41-515: Princess Royal Fortress , also known as Albany Forts , was a fortress on the northern shore of Atatürk entrance on Princess Royal Harbour on Mount Adelaide overlooking King George Sound in Albany, Western Australia . It now operates as a museum. The fortress is named after Princess Royal Harbour, which George Vancouver had named in 1791 after Princess Charlotte Augusta Matilda . The site occupies an area of approximately 11 acres (4 ha). During
82-441: A panorama print of the view from Mount Clarence accompanied by a pamphlet describing the sound and the geography, geology, flora, fauna and native inhabitants of the immediate region. On 8 March 1836, HMS Beagle visited King George Sound and anchored there for eight days. On board was the young naturalist Charles Darwin , who collected specimens on shore. Beagle was on the homeward leg of her celebrated circumnavigation of
123-452: A parade ground . The Military Institute, Guard House, Barracks and Repository Store are situated around the parade ground, whereas the location of the other buildings depends more on the site topography. The entire site underwent a major upgrade in preparation for the Anzac centenary commemorations in 2015. The National Anzac Centre was constructed at a cost of A$ 10.65 million and was opened at
164-493: A 'fledgling Australian town', which features a series of small residences and a public house owned by former soldier Alexander Killam. Many wrecks exist within King George Sound. The most recent and best known is the 133 metres (436 ft) guided missile destroyer HMAS Perth , which was scuttled in 2001 in 35 metres (115 ft) of water off Seal Island , to be used as a dive-site. The former whale chaser Cheynes
205-493: A fire, caused by an incendiary, destroyed the canteen, mess-room and library. The buildings were all weatherboard , with matchwood lining and galvanized metal roofs. The fortress was staffed by eight officers and five men of the South Australian Permanent Artillery in 1902. A fire broke out in buildings at the western end of the forts in 1907. The quartermaster sergeant's office, the armament room and
246-484: A small quota of 50 humpback whales that was eventually increased to 175. At the peak of the whaling activity in the sound the company was taking between 900 and 1100 sperm and humpback whales in a year. Humpback whaling was banned in 1963 which in turn decreased the viability of the operation. In 1978 the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company closed down after increasing environmental lobby group pressure. It
287-560: Is a sound on the south coast of Western Australia . Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came into use from about 1934, prompted by new Admiralty charts supporting the intention to eliminate the possessive 's' from geographical names. The sound covers an area of 110 square kilometres (42 sq mi) and varies in depth from 10 to 35 metres (33 to 115 ft). Situated at its western shore
328-738: Is a part of King George Sound on the South coast of Western Australia , and harbour to Albany . On its northern shore is the Port of Albany . The name Princess Royal also appears in Albany in Princess Royal Fortress and Princess Royal Drive . The first European to explore the waters was George Vancouver in HMS Discovery in September 1791; he named the harbour after Princess Charlotte Augusta Matilda ,
369-455: Is recognised by naming the entrance into Princess Royal Harbour as Atatürk Entrance . There is evidence that shore-based bay whaling was carried out in Barker Bay, by James Daniels, as early as 1849. Whaling ships from Hobart also visited the area in the 2nd half of the 19th century. The Cheyne Beach Whaling Company began operating out of Frenchman Bay, located within the sound, in 1952 with
410-406: Is the city of Albany . The sound is bordered by the mainland to the north, by Vancouver Peninsula on the west, and by Bald Head and Flinders Peninsula to the south. Although the sound is open water to the east, the waters are partially protected by Breaksea Island and Michaelmas Island . There are two harbours located within the sound, Princess Royal Harbour to the west and Oyster Harbour to
451-599: The Fanny Nicholson was being used as a whaling vessel when it ran ashore during a gale in 1872. The remains can still be seen in shallow water in Frenchman Bay . Another Tasmanian whaling barque, the Runnymede , met a similar fate when it ran aground during a storm in 1881. Two wrecks within the sound are protected under the federal Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 . These are the wooden barque Athena that sank in 1908, and
