1.
Victoria (Australia)
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Victoria is a state in southeast Australia. Victoria is Australias most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall, most of its population is concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australias second-largest city. Prior to British European settlement, the area now constituting Victoria was inhabited by a number of Aboriginal peoples. With Great Britain having claimed the entire Australian continent east of the 135th meridian east in 1788, Victoria was included in the wider colony of New South Wales. The first settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay, and much of what is now Victoria was included in the Port Phillip District in 1836, Victoria was officially created as a separate colony in 1851, and achieved self-government in 1855. Politically, Victoria has 37 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate, at state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Victoria is currently governed by the Labor Party, with Daniel Andrews the current Premier, the personal representative of the Queen of Australia in the state is the Governor of Victoria, currently Linda Dessau. Local government is concentrated in 79 municipal districts, including 33 cities, although a number of unincorporated areas still exist, Victorias total gross state product is ranked second in Australia, although Victoria is ranked fourth in terms of GSP per capita because of its limited mining activity. Culturally, Melbourne is home to a number of museums, art galleries and theatres and is described as the sporting capital of Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest stadium in Australia, and the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics, Victoria has eight public universities, with the oldest, the University of Melbourne, having been founded in 1853. Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851. The first British settlement in the later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. In the year 1826 Colonel Stewart, Captain S. Wright, fly and the brigs Dragon and Amity, took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. Victorias next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria, edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, from settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after the now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe. And in 1838 Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier white settlements dating back to 1826, days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at sites across Victoria
2.
Geelong
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Geelong is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia,75 kilometres south-west of the state capital, Melbourne. It is the second largest Victorian city, with an urban population of 191,440 as at June 2016. Geelong runs from the plains of Lara in the north to the hills of Waurn Ponds to the south, with Corio Bay to the east. Geelong is the centre for the City of Greater Geelong municipality. Geelong was named in 1827, with the derived from the local Wathaurong Aboriginal name for the region, Jillong. The area was first surveyed in 1838, three weeks after Melbourne, the post office was open by June 1840. The first woolstore was erected in this period and it became the port for the industry of the Western District. During the gold rush, Geelong experienced a boom as the main port to the rich goldfields of the Ballarat district. The city then diversified into manufacturing, and during the 1860s, it one of the largest manufacturing centres in Australia with its wool mills, ropeworks. Population increases over the last decade were due to growth in service industries, redevelopment of the inner city has occurred since the 1990s, as well as gentrification of inner suburbs, and currently has a population growth rate higher than the national average. It is known for being home to the Geelong Football Club, today, Geelong stands as an emerging health, education and advanced manufacturing hub. The area of Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula was originally occupied by the Wathaurong Indigenous Australian tribe, the first nonindigenous person recorded as visiting the region was Lt. John Murray, who commanded the brig HMS Lady Nelson. After anchoring outside Port Phillip Heads, on 1 February 1802, led by John Bowen, they explored the immediate area, returning to the Lady Nelson on 4 February. On reporting favourable findings, the Lady Nelson entered Port Phillip on 14 February, during this time, Murray explored the Geelong area and, whilst on the far side of the bay, claimed the entire area for Britain. He named the bay Port King, after Philip Gidley King, Governor King later renamed the bay Port Phillip after the first governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip. Arriving not long after Murray was Matthew Flinders, who entered Port Phillip on 27 April 1802, in October of the same year, the HMS Calcutta led by Lieutenant Colonel David Collins arrived in the bay to establish the Sullivan Bay penal colony. Collins was dissatisfied with the chosen, and sent a small party led by First Lieutenant J. H. Tuckey to investigate alternate sites. The party spent 22 October to 27 October on the shore of Corio Bay
3.
