Cape Leeuwin

There is something special about Cape Leeuwin, a wind-blown corner of the country where two great oceans (the Indian and Southern) meet. Everyone who goes there feels it; few can put their finger on what it is. It could have something to do with it being the far south-west corner of the continent, or that, if you are from Australia’s eastern states, irrespective of where you live, Cape Leeuwin is probably the furtherest point away from home you can go without leaving the mainland.

Then again, it might also be because of its significance in the discovery, exploration and birth of modern Australia. It was here, in 1622, 148 years before British navigator James Cook put the east coast of Australia on the map, that a dutch ship named the Leeuwin (Lioness) became the first European vessel to make contact with the west coast of the world’s last undiscovered continent. Over the next 150 years, starting from this corner, the outline of the largest island on the globe would be added, section by section, to the map of the world.

The Leeuwin’s captain, Hessel Gerritsz, described the land he found as low-lying, sandy dunes and called it Leeuwin Land. From that time onwards, every Dutch trading vessel heading towards Batavia in the East Indies (Indonesia) attempted to make Cape Leeuwin their first point of contact before turning northward and following its coast to their intended destination. Others to sight the cape before the area was settled in 1830 include Francois Thijssen in the Gulden Zeepaard (1627); Louis Francois Marie Alesno de St Allouarn in the Gros Ventre (1772); and French explorer Nicolas Baudin (27th May 1801), who named it Cape Gosselin, though the name was never adopted.

It would be no accident that British explorer Matthew Flinders, who was given the task of circumnavigating Australia in HMS Investigator, mapping it as he went (he never finished the task), chose Cape Leeuwin as the starting point of his journey. In recognition of its significance in the discovery and exploration of Australia, he named it Cape Leeuwin on 7th December 1801, after the first European ship to come upon it.

In naming St Alouarn Islands, the group of islands at the tip of Cape Leeuwin, Flinders was acknowledging the first Frenchman to sight it – Louis Francois Marie Alesno de St Allouarn, in the Gros Ventre, in 1772. The bay Flinders set sail from, to the immediate east of Cape Leeuwin – Flinders Bay – appears to be named after himself, but Flinders recorded in his journal that the name in fact honours Samuel Ward Flinders, 2nd lieutenant of the Investigator, who was Matthew Flinders’ nephew.

Cape Leeuwin is the start/finishing point for the Cape to Cape Track. Nearby is also the Old Waterwheel, a wooden water wheel that once supplied water to the lighthouse from a fresh water spring in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge. The water wheel has now calcified from the lime in the water, and although the wheel no longer turns water still trickles over the structure, as fresh as the day the water wheel was first erected.

Shipwrecks

Shipwrecks within sight of this location include the SS Pericles, an iron-screw steamer built in Belfast in Northern Ireland, which sank after hitting an uncharted rock on a clear calm day in 1910. The wreck was found by Tom Snider in 1957 at 34°25.33?S 115°08.24?E. He dived on the wreck to recover the lead that was being carried by the ship.

Some shipwrecks are identified as being within the vicinity of Augusta, Cape Leeuwin or Hamelin Bay that might not be within visual distance of the lighthouse.


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Where is it?

330 km south of Perth, 8 km from Augusta.


Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

In 1895, the lighthouse that today identifies the cape was opened with great ceremony by Western Australia’s first Premier, John Forrest. A famous maritime landmark and important meteorological site from which data is collected, the tower stands 39 metres high from ground level and 56 metres above sea level. Its piercing beam, which has an intensity of one million candles, shines over the surrounding rugged sea and landscape for 26 nautical miles or 48 kilometres.

Guided tours are conducted daily at the Lighthouse. A visitor centre, café and retail shop are contained within the lighthouse precinct. Visitors can enjoy a light lunch or cappuccino in one of the heritage cottages overlooking Flinders Bay.

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