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#1732858193204492-475: The Great Southern Railway provided a quicker service. Albany Port is located on the north shore of Princess Royal Harbour adjacent to the city of Albany . The port was first established in 1826 and has been expanded regularly since. The port now has five berths able to cater to panamax class vessels. The port typically caters for loading of about 120 vessels per annum. In 1914, King George Sound
533-454: The continental shelf in the main part of the sound. The region of King George sound was featured in Kim Scott's 2010 novel, 'That Deadman Dance', which describes interaction and colonialism in 'the friendly frontier'. The story follows a number of nuanced characters, both of European and indigenous Noongar heritage. The main settlement, King George Town, at the time of the book is described as
574-516: The leopard seal . Dolphins are also found in the area, and are occasionally caught and drowned in fishing nets or stranded. The common dolphin Delphinus delphis and the bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncates have both been recorded in the area. Southern right whales and humpback whales frequent the area between July and October when they congregate to mate and calve in the protected waters of
615-484: The 10th Light Horse display, trails and a collection of naval guns and torpedoes. The site is also home to the South East Asia Memorial, United States Submariners Memorial, and Merchant Navy Memorial. Over 25,000 tourists visit the fortress annually. Two guns remain in their original positions along with an underground magazine, ruins, several transported buildings, some substantially reconstructed buildings, and
656-696: The 19th century, the loss of the port was deemed a potential threat to the state and the nation. All the Australian states contributed the funds to build the fortress, and the British Government provided the guns. The fortress was the first federal defense project in Australia, without the country yet having a federal government, and opened in 1893. Two gun batteries were dug into the hillside of Mount Adelaide: Fort Princess Royal with two Mark IV 6-inch BL guns, and Fort Plantagenet with one six inch gun. In 1897,
697-424: The command of Major Edmund Lockyer , arrived at King George Sound to establish a possessory military settlement. Lockyer named his settlement Fredrick Town after George III 's second son, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany , but this name never gained wide acceptance. Instead the settlement and surrounding locality were usually referred to as King George's Sound. The settlement of King George's Sound
738-575: The copper plate Dixson had left. During this time Robert Brown (ship's botanist) and Peter Good (ship's gardener) collected samples of over 500 plant species. Nicolas Baudin arrived in the sound in February 1803 aboard Le Geographe to rendezvous with Louis de Freycinet aboard the Casuarina before doing further exploration of the Western Australian coastline. During the course of their stay
779-515: The first daughter and fourth child of King George III . The harbour was surveyed by Matthew Flinders in 1802, Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1826, John Lort Stokes in 1848, and Henry Mangles Denham in 1858. The harbour was less than two metres deep until it was dredged in 1901, and its entrance was dredged in 1952. The Princess Royal Harbour was the departure location for a large convoy of Australian troops in November 1914 . The entrance to
820-440: The first three months and over 45,000 during its first six months of operation. By September 2016, the centre was ranked as Australia's number one museum by TripAdvisor users and had attracted 136,000 visitors since opening. The battery and magazine received a Historic Engineering Marker from Engineers Australia as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program . Princess Royal Harbour Princess Royal Harbour
861-512: The grey white cushion bush, coast sword sedge, knotted club rush, sea rocket, pigface and false caper. The sound comprises a wide variety of habitats that supports an abundance of marine life. Many species of corals are present including Turbinaria frondens, Turbinaria mesenterina and Turbinaria renformis which cover an extensive area. Other coral species that can be found include Scolymia australis, Plesiastrea versipora, Coscinaraea mcneilli and Coscinaraea marshae. A large, wild mussel population