Port Phillip
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Port Phillip, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia, it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers 1,930 square kilometres and the shore stretches roughly 264 km, although it is extremely shallow for its size, most of the bay is navigable. The deepest portion is only 24 metres, and half the region is shallower than 8 m, the volume of the water in the bay is around 25 cubic kilometres. Prior to British settlement the area around Port Phillip was divided between the territories of the Wathaurong, Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung Nations and its waters and coast are home to seals, whales, dolphins, corals, and many kinds of seabirds and migratory waders. The first British to enter the bay were the crews of HMS Lady Nelson, commanded by John Murray and, ten weeks later, HMS Investigator commanded by Matthew Flinders, in 1802. Subsequent expeditions into the bay took place in 1803 to establish the first settlement in Victoria, near Sorrento, but was abandoned in 1804. Thirty years later, settlers from Tasmania returned to establish Melbourne, now the capital city, at the mouth of the Yarra River in 1835. The Yarra and other tributaries flowed down what is now the middle of the bay, formed a lake in the reaches of the bay, dammed by The Heads. The Aboriginal people were in occupation of the area long before the bay was formed, having arrived at least 20,000 years ago and possibly 40,000 years ago. Large piles of semi-fossilised sea-shells known as middens, can still be seen in places around the shoreline and they made a good living from the abundant sea-life, which included penguins and seals. In the cold season they wore possum-skin cloaks and elaborate feathered head-dresses, a dry period combined with sand bar formation, may have dried the bay out as recently as between 800 BCE and 1000 CE. In 1800, Lieutenant James Grant RN was the first known explorer to pass through Bass Strait from west to east in HMS Lady Nelson. He was also the first to see, and crudely chart, Grant gave the name Governor Kings Bay to the body of water between Cape Otway and Wilsons Promontory, but did not venture in and discover Port Phillip. The first Britons to discover and enter Port Phillip, were the crew of the Lady Nelson, commanded by John Murray, Murray called the bay Port King after the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King. On 4 September 1805, King formally renamed it Port Phillip, about ten weeks after Murray, Matthew Flinders RN in HMS Investigator also found and entered the port, unaware Murray had been there. As a result of Murrays and Flinders reports, King sent Lieutenant Charles Robbins in HMS Cumberland to explore Port Phillip fully. One of his party, Charles Grimes, became the first European to walk round the bay. King decided to place a convict settlement at Port Phillip, mainly to stake a claim to southern Australia ahead of the French, on 10 October 1803 a convoy of two ships HMS Calcutta and Ocean led by Captain David Collins carrying 402 people entered Port Philip Bay
4.
Ramsar Convention
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The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands and it is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the Convention was signed in 1971. The most recent COP12 was held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, cOP13 will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2018. The List of Wetlands of International Importance included 2,231 Ramsar Sites in March 2016 covering over 2.1 million square kilometres. The country with the highest number of Sites is the United Kingdom with 170, the Ramsar Sites Information Service is a searchable database which provides information on each Ramsar Site. As of 2016 there are 18 Transboundary Ramsar Sites, as of 2016 there are 15 Ramsar Regional Initiatives covering regions of the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and South America. The Ramsar Convention works closely with six other known as International Organization Partners. The IOPs also participate regularly as observers in all meetings of the Conference of the Parties and as members of the Scientific. Conference of the Parties Conference of the Parties is the Conventions governing body consisting of all governments that have ratified the treaty and this ultimate authority reviews progress under the Convention, identifies new priorities, and sets work plans for members. The COP can also make amendments to the Convention, create expert advisory bodies, review progress reports by member nations, and collaborate with other international organizations and agreements. The Standing Committee The Standing Committee is the executive body which represents the COP between its triennial meetings, within the framework of the decisions made by the COP. The Contracting Parties that are members of the Standing Committee are elected by each meeting of the COP to serve for the three years until the next one, the Secretariat The Secretariat carries out the day-to-day coordination of the Convention’s activities. It is based at the headquarters of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, the 2nd of February each year is World Wetlands Day, marking the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971. Established to raise awareness about the value of wetlands for humanity, in 2015 World Wetlands Day was celebrated in 59 countries
5.
