inlet of the Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean), indenting east-central New South Wales, Australia. It receives the Hawkesbury and Pittwater rivers, and its 3-mile- (5-kilometre-) wide entrance, flanked by Hawke, or Box, Head (north) and Barranjoey Head (south), leads to an interior broken into three small inlets: Pittwater (south), Cowan Creek (central), and Brisbane Water. Visited in 1770 by Captain James Cook, who logged it as “some broken land like a bay,” it was more fully explored in 1789 by Governor Arthur Phillip. Its shores now form a popular resort and outer suburban area for Sydney (15 miles 【24 km】 south). The principal towns along it are Gosford and Woy Woy. The Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park extends along the Pittwater, and Cowan Creek and Lion Island are at the bay's mouth.