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#1732858193204902-540: The harbour was named Ataturk Channel in 1985 (for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ); it is also known as Atatürk Entrance . Water quality has been tested and monitored over time. The harbour is the location of a seagrass meadow of Posidonia . [REDACTED] Media related to Princess Royal Harbour at Wikimedia Commons 35°03′27″S 117°53′46″E / 35.0575°S 117.8960°E / -35.0575; 117.8960 King George Sound King George Sound ( Mineng Nyungar : Mammang-Koort )
943-576: The headlands. King George Sound includes many islands and some islets, all comprising granitoid rocks with accumulations of soil on most. Islands of note include Breaksea Island , Michaelmas Island , Seal Island , Mistaken Island , and Green Island . . The tidal range in King George Sound (including Princess Royal Harbour and Oyster Harbour) is 0.4 metres (1 ft) with spring tidal range of 1.1 metres (4 ft). Tidal levels can remain static for periods of time. Semi-diurnal tides are frequent and diurnal tides are occasional. The temperature of
984-475: The military installations were demolished or dismantled. The buildings were alternatively used as school rooms, migrant hostels and then holiday camps, by the 1970s the site was abandoned and succumbed to vandalism . The fortress was extensively restored commencing in 1987 and continued throughout the rest of the 1980s. Eventually the site became a museum; within the fortress grounds are restored military equipment including shore batteries, armories , barracks ,
1025-574: The north. Each receives excellent protection from winds and heavy seas. Princess Royal Harbour was Western Australia's only deep-water port for around 70 years until the Fremantle Inner Harbour was opened in 1897. The first reported visit to King George Sound by a European was in 1791 by the English explorer Captain George Vancouver . Vancouver named it King George the Third's Sound after
1066-612: The reigning monarch. The next Europeans to visit the sound were Captain Dennis of the Kingston , and Captain Dixson of the Elligood . Kingston and Elligood were whalers and while there caught three whales. Dixson left an inscribed piece of copper plate behind. Matthew Flinders anchored in the sound from 8 December 1801 to 5 January 1802 and explored the area. While he was there, his men found
1107-618: The ship's naturalist François Péron , collected 1060 new species of shellfish and a large number of starfish from the sound. Phillip Parker King visited the sound in 1818 aboard the cutter HMS Mermaid while en route to conduct a nautical survey of the North West Cape, and Frenchman Dumont d'Urville visited it in 1826 aboard the Astrolabe . On 25 December 1826, the New South Wales colonial government brig Amity , under
1148-559: The site on 1 November 2014 by the Prime Minister of Australia , Tony Abbott and the Prime Minister of New Zealand , John Key . The date marked the centenary of the first Australian and New Zealand convoy's departure for war from Albany. The National Anzac Centre was named the state's best Heritage Tourism Project at the Western Australian Heritage Awards in 2015. The centre received approximately 25,000 visitors in
1189-527: The sound include cormorants , pied oystercatchers , sooty oystercatchers , Pacific gulls , Caspian terns , pelicans , ospreys and white-bellied sea eagles . The Western Australian south coast is formed along the edge of the southern margin of the Yilgarn craton and is fringed with prominent headlands composed of granite and gneisses formed during Proterozoic tectonic activity. Arcuate Bays that contain beaches backed by holocene dunes are found between
1230-421: The sound includes both the saltmarshes of Oyster Harbour and Princess Royal Harbour, and the sandy beach vegetation. Saltmarshes contain a variety of species including samphire , seablite , astartea , wattle , greenbush, shore rush, twig rush and saltwater paperbark . Freshwater species also occur in areas where substantial freshwater seepage occurs. Sandy beach areas contain a mix of shrubs and sedges such as
1271-478: The sound. Other whales that have been spotted in the area include minke whales , blue whales , short-finned pilot whales , false killer whales and killer whales . Sperm whales were known to visit the sound during the whaling era but none have been sighted recently, although a pod was detected further out in the Southern Ocean in 2002. The sound becomes a perfect habitat for migratory wading birds during
Princess Royal Fortress - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-585: The stationery locker were burned to the ground. In 1909, the Mk VI gun at the Plantagenet battery developed a fault in the barrel, the gun was scrapped and Fort Plantagenet was abandoned. The remaining guns were replaced with emplaced Mk VII guns in 1945, and the old guns were scrapped. From 1893 to 1956 the guns never fired a shot in anger. In 1956, with the advent of the missile era, all coastal defenses were made redundant and closed, including Princess Royal. Many of
