Cape Bridgewater, Victoria

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Cape Bridgewater
state = vic


caption =
lga = Shire of Glenelg
postcode = 3305
est =
pop =
elevation=
maxtemp =
mintemp =
rainfall =
stategov = South-West Coast
fedgov = Wannon
dist1 = 377
dir1 = SW
location1= Melbourne
dist2 = 19
dir2 = W
location2= Portland

Cape Bridgewater is a locality in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the western shore of Bridgewater Bay, 21 kilometres south-west of Portland, and 383 kilometres from Melbourne.

The area was settled in the 1860s and a Post Office opened in 1863 (closed 1968) though known as Bridgewater Lower for some years. Citation | last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 ]

Both Cape Bridgewater and Bridgewater Bay were named by named after the Duke of Bridgewater (1756-1829), by Lieutenant James Grant sailing on the "Lady Nelson" on Date|4 December 1800.cite web |last= Bird |first= Eric |date= 12 October 2006 |title= Place Names on the Coast of Victoria |publisher= The Australian National Placename Survey (ANPS) |url= http://www.anps.org.au/documents/VIC_coastal.pdf |accessdate= 2008-07-23]

Cape Bridgewater is home to a colony of up to 650 fur seals and the highest coastal cliff in Victoria. The cape itself also boasts a large blowhole and a feature known as the petrified forest, 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 volcanic caldera. 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 the Great Ocean Road

Wind Energy

Construction of wind turbines by the company Pacific Hydro has begun on the cape after some controversy. This is part of the Portland Wind Project

Notes

External links

* [http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/capebridgewater/index.asp Cape Bridgewater]