The Great Australian Bight is a large bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia.
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The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Great Australian Bight as part of the southeastern Indian Ocean, with the following limits:[1]
On the North. The South coast of Australia.
On the South. A line joining West Cape Howe () Australia to South West Cape, Tasmania.
On the East. A line from Cape Otway, Australia, to King Island and thence to Cape Grim, the Northwest extreme of Tasmania.
Another definition is that the Bight's boundaries are from Cape Pasley, Western Australia, to Cape Carnot, South Australia - a distance of 1,160 km or 720 miles.[2]
The much more generally accepted name in Australia for the adjoining waterbody is the Southern Ocean rather than the Indian Ocean. Much of the Bight lies due south of the expansive Nullarbor Plain, which straddles the two Australian states of South Australia and Western Australia.
The Great Australian Bight was first encountered by European explorers in 1627, when a Dutch navigator, François Thijssen, sailed along its western margins. The coast was later first accurately charted by the English explorer Captain Matthew Flinders in 1802, during his circumnavigation of the Australian continent. A later land-based survey was accomplished by Edward John Eyre.
The coast line of the Great Australian Bight is characterised by cliff faces (up to 60 m high), surfing beaches and rock platforms, ideal for whale-watching. The waters of the Great Australian Bight, despite being relatively shallow, are not fertile. While most continental shelves are rich in sea life and make popular fishing areas, the barren deserts north of the bight have very little rainfall, and what there is mostly flows inland, to dissipate underground or in salt lakes. In consequence, the Great Australian Bight receives very little of the runoff that fertilises most continental shelves and is essentially a marine desert. It is probably best noted for the large number of sharks that frequent its coastal waters, as well as the increasing numbers of Southern Right Whales that migrate within the region.
One location on the bight that is specifically oriented towards the understanding of the natural history on its coastline is the Eyre Bird Observatory.
Economically, the Bight has been exploited over many years as part of the fishing, whaling and shellfish industries. Bluefin tuna have been a favoured target of fishing in the Bight.
The settlements existing along the coastline of the Bight, such as Ceduna and Eucla have facilities to access the bight. Some other locations on the Eyre Highway or located on the Nullarbor do not have facilities or easy access.