Cape Schanck

Cape Schanck is a locality in the Australian state of Victoria. It is the southernmost tip of the Mornington Peninsula and separates the wild ocean waters of Bass Strait from the slightly calmer waters of Western Port. At the 2016 Census, Cape Schanck had a population of 446.[1]

Cape Schanck
Victoria
Cape schanck looking towards pulpit rock at dawn
Cape Schanck
Coordinates38.461°S 144.905°E / -38.461; 144.905
Population446 (2016 census)[1]
Postcode(s)3939
Elevation79 m (259 ft)
Location
LGA(s)Shire of Mornington Peninsula
State electorate(s)Nepean
Federal Division(s)Flinders
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall
16.9 °C
62 °F		 11 °C
52 °F		 751.2 mm
29.6 in
Cape Schanck Lighthouse

The most recognisable symbol of Cape Schanck is the Cape Schanck Lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1859 and was the second lighthouse built in Victoria.[2] A prominent rock outcrop is Pulpit Rock and stands out at the very tip of the cape.

Cape Schanck is also home to the RACV Resort Cape Schanck on Boneo Road which includes an eighteen-hole golf course[3] and The National Golf Club on Cups Drive.[4]

British-Australian artist Georgiana McCrae produced many of her paintings at Cape Schanck.

A keen artist–traveller in the Romantic tradition, Nicholas Chevalier concentrated on effects of atmosphere, mood and dramatic lighting in his depictions of the iconic natural wonders he found at Cape Schanck.[5]

History
Pulpit Rock

The location was named in 1800 after Captain John Schank, R.N. (note spelling with only one 'c') by Lieutenant James Grant sailing on the Lady Nelson.[6][7][8][9] Schank had designed the raised keel (or centreboard) on the Lady Nelson. The spelling of the locality as 'Schanck' (two c's) is a misspelling of Schank. Nicolas Baudin called it Cap Richelieu when he sailed past on the Géographe on 30 March 1802.[10]

Cape Schanck Post Office opened around March 1879 and closed in 1962.[11]

In 1893 a steamship, the SS Alert, sank off the coast at Cape Schanck during a storm. It was rediscovered after 113 years on the ocean floor in June 2007.

Flora and fauna

Albatrosses (black-browed, Chatham, yellow-nosed, etc.) are occasionally spotted off the cliffs as are short-tailed shearwaters (particularly during their spring migration), black-faced and pied cormorants, kelp gulls and Australasian gannets. The shrubs decorating the area are frequently home to brown thornbills, singing honeyeaters and a number of other passerines. The elusive striated fieldwren has also been known to inhabit the area. Some flora include cushion bushes.

Panorama view of Cape Schanck

References and notes
  1. "2016 Census QuickStats Cape Schanck". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  2. "Cape Schanck Lighthouse". Lighthouses of Victoria. Lighthouses of Australia Inc.
  3. Golf Select, RACV Cape Schanck, retrieved 11 May 2009
  4. Golf Select, The National, retrieved 11 May 2009
  5. Nicholas Chevalier (1860s). "Pulpit Rock, Cape Schanck, Victoria". Retrieved 31 August 2017 – via Art Gallery of New South Wales.
  6. Grant, James (1803), The narrative of a voyage of discovery, performed in His Majesty's vessel the Lady Nelson, London: Roworth, p. 195, cited in Bird (2006)
  7. Lee, Ida (1915), The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson, London: Grafton, p. 328, OL 6580132M
  8. Great Britain. Hydrographic Dept., Chart of Western Port and coast to Wilson's Promontory forming part of the North side of Bass's Strait [cartographic material] / surveyed by order of Governor King by Ensign Barrallier in HM armed surveying vessel Lady Nelson; Lieut. James Grant, Commander, in March, April and May, 1801., retrieved 11 February 2011
  9. Bird, Eric (12 October 2006). "Place Names on the Coast of Victoria" (PDF). The Australian National Placename Survey (ANPS). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
  10. Baudin, Nicolas; Cornell, Christine (1974), Journal of Nicolas Baudin, Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, p. 609, ISBN 0-7243-0043-0, cited in Bird (2006)
  11. Phoenix Auctions History, Post Office List, retrieved 7 February 2021

[[Category:Headlands of Victoria (Australia)|Schanck]

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