Wagga Wagga

Australian Wiradjuri Aboriginal tribal language name for 'the place of many crows'. This specific place is approximately 300 miles inland from the east coast of Australia, approximately 100 miles further west than the nation's capital city of Canberra .

Wagga Wagga is a place of many interesting things, including a university that accommodates international study abroad students. This town is located almost exactly halfway between Melbourne and Sydney -- as the crow flies, so to speak.

Read more: Wagga Wagga - The Name

Curious English language collective nouns for groups of animals: murder of crows , float of crocodiles , scold of jays , troop of kangaroos , mob of wallabees

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Fort Nepean

Photo source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artillery_at_Point_Nepean_2.jpg
Breech-loading end of barrel for 6-inch Mark VII gun.
See also: Point Nepean

Historic Gun Barrels

From Point Nepean and from the same gun, ... [these salvaged, restored, and memorialized historic gun barrels] had fired the first shots by an allied army in both World War I and World War II.

Read more: www.theage.com

First Shots Fired

"... On the morning of 5 August 1914, the German freighter Pfalz was being hurriedly loaded by it's nervous crew at Victoria Dock in Melbourne. The ship's captain wanted to reach the open sea before war was declared -- but he was too late. As the Pfalz set out across Port Phillip Bay ... [Fort] Nepean received the news that Great Britain and Germany were officially at war.

... Fort Nepean ... was ordered to halt the Pfalz. The German captain ignored the signals to stop so ... a 6-inch Mark VII breech-loading gun, was ordered to fire a shot across the ship's bow. Within five minutes the Pfalz hove to and surrendered.

The story of the first shot of World War II is somewhat more prosaic. At 1:30 a.m. on 4 September 1939, within hours of war being declared in Europe, a small Bass Strait freighter, the Woniora, ignored an order from Fort Nepean to identify itself as it tried to enter Port Phillips Heads ["the Rip"]. A warning shot was fired from one of the Mark VII guns and the freighter, on it's way to Melbourne from Stanley in Tasmania, quickly complied ...

Among the facinating range of military hardware to be seen at Fort Nepean ... is a rare disappearing gun mounted in 1888 and one of only two in Australia in it's original position ..."

Read More: Victoria's Heritage [PDF]

Also see the blog: Just Outside My 30 Mile Radius, Conservation Weekend (scroll down to photo: The first shot of World War I).

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Quarantine Station

Point Nepean Quarantine Station, circa 1890.
Photo source: www.pointnepeantrust.org
See also: Point Nepean

"Point Nepean Quarantine Station (established 1852) is the second oldest intact quarantine station in Australia. It contains the oldest buildings erected for quarantine purposes in Australia, four of the main hospital buildings (established in 1857), pre-dating the oldest intact quarantine-related structures at North Head, Sydney, by sixteen years.

... [The Australian State of] Victoria established its first, although temporary, quarantine camp at Point Ormond [near Melbourne] ... the site ... was deemed unsuitable as many of the infected, yet able bodied ... who were quarantined ... often absconded under the cover of darkness, eager to pursue their new life in the colony ...

Point Nepean, with its natural isolation, fresh water and rich soil, had already been identified as the preferred site. The arrival of the ship Ticonderoga, in November 1852, with its yellow flag aloft, would catapult Point Nepean into the history books.

The ship had sailed from Liverpool in early August with over 700 passengers on board. The captain reported at the time that approximately 100 people had died during the 3 month passage and a further 300 were sick with 'scarletina'. The ship and its passengers were quarantined at Point Nepean in temporary tents where another 70 souls died, all of whom were buried in the beach cemetery.

During that time the Victorian Government had already commenced the building facilities, with further building to continue over the next 100 years. By 1854, several buildings had been constructed and were in full use, including a timber doctor's home, a hospital, the original stone Sullivan's cottage, a number of prefabricated iron cottages and a pier."

Read more: www.pointnepeantrust.org

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Point Nepean

Photo sources: www.parkweb.vic.gov.au & www.parkweb.vic.gov.au
See also: Port Phillip Bay
Point Nepean is the narrow extremity of land that, at it's tip, defines the south-eastern restriction of "the Rip" ; the narrow channel which all ships navigate into or out of Port Phillip Bay. The point is an extension of the Mornington Peninsula that forms much of the bay's containment on the south-east shore.

"Aboriginal people gathered shellfish and other foods along this coastline for many thousands of years ...

Over the years, including the last 40,000 years of Aboriginal occupation, the area known as Point Nepean has become enriched with environmental and cultural history. The Quarantine Station was established on the shores of Port Phillip Bay in 1852. It was used to protect the colony of Melbourne from ship borne diseases ...

Fort Nepean contains an extensive system of fortifications built from the 1880s through to the World War 1 and World War 2 ... "

Read more: www.parkweb.vic.gov.au

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Port Phillip Bay

Photo source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Port_Phillip_Bay.png
Location: State of Victoria in southern Australia. Port Phillip Bay has it's outlet into the Bass Strait (see map here). Bass Strait is the body of water between southern Australia and northern Tasmania. This channel connects the Indian Ocean on it's west end and the Pacific Ocean on it's east end. Bass Strait separates the island of Tasmania from the continent of Australia by 150 miles at the channel's widest point.

Port Phillip Bay

"... extending approximately 30 miles ... north-south and 25 miles ... east-west. Its entrance, known as “the Rip” ([only]1.75 miles ... wide), between ... [Point] Lonsdale to the west and [Point] Nepean to the east ... Rivers entering the bay include the ... Yarra [river passing through the city of Melbourne]."

Read more: www.britannica.com

Dredging the Bay

"... The dredging of Port Phillip Bay will give super-sized container ships access to Melbourne's port, but it will be a massive undertaking ...

Detractors say authorities are failing to answer basic questions about the impact of dredging on fragile marine ecosystems."

View the video (see note below) and read more: www.theage.com

Note: Included with the 'Dredging' article is a short video, "Piloting the heads" (left column near top on the linked Web site). This video shows an experienced Sea Pilot guiding a very large ship through "the Rip", into Port Phillip Bay, and docking at port in Melbourne

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