Swan Island (

Wathaurong The Wadawurrung nation, also called the Wathaurong, or Wathaurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong, and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The ...

: ''Woorang-a'look'') is a 1.4 km² sand

barrier island Barrier islands are a Coast#Landforms, coastal landform, a type of dune, dune system and sand island, where an area of sand has been formed by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of an ...

which, with Duck Island and the Edwards Point spit, separate Swan Bay from

Port Phillip Port Phillip (Kulin languages, Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped bay#Types, enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

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 ...

. It lies close to and north of the town of Queenscliff at the eastern end of the

Bellarine Peninsula The Bellarine Peninsula (Wadawurrung language, Wadawurrung: ''Balla-wein'' or ''Biteyong'') is a peninsula located south-west of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Corio Bay and Bass Strait. The peninsula, together wi ...

, and is an official bounded locality of the

Borough of Queenscliffe The Borough of Queenscliffe is a Local government areas of Victoria, local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, located in the southern part of the state. It is the smallest local governmen ...

Description

Swan Island

Swan Island is home to the Queenscliff Golf Club on land leased from Defence, which occupies the western end of the island, and to the Department of Defence, which operates a training facility occupying the central and eastern parts of the island. It also serves as the land access point for the Queenscliff Cruising Yacht Club on Sand Island. It can be reached by a one-lane vehicular bridge and causeway from Queenscliff via the small saltmarsh-covered Rabbit Island. Access to both Swan and Sand Islands is restricted to members of the golf and yacht clubs, Defence Department personnel, or by permit, with the only road guarded by a security gate. The bay between the western and eastern lobes of the island is Stingaree Bight.

Sand Island

Swan Island now adjoins Sand Island, formed by the cutting of a channel between Port Phillip and Swan Bay to make the entrance to Queenscliff Harbour. The continual maintenance pumping of sand from the harbour's entrance channel to keep it navigable has resulted in

longshore drift Longshore drift from longshore current is a geological process that consists of the transportation of sediments (clay, silt, pebbles, sand, shingle, shells) along a coast parallel to the shoreline, which is dependent on the angle of incoming w ...

of sand north-eastwards to connect Sand Island with Swan Island and create two

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

Environment

Swan Island's natural vegetation includes areas of coastal scrub, relict patches of coastal woodland and extensive areas of

saltmarsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It ...

. The island is part of the

Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area The Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area comprises a cluster of disparate sites centred at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula, and the southern end of Port Phillip, in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, south-eastern A ...

, identified as such 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 ...

because of its importance for

orange-bellied parrot The orange-bellied parrot (''Neophema chrysogaster'') is a small parrot endemic (ecology), endemic to southern Australia, and one of only three species of parrot that bird migration, migrate. It was described by John Latham (ornithologist), John ...

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 and

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s. It is ornithologically notable for the

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

orange-bellied parrot, for which the saltmarsh serves as one of its few regular wintering sites. Sand Island contains saltmarsh-fringed lagoons bordered in the east by colonising

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s and

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

es on newly formed

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s; its accreting eastern beach, now connected to Swan Island, forms an important high

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

roosting area for the migratory

s that feed on the Swan Bay

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...

s at low tide, while the lagoons are much used by

black swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large Anatidae, waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent ...

s and other

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

History

The island was named by Acting Lieutenant John Murray when he entered

in the ship '' Lady Nelson'' in February 1802. Swan Island has a long history of military use, being part of the fortifications built to protect the entrance to Port Phillip Bay from a feared Russian invasion during the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

in the 1850s. The fortifications of Swan Island were controlled by the fire command at

Fort Queenscliff Fort Queenscliff, in Victoria, Australia, dates from 1860 when an open battery was constructed on Shortland's Bluff to defend the entrance to Port Phillip. The Fort, which underwent major redevelopment in the late 1870s and 1880s, became the he ...

. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

used it as a depot for

sea mines A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

. The island was linked to the

Queenscliff railway station Queenscliff railway station was the terminus of the Queenscliff branch line in Victoria, Australia, which left the main Warrnambool line near South Geelong station. The Queenscliff station was opened on 21 May 1879. The current station buildin ...

by a 3-foot gauge tramway for transport of goods for military purposes between 1886 and 1958.

