The Bluff is where the Barwon River enters the cool waters of Bass Strait & the Southern Ocean. It is a place where tides & waves have shaped the rocks over time & created a wide diversity of places for animals and plants to live.
This area has been declared a marine sanctuary & protects 17ha predominately composed of reef.
This area has a broad, flat, bare sheet of basalt & it's a reminder of the power of ancient volcanoes that shape our landscape. Lava flowed east from Mt Duneed (16 km west) a million years ago to create the foundation of the Bluff. Here you can feel the flow of this ancient river of rock. But the hard black basalt is a tough harsh environment to live in. The eastern half of the reef is basalt, formed from lava flow, and is exposed to the flow of the river. The western side is old sandstone and influenced by ocean swell. On the outer edges of the reef are the wrecks of two ships.
Visitors can see anything from feather stars and barnacles to rock lobsters, rays and schools of fish. Bull Kelp, sandstone arches and sponge gardens create a fascinating and complex underwater world.
In early European history Barwon Bluff was an important landmark for ships entering the Port Phillip Heads. There were a number of wrecks in the area resulting from the mistaking of the Bluff for the entrance to Port Philip Bay, particularly during the wars as many coastal identifying features were obscured to protect the coast from enemy spies. One the most famous of these wrecks was the steamer Orungal, the boiler of which can be seen sticking out of the water to the north of the Marine Sanctuary. An immigrant ship, the Earl of Charlemont, was also wrecked here in 1853 during the gold rush period.
Locally, Barwon Bluff was a particularly significant place for local Wauthaurong people who made their home from Ballarat to the coast. With combinations of sea, rock platforms, rivers and extensive wetlands, the area was an important summer camping ground for many thousands of years. Numerous artifacts from this rich history are found locally in the form of shell middens, campsites, and tools. There are many protected midden sites, all of which are located directly on the Bluff and also to the west along 13th Beach.
The listed Co-ordinates will bring you to the lookout. Here you will find a sign with some information on it.
Q1> How many years ago was the sea level lower than it is today?
Q2> The basalt was spewed out by volcanoes how many years ago?
Q3> About 5m in front of the sign you can see the cliff drop. What do you see here between the sign and rock & what color/colors can you see in the rock?
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Na'wal
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