Roebuck

Roebuck Bay is a bay on the coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Roebuck Bay is a bay on the coast ofthe Kimberley region ofWestern Australia.Its entrance is bounded in the north by the town of Broome, and in the south by Bush Point and Sandy Point.It is named after HMS Roebuck, the ship captained by William Dampier when he explored the coast of north-western Australia in 1699.The Broome Bird Observatory lies on the northern coast of the bay.

Roebuck Bay lies in the traditional country of the Jukun and Yawuru Aboriginal peoples.The bay was important for seasonal meetings, exchanging gifts, arranging marriages and settling disputes.Many shellfish middens, marking former camping sites, are visible along the coastal cliffs and dunes.Indigenous people continue to make extensive use of the bay's natural resources by gathering shellfish, fishing and hunting.

In 1942 several Dutch flying boats arrived with refugees from the Dutch East Indies. While laying at anchor in this bay they were attacked by Japanese Zero-fighter planes on 3 March 1942. The flying boats were defenceless and they were repeatedly attacked and sprayed with bullets from machine-guns. A hundred men, women and children were killed, many of them drowned; others were incinerated by the burning fuel on the surface of the water. The wrecks are still in situ, and several of them are visible a few days each year at extreme low tide.

On 7 June 1990 some 34,219 ha of the bay and its immediate surrounds were designated as a wetland of international importance, Ramsar Site 479, under the Ramsar Convention.