Bass strait

a strait between Australia and Tasmania. 80–150 miles (130–240 km) wide.
Historical Examples

Baudin was very critical about an English chart of Bass Strait, published in 1800.
The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders Ernest Scott

With these operations closed our work in Bass Strait, for the present.
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1. J Lort Stokes

Bass Strait, strait between Australia and Tasmania, about 150 m. broad.
The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Edited by Rev. James Wood

Habitat: Bass Strait, 45 fathoms; and elsewhere in the Australian seas.
Narrative Of The Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By The Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During The Years 1846-1850. Including Discoveries And Surveys In New Guinea, The Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. To Which Is Added The Account Of Mr. E.B. Kennedy’s Expedition For The Exploration Of The Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist To The Expedition. In Two Volumes. Volume 1. John MacGillivray

Hamelin, having no instructions as to where he should go, resolved to devote himself to work in Bass Strait.
Terre Napoleon Ernest Scott

Thus bird-study supports the geographer and ethnologist when they declare that Bass Strait is of comparatively remote formation.
An Australian Bird Book John Albert Leach

And the next morning we entered Bass Strait by passing round the south end of the island.
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Phillip Parker King

Easterly winds prevented us from entering Bass Strait until the 16th.
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 John Lort Stokes

noun
a channel between mainland Australia and Tasmania, linking the Indian Ocean and the Tasman Sea