The Latest Breaking News from Bass Strait

On June 8 1835, 188 years ago today, pastoralist John Batman crossed the Bass Strait and arrived on the shores of Naarm (now Melbourne city), on Kulin lands. His Irish-born convict wife, Eliza Batman, and their seven daughters arrived at Port Phillip the following year.

A tourism retreat is being proposed for Tasmania's remote Little Dog Island, partly developed by several hundred investors providing as little as $100.

A team of rowers are attempting to become the first all-female crew to cross the Bass Strait in an effort to raise money towards curing sudden infant death syndrome.

Sentencing for animal welfare law breaches relating to the death of 16 polo ponies on a Bass Strait ferry crossing has been delayed because of a vet's report.

The captain of a transport ship has been fined $15,000 for breaching animal welfare laws over a Bass Strait crossing that resulted in the death of 69 cattle.

A judge says "commercial needs" were given priority over the welfare of cattle who died from injuries they suffered during a storm in the Bass Strait, with the captain fined $15,000.

New boat Scarlet Runner led the field out of Port Phillip in the 50th Melbourne to Hobart and is setting the pace through Bass Strait.

South Gippsland residents have welcomed a new zone earmarked for offshore wind energy production in the Bass Strait, which now excludes waters west of Wilsons Promontory.

Victoria's south coast will become home to turbine projects with the heavy winds of the Bass Strait offering plenty of wild weather to power Australian homes.