Jervis Bay Territory, Jervis Bay, ACT, Australia
S 35° 09.750 E 150° 41.680
56H E 290032 N 6106502
The Jervis Bay Territory is a non-self governing territory of the Commonwealth of Australia, occupying the Bherwerre Peninsula, and forming the southern boundary of Jervis Bay.
Waymark Code: WMVWZD
Location: Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Date Posted: 06/05/2017
Views: 1
The Jervis Bay Territory was surrendered by NSW to the Commonwealth in 1915 for the establishment of a sea port for the capital city.
The Commonwealth owned Jervis Bay Territory, including Bherwerre Peninsula, Bowen Island, and that part of Jervis Bay from Captains Point to Bowen Island, occurs near the southern boundary of the Hawkesbury Sandstone. Accordingly it has a high diversity of plants and represents a northern or southern distribution limit for 33 species of plants. There are 625 indigenous plant species in the place, occurring in 38 communities on Bherwerre Peninsula and 14 communities on Bowen Island. Dominant vegetation types include forests, woodlands, heathlands and shrublands. The place includes well preserved examples of mangrove, saltmarsh and littoral rainforest communities.
The area is home to the Koori people of Wreck Bay who have always lived in, and have strong cultural ties to, the area. These cultural ties are evidenced today through oral traditions, the knowledge and practice of the use of natural resources for food and the making of utensils and crafts, and in the respect for country. Through strong family ties, Koori people of Wreck Bay have maintained their traditional association with the area by passing on the ancestral stories and creation stories relating to the area. Parents recite such stories today to their children.
The place contains a large number of prehistoric Aboriginal sites. Rock shelters, stone-flaking sites and axe-sharpening grooves and shell middens demonstrate the length of Aboriginal occupation of the area. Ceremonial BUNAN or BORA grounds, used for initiation, are known only from the immediate hinterland of Wreck Bay, and nearly all known grinding groove sites are in the catchments of Mary and Summercloud Bays. These sites demonstrate past cultural practices and are important to the Wreck Bay community.
The clear waters of Jervis Bay Territory support substantial beds of seagrass strapweed (Posidonia australis) west of Bowen Island and along the northern shore of Bherwerre Peninsula. The beds are significant in terms of macroinvertebrate species richness and provide a valuable nursery, spawning ground and feeding ground for many fish species.
The bay itself is an unusual geological formation, formed by downfolding of the earth's crust and subsequent flooding as sea levels rose. This is in marked contrast to other bays of comparable size in eastern Australia, which were formed by the flooding of river valleys. The coastline of Jervis Bay Territory is noted for the variety of marine environments, including the highest sea cliffs found along the New South Wales coast (135m at Steamers Beach), sea caves, vertical gutters, intertidal rock platforms, deepwater seagrass beds and sub littoral rocky reefs.
The Commonwealth had selected Jervis Bay as port for the new Federal Capital following the choice of Canberra as Federal Capital. In 1911 the new Royal Australian Navy made representations for the creation of a Naval College, following which the Jervis Bay site was developed with work commencing in 1913 to designs from the Office of Commonwealth Architect attributed to John Smith Murdoch. As an important Commonwealth site the entrance to Jervis Bay was later fortified by Defence. The Royal Australian Naval College complex known as HMAS Cresswell continues in use for this purpose today.
Source of information: Australian Heritage Database.
Commonwealth Heritage List
Class Indigenous
Legal Status Listed place (22/06/2004)
Place ID 105394
Place File No 8/02/002/0007
List: Commonwealth Heritage List
Place ID: 105394
Place File No: 8/02/002/0007
URL database reference: [Web Link]
Status:
Listed Place
Year built: Formed in 1915.
|
Visit Instructions:
To log a visit, please post a photo of the location you took yourself. You do not have to be in the picture. Please do NOT post pictures of your GPSr! Tell us about your visit.
If you cannot provide a photo your visit will still be welcome, but then tell us a bit more, please.