Wagait Beach
Suburb in Northern Territory, Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wagait Beach is a locality approximately 8 km west of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, on the opposite side of the harbour. It makes up the Wagait Shire local government area. The population was 422 in 2021.[4]
Wagait Beach | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rocks at Imaluk Beach | |||||||||||||
  Wagait Beach | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates: 12°26′03″S 130°44′32″E[1] | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | Northern Territory | ||||||||||||
| LGA | |||||||||||||
| Location |
| ||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||
| • Territory electorate | |||||||||||||
| • Federal division | |||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 461 (2016 census)[4] | ||||||||||||
| Time zone | UTC+9:30 (ACST) | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 0822 | ||||||||||||
| Mean max temp | 32.0 °C (89.6 °F)[5] | ||||||||||||
| Mean min temp | 23.2 °C (73.8 °F)[5] | ||||||||||||
| Annual rainfall | 1,725.1 mm (67.92 in)[5] | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Adjoining localities[6] | |||||||||||||
Wagait Beach is on the north coast of the Cox Peninsula, which forms the western side of Darwin Harbour. It is part of the Hundred of Bray, as surveyed by George Goyder in 1869–70.[7]
History
In 1942, after the Bombing of Darwin, a military base was established at Waugite Point on the north east of the Cox Peninsula, and a huge observation tower was constructed, with a communications bunker underneath it. Waugaite tower was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.[8] The precise origin of the name of the community is unclear, but the beach adjacent to Wagait Point is called Wagait Beach. One source claims that the community was named after the tower,[9] which is unconvincing as the tower was named after Waugite (Wagait) Point[8] and so clearly is not the origin of the name.
Transport
Wagait Beach can be accessed by a 15-minute passenger ferry trip, from Cullen Bay (Darwin), to Mandorah which is 5 km from Wagait Beach. There is a bicycle path from Mandorah to Wagait Beach. It is a 128 km drive from Darwin via the Cox Peninsula Rd through Berry Springs.
