Point Nepean

Point Nepean marks the southern point of The Rip (the entrance to Port Phillip) and the most westerly point of the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia. It was named in 1802 after the British politician and colonial administrator Sir Evan Nepean by John Murray in HMS Lady Nelson. Its coast and adjacent waters are included in the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park, while its land area is part of the Point Nepean National Park. Cheviot Beach is located on Point Nepean, where the SS Cheviot was wrecked in 1887 and Prime Minister of Australia, Harold Holt, disappeared on 17 December 1967, presumed drowned.

Evidence of Australian Aboriginal settlement of the area dates back 40,000 years. Point Nepean was a birthing place for women of the Boonerwrung People. There are 70 registered Aboriginal archaeological sites within the Point Nepean National Park.

Limestone was mined from the coastal cliffs from the early days of British settlement and two lime kilns were built around 1840. The Point Nepean Quarantine Station was opened in 1852 and is the second oldest intact quarantine station in Australia. It contains the oldest buildings erected for quarantine purposes in Australia, four of the main hospital buildings (established in 1857), pre-dating the oldest intact quarantine-related structures at North Head, Sydney, by sixteen years. The Quarantine Station operated until 1980.

Point Nepean Post Office opened on 1 April 1859 but was closed by 1865. Fortifications were built from 1878. Gun batteries were installed at Fort Nepean in 1886 and Eagles Nest in 1888. A gun battery was constructed at Fort Pearce in 1911. With the removal of coastal artillery after World War II, the facilities housed the Officer Cadet School (OCS) Portsea and later the School of Army Health from 1951 to 1998.

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