Wingan Inlet - Visit By Bass

Visit By Bass

Wingan Inlet is of historical significance, as it is almost certainly the lagoon, 'one mile north of Rame Head,' where Dr. George Bass reputedly became the first european to set foot on the Victorian shoreline on January 20, 1798, during his first expedition south of Sydney to establish the relationship of Tasmania to the Australian mainland, with the encouragement of Gov.John Hunter (Royal Navy officer), New South Wales.

Dr. Bass sailed aboard a small, unnamed whaling boat (28 ft) and carefully examined the coastline south of Botany Bay en route to find a passage between Victoria and Tasmania but he struck severe weather and landed his craft. Wingan Inlet is actually three or four kilometres north of Rame Head, but it is the only significant geographical feature in the area that could be described as a landable lagoon. Otherwise the sheltered bay and beach area in front of Wingan Inlet, named Fly Cove by Bass, is the lagoon described.

The Bass party also lost its anchor at the location, but continued to navigate around Wilson's Promontory as far west as Western Port Bay. On the return trip, the party encountered marooned sailors along the Victorian coast from the wreck of the ship Sydney Cove south of Victoria at Preservation Island, Tasmania. Bass left provisions and firearms to assist the men, only able to take aboard one of them due to his vessel's limited capacity. .

Bass then continued his return voyage, stopping again at the lagoon near Rame Head to search for the whale boat's anchor. However he was unsuccessful, and the anchor is yet to be recovered.

Although Bass' first expedition was unsuccessful at discovering and navigating what is now Bass Strait, due to weather and failing equipment, upon his return to Sydney he conveyed his observation that the tidal change along those parts of the coastline was too rapid to be obstructed by a peninsula, which at that time was believed to join Tasmania to the mainland.