Point Lonsdale, Victoria
Encyclopedia
Point Lonsdale is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula
, near Queenscliff
, Victoria, Australia
, and included in the Borough of Queenscliffe
. Point Lonsdale is also one of the headlands which, with Point Nepean
, frame The Rip
, the entrance to Port Phillip
. The headland is dominated by the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse
. At the 2006 census
, Point Lonsdale had a population of 2,477.
people of the Kulin
nation. The escaped convict William Buckley
is the first known European to have resided in the area, having lived with the local people between 1803 and 1835. A signal station was built in 1854. Permanent European settlement began at Point Lonsdale in the latter half of the 19th century with the construction of a lighthouse
in 1863 and the extension of the railway line from Geelong to Queenscliff
in 1879. Since settlement numerous ships have been wrecked here on the rocky reefs at the entrance to Port Phillip
.
The Post Office opened on 15 January 1902.
The town is named after police officer William Lonsdale
and is the birthplace of former Premier of Victoria Thomas Hollway
.
a shallow saline lake that is part of the Lonsdale Lakes Nature Reserve and an important site for the waterbirds and migratory
wader
s that form part of the population using the Ramsar
-listed Swan Bay
wetland
system.
The coastal rock platforms and adjacent waters are included in the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park
. The intertidal platforms have the highest invertebrate diversity of any calcarenite
reef in Victoria, while subtidal areas are characterised by diverse and abundant algal communities as well as by encrusting organisms such as ascidians, sponges and bryozoans.
Along the open coast there are regular sightings of threatened marine mammals such as Humpback
and Southern Right Whale
s.
The township of Point Lonsdale has also been used in some episodes of the hit childrens series Round the Twist
for some of the exterior scenes.
Bellarine Peninsula
The Bellarine Peninsula is a peninsula located south-west of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Corio Bay and Bass Strait. The peninsula, together with the Mornington Peninsula separates Port Phillip from Bass Strait...
, near Queenscliff
Queenscliff, Victoria
Queenscliff is a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, Australia, south of Swan Bay at the entrance to Port Phillip. It is the administrative centre for the Borough of Queenscliffe...
, Victoria, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and included in the Borough of Queenscliffe
Borough of Queenscliffe
The Borough of Queenscliffe is a municipality in Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the south coast, south-east of Geelong on the Bellarine Peninsula south of Swan Bay and next to the Port Phillip Heads, the entrance to Port Phillip Bay from Bass Strait.The Borough has an area of...
. Point Lonsdale is also one of the headlands which, with Point Nepean
Point Nepean, Victoria
Point Nepean marks the southern point of The Rip and the most westerly point of the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia. It was named after the British politician and colonial administrator, Sir Evan Nepean. It is within the suburb of Portsea...
, frame The Rip
The Rip
"The Rip", also known as "The Heads", is a dangerous stretch of water in Victoria, Australia, connecting Port Phillip and Bass Strait. It is the only entrance for shipping into Port Phillip and hence into Melbourne. Because of large tidal flows through the relatively narrow channel from the bay to...
, the entrance to Port Phillip
Port Phillip
Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
. The headland is dominated by the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse
Point Lonsdale Lighthouse
Point Lonsdale Lighthouse, also known as the Point Lonsdale Signal Station, is close to the township of Point Lonsdale in the Borough of Queenscliffe, Victoria, Australia...
. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Point Lonsdale had a population of 2,477.
History
The traditional owners of this area are the WautharongWautharong
Wathaurong, also called the Wada wurrung, are an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The Wathaurong language was spoken by 25 clans south of the Werribee River and the Bellarine Peninsula to Streatham...
people of the Kulin
Kulin
The Kulin nation, was an alliance of five Indigenous Australian nations in Central Victoria, Australia, prior to European settlement. Their collective territory extended to around Port Phillip and Western Port, up into the Great Dividing Range and the Loddon and Goulburn River valleys. To their...
nation. The escaped convict William Buckley
William Buckley (convict)
William Buckley was an English convict who was transported to Australia, escaped, was given up for dead and lived in an Aboriginal community for many years....
is the first known European to have resided in the area, having lived with the local people between 1803 and 1835. A signal station was built in 1854. Permanent European settlement began at Point Lonsdale in the latter half of the 19th century with the construction of a lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
in 1863 and the extension of the railway line from Geelong to Queenscliff
Queenscliff, Victoria
Queenscliff is a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, Australia, south of Swan Bay at the entrance to Port Phillip. It is the administrative centre for the Borough of Queenscliffe...
in 1879. Since settlement numerous ships have been wrecked here on the rocky reefs at the entrance to Port Phillip
Port Phillip
Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
.
