Port Davey

Port Davey is a bay on the southwest coast of the Australian state of Tasmania.

Location

The bay is located on the southwest corner of the island of Tasmania in the western part of the South West National Park. The northern part of the bay, which pushes forward into the land, called Payne Bay. There flows from the north of the Davey River. Then west to the Payne Bay is the smaller James Kelly Basin. In the east, branches off from the Port Davey from a natural, about 12 km long channel which connects the Bathurst Harbour to the Bay.

All these bays are protected from the swell of the Roaring Forties, the surges to the south and west coast of Tasmania. The area lies within the Melaleuca to Birch's Inlet Important Bird Area, a bird sanctuary of international stature.

The entire area around the bays is completely surrounded by the national park and, except for a few hermits in the past, uninhabited. It can only be reached by sea, since no road leads there. About the Port Davey Track, a long distance footpath, Port Davey is connected to the southern shore of Lake Pedder in the north and the Huon River and the South East Cape in the east.

History

The French navigator Marion du Fresne was the first European who described the bay, which today is called Port Davey in March 1772. On 13 December 1798, when Matthew Flinders sailed along the west coast of Tasmania along, he mentioned you Fresnes small sketch of the area and tried to get closer to his ship to the coast of Norfolk, to examine the saw on you Fresnes Map Opening closer. On Flinders ' first map of Van Diemen 's Land in the 1800s, the opening was clearly marked. James Kelly was always first, the Port Davey discovered, but Kelly knew with certainty Flinders ' maps and had it on his travels.

Aviation pioneer Francis McClean organized and led an expedition to Port Davey to observe the solar eclipse on May 9, 1910.