Van Diemen Gulf (11°49′S 131°57′E / 11.817°S 131.95°E / -11.817; 131.95Coordinates: 11°49′S 131°57′E / 11.817°S 131.95°E / -11.817; 131.95) is a gulf between Arnhem Land, of the attached Cobourg Peninsula and Melville Island in northern Australia. It is connected to the Timor Sea in the west by the Clarence Strait (near the city of Darwin), and to the Arafura Sea in the north by Dundas Strait (between Melville Island and Cobourg Peninsula). It stretches over an area of about 14,000 km².
Rivers draining into the Gulf include the South Alligator River, the East Alligator River and the Adelaide River.
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Famous quotes containing the words van and/or gulf:
“The first day that we landed upon that fatal shore
The planters they came round us full twenty score or more,
They rank’d us up like horses, and sold us out of hand
Then yok’d us unto ploughs, my boys, to plow Van
Dieman’s Land.”
—Unknown. Van Dieman’s Land (l. 9–12)
“And into the gulf between cantankerous reality and the male ideal of shaping your world, sail the innocent children. They are right there in front of us—wild, irresponsible symbols of everything else we can’t control.”
—Hugh O’Neill (20th century)