Discover

'Broken Bay' (^[1]) is a large inlet of the Pacific Ocean located about 50 km north of Sydney on the coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Contents

Overview

Discovery

References

Overview

The entrance to Broken Bay lies between Barrenjoey Island at Palm Beach, and Box Head. The inlet has three arms, being the estuary of the Hawkesbury River from the west, Pittwater to the south, and Brisbane Water to the north. These three arms are flooded rivers (rias) formed when sea level was much lower than it is now.
Lion Island is located in Broken Bay. It is so-called because it has the distinctive profile of a sitting lion. It is a nature sanctuary and has a colony of Fairy Penguins on it.

Discovery

The bay was named by Captain Cook when he passed it on the evening of 6 May 1770, seeing to the north "some
broken land that appear'd to form a bay".^[2] There may have been a little initial confusion about where Cook meant, Matthew Flinders^[2] had Hawkesworth's ''Voyages''^[4] which erroneously gives the latitude as 33°42' (near the Narrabeen lagoon).
On November 28, 2005, documentary filmmaker Damien Lay claimed that the wreckage of a Japanese midget submarine, which disappeared after the attack on Sydney Harbour in 1942, was buried under sand on the seabed, just east of Lion Island. Lay claimed to have confirmed that copper wiring found at the site was consistent with that used in similar Japanese vessels.[1]However, a few weeks later, New South Wales Planning Minister Frank Sartor announced that sonar scans conducted by the New South Wales Heritage Office at the location specified had found no trace of the lost submarine.[2]
Pittwater is a popular sailing area and is bordered by the suburbs including Church Point, Bayview, Clareville, and Palm Beach.
Brisbane Water has the towns of Gosford and Woy Woy on its shores.
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay founded in 1986 extends from Wyoming to Manly and out to Pennant Hills.

References

1. Broken Bay page at Geoscience Australia
2.
3.
4. Account of the Voyages...in the Southern Hemisphere, John Hawkesworth, London, 1773, volumes II-III, page 507 (online at the National Library of Australia)