Gulf Saint Vincent
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, in the state of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. It is bordered by Yorke Peninsula
Yorke Peninsula
The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located north-west and west of Adelaide in South Australia, Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. It has geographic coordinates of...
to its west coast and Fleurieu Peninsula
Fleurieu Peninsula
The Fleurieu Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Adelaide in South Australia, Australia. It was named after the French explorer and hydrographer Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin as he mapped the south coast of Australia in 1802.Towns of interest in the...
on its east coast. Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island after Tasmania and Melville Island. It is southwest of Adelaide at the entrance of Gulf St Vincent. Its closest point to the mainland is off Cape Jervis, on the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the state of South Australia. The island is long...
sits across the opening to the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
on the southwest.
Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, the South Australian capital midway along the gulf's east coast. Other towns located on the gulf, from west to east include Edithburgh
Edithburgh, South Australia
Edithburgh is a small town on the south-east corner of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. Edithburgh is about west of Adelaide across Gulf St Vincent, but away by road...
, Port Vincent
Port Vincent, South Australia
Port Vincent is a small town on the east coast of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, 194 km from Adelaide by road. At the 2006 census, Port Vincent had a population of 472....
, Ardrossan
Ardrossan, South Australia
Ardrossan is a small town on the east coast of the Yorke Peninsula, about 150 km from Adelaide, South Australia.The town was largely initiated by wheat farmers and wheat transporters in the late 19th century who needed infrastructure to ship their produce across the Gulf St. Vincent to Port...
and Port Wakefield
Port Wakefield, South Australia
Port Wakefield was the first government town to be established north of the capital, Adelaide, in South Australia.Port Wakefield is situated approximately 98.7 kilometres from Adelaide and lies on the Port Wakefield Road section of the A1 National Highway...
and Normanville
Normanville, South Australia
Normanville is a small rural town near the coast on the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. It is situated next to the mouth of the Bungala River.-Location and geography:...
. It was named "Gulph of St. Vincent" by Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
on 30 March 1802. Prior to then, it had been known as Golphe Josephine.
Port Stanvac Desalination Plant
Port Stanvac Desalination Plant
The Port Stanvac Desalination plant is a SWRO desalination plant currently under construction at Lonsdale, South Australia which will provide the city of Adelaide with a significant amount of drinking water...
which, as of 2010, is under construction on Gulf St Vincent's shore in Lonsdale, South Australia
Lonsdale, South Australia
Lonsdale is an industrial suburb located south of Adelaide, South Australia, within the City of Onkaparinga.Lonsdale was farmed from shortly after European settlement until the 1950s, when the South Australian Housing Trust acquired much of the land for industrial use...
, will supply the Adelaide metropolitan area with desalinated water from the gulf.
Environment
The Gulf teems with crustacea and polychaeta, as well as various species of sea squirts and sea urchinSea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...
s. The benthos
Benthos
Benthos is the community of organisms which live on, in, or near the seabed, also known as the benthic zone. This community lives in or near marine sedimentary environments, from tidal pools along the foreshore, out to the continental shelf, and then down to the abyssal depths.Many organisms...
is a soft sediment shelf, with species of zosteraceae
Zosteraceae
Zosteraceae is a family of marine perennial flowering plants found in temperate and subtropical coastal waters, with the highest diversity located around Korea and Japan. Most seagrasses complete their entire life cycle under water, having filamentous pollen especially adapted to dispersion in an...
around the mouth of the Port River
Port River
The Port River is the western branch of the largest tidal estuary on the eastern side of Gulf St Vincent. It extends inland through the historic Inner Harbour of Port Adelaide, to the constructed salt-water West Lakes in the north-western suburbs of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia...
.