Hamilton Hume
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Hamilton Hume was an early explorer of the present-day Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. In 1824, along with William Hovell, Hume participated in an expedition that first took a route from Sydney to Port Phillip. Along with Sturt in 1828, he was part of an expedition of the first Europeans to discover the Darling River, on 19 June 1797 Hume was born at Seven Hills near Parramatta, a settlement close to Sydney. Hume was the eldest son of Andrew Hamilton Hume and his wife Elizabeth, Andrew Hume got the appointment of Commissary-General for New South Wales, and came out to the colony in 1797. There were few opportunities for education in Australia during the first ten years of the nineteenth century and he was born on 19 June 1797. In 1817, Hume went on a journey with James Meehan, the deputy surveyor-general, and Charles Throsby during which Lake Bathurst, subsequently in 1818, he went with John Oxley and Meehan to Jervis Bay. In 1822, he journeyed with Alexander Berry down the south coast of New South Wales and he travelled as far south as the Clyde River, and inland nearly as far as Braidwood. This canal was Australias first navigable canal, and the work was completed in 12 days, the canal today forms the main water flow of the Shoalhaven River. In 1824, Hume was seen by Governor Brisbane with reference to an expedition to Spencer Gulf, Brisbane was also in touch about this time with William Hovell on the same subject, but it is not quite clear which of the men was the first to be approached. Hume, in a letter dated 24 January 1825, practically claimed to have been the leader of the party and he refers to the expedition your Excellency was pleased to entrust to my care. But Brisbane did not accept this view of it, as in a letter to the secretary, Wilmot Horton, dated 24 March 1825 he mentions the discovery of new and valuable country. By two young men Messrs Hovell and Hume. they were directed by me to try and reach Spencers Gulf and it may also be pointed out that in the letter to Brisbane of 28 July 1824, Hovell signed first. These facts are of interest in view of the controversy broke out many years later. Each of the explorers brought three assigned servants with him and between them they had five bullocks, three horses and two carts, nearly the whole of the journey was through heavy mountain country, and there were several rivers to be crossed. The courage, resource and bushmanship of Hume were important factors in surmounting their many difficulties, here, possibly through faulty instruments, Hovell made a mistake of one degree longitude in his observation, and they believed that they were on the shore of Western Port. The return journey for some time was made on a more to the west, the country was more level. Their provisions were finished just before the end of the journey, Hume and Hovell each received grants of 1,200 acres of land, an inadequate reward for discoveries of great importance made by an expedition which, practically speaking, paid its own expenses. This expedition discovered the route between Sydney and Port Phillip, on whose shores Melbourne now stands
6.
Port of Geelong
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The Port of Geelong is located on the shores of Corio Bay at Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The port is the sixth-largest in Australia by tonnage, major commodities handled by the port include crude oil and petroleum products, export grain and woodchips, alumina imports, and fertiliser. Major port industries include Alcoas Point Henry smelter, AWB Limiteds grain elevator, the Port of Geelong handled $5.6 billion worth of bulk cargo in 2004–05, made up of 12 million tonnes of cargo from 543 ship visits. Before the initial settlement of Geelong, a sandbar across the bay from Point Lillias to Point Henry only allowed small ships to enter the inner harbour, larger ships were required to drop anchor in the bay, and their cargo was brought into Geelong on lighters. At times it was possible to walk across the bay on the sandbar at low tide, the first channel through the sandbar was started in 1853, providing less than 4 metres draught for ships. This channel was straightened out and dredged at a depth of 6 metres in the 1860s, in 1881 dredging of a new channel was started which took 12 years to complete. It was named the Hopetoun Channel after the then Governor of Victoria, Lord Hopetoun, by the early twentieth century shipping traffic had increased and the existing piers in the city area were proving inadequate. As a result, new facilities were progressively provided in the North Geelong area. Management of the channels and port of Geelong was the responsibility of the Geelong Harbor Trust that was formed in December 1905, in addition, the Authority was responsible for the associated ports at Queenscliff, Barwon Heads, Lorne and Apollo Bay. In 1981, the trust was reconstituted as the Port of Geelong Authority as an attempt to follow modern practice with the naming of organisations responsible for ports operation throughout the world. The authority was privatised by the State Government, being sold to TNT Logistics for $49.6 million on 1 July 1996, the port was later rebranded as Toll GeelongPort after the acquisition of TNT by Toll Holdings. The port is now branded as GeelongPort, and is a part of Asciano Limited, in 2008 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission revoked Ascianos exclusive equipment contract with the Port of Geelong. Major piers in the Port of Geelong include, Cunningham Pier, opened as the Railway Pier in the mid-1850s, disused by the 1980s, it was later occupied by a Smorgys restaurant. Currently used as a restaurant and social venue called The Pier, moorabool Street Wharf, located at the end of the street of the same name. Main terminal for bay steamers until demolished in the 1950s, destroyed by fire in 1988 and mostly removed, but has been the subject of a number of rebuilding proposals since. By the early 1900s shipping traffic has increased and the piers in the city area were inadequate. As a result, new developments were started in the North Geelong area. Construction started in the 1900s, and the wharfs are still in use today for woodchip, built to export grain from the adjacent grain elevators in 1937
7.
