[1] It was named in 1818 by explorer Phillip Parker King after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore.
It lies about 210 km north-east of Darwin and opens on to the northern end of Bowen Strait, between the Cobourg Peninsula and Croker Island, and the Arafura Sea.
It was the site of an abortive attempt to establish the British military outpost and settlement of Fort Wellington, which lasted only two years, from 1827 to August 1829.
The massacre was ordered following the wounding of a soldier, James Taylor, and the Iwaidja encampment was attacked with an 18 pound cannon.
[4][5] The surrounds of the bay are largely uninhabited; it now lies within the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park.