Point Lonsdale, Victoria
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| Point Lonsdale Victoria |
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 The lighthouse at Point Lonsdale, at dusk, as seen from the beach below. |
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| Population: | 2,477[1] |
| Postcode: | 3225 |
| Location: |
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| LGA: | Mainly Borough of Queenscliffe, with some streets in the City of Greater Geelong |
| State District: | Bellarine |
| Federal Division: | Corangamite |
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 Bay. At the 2006 census, Point Lonsdale had a population of 2,477.[1]
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[edit] History
The traditional owners of this area are the Wautharong 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 Bay.
The town is named after police officer William Lonsdale and is the birthplace of former Premier of Victoria Thomas Hollway.
[edit] Environment
Next to the town is Lake Victoria a shallow saline lake that is part of the Lonsdale Lakes Nature Reserve and an important site for the waterbirds and migratory waders that form part of the population using the Ramsar-listed Swan Bay wetland system.[2]
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.[3]
Along the open coast there are regular sightings of threatened marine mammals such as Humpback and Southern Right Whales.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). Point Lonsdale (State Suburb). 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved on 2007-08-05.
- ^ Hewish, Marilyn. (2003). The waterbirds of Lake Victoria, a sub-coastal wetland on the Bellarine Peninsula. Geelong Bird Report 2002: 73-110.
- ^ a b Parks Victoria. (2006). Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park Management Plan. Parks Victoria: Melbourne. ISBN 0-7311-8349-5
[edit] External links
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