Pilutti

Today was the first chance I had to get out for some sightseeing. I have been working hard all week getting up to speed on the desalination project and making progress on the design.

Today I went with a colleague of mine, Foster McMasters, to Newcastle. Newcastle, 167 km north of Sydney at the mouth of the Hunter River is the state’s second largest city and one of Australia’s largest ports. It is a major industrial and commercial center, the export port for the Hunter Valley coalfields and for grain from the northwest.

View of Newcastle from the lookout

The city center has wide, leafy streets and some fine early colonial buildings, and reminds me a bit of New Orleans. Didn't get any pictures of the City.

First stop was the Anglican church. Foster is a member of the Kiwanis club back in Ohio, and made contact with some fellow Kiwanis folks in the Newcastle area. The local Kiwanis club is involved with a mission of the Anglican church to help local Sudanese people assimilate into the community. These people have fled their country to escape the war and killings there.

Sudanese children

Next stop was Merewether beach where are two huge pools that are built right on the beach. The geology of eastern Australia is primarily sandstone, which makes for spectacular and numerous beaches, but also makes for clean seawater and good foundations on which to build pools adjacent to the ocean. The pools are filled with seawater and provide a safe place to swim when the surf is rough. Here are the coordinates:

-32.952045, 151.756339

Merewether Baths

Merewether Baths looking out to sea

From Merewether we went on to Nobby’s beach, which is located at the harbor entrance to Newcastle. Dozens of cargo ships were waiting out on the ocean to get filled with coal. Here is a photo of a ship full of coal headed for China.

Coal-laden ship heading for China

While at Nobby’s we went out on the jetty for a look. The high winds in excess of 25 knots made for a lot of stinging sand and rough surf.

Here are the coordinates: @-32.918550, 151.797650

At the end of the jetty looking inland

We departed Newcastle and headed north to Nelson Bay. Anyhow, we made a stop at Birubi beach, which is located at the northern end of the Stockton Dunes. The dunes stretch 35 km from Anna Bay south to Newcastle, and are the longest dunes in the southern hemisphere.

Here are the coordinates: -32.785090, 152.084600

Birubi Beach (these are not the dunes)

Dunes looking south - the dunes are several hundred feet tall, though it's hard to tell from the photo

Dunes looking south

Looking towards the ocean from the dunes

From Birubi beach we headed north to the town of Nelson Bay and Shoal Bay. This huge sheltered bay is about an hour’s drive north of Newcastle. The bay, which occupies a submerged valley, stretches more than 20 km inland. It is a popular boating and fishing spot, and is well known for its resident dolphins. Each year Humpback Whales can be sighted in the bay from early June to the end of October. They migrate from the southern polar feeding regions to breeding areas off Queensland. Didn’t see any dolphins or whales.

At the tip of the peninsula that makes up Nelson Bay is Tomaree head, which is a 161 m high hill that offers spectacular views of the bay, beaches, and nearby islands.

Here are the coordinates: -32.715089, 152.185793