Point Lonsdale, Victoria

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Point Lonsdale
state = vic

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caption = The lighthouse at Point Lonsdale, at dusk, as seen from the beach below.
lga = Mainly Borough of Queenscliffe, with some streets in the City of Greater Geelong
postcode = 3225
pop = 2,477
est =
stategov = Bellarine
fedgov = Corangamite
dist1 = 103
dir1 = SW
location1= Melbourne
dist2 = 28
dir2 = SE
location2= Geelong
dist3 = 4
dir3 = W
location3= Queenscliff, Victoria

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.Census 2006 AUS
id=SSC26453
name=Point Lonsdale (State Suburb)
accessdate=2007-08-05
quick=on]

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.

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. [Hewish, Marilyn. (2003). The waterbirds of Lake Victoria, a sub-coastal wetland on the Bellarine Peninsula. "Geelong Bird Report" 2002: 73-110.]

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.Parks Victoria. (2006). "Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park Management Plan". Parks Victoria: Melbourne. ISBN 0-7311-8349-5]

Along the open coast there are regular sightings of threatened marine mammals such as Humpback and Southern Right Whales.

References

External links

* [http://www.smh.com.au/news/Victoria/Point-Lonsdale/2005/02/17/1108500207165.html Sydney Morning Herald]