Impacts of warming oceans

Impacts of warming oceans

Impacts of warming oceans A brilliant Wilcox cartoon appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 12 March. She used two panels: on the left were reef tourists looking down from a boat at bleached corals; on the right was an actual sea surface temperature (SST) map of the...
Coastal vulnerability: an alternative approach

Coastal vulnerability: an alternative approach

Coastal vulnerability: an alternative approach Last month I had the pleasure listening to an old friend, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at the Sydney Opera House. The occasion was one of his more serious operas, Idomeneo. The Director noted that the “wine-dark sea” of the...
Coffee Rock

Coffee Rock

Coffee Rock In May 1956 on school holidays at Lake Cathie south of Port Macquarie, I encountered an outcrop of indurated black sand on the beach. Ridges of cliffed rock extending below low tide making it difficult to access the beach north of the entrance to the lake....
Beachrock Enigma

Beachrock Enigma

Beachrock Enigma In the early 1960s I was introduced to debates about “beachrock” (sometimes spelt “beach rock”). I attempted to translate a paper in French by Andre Guilcher on the subject; this proved beyond me although it whetted the appetite to know more. A...
Coastal hazards, insurance and Federal powers

Coastal hazards, insurance and Federal powers

Coastal hazards, insurance and Federal powers The tropical cyclone season is upon us and like clockwork issues of insurability arise. At recent hearings of the House of Representatives Committee inquiring into insurer’s responses  to last year’s east-coast flood...