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The Bass Strait is a strait that separates Tasmania, Australia from Victoria, Australia. It is 149 miles wide and 492 feet deep. It is known for its powerful storms and rough waters and as a result a lighthouse was built on one of its fifty islands named the Wilson’s Promontory Lighthouse. Some of the islands are King Island, Flinders Island and Deal Island. Legends abound of mysterious disappearances of ships in this strait and it has been likened to the Bermuda triangle. The disappearances of the ships can easily be explained by the unpredictable weather in the Bass Strait. There is nothing “mysterious” about unpredictable weather.
The Island was discovered in 1798 by a British explorer named Mathew Flinders and he named the strait after the doctor on the ship he was sailing, Dr. Bass. Later on of the many islands found in the area was named after him, Flinders Island.
The Bass Strait is home of many natural resources mainly gas and oil fields. A pipeline was built to send the oil and gas to the mainland making this a very lucrative area for Australia. In addition to pipelines there is an electric cable across the strait that is reported to be the longest in the world. |
