The strait provides the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea, and is also the only maritime route into the economically prominent Port Phillip Bay. 2022Recurrent Ventures. In previous weeks, top defense officials told Congress that the 2019 swarm incidents were caused by drones. The major airports in Tasmania are Hobart International Airport and Launceston Airport, where the main airlines are Jetstar and Virgin Australia. Another small group, the Hunter Islands, is . The last transmission from the Miss Hobart spookily shares a detail with that of the Jason Manifold account. Three small boats were identified nearby, with one identifying themselves as a small fishing vessel. However, when it is considered that there were no official reports of any enemy fighters even entering the strait, perhaps it is a little strange that 17 military planes were lost in this stretch of water during the war years alone. It is a shallow stretch of sea, so it can be choppy and un predictable which was very bad for sailing ships and small craft. Public affairs officials in multiple agencies have been consistently tight-lipped on this matter, with most information coming strictly through the Freedom of Information Act. There was enough time for coastal sand dunes to form, and in some cases theyve actually been preserved, Nichol says. However, few people know about the Bab-El-Mandeb Strait, which lies on the Red Sea between Djibouti and Yemen. [7], The next European to approach the strait was Captain James Cook in the Endeavour in April 1770. A draft public affairs statement further added that the drones were thought to be conducting collection operations on the ship. It is not man-made like the canals. Although he didnt see anything, he could hear the sound of a plane engine overhead. [29], In 1971 lone rower David Bowen from Mount Martha crossed Bass Strait in a 6.1m (20ft) dory, leaving from Devonport he landed on Wilson's Promontory. In the Indian Ocean-Pacific Ocean basin, a coordinate of 40S 146E is located at this strait. The table below provides detailed information about the sea conditions for the next . It is unclear if this assessment was shared by the other vessels. Geoscience Australias Nichol is quick to add that this is not a constant; its actually the worst-case scenario with upwelling less likely during summer but the East Australian Current is always there. Sometimes then, youll have the westerlies and southerlies interacting in and around Bass Strait in ways that can be quite tricky to predict exactly, he says. Over the last few years, we have completed around $600 million of decommissioning works in Bass Strait, including successfully removing the Seahorse and Tarwhine facilities . Documents show that the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Russell, also referred to by its hull number, DDG 59, and the abbreviation RSL), first reported an interaction with three unknown UAS on July 17th, 2019 approximately 62 nautical miles southwest of San Nicolas Island. Exactly a month later in Hobart, a taxi driver was suddenly forced to slam on his breaks due to a strange green glow in the middle of the road. (1988). How can a small strait threaten a global powerhouse like China? It has the capacity to carry up to 630 megawatts of electrical power across the strait. The oil and gas is sent via pipeline to gas processing facilities and oil refineries at Longford (Longford gas plant), Western Port (Westernport Refinery closed 1985), Altona (Altona Refinery scheduled to close in 2021) and Geelong (Geelong Oil Refinery), as well as by tanker to New South Wales. The wind and the sea are often at odds directionally and the weather can be very fast moving. Natural gas production from Bass Strait currently supplies approximately 40% of Australian east coast domestic gas demand and is the largest supplier into the Eastern . In June 2017, the Government of Victoria announced a three-year feasibility study[17] for Australia's first offshore wind farm. The body of water between Tasmania and mainland Australia is called Bass Strait.. It's about 300kms or so from the Surf Coast on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria (the mainland) to get over to Tasmania, so it's a fair distance and a bit too far for a casual swim, although some people have kayaked across (hopping from island to island along the way, the biggest gap is about 60kms). It also indicates that the UAS incident continued after the Bass Strait departed the area. Email info@bst.net.au. [10], When news of the 1798 discovery of Bass Strait reached Europe, the French government despatched a reconnaissance expedition commanded by Nicolas Baudin. A US Navy sailor training with a Northrop Grumman DRAKE electronic warfare system. Following last months congressional hearing about UAP, we sought further clarification about the national security implications of drone swarms. Even more dangerous may be when the system is being pushed too hard; clipped signals are more damaging than "clean" signals, because they contain more high frequency content in the