Cape Banks

This article is about the headland in South Australia. For the nearby lighthouse, see Cape Banks Lighthouse. For the northern headland of Botany Bay, see Cape Banks (New South Wales).

Cape Banks
South Australia
Cape Banks Lighthouse
Cape Banks is located in South Australia
Cape Banks
Cape Banks
Coordinates37°55′14″S 140°23′44″E / 37.920467°S 140.395494°E / -37.920467; 140.395494[1]
Elevation15 m (49 ft)[2]
Location36 km (22 mi) west south-west of Mount Gambier

Cape Banks is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located in the gazetted locality of Carpenter Rocks at the south end of Bucks Bay and the north end of Bungaloo Bay on the state's south east coast about 36 kilometres (22 miles) west south west of the city of Mount Gambier.[1]

The cape is described by one source as being "a rocky point, 15 metres (49 feet) high, 24 nautical miles (44 kilometres; 28 miles) SSE of Cape Buffon" while another source describes it as ‘a cuspate foreland protruding 500 metres (1,600 feet) seaward in lee of calcarenite rocks and reefs’.[2][3]

It was named by the Royal Navy officer, James Grant, on 3 December 1800.[1]

The passenger steamer Admella was wrecked on a reef near Cape Banks in 1859, on a trip from Port Adelaide to Melbourne, with great loss of life, as rescue boats could not get close enough to rescue survivors.[4][5]

The navigation aid known as the Cape Banks Lighthouse is not located on the cape, but on an unnamed headland located at the northern end of Lighthouse Bay which is the next bay to the north-west of Bucks Bay.[1][6][7][8]

  1. ^ a b c d "Search results for 'Cape Banks' with the following datasets selected - 'NPW and Conservation Properties', 'Suburbs and Localities' and 'Gazetteer'". Location SA Map Viewer. Government of South Australia. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  2. ^ a b Sailing Directions (Enroute), Pub. 175: North, West, and South Coasts of Australia (PDF). Sailing Directions. United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 2017. p. 231.
  3. ^ "Cape Banks UNPATROLLED BEACH". Surf Life Saving Australia. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  4. ^ "Wreck of the Admella". Graham Jaunay. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  5. ^ "ADMELLA WRECK". Portland Guardian. Vol. XCVII. Victoria, Australia. 26 August 1940. p. 1. Retrieved 17 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "Search results for 'Cape Banks Lighthouse' with the following datasets selected - 'NPW and Conservation Properties', 'Suburbs and Localities' and 'Gazetteer'". Location SA Map Viewer. Government of South Australia. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  7. ^ "COUNTRY TELEGRAMS". The South Australian Advertiser. Vol. XXV, no. 7552. South Australia. 2 January 1883. p. 5. Retrieved 14 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ Boating Industry Association of South Australia (BIA); South Australia. Department for Environment and Heritage (2005), South Australia's waters an atlas & guide, Boating Industry Association of South Australia, p. 178, ISBN 978-1-86254-680-6