Hells Gates (Tasmania)
{{Short description|Entrance to Macquarie Harbour, Western Tasmania}}
{{Use Australian English|date=March 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2014}}
Hells Gates is the name of the mouth of Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.
Geoscience Australia ({{cite web|url=http://www.ga.gov.au/place-name/ |title=Place Names of Australia Search - Geoscience Australia |access-date=2011-03-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110401032938/http://www.ga.gov.au/place-name/ |archive-date=1 April 2011 |df=dmy-all }} ) has three other locations in Tasmania using the same name – the Macquarie harbour entrance is the only official usage:
- Hells Gates Unofficial Lat -42 22 Long 146 50
- Hells Gates Unofficial Lat -42 12 Long 145 28
- Hells Gates Unofficial Lat -41 37 Long 145 3
It is a notoriously shallow and dangerous channel entrance to the harbour. The actual channel is between Macquarie Heads on the west and Entrance Island on the east (the main length of the harbour runs southeast of Hells Gates). There is a wider area of water between Entrance Island and the eastern shore, but it is too shallow to get a boat over.
Braddon Point is the name of the feature on the eastern shore, while the shallow water south of the point is named Fraser Flats, and the channel adjacent to the breakwater is known as Kelly Channel.
Name origins
The name of the channel relates to the original convicts' claim that it was their point of "entrance to Hell", their Hell being the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on Sarah Island and the outlying surrounds of the harbour.Maxwell-Stewart, Hamish (2008) Closing Hell's Gates, the death of a convict station Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin {{ISBN|978-1-74175-149-9}}. – the title alone, and chapter two voyage through the gates of hell, similarly {{cite book|last=Collins|first=Paul|title=Hell's Gates: the terrible journey of Alexander Pearce, Van Dieman's land cannibal |publisher=Hardie Grant Books| location=South Yarra| year=2002| isbn=1-74064-083-7 }} and * Pink, Kerry. (1984) Through Hells Gates ( A History of Strahan and Macquarie Harbour). Strahan, 1984. {{ISBN|0-646-36665-3}}
Breakwater and channel
Between 1900 and 1902 the Macquarie Harbour Entrance Works{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10104428 |title=Macquarie Harbour |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Hobart, Tasmania |date=14 June 1911 |access-date=8 October 2012 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} involved the building of a breakwater and the channel was dredged. Parts of the breakwater can still be seen despite the passage of time. The Strahan Marine Board{{Citation | author1=Marine Board of Strahan (Tas.) | title=Rules and regulations of the Marine Board, with illustrations of day and night signals for the Macquarie Heads Signal Station | publication-date=1936 | publisher=Government Printer | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/12666879 | access-date=8 October 2012 }} was involved with the monitoring of the mouth until 19 May 1970, when the Hobart Marine Board took over.
Lighthouses
Both Entrance and Bonnet Islands have lights, and they were built before the Cape Sorell Lighthouse.{{cite web|url=http://www.lighthouse.net.au/Lights/TAS/Hells%20Gate/Hells%20Gate.html|archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20060510140000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/15004/20060511-0000/www.lighthouse.net.au/Lights/TAS/Hells%20Gate/Hells%20Gate.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2006-05-10|title = Australian Web Archive}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
Charts and maps
Due to the precarious entrance, and the changes in the hydrology of the area, charts and maps were updated regularly while Strahan was a port of importance – some of these maps are now available online.http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=MAIN&reset_config=true&docId=SLV_VOYAGER1298992 {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2022}}
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{cite book| author-link=Geoffrey Blainey|last=Blainey|first=Geoffrey| title= The Peaks of Lyell | edition=6th | publisher=St. David's Park Publishing | location=Hobart| year=2000| isbn=0-7246-2265-9}}
- Kok, Arjan. A Pictorial History of Strahan. Hobart, No Date. No ISBN.
- Loney, J. K. (1982) Wrecks at Hell's Gates Portarlington, Vic. Marine History Publications, {{ISBN|0-909191-21-2}}
- {{cite book| author-link = Charles Whitham|last=Whitham|first= Charles| title=Western Tasmania – A land of riches and beauty| edition=Reprint 2003| publisher=Municipality of Queenstown| location=Queenstown| year = 2003}}
External links
- {{cite loa|TAS|Hells%20Gate|Hells Gates lights}}
- {{cite loaidx|TAS}}
{{coord|42|13|9|S|145|13|12|E|region:AU-TAS_type:landmark|display=title}}
{{Western Tasmania}}