dangerous frequency range. In 1858, the British ship HMS Sappho met the same fate as it ventured into the straits apparently deadly waters. Arguably, the year-long confusion surrounding the leaked footage from the USS Russell attests to this problem. Aboriginal Tasmanians arrived in Tasmania approximately 40,000 years ago during the last glacial period, across a broad prehistoric land bridge called the Bassian Plain between the nowaday southern Victoria coastline (from Wilsons Promontory to Cape Otway) and the northern Tasmanian shores (from Cape Portland to Cape Grim). In fact, the first recorded incident appears to be the disappearance of the Eliza in 1797. The first incident occurred on March 30, 2019. The video was recently discussed in a congressional hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena as an example of a solved case. Its not just whats happening under the water that makes it difficult to cross Bass Strait. There are now 23 offshore platforms and installations in Bass Strait, including the new Marlin B platform and Kipper subsea wells, which feed a network of 600km of underwater pipelines and keep the oil and gas flowing, 24 hours a day. Prior to 1991, piracy off the Horn of Africa was more or less unknown, with far more incidents occurring in the Strait of Malacca or the Gulf of Guinea.In the 1980s the Somali government resettled . Read More: Owing to the various currents and weather systems that move through it, and also due to its shallow depth (varying around 50 . In terms of treacherous water, its got to be up there with the most treacherous in the world.. In the currently in-force IHO 1953 draft, it is instead associated with the Great Australian Bight; the Bight is numbered 62, while the Bass Strait is designated 62-A.[1]. The USS Gabrielle Gifford's MQ-8B was deployed again after refueling, but was unable to locate the four UAVs. The Tasmanian (Launceston, Tas. Any crossing of Bass Strait inevitably involves big swell and wild weather. In our initial investigation, public affairs officials from the Navy, Coast Guard, and Federal Bureau of Investigations all either declined to comment or referred our questions to the Department of Defenses spokesperson handling the unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) issue. Thats why, while Oxleys crew were expecting strong winds, they were surprised by just how strong they were. [16]:484 Large gas fields include the Whiptail field, the Barracouta Field, the Snapper Field, and the Marlin Field. Lin Pardey. Subsequent release of video from the Navy makes it more likely that the small dark dots in the images of the Bass Strait are part of the structure of the ship than drones. In the previous year, it has been difficult to get definitive answers regarding these incidents. The final hurdle for any Bass Strait crossing is the last step to the Tasmanian mainland across Banks Strait, theoretically the most dangerous part of the whole crossing. We got hit by a fairly decent breaking wave, rolled upside down and stayed there, he said back in 2006, recalling the races worst-ever year that saw six people die, 55 more rescued by helicopter, and 60 yachts forced to retire. Sea strait between the Australian mainland and Tasmania, Map of Australia with Bass Strait marked in light blue. The submarine topography of Bass Strait. It is about 40 km long and 6 km deep, and is located in the Atlantic Ocean. There are plenty of theories as to what might have happened, though. The images from the incident include these photographs of what appears to be the Bass Strait. All Rights Reserved. The second thing to know is that this very spot is where the East Australian Current stops. During that time, several drones flew directly over the USS Russell. It is somewhat dangerous due to rocky and narrow passages, tricky currents and winds along the way but it is sheltered from major open ocean storms. The boat is a beautiful custom-fitted runabout built to commercial Survey, and its name - Longevity - is apt in many ways. The winds get funnelled through . TrailerBoat had a lot of fun testing this Bass Strait Offshore 24, against the beautiful, yet rugged backdrop of Victoria's Cape Woolamai. Addressing these particular security gaps has been a clear priority for the Navy in recent years, with a number of high-profile projects involving directed energy weapons. The team at DroneSec also spoke to the complexity of comprehensively defending against drone threats, emphasizing that no single technical solution exists yet. I struggled to make my way into the shower as the ship listed . The purpose of the voyage was to raise funds for the treatment of the endangered Tasmanian Devil, an animal species suffering from a facial tumour disease and, if possible, break the dinghy sailing time record for the crossing. Why the Taiwan issue is so dangerous. The East Australian Current hits the Bass Strait.Credit:CSIRO. Manifold believes what he heard was connected to the disappearance of Valentich. He made two more crossings of Bass Strait before he died attempting to cross the Tasman