PORT BRADSHAW - YALANGBARA

Looking West - the culturally significant sandhills on the spit that encloses the northern portion of Port Bradshaw.

Looking SSW - inside Gwalpilina Pt. at the entrance to Port Bradshaw. On the horizon the islands around Bridgland Is. (Sgt Ray Bridgland NT Mounted Police 1929)

Looking NW. The sentry island has an Osprey nest at right of centre & the orange features are a tough vine.

Rock formation at Gwalpilina Point looking South to the island off the entrance to Port Bradshaw

29th September 1867. - "Being off an inlet of considerable magnitude, we determined to go in, and thereby discovered a magnificent harbour, extending many miles. The rocks are of granite. To the north are sandhills about 200 feet high, separating the harbour from the sea. On one of the islands at the entrance, and also on the mainland, there is a singular formation of rock, like basaltic columns, but formed of a kind of limestone, through which cylindrical holes, from fifteen to twenty feet deep, and from twelve to eighteen inches diameter, have by some means been formed. Many large fragments have tumbled down by the undermining of the sea. The perforations of some of the fallen masses pass entirely through them, and are almost perfectly parallel. These limestone rocks are the foundation of the sandhills." (pp 69 & 71 Notes of a Voyage from NSW to the North Coast of Australia - from the journal of the late Francis Napier.)

Dr. Ian West is an authority on diplocraterion and their burrowings in the UK shoreline. He was kind enough to provide these images which bear some resemblance to the features at Gwalpinya Point at the northern entrance to Port Bradshaw.

800px-RusophycusOrdovician

The northern shore of Port Bradshaw at the end of the beach beside Bawaka outstation.

Google Earth image of the coast south of Yirrkala - the bauxite mining areas at far right.

“On a small, fantastic-looking island, in the centre of the harbour and conspicuous from all parts of it, we found several large Tamarind trees, loaded with ripe fruit, and the most complete Malay establishment for preparing beche-de-mer that we have yet seen, with many pieces of bamboo of all sizes, used for drinking vessels and for water carriers, with remains of pottery, sleeping apartments, and two large fishing nets. This bay evidently forms their headquarters.” P.71 Notes of a Voyage from NSW to the North Coast of Australia - from the journal of the late Francis Napier.

Francis Napier Journal p. 70

Yalangbara by Mawalan No. 1 (1947) - Bernts.