http://www.geocities.com/toby_meares2/010.htm Extract; Sailing out again under the vertical cliffs of the North Head, and keeping northwards past alternate rocks and sandy beaches for sixteen miles, we round the high cone of Barrenjoey Head, where an entrance two miles wide leads into Broken Bay, the estuary of the picturesque Hawkesbury River. It branches out into long arms of deep water, lying very dark and still, like small fiords, overshadowed by cliffs that often rise to five or six hundred feet in height. But there is wonderful variety in this beautiful inlet, the shores being sometimes beaches of deep red or reddish-brown colour, which look very bright when set off by the dark-green foliage of the background. There are not many places in the world that can rival the mouth of the Hawkesbury River for majestic scenery. North of this river the shore is rocky and weather-worn, with barren-looking hills beyond; then come smooth flat wastes of sand, varied by the shining expanses of the Tuggerah and Macquarie Lakes, which are visible from the bridge of a passing vessel. Behind these rise ranges covered with ironbark trees. Hills of blown sand line all the shore, except where the bluffs of Red Head vary the monotony, and here the tugboats are generally to be seen waiting to tow vessels into Newcastle Harbour. At night, the flash of a blue light indicates their whereabouts. The view is picturesque as we round Nobby's, once a rocky islet but now joined by a long, breakwater to the city itself, which rises tier on tier with rows of houses on a rounded hill. At the foot of the city, at the water's edge, and on the shore of Bullock Island, are constructed the steam cranes and the loading shoots that fill with coal the great fleet of vessels that make of Newcastle a busy port. The sea is often wild and dangerous off this Nobby's Head, and many a vessel has gone ashore when striving to cross the bar, made tumultuous by easterly gales and a six knot current. That green buoy a cable's length off, shows where the ill-fated "Cawarra" went down with passengers and crew; being swept away by the rolling breakers one fearful night. Winding away inland, is the line of the Hunter River, with its many arms and sandy islands. From Newcastle Harbour for twenty miles the coast is smooth, bare and monotonous. The long rollers foam against a sandy beach, rising into two small hills tipped with straggling scrub, till we come to Morna Point with its cliffs and hills of sandstone. Then round the lighthouse on the Point, and into Port Stephens; a good harbour, but with low, and in some places swampy shores, in no way inviting to the eye. Much of the harbour consists of banks and shoals, which at ebb tide are left uncovered and present a wide and somewhat dismal waste of glistening sand, but inland there are fine wooded ranges. Sailing out of Port Stephens, a pleasing contrast is presented by the bold hills that stand like sentinels on either side of the entrance; each is from five to seven hundred feet high, and slopes steeply down to the high cliffs which descend sheer to the breakers below. Sorry about the previous messages I forgot to change to Text only. MargaretB Lake Macquarie NSW Australia