Cape Bridgewater is a locality in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the western shore of Bridgewater Bay, 21 kilometres south-west of Portland, and 383 kilometres from Melbourne. It lies within the Discovery Bay Coastal Park.
The area was settled in the 1860s and a Post Office opened in 1863 (closed 1968) though known as Bridgewater Lower for some years.
Both Cape Bridgewater and Bridgewater Bay were named by named after the Duke of Bridgewater (1756-1829), by Lieutenant James Grant sailing on the Lady Nelson on 4 December 1800.
Cape Bridgewater is home to a colony of up to 650 fur seals and the highest coastal cliff in Victoria. The cape itself also boasts a large blowhole and a feature known as the petrified forest, but now known to be hollow tubes of limestone, eroded as a result of millions of years of rainfall. Bridgewater Bay and the adjacent Cape form a partially submerged volcanic caldera. To the west is a large area with huge sand dunes. For these reasons the Cape and the nearby coastal area is classed by the government as the second most important coastline in Victoria, after the 'Twelve Apostles', along the Great Ocean Road
Wind Energy
Construction of wind turbines by the company Pacific Hydro has begun on the cape after some controversy. This is part of the Portland Wind Project
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