Sea in February 2007. CTO Jared Page added that definitely in the last two years there has been a marked increase in activity related to swarms. The companys threat intelligence database has registered approximately 151 swarm incidents in that time. Also read: Interesting facts about the Strait of Gibraltar There are seemingly certain parts of the world where strange things are seen and even stranger things happen. In 1944, a strange dark shadow came out of nowhere and flew beside a Bristol Beaufort bomber for almost 20 minutes over the Bass Strait. It is still one of Australias most well-known UFO cases on record. Footage of enormous waves has been captured in Australia's Bass Strait, with severe weather meaning that the Spirit of Tasmania ferry company has stopped all crossings through the Strait. Qantas also operates services. As this heat map below from CSIRO shows, it moves vast amounts of warm water from the Coral Sea south down the coast. It conjures images of strength, stability, safety and . It is a natural strait like the Strait of Gibraltar, which is the route between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. An email sent on July 15th matches these details and references a number of images and one video file. Hendrich, J.H., Palmer, I.D., and Schwebel, D.A., 1992, Fortescue Field, Gippsland Basin, Offshore Australia, In Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 1978-1988, AAPG Memoir 54, Halbouty, M.T., editor, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Jack Loney, Mysteries of the Bass Strait Triangle, Neptune Press, 1st ed. It has an average depth of just 60 metres, presenting risks to less experienced sailors who are used to navigating in deep ocean waters. Although the following incident isnt immediately linked to the Bass Strait, given the fact that it happened near the northern coast of the Bass Strait Triangle and that descriptions of the object match other accounts of UFOs over the stretch of water in question, it would be perhaps a little shortsighted to not include this (and our next entry) on our list.[5]. [32][33][34] Fewer sea kayak crossings have been made via King Island, due to the 100km (60mi) leg between Cape Wickam and Apollo Bay. So, a year ago, after cruising from New Zealand through the islands of Vanuatu and on to Australia, we sailed Sahula, David's Van de Stadt 40, south to Hobart, Tasmania. Some incidents were assessed to be collection operations while others were attributed to local fishermen operating personal quadcopters. The timeline indicates ships were directed by "GZ" but it is unclear what this abbreviation refers to. And they all affect what happens on its surface. 6. Furthermore, Banks Strait is an awful place to try to navigate any boat. Australian Journal of Earth Science, 35, 303-311. We now know that in several instances, the Navy had significant information about the potential origin of the drones deployed in some of the most serious incidents, although the specific operators remained unknown. It might look like any other stretch of ocean big, blue and mostly empty but hidden just below the surface is another world of mountains and canyons, lakes and cliffs. But having sailed through the passage, he confirmed it separated the two large islands of New Zealand. Three of the planes seats were discovered, as well pieces of the petrol tank. According to Page, public reports started to escalate in late 2019. Bass Strait is shallow. ucla environmental science graduate program; four elements to the doctrinal space superiority construct; woburn police scanner live. Crabbers work the dangerous waters of the Bering Sea in winter. Bass Strait was once not a body of water. In December 1979, the yacht Charleston, along with the five crew members, would vanish without a trace while sailing along the Bass Strait. The details available in these official Navy documents stand at odds with the widespread perception of Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday's statement last year that the Navy was unaware of who was operating the unidentified aircraft. The Russell has attracted particular attention in the last year as the vessel that captured the leaked flying triangle footage. Meet 'Fluffy' - the stunt-performing powerhouse that boasts more than 1,400hp. Among these new incidents are previously unknown events that occurred in the early months of 2019 and were assessed by the Navy to involve intelligence collection operations. Theres no better example of this than at the eastern edge of the strait, right where the Sydney to Hobart adventurers pass: the Bass Canyon. The issue of planes, ships and people having been lost in the strait over time has spawned a number of theories. A contemporaneous email from the USS Russell confirms these details, and further indicates that the DRAKE team was activated. Although an image of one of the drones is hard to identify in the slide, a caption describes the objects as Quadcopter style UAS.. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 71, 49-71. 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