Shoal
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Often it refers to those submerged ridges, banks, or bars that rise near enough to the surface of a body of water as to constitute a danger to navigation. Shoals are also known as sandbanks, sandbars, or gravelbars, two or more shoals that are either separated by shared troughs or interconnected by past and or present sedimentary and hydrographic processes are referred to as a shoal complex. The term shoal is also used in a number of ways that can be similar or quite different from how it is used in the geologic, geomorphic. Shoals are characteristically long and narrow ridges and they can develop where a stream, river, or ocean current promotes deposition of sediment and granular material, resulting in localized shallowing of the water. Marine shoals also develop either by the in place drowning of barrier islands as the result of sea level rise or by the erosion. Shoals can appear as a coastal landform in the sea, where they are classified as a type of bank, or as fluvial landforms in rivers, streams. A shoal–sandbar may seasonally separate a smaller body of water from the sea, such as, Marine lagoons Brackish water estuaries Freshwater seasonal stream and river mouths and deltas. They are typically composed of sand, although they could be of any matter that the moving water has access to and is capable of shifting around. Wave shoaling is the process when surface waves move towards shallow water, such as a beach, they slow down, their wave height increases and this behavior is called shoaling, and the waves are said to shoal. The waves may or may not build to the point where they break, depending on how large they were to begin with, in particular, waves shoal as they pass over submerged sandbanks or reefs. This can be treacherous for boats and ships, shoaling can also diffract waves, so the waves change direction. For example, if waves pass over a bank which is shallower at one end than the other. Thus the wave fronts will refract, changing direction like light passing through a prism, refraction also occurs as waves move towards a beach if the waves come in at an angle to the beach, or if the beach slopes more gradually at one end than the other. Sandbars, also known as a trough bars, form where the waves are breaking, sometimes this occurs seaward of a trough. Sand carried by the moving bottom current is deposited where the current reaches the wave break. Other longshore bars may lie further offshore, representing the point of even larger waves. A harbor or river bar is a sedimentary deposit formed at an entrance or river mouth by. Where beaches are suitably mobile, or the river’s suspended and/or bed loads are large enough, deposition can build up a sandbar that completely blocks a river mouth and damming the river
8.
Barge
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A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and must be towed or pushed by towboats, Barge is attested from 1300, from Old French barge, from Vulgar Latin barga. The word originally could refer to any small boat, the modern meaning arose around 1480, bark small ship is attested from 1420, from Old French barque, from Vulgar Latin barca. The more precise meaning three-masted ship arose in the 17th century, both are probably derived from the Latin barica, from Greek, βάρις, translit. Egyptian boat, from Coptic, ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ bāri small boat, hieroglyphic Egyptian, by extension, the term embark literally means to board the kind of boat called a barque. The long pole used to maneuver or propel a barge has given rise to the saying I wouldnt touch that with a barge pole. On the British canal system, the barge is used to describe a boat wider than a narrowboat. In the United States, deckhands perform the labor and are supervised by a leadman or the mate, the captain and pilot steer the towboat, which pushes one or more barges held together with rigging, collectively called the tow. The crew live aboard the towboat as it travels along the river system or the intracoastal waterways. These towboats travel between ports and are also called line-haul boats, poles are used on barges to fend off the barge as it nears other vessels or a wharf. These are often called pike poles, barges are used today for low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods by barge is very low. Barges are also used for heavy or bulky items, a typical American barge measures 195 by 35 feet. The most common European barge measures 76.5 by 11.4 metres, as an example, on June 26,2006, a 565-short-ton catalytic cracking unit reactor was shipped by barge from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma to a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Extremely large objects are normally shipped in sections and assembled onsite, of the reactors 700-mile journey, only about 40 miles were traveled overland, from the final port to the refinery. Canal barges are made for the particular canal in which they will operate. Many barges, primarily Dutch barges, which were designed for carrying cargo along the canals of Europe, are no longer large enough to compete in this industry with larger newer vessels. Many of these barges have been renovated and are now used as hotel barges carrying holidaymakers along the same canals on which they once carried grain or coal. This holds true today, for areas of the world
9.