The Post Office opened on 15 January 1902.
The town is named after police officer William Lonsdale
William Lonsdale (colonist)
William Lonsdale supervised the founding of the official settlement at Port Phillip from 1836 and went on to serve under the Superintendent La Trobe from 1839 to 1854.-Early life:...
and is the birthplace of former Premier of Victoria Thomas Hollway
Thomas Hollway
Thomas Tuke "Tom" Hollway was the 36th Premier of Victoria, holding office from 1947 to 1950, and again for a short period in 1952....
.
Environment
Next to the town is Lake VictoriaLake Victoria (Victoria)
.Lake Victoria is a 1.39 km² shallow saline lake on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria, Australia, close to the township of Point Lonsdale and part of the Lonsdale Lakes Nature Reserve administered by Parks Victoria. It is separated from Bass Strait by a narrow strip of coastal dunes...
a shallow saline lake that is part of the Lonsdale Lakes Nature Reserve and an important site for the waterbirds and migratory
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
wader
Wader
Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s that form part of the population using the Ramsar
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
-listed Swan Bay
Swan Bay (Victoria)
Swan Bay is a shallow, marine embayment at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula in Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia. The township of Queenscliff lies at its southern end, and St Leonards at its northern. It is partly separated from Port Phillip by Swan Island, Duck Island and Edwards Point...
wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
system.
The coastal rock platforms and adjacent waters are included in the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park
Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park
The Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park comprises six separate sites, with a combined area of 35.8 km², located in the vicinity of the entrance to Port Phillip, between the Bellarine and Mornington Peninsulas, in Victoria, Australia...
. The intertidal platforms have the highest invertebrate diversity of any calcarenite
Calcarenite
thumb|250px|The [[Pietra di Bismantova]] in central [[Italy]] is an example of calcarenite formation.Calcarenite is a type of limestone that is composed predominately, more than 50 percent, of detrital sand-size , carbonate grains...
reef in Victoria, while subtidal areas are characterised by diverse and abundant algal communities as well as by encrusting organisms such as ascidians, sponges and bryozoans.
Along the open coast there are regular sightings of threatened marine mammals such as Humpback
Humpback Whale
The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
and Southern Right Whale
Southern Right Whale
The southern right whale is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Like other right whales, the southern right whale is readily distinguished from others by the callosities on its head, a broad back without a dorsal fin, and a long arching...
s.
Other
Point Lonsdale has a large Norfolk Pine 'The Christmas Tree' that is over 100 years old which is lit up on the first Saturday in December at the end of an evening of A Community Celebration of Christmas. The Community Celebration of Christmas is run by Committee of volunteers assisted by the local Service Clubs- Lions and Rotary. The focus of the event is the Community and children and each year the lights are turned on by a special guest/guests of honour chosen for their contribution to the Community.The Borough of Queenscliffe has a high percentage of volunteers and it is usually volunteers that are chosen as the special guest/guests of honour in recognition of their contribution to the community. Santa arrives at 7.25 pm in the local Fire Brigade Truck to start an evening of entertainment by local performers. Glowcandles are sold as a fundraiser for maintaining equipment on the tree with all profits supporting the ongoing lighting of the tree. The tree itself is decorated by community volunteers and service club members coordinated by The Christmas Tree Committee.Festooning is hauled up by hand and manually secured into the tree. This tree can be found at the corner of Grimes Road and Point Lonsdale Rd, Point Lonsdale, Victoria. When lit up this tree can be seen for miles out to sea and is a Queenscliffe Borough Icon having being lit since about 1952 -1953. When the lights are on you know Christmas is getting close.The township of Point Lonsdale has also been used in some episodes of the hit childrens series Round the Twist
Round the Twist
Round the Twist is a Logie Award-winning Australian children's television series about three children and their widowed father who live in a lighthouse and become involved in many magical adventures....
for some of the exterior scenes.