BASS STRAIT

channel separating Victoria, Australia, from the island of Tasmania on the south. Its maximum width is 150 miles (240 km), its depth is 180240 feet (5070 m). King Island and the Indian Ocean lie at its western extremity, and the Furneaux Group is at its eastern end. Banks Strait is the southeastern opening to the Tasman Sea. Another small group, the Hunter Islands, is located off the northwestern tip of Tasmania. The strait was named in 1798 by the English navigator Matthew Flinders for the surgeon-explorer George Bass. Development of the offshore petroleum resources of the strait began with the discovery in 1965 of natural gas at Barracouta and in 1967 of oil at the Halibut and Kingfish fields; production began in 1970.