Shipwrecks

The wooden cargo

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

'' Mountain Maid'' sank off Swan Island in 1856 following a collision with another vessel. It is a well known

dive wreck Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. The term is used mainly by recreational and technical divers. Professional divers, when diving on a shipwreck, generally ref ...

. The

J-class submarine The J-class submarines were seven submarines developed by the Royal Navy prior to the First World War in response to claims that Germany was developing submarines that were fast enough to operate alongside surface fleets. Six were completed ...

HMAS J3 HMS ''J3'' (later HMAS ''J3'') was a ''J''-class submarine operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. Design and construction The J class was designed by the Royal Navy in response to reported German submarines with surface s ...

was

scuttled Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull, typically by its crew opening holes in its hull. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vesse ...

off the north-east point of Swan Island in 1924 once its services were no longer required. The Colonial Service torpedo boat HMVS Countess of Hopetoun's hull was scuttled here in 1925 after being stripped of valuable objects. Her bow protruded from the water afterwards, for an indeterminable amount of time.

Swan Island Training Area

Swan Island was a Commonwealth facility with portions controlled by both the Department of Navy and Department of Army. In 1961, when the Department of Navy vacated their portion, the Department of Army stated that their portion was leased to civil interests and that by mid-1961 they would control the entire facility. The Army Reserve 1st Commando Regiment administers the Swan Island Army Detachment (SIAD) with its training activities classified. A former SIAD instructor reportedly said "It is more like a finishing school or a centre of learning for the non-gun stuff". On 9 April 2007, three

Special Air Service Regiment The Special Air Service Regiment, officially abbreviated SASR though commonly known as the SAS, is a special forces unit of the Australian Army. Formed in 1957 as a company, it was modelled on the British SAS with which it shares the motto, ...

soldiers from Perth completing a course on the SIAD were involved in a car accident after returning from a Queenscliff hotel and died. In 2006, the Minister of Defence responded to a question in parliament regarding the Swan Island Training Area that "Swan Island is a Military Exercise Area. It provides a venue for naval training in the use of radar flares, facilities for Army Reserve training and a small demolitions range for Army use." "... some activities are classified." Authors Brian Toohey and William Pinwill made claims, in their 1989 book titled ''Oyster: The Story of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service'' that the

Australian Secret Intelligence Service The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS ) is the foreign intelligence agency of the Commonwealth of Australia, responsible for gathering, processing, and analysing national security information from around the world, primarily throug ...

(ASIS) acquired the Department of Navy portion in 1961 for a training facility, none of which have ever been substantiated. Years before publishing the book, in 1983, SIAD provided training to a covert action paramilitary ASIS program started that year, for ASIS officers and ASIS recruited civilian trainees, to establish a team to recover Australians held by terrorists overseas. The program became public on 30 November 1983 following an exercise at the Sheraton Hotel in Melbourne. A Royal Commission recommendation implemented abolished the Ministerial Directive permitting ASIS to undertake covert action. In April 2004, with the passing of the Intelligence Services Act 2001, ASIS was permitted to be involved in paramilitary activities outside of Australia, including the passive use of weapons and self-defence techniques. It is presumed that ASIS is receiving training from SIAD in the use of weapons and self-defence techniques for its officers. Anti-war protestors regularly protest at the training area, enter and are arrested by

Victoria Police Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''. , Victor ...

charged with Commonwealth trespass and plead guilty to the offence at court. In 2014, eight anti-war protestors trespassed into the training area then split up into pairs, with four detained by SIAD soldiers with claims by the protestors of heavy-handed tactics by the detaining soldiers who hooded, tied and stripped them, and four were detained by Victoria Police, all pleaded guilty to trespassing. An inquiry by Defence resulted in soldiers being counselled over the manner and measure of their response.

References

External links

Commonwealth Heritage Sites in Victoria

Queenscliff Golf Club

History of Russian Attack fears and fortificationsFort Queenscliff Museum
{{authority control Towns in Victoria (state) Towns in Barwon (region) Borough of Queenscliffe Bellarine Peninsula Military installations in Victoria (state) Islands of Victoria (state) Port Phillip Important Bird Areas of Victoria (state) Australian Defence Force bases