Geographe Bay - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Geographe Bay is located in the South West of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

around 220 km southwest of Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

.

The bay was named in May 1801 by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

explorer Nicolas Baudin

Nicolas Baudin

Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...

; Baudin named the bay after his ship, Géographe

French corvette Géographe

The Géographe was a 20-gun Serpente class corvette of the French Navy.She was named Uranie in 1797, and renamed Galatée in 1799, still on her building site, as her builder refused to launched her, as he had not been paid...

. The bay is a wide curve of coastline extending from Cape Naturaliste

Cape Naturaliste

Cape Naturaliste is a headland in the south western region of Western Australia at the western edge of the Geographe Bay. It is the northernmost point of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge which was named after the cape...

past the towns of Dunsborough

Dunsborough, Western Australia

Dunsborough is a coastal town in the South West of Western Australia, south of Perth on the shores of Geographe Bay.Dunsborough is a popular tourist destination for Western Australians; in 1999 it was voted the state's best tourist destination. During the last decade the town has grown quickly and...

and Busselton

Busselton, Western Australia

-Growth and development:According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the Shire had a permanent resident population of 25,950 in 2004 with the town of Busselton accounting for 67% or 17,400 of the total. The Shire's permanent population is expected to continue to increase significantly to...

, ending near the city of Bunbury

Bunbury, Western Australia

The port city of Bunbury is the third largest city in Western Australia after the State Capital Perth and Mandurah. It is situated south of Perth's central business district...

. The bay is protected from the rough seas of the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

by Cape Naturaliste (named after Naturaliste

French corvette Naturaliste

The Naturaliste was a Salamandre class bomb-corvette of the French Navy.She was launched in 1795 as La Menaçante. She was renamed to La Naturaliste in June 1800 and under Jacques Hamelin, she took part in the exploration of Australia of Nicolas Baudin.Following her return in 1802, she saw service...

), which makes it a popular destination for recreational boaters. The bay is extremely shallow, limiting the entrance of large ships. To alleviate the problem the two-kilometre-long Busselton Jetty

Busselton Jetty

Busselton Jetty is the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere, stretching almost 2 km out to sea from the town of Busselton, Western Australia. Because the shallow waters of Geographe Bay restricted ship movement, a long jetty was required so that the cut timber could be transported...

, the longest in the southern hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...

, was built.

The Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

HMAS Swan

HMAS Swan (DE-50)

HMAS Swan , named for the Swan River, was a of the Royal Australian Navy . Constructed in Melbourne following the loss of HMAS Voyager, Swan entered service in 1970, and remained in commission until 1996...

was sunk in the bay off the town of Dunsborough on 14 December 1997, for use as a dive wreck.

The bay attracts whale watchers

Whale watching

Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and other cetaceans in their natural habitat. Whales are watched most commonly for recreation but the activity can also serve scientific or educational purposes. A 2009 study, prepared for IFAW, estimated that 13 million people went whale watching...

, who see it as an alternative to Flinders Bay

Flinders Bay

Flinders Bay is a bay and locality that is immediately south of the townsite of Augusta, Western Australia, and close to the mouth of the Blackwood River and lies to the north east of Cape Leeuwin.-Bay:Flinders Bay...

Further reading