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Cape Bridgewater | |||||||||||||
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 Looking down towards the Cape Bridgewater foreshore area | |||||||||||||
  Cape Bridgewater | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates:38°22′0″S141°24′0″E / 38.36667°S 141.40000°E /-38.36667; 141.40000 | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | Victoria | ||||||||||||
| LGA | |||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||
| • State electorate | |||||||||||||
| • Federal division | |||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 151 (2021 census)[2] | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 3305[3] | ||||||||||||
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| Adjoining localities[4] | |||||||||||||
Cape Bridgewater is a locality in the Australian state ofVictoria located on the western shore of Bridgewater Bay about 21 kilometres (13 mi) south-west ofPortland and about 383 kilometres (238 mi) west ofMelbourne.
The area was settled in the 1860s by theHenty family who had settled nearby Portland, and a post office opened in 1863 (closed 1968) though known as Bridgewater Lower for some years.[5]
Both Cape Bridgewater and Bridgewater Bay were named after theDuke of Bridgewater (1756-1829), byLieutenant James Grant sailing on theLady Nelson on 4 December 1800.[6][7][8][9]
Cape Bridgewater includes the following protected areas within its boundaries - theDiscovery Bay Coastal Park and theMount Richmond National Park.[4]
Cape Bridgewater is home to a colony of up to 650fur seals and has the highest coastal cliff in Victoria. These cliffs are a suitable spot toobservesouthern right whales in winter and spring. The cape itself also boasts a largeblowhole and karst solution pipes, colloquially known as the petrified forest,[10] but now known to be hollow tubes of limestone, eroded as a result of millions of years of rainfall. Bridgewater Bay and the adjacent Cape form a partially submerged volcaniccaldera. To the west is a large area with huge sand dunes. For these reasons the Cape and the nearby coastal area is classed by the government as the second most important coastline in Victoria, after the'Twelve Apostles', along theGreat Ocean Road
Construction ofwind turbines by the companyPacific Hydro were constructed on the cape after some controversy. This is part of thePortland Wind Project
Media related toCape Bridgewater at Wikimedia Commons
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