There are some very interesting parts of the coast line between Inverloch and Cape Patterson. Yesterday, we explored the cliffs and beaches along the way.
This area is located in the Bunurong Marine National Park. It has place names such as Eagles Nest, Shack Bay, Twin Reefs and The Caves and is ideal for photography.
It was a wet day with frequent rain showers but we managed to see quite a bit in between them. Different from the previous day where the temperature was 28C, today was only about 14C.
We stopped at the little town of Cape Patterson for lunch and after an unsuccessful attempt to find some shops, we bought a sandwich to eat later from a little corner store. A big cooked breakfast at the resort didn’t leave us with much of an appetite for an early lunch.
Our exploring took us as far as Kilkunda, a nondescript village noted for its old trestle bridge.
The 91 metre long bridge was built over the Bourne Creek and is protected by the National Trust. This trestle bridge was constructed for the Victorian Railways to carry coal from what was then known as the Powlett Coal Fields. It is a particularly significant monument because most of the steam-locomotive fuel that serviced the Victorian Railways network, from 1911 until 1978, crossed over this bridge.
At this time of the day, the weather was looking rather ominous and we had one of the heaviest rain showers of the day.
On our way back to Inverloch, we detoured through Wonthaggi, the largest town in this region. It hosts two very different facilities – the State Coal Mine and the Desalination plant. The coal mine has a much prouder history of these two.
The State Coal Mine came into being in 1909 to supply coal for the Victorian Railways. Operating from 1909 to 1968, the mine produced almost 17 million tonnes (19 million short tons) of coal and at its peak in 1926 the mine produced 2,474 t tonnes per day. The Victorian Railways purchased 90% of the mine’s production. It was also one that of the largest and most dangerous collieries in Australia. By the 1930s, with industrial actions and coal in the larger seams running out, production had dropped, but the mine was subsidised and operated until 1968 when regular steam locomotive usage was phased out.
The mine is now an historical reserve run by National Parks.
The desalination plant was built in response to our long drought in the early 2000s. It was incredibly expensive to build and to run. By the time it was completed, Melbourne’s water storage’s were back at 85% capacity and it has only been used once, maybe twice, in anger since it was built. However, we now have a very nicely architecturally designed expensive building that blends nicely into the sand dunes. We could have gone to the zoo to see a white elephant more easily than travelling down here to see this one!
