![]() ![]() ![]() On the seaward side, Walt stated with military drama that "the battle is to be fought with the waves" - meaning a rivermouth should be fixed and stationary irrespective of waves. In 1884 he published a paper 'On the Removal of Bars from the entrances to our Rivers' in which he devised a two-pronged solution. Walt was a railway engineer, and between overseeing NSW’s great railroad expansion, he studied river bars in his spare time. ![]() One of the people to work on this problem was an unlikely fella named Walter Shellshear. In these conditions every crossing was a coin toss and the list of shipwrecks, not to mention the lives lost, began to stack up. In their natural state - that is, without training walls - river mouths tend to be broad and shallow, the deepest channel always shifting due to longshore drift, swell, or even rainfall. Through the latter part of the 1800s, trade routes up and down the coast were reliant on sea transport, and this meant bars had to be crossed. The largest river on the East Coast, the Clarence, and its breakwalls Because of the mountains we have the breakwaters - and the accidental waves they create. And the East Coast it is, save for one or two spots - here's looking at you Mandurah! The reason for the geographical exclusivity is the Great Dividing Range and the river systems that flow east from it. If naming Newcastle Harbour causes anxiety then stop reading now as more East Coast gems will be revealed before this article is over. It was shortly followed up with a longer breakwall which redirected water and scoured a deep channel on the north side. Lack of funds and an abundance of swell saw the work continue only sporadically till in 1846 a causeway linked land and island. On the back of convict labor a breakwall was commenced to link the mainland to Nobby’s, a small islet 100 metres offshore. Waves that were created inadvertently, mind you, but they were created nonetheless.Ĭonstruction of Australia’s first man made wave began in 1820 shortly after coal was discovered at Newcastle. Yet what’s been overlooked in the rush is the enormous amount of waves that have already been created for us. In the space of a few years, wave pools have moved from fantasy to reality, becoming so popular there’s now a wave pool industry with competitors vying for primacy, investors seeking the best return, and surfers arguing over every aspect of pool surfing.īefore wave pools, however, there were artificial reefs, and when you look at it like this it seems surfers have always had a thing for imposing our will on the coast and creating waves. When the surfing world reflects on the year 2017, ‘wave pools’ are the most likely topic that’ll come to mind. See also: When Breakwaters equal broken water ![]()
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