Key facts
- Location
- Sydney , New South Wales, Australia
- Type
- Bay
- Primary inflows
- Georges River, Cooks River
- Primary outflows
- Tasman Sea
- Catchment area
- 54.9 km (21.2 sq mi)
- Max length
- 10 km (6.2 mi)
- Surface area
- 39.6 km (15.3 sq mi)
- Average depth
- 11.4 m (37 ft)
- Water volume
- 440,815,800 m (1.556726 × 10 cu ft)
- Website
- NSW Environment & Heritage webpage
via Wikipedia infobox
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Botany Bay (Dharawal: Kamay) is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 13 km (8 mi) south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and Sans Souci as well as the Cooks River at Kyeemagh, which flows 10 km (6 mi) to the east before meeting its mouth at the Tasman Sea, midpoint between the suburbs of La Perouse and Kurnell. The northern headland of the entrance to the bay from the Tasman Sea is Cape Banks, and, on the southern side, the outer headland is Cape Solander, and the inner headland is Sutherland Point.
The total catchment area of the bay is approximately 55 km (21 sq mi). Despite its relative shallowness, the bay now serves as greater metropolitan Sydney's main cargo seaport, located at Port Botany, with facilities managed by Sydney Ports Corporation. Two runways of Sydney Airport extend into the bay, as do some port facilities. Kamay Botany Bay National Park is located on the northern and southern headlands of the bay. The area surrounding the bay is generally managed by Transport for NSW.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Botany Bay” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.