Adventure Bay, Tasmania

Adventure Bay is the name of both a township and a geographical feature on the eastern side of Bruny Island, Tasmania. At the 2006 census, Adventure Bay and the surrounding area had a population of 152.

Early history

The first European to sight the bay was explorer Abel Tasman, who sought to anchor his vessel Heemskerck there in 1642. Instead, Heemskerck was driven back offshore by a storm, in token of which Tasman named the place Storm Bay. Captain Tobias Furneaux renamed it in March 1773, in honour of his ship HMS Adventure, which he had anchored in the bay for five days after becoming separated from Captain James Cook's HMS Resolution during Cook's second voyage to the Pacific search of Terra Australis Incognita.

Furneaux's log made clear the bay was an excellent anchorage for resupplying vessels:

Others among Furneaux's crew spotted evidence of what they believed were small deer but were more likely kangaroos. Furneaux also noted signs of an Aboriginal settlement in the form of "several huts or wigwams on shore, with several bags of grass in which they carry their shellfish." - but the branches of which the huts were made were "split and torn" and there was "not the least appearance of any people."