I headed into Nobbys beach at Newcastle with a couple of local female photographer mates for sunrise. On the drive into the beach the road was wet and it had started to sprinkle so i really wasn’t sure what sunrise if any we would be likely to capture. The cloud cover was quite heavy in parts to the East and to West it was black as black.
With so much cloud about i went looking for different compositions and whilst walking around i realised that it had been a very very long time since i had shot a sunrise at Nobbys, so i didn’t have any favorite spots to retreat too. I wandered around the top section near the kiosk and managed to collect a few shots that i was happy with.
This really is an iconic view for Nobbys beach – shot from under the pavillion that overlooks the beach and is a favourite spot for storm hunters to shelter from the weather and lightning.
The beautiful old swimming pavilion sits on the hill at Nobbys. The black stormy sky to the West over the buildings is in contrast to the lighter clouds and building colour as the sun rises to the East, as seen in the photo above.
During the huge storms and floods of the June long weekend in 2007, a bulk carrier washed ashore on Nobbys Beach. Early on the morning of 8 June 2007, Newcastle Port Corporation radioed the 56 moored ships waiting off the coast to load coal to warn them to move out to sea to escape an approaching storm. Pasha Bulker, along with 10 other ships, did not heed the warning. As the storm hit, Pasha Bulker could not clear the coast and it beached at 9:51am. During further stormy weather, the ship was pushed onto the beach so that it was almost parallel to the beach, and both bow and stern were stuck on the sand. The whole ship was then completely trapped between the beach and a rocky reef. Thankfully, all crew were rescued by the wonderful angles in the sky at Westpac Rescue Helicopter and the ship was recovered without incident.
As a reminder/monument to what the city went through that weekend and subsequently recovered from, an original section of 22mm plate steel from the rudder of the Pasha Bulker has been incorporated into a piece art work titled “Grounded” sits watch over Nobbys. The main body of the work is made from 12mm plate steel and is approximately 2 metres in height and 6 metres in length.
Emma White ~ Photography 