Hog Bay

Anse des Sources, Freshwater Bay and Hog Bay, are the names of the beach that you see stretch before you.

As you look around the sweep of the bay, picture the dramas that have been played out here from its discovery in March 1802, by Captain Matthew Flinders, until today's busy activity generated by Kangaroo Island's busiest port. Can you imagine a three-master explorer's barque anchored in the bay or the busy whaling station near Frenchman's Rock, or the first steamers in the late 1800's loading wool bales from row boats?

On leaving here, Flinders met the French explorer, Nicolas Baudin, near Victor Harbor and they exchanged vital information to their survival, despite the fact they were commanders from warring nations. Later Baudin visited and then he in turn handed on the information about the availability of meat and water to American sealers.

The colony of New South Wales was 14 years old and sorely in need of trading items. Within months ships began calling for seal and kangaroo skins, water and salt. By 1820, some hardy individuals with their aboriginal wives had settled here thus paving the way for official European settlement in 1836.