Cape Grim

Cape Grim, officially Kennaook / Cape Grim,[1] is the northwestern point of Tasmania, Australia. The Peerapper name for the cape is recorded as Kennaook.[2]

Kennaook / Cape Grim
Cape
Cape Grim, looking North. The Doughboys on the left, Trefoil Island in middle distance, Hunter Island and Three Hummock Island beyond to the right.
Cape Grim, looking North. The Doughboys on the left, Trefoil Island in middle distance, Hunter Island and Three Hummock Island beyond to the right.
Kennaook / Cape Grim is located in Tasmania
Kennaook / Cape Grim
Kennaook / Cape Grim
Coordinates: 40°38′31″S 144°43′33″E
LocationTasmania, Australia
Offshore water bodiesSouthern Indian Ocean
Bass Strait

It is the location of the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station and of the Cape Grim Air Archive[3] which is operated by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology[4] in a joint programme with the CSIRO. The station was established in 1976 and has been operating ever since. The data from Cape Grim have been used extensively in assessments of climate change and ozone depletion.[5]

Geography

Cape Grim's isolated geographic location makes it unique. The next land mass directly west of Cape Grim is not Africa, but the southern tip of Argentina. Winds that make their way to Cape Grim from Antarctica and the Indian Ocean hit no significant land mass. Air pollution values collected at Cape Grim are the closest attainable representation of a global average.[6]

History
See also: Cape Grim massacre

The headland was first charted and named Cape Grim by Matthew Flinders on 7 December 1798, as he sailed from the east in the Norfolk and found a long swell coming from the south-west, confirming for the first time that Van Diemen's Land was separated from the Australian mainland by a strait, which he named Bass Strait.[7]

In 1828, Victory Hill at Cape Grim was the site of the Cape Grim massacre of thirty Peerapper people by four shepherds.[8]

Cape Grim received dual naming in March 2021.[9][10]

See also

References
  1. "Place Name Assignments List No. 561 (22089)" (PDF). Tasmanian Government Gazette. 2 June 2021. p. 489. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  2. Milligan, Joseph (1858). "On the dialects and languages of the Aboriginal Tribes of Tasmania, and on their manners and customs" (PDF). Papers of the Royal Society of Tasmania: 271.
  3. Cape Grim: Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station (Tas) (Profile – Facility)
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 February 2002. Retrieved 9 March 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Cape Grim
  6. Cape Grim
  7. Ernest Scott, p138, The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N., Angus & Robertson, 1914.
  8. Lyndall Ryan, pp135-137, The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Allen & Unwin, 1996, ISBN 1-86373-965-3
  9. "30 Aboriginal men were killed at 'Suicide Bay' — now it's being renamed". www.abc.net.au. 31 March 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  10. "Official aboriginal and dual names". 1 April 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.


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