Eastern Beach (Victoria)
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Eastern Beach is a specific beach in Geelong, not to be confused with Waterfront Geelong. Eastern Beach is a swimming and recreation area in Geelong. Built during the 1930s in the Art Deco style, a shark proof sea bath is provided, as well as a swimming pool, kiosk. A number of Art Deco buildings in the area are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and it was not always the beach it is today. In the early years that area of Geelong was considered an eyesore, redevelopment plans were first proposed in 1914 by the City of Geelong. Work was to include a 1-mile sea wall from Yarra Street to Limeburners Point, land reclamation, further plans were drawn up for a chalet at the beach, which later appeared in the form of the kiosk building. Work began in September 1927 when contracts were let for construction of the stairway, terraces. J. C. Taylor and Sons were the successful contractor and that stage of the works was opened on December 20,1929 by the Mayor of Geelong Cr Sol Jacobs. The shark-proof swimming enclosure and childrens pool were opened by Cr Jacobs on March 28,1939, the enclosure covered 8 1⁄2 acres and could accommodate 10,000 bathers. The precinct development cost £40,000, but was seen by the council of the time as being an investment in the city, to cater to beach goers, a tramway extension along Corio Terrace as far as Bellerine Street opened in October 1940. The line was closed in 1956 along with the rest of Geelongs tramways, the area began a slow decline from the 1960s, with its popularity declining as a result of increased motor car ownership giving Geelong residents easier access to ocean beaches. Later decades of neglect saw the fall into disrepair. This decline was arrested in 1993, when the City of Greater Geelong announced plans for the restoration of the area, partial funding of the works came from public purchasing a plank in the swimming enclosure boardwalk. The enclosure was rebuilt, and the pool, kiosk. The Beach House restaurant was opened on the upper level of the kiosk building. The late 1990s saw the original diving tower reinstated at the end of the swimming enclosure after an absence of many years. However, the structure was altered from the original design. The redevelopment was the first stage of the Waterfront Geelong developments that have continued along the shore of Corio Bay, the beach hosts many festivals and concerts year round and also hosts the annual Geelong Carols by the Bay concert hosted by Denis Walter
10.
Whale
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Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. They are a grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla with even-toed ungulates and their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, the two parvorders of whales, baleen whales and toothed whales, are thought to have split apart around 34 million years ago. The whales comprise eight extant families, Balaenopteridae, Balaenidae, Cetotheriidae, Eschrichtiidae, Monodontidae, Physeteridae, Kogiidae, Whales are creatures of the open ocean, they feed, mate, give birth, suckle and raise their young at sea. So extreme is their adaptation to life underwater that they are unable to survive on land. Whales range in size from the 2.6 metres and 135 kilograms dwarf sperm whale to the 29.9 metres and 190 metric tons blue whale, the sperm whale is the largest toothed predator on earth. Several species exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the females are larger than males, baleen whales have no teeth, instead they have plates of baleen, a fringe-like structure used to expel water while retaining the krill and plankton which they feed on. They use their throat pleats to expand the mouth to take in huge gulps of water, balaenids have heads that can make up 40% of their body mass to take in water. Toothed whales, on the hand, have conical teeth designed for catching fish or squid. Some species, such as whales, are well adapted for diving to great depths to catch squid. Whales have evolved from land-living mammals, as such they must breathe air regularly, though they can remain submerged for long periods. They have blowholes located on top of their heads, through air is taken in. They are warm-blooded, and have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin, with streamlined fusiform bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers, whales can travel at up to 20 knots, though they are not as flexible or agile as seals. Whales produce a variety of vocalizations, notably the extended songs of the humpback whale. Although whales are widespread, most species prefer the waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Species such as humpbacks and blue whales are capable of travelling thousands of miles without feeding, males typically mate with multiple females every year, but females only mate every two to three years. Calves are typically born in the spring and summer months and females bear all the responsibility for raising them, mothers of some species fast and nurse their young for one to two years. Once relentlessly hunted for their products, whales are now protected by international law, the North Atlantic right whales nearly became extinct in the twentieth century, with a population low of 450, and the North Pacific gray whale population is ranked Critically Endangered by the IUCN
