Roebuck Bay
Roebuck Bay is a bay on the coast of the Kimberley region of Western 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 is a 550 km2 (210 mi2) tropical, marine embayment. It has red sandy beaches and areas of mangroves, with the eastern edge of the bay being made up of linear tidal creeks. It is surrounded by grasslands and pindan woodland.
The northern shore of the bay is dominated by a long and low red cliff, 2–6 m in height, of pindan soil which gives the beaches there their distinctive red colouration. It overlies yellowish-red Broome Sandstone of Cretaceous age which, when exposed at the base of the cliff, shows occasional fossil footprints of dinosaurs.
Landward of the mangrove-lined creeks along the eastern shore are bare flats that are only flooded on high spring tides, with the hypersaline soil inhibiting the establishment of vegetation, except for some areas of samphire.
Roebuck Bay experiences a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen, Bsh). The wet season spans the austral summer, with most of the year's annual precipitation falling during this period, primarily in the form of severe tropical thunderstorms. The lengthier dry season occupies the remainder of the year, typically from May to November, when the temperatures are slightly cooler yet still very warm, and rainfall is extremely light and rare to nearly non-existent. Annual precipitation totals vary locally across the bay; they range from 300 to 550 mm a year. High temperatures during the oppressive austral summer months that frequently exceed 38 °C (100 °F), coupled with uncomfortably high humidity, contribute to often sweltering conditions from November to March, with the highest temperatures and most oppressive humidity typically experienced in February in and around the bay.
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