Swan Island (Victoria)

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Swan Island
Victoria

Postcode:

3225

Area:

1.40 km²

LGA:

Borough of Queenscliffe

State District:

Bellarine

Federal Division:

Corangamite

Suburbs around Swan Island
Swan Bay	Port Phillip Bay	Port Phillip Bay
Swan Bay	Swan Island	Port Phillip Bay
Queenscliff	Queenscliff	Port Phillip Bay

Swan Island is a barrier island which, with Duck Island and the Edwards Point spit, separate Swan Bay from Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, Australia. It can be reached via a small one-way vehicular bridge from the near the town of Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsula.

It is a small island, 140 hectares in size, home only to the Queenscliff Golf Club and a strictly off-limits Department of Defence facility. Access to the golf club can only be reached via a guarded security gate. The Department of Defence prefers not to discuss what currently goes on at the island, and information on the facility, aside from its history, is not found on any government website.

Swan Island is ornithologically notable as one of the few regular wintering sites for the Critically Endangered Orange-bellied Parrot.

[edit] History

Swan Island has a long history of military use, being part of the fortifications built to protect the entrance to Port Phillip Bay from a feared Russian invasion during the Crimean war in the 1870s. The fortifications of Swan Island were controlled by the fire command at Fort Queenscliff.