Bass Strait

Bass Strait is the sea passage between Tasmania and mainland Australia, connecting the Indian Ocean to the Tasman Sea. It is a shallow, storm-prone stretch of water with numerous islands and reefs.

Tasmania: An Australian island state south of the mainland, separated from Victoria by Bass Strait. The island forms the strait’s southern boundary.
George Bass: An English naval surgeon and explorer who surveyed parts of the Australian coast in the late eighteenth century. His 1798 voyage helped confirm the waterway separating Tasmania from the mainland.
Bass Strait oil and gas fields: Offshore petroleum fields beneath Bass Strait, developed from the 1960s onward. They made the strait a major source of Australian oil and natural gas.
Cataraqui shipwreck: The 1845 wreck of the emigrant ship Cataraqui near King Island, with heavy loss of life. It remains one of Australia’s deadliest civilian maritime disasters.
Victoria: A state in southeastern Australia whose coastline borders Bass Strait. Victoria’s northern shore faces the strait across from Tasmania.
Matthew Flinders: An English navigator who circumnavigated Australia and helped establish its name and outline. Flinders proposed naming the passage for George Bass.
Bass Strait islands: An island group in Bass Strait, including King Island and the Furneaux Group. Island communities rely on shipping, fishing, and tourism across the passage.
HMAS Sydney–Kormoran battle: A 1941 naval battle off Western Australia in which both HMAS Sydney and the German raider Kormoran sank. The wrecks were later found in deep water near the western approaches to Bass Strait.
Tasman Sea: A marginal sea of the southwestern Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand. Bass Strait opens eastward into this sea.
Sydney Cove: A cove in Port Jackson where the British established a penal settlement in 1788. Bass and Flinders sailed from Sydney Cove on their 1798 exploration.

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