercise led by Australia and the United States. Talisman Sabre involves joint exercises performed by the Australian De ...

were arrested in 2009. Support for a permanent US presence has been expressed by the former Rockhampton mayor, Brad Carter in 2011, and by current mayor, Margaret Strelow. 7 August 2017: "The Australian Navy has located a missing US military aircraft that crashed off Australia's east coast on Saturday, Defense Minister Marise Payne said in a statement Monday. Three US Marines have been missing since what the Marine Corps calls a "mishap" with an MV-22 aircraft. Twenty-three of the 26 personnel on board the aircraft were rescued, the Corps said." The helicopter was from the ship, USS Green Bay.

Environment

The bay contains one of the most important

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 ...

habitats in the

. A plan of management for the bay's

population was released in 1997 to protect the dugong population and reduce impacts on the

seagrass meadow A seagrass meadow or seagrass bed is an underwater ecosystem formed by seagrasses. Seagrasses are marine (saltwater) plants found in shallow coastal waters and in the brackish waters of estuaries. Seagrasses are flowering plants with stems and ...

Important Bird Area

A 483 km² area of the bay and its surrounds, covering all the habitat types suitable for migratory

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

s, or shorebirds, has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it supports over 1% of the world populations of

pied oystercatcher The pied oystercatcher (''Haematopus longirostris'') is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird native to Australia and commonly found on its coastline. The similar South Island pied oystercatcher (''H. finschi'') occurs in New Zealand. ...

s, Far Eastern curlews and

grey-tailed tattler The grey-tailed tattler (''Tringa brevipes'', formerly ''Heteroscelus brevipes''Banks, Richard C.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J. V. Jr.; Rising, James D. & Stotz, Douglas F. (2006):Forty-seventh ...

s, and over 1% of the East Asian – Australasian Flyway populations of

bar-tailed godwit The bar-tailed godwit (''Limosa lapponica'') is a large and strongly migratory wader in the family Scolopacidae, which feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. It has distinctive red breeding plumage, long legs, ...

Eurasian whimbrel The Eurasian or common whimbrel (''Numenius phaeopus''), also known as the white-rumped whimbrel in North America, is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across much of subarctic Pal ...

s and

Terek sandpiper The Terek sandpiper (''Xenus cinereus'') is a small migratory Palearctic wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly foun ...

s. It also contains populations of beach stone-curlews and

mangrove honeyeater The mangrove honeyeater (''Gavicalis fasciogularis'') is a species of bird in the honeyeater family Honeyeater, Meliphagidae. The species was once considered to be conspecific with the varied honeyeater, but it is now treated as a separate specie ...

In popular culture

* Shoalwater Bay is mentioned in "

I Was Only Nineteen "I Was Only 19" (also known as "Only 19" or "A Walk in the Light Green") is a song by the Australian folk group Redgum. The song was released in March 1983 as a single, which hit number one on the national Kent Music Report Singles Chart for two ...

", the #1 single by

Redgum Redgum were an Australian bush band, folk and political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriters John Schumann and Michael Atkinson (composer), Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals, and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were ...

from the 1983 album '' Caught in the Act''. * It is also mentioned in the video game '' ARMA 2'', when a

USMC The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionary ...

private named Kowalski mentions he had a fun time with the "Aussies at Shoalwater Bay".

References

External links

Damaging fossil fuel projects rejected in QLD
{{coord, 22.41667, S, 150.41667, E, display=title Bays of Queensland Great Barrier Reef Important Bird Areas of Queensland Military buildings and structures in Queensland Protests in Australia Proving grounds Ramsar sites in Australia Shire of Livingstone Military installations established in 1965 1965 establishments in Australia