Van Diemen Gulf

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.

Australian places named by Dutch explorers in the 17th century1
Queensland
  • Staaten River (Staten Riuier)
  • Carpentaria
Northern Territory
  • Vanderlin Island (Cap Vanderlin)
  • Groote Eylandt
  • Arnhem Land (Arnhems Landt)
  • Crocodile Islands (Cocodrils Eÿlandt)
  • Van Diemen Gulf (Baÿa van-Diemen)
Western Australia
  • Houtman Abrolhos2
  • Rottnest Island (Eyland Rottenest)
  • Swan River (Swarte Swaene-Revier)
South Australia
  • St Francis Island (Eyland St. Francois)
  • St Peter Island (Eyland St. Pierre)
Tasmania
  • Maatsuyker Island (Maetsuickers eylan)
  • Pedra Branca2
  • Storm Bay
  • Maria Island (Marias Eylandt)
  • Schouten Island (Schoute Eylandt)
  • Notes: 1with the name still in use in either original or Anglicised version
  • 2Named by the Dutch, but a Portuguese name
  • Many names have been Anglicised; (for these the original Dutch name appears in brackets)


Famous quotes containing the words van and/or gulf:

    “When van Gogh paints sunflowers, he reveals, or achieves, the vivid relation between himself, as man, and the sunflower, as sunflower, at that quick moment of time. His painting does not represent the sunflower itself. We shall never know what the sunflower itself is. And the camera will visualize the sunflower far more perfectly than van Gogh can.”
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    “I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)