1353-488: The summer, when an estimated 2,000-3,000 birds flock to the area to feed in the shallow mudflats of the harbours. Some of the species that can be found during the summer months include the red-necked stint and the red knot as well as sandpipers , grey plovers , red capped plovers , lesser sand plovers , grey-tailed tattlers , Eurasian whimbrels , common greenshanks , yellow-billed spoonbill , white-faced heron and stilts . Other birds that are commonly seen around
1394-553: The water in the sound is slightly different from that of the open sea. The salinity level within the Sound remains relatively constant ranging between 34.8 and 35.5 ' ‰ ', the lower levels occurring during heavy winter rain events when large volumes of freshwater enter the sound from the King and Kalgan rivers . The Leeuwin Current exerts some influence in the sound as it flows eastwards along
1435-467: The world, having already stopped off at Sydney . Until the construction of Fremantle Harbour in 1897, King George Sound contained the only deepwater port in Western Australia, and so was the favoured location for delivery of mail and supplies from abroad to Western Australia. These were then transported to Perth and Fremantle by road or coastal shipping until the early 1890s, when the completion of
1476-758: Was Australia's last coastal whaling company. Installation of a shark barrier was commenced and completed in March 2016 at Middleton Beach at the north western end of the sound. Dense seagrass beds still exist in King George Sound, although they have been adversely affected by increased nutrient levels and industry in the area. Some of the seagrasses present in the sound include Posidonia australis , Posidonia robertsoneae, Posidonia kirkmanii, Posidonia sinuosa, Posidonia denhartogii, Posidonia ostenfeldii , Amphibolis antarctica , Amphibolis griffithii , Halophila australis , Halophila ovalis , Ruppia megacarpa and Heterozostera tasmanica . The fringing vegetation around
1517-535: Was first named by Cuvier in 1829 as Sillago punctata , based on an individual taken from King George Sound. Seals are known to inhabit the sound in various locations along the coast and on the islands. The species that are sighted most often are the Australian sea lion and the New Zealand fur seal . Species that have been sighted, but are considered to be occasional visitors, include the subantarctic fur seal and
1558-761: Was known to exist in the sound, and now commercial mussel farms operate within the area that grow and harvest Blue mussels . It is estimated that 203 species of fish inhabit the Oyster Harbour, Princess Royal Harbour and King George Sound, with Australian pilchards Sardinops sagax neopilchardus making up 97% of the total fish catch. Other species that are commonly found include Australian herring , leatherjackets, cobbler, tailor, Australian anchovy, garfish, sand trevally, tarwhine, flathead, tuna, snapper, Australian salmon, yellowtail scad, sea mullet, striped trumpeter, long-toothed flounder, dusky morwong and long-finned goby. The King George whiting ( Sillaginodes punctatus )
1599-631: Was part of New South Wales – a semi-exclave of New South Wales – from its establishment until 7 March 1831. It then was made part of the Swan River Colony , which from 1833 has been known as Western Australia. In 1832, Governor of Western Australia Captain (later Admiral) James Stirling declared the settlement a town and renamed it Albany , but the broader locality continued to be referred to as King George's Sound for many years. In 1834 Robert Dale published in London
1640-551: Was sold for scrap in 1961 and was subsequently sunk between Michaelmas Island and the northern shoreline of the sound. Another chaser in the fleet, Cheynes II , was blown ashore on Geak Point near Quaranup in Princess Royal Harbour in 1990 and is still there, approximately 290 metres (951 ft) off-shore. The Lady Lyttleton sank in the Emu Point channel when repairs were attempted in 1867. A Hobart wooden barque,
1681-541: Was the last Australian anchorage for the fleet taking the first Australian and New Zealand soldiers, later to become known as Anzacs , to Egypt. A memorial to the Anzacs of the Desert Mounted Corps has been established on top of Mount Clarence . Albany was where the first commemorative dawn service was held on Anzac Day , 25 April 1923. The contribution of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , president of Turkey from 1923 until 1938