The first recorded
Anglo-Saxon encounter with Norfolk bay was by
Matthew Flinders in 1798. :"Norfolk Bay was discovered by Willaumetz, an officer of D'Entrecasteaux, in 1792, who becoming short of provisions, could only get as far as Primrose Point. He did not know then whether this new bay had communication with Tasman's Frederick Hendrick Bay (Blackman's, or Marion Bay); and on D'Entrecasteaux's map Tasman Peninsula is called Tasman Island. Flinders in 1798 (
the source erroneously states 1878) visited the Bay, giving it the name of Norfolk, after the small schooner in which he was sailing with Bass. In 1802 Baudin examined the bay, and, unaware of Flinders's nomenclature, gave it the name of
Port Buache, after the French King's geographer, who, by the way, was uncle to Beaupre, D'Entrecasteaux's historian.
Arrowsmith and
Frankland, in 1841 and 1858 used both names, but to-day Norfolk Bay is the only name that survives." In 1896, after a visit from "H.M. Australian squadron", Norfolk Bay was "stated to be pre-eminently fitted for naval manoeuvres". A 1909 article in
The Mercury records that this bay was "infested with enormous sharks, which were regularly fed by the authorities, to prevent the possibility of convicts escaping from the peninsula to the mainland by swimming". == Geographical features ==