Vansittart Bay
Vansittart Bay is a large bay on the north coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The bay is located in a remote area approximately north-east of Broome. It contains multiple islands including Mary Island and Jar Island. Vansittart Bay lies within the native title area of the Wunambal Gaambera people. The bay is known for several cultural and historic sites that are visited by ecotourism cruise vessels travelling along the Kimberley coast.
Toponymy
The explorer Phillip Parker King named the bay for Chancellor of Exchequer Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley, in October 1819 during a survey of the Kimberley coast for the British Admiralty on HMS Mermaid. During his survey, King had an encounter with aboriginal people in Vansittart Bay, at a place now known as Encounter Cove.The bay is named Banjal by the Wunamabal Gaambera people.
Geography
The Kimberley coast is a drowned continental landscape. When sea levels rose around 10,000 years ago, eroded riverbeds were flooded with seawater, creating a indented coastline and multiple islands and embayments. Vansittart Bay is one example of these embayments, and is located approximately north-east of Broome. The bay opens to the Indian Ocean, and has several islands including the Eclipse Archipelago at the mouth of the bay, and Mary Island, Jar Island and Low Island within the bay. Troughton Island lies offshore from the western entrance to the bay. The Anjo Peninsula separates Vansittart Bay from Napier Broome Bay to the east. Sir Graham Moore Island is offshore from the tip of the Anjo Peninsula, at the eastern end of the bay.The Mungalalu Truscott Airbase is located on the Anjo Peninsula around inland from the eastern shores of Vansittart Bay, but the nearest settlement is Kalumburu, around to the south east.
A pearl farm has operated in Vansittart Bay.
Native title
Vansittart Bay lies within the area of native title Uunguu Part A, determined on 23 May 2011. The body corporate established to hold, manage, and protect native title rights and interests on behalf of native title holders in this area is Wanjina-Wunggurr Aboriginal Corporation. However, the people call themselves Wunambal Gaambera.Ecotourism
The bay is known for the Gwion Gwion rock paintings on Jar Island, and the crash site of a Douglas C53 Skytrooper. These sites are visited by ecotourism cruise vessels during tours of the Kimberley region. Visitor locations are on land of the Wunambal Gaambera people. Access is managed by the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation.Aircraft incidents
On 26 February 1942, a USAAF Air Transport Command C-53 Skytrooper transport aircraft on a flight from Perth to Broome made an emergency landing on a salt pan in the bay. A navigation error led to the plane flying well beyond Broome and running out of fuel. The crew and passengers all survived the crash and were rescued on 1 March 1942 by a Qantas Empire Airways Short S.23 flying boat.On 23 March 1945, a Consolidated B-24 Liberator out of Mungalalu Truscott Airbase crash-landed in the bay, killing all aboard. The wreckage of the aircraft remains submerged there.