Written by a marine scientist and a surfing activist, this superbly illustrated and thoroughly researched book will encourage visitors and natives alike to explore the Australian coast. Which Australian beach is made entirely of shells? Which beach has the biggest waves? Where is the world’s biggest sand dune? Where do loggerhead turtles come to lay their eggs? Why does Australia have the best beaches on the planet? Answering these and many other questions, this book provides useful information and fascinating stories about Australia’s 11,761 mainland beaches.
From lap pools to ocean pools, rockpools to hot springs, Places We Swim covers the breadth of Australia, bringing you the 60 best places to swim, dive, jump, paddle and float around the country. You'll discover just what makes each swimming spot unique, learn the best time to go, gain some useful local knowledge and find out the best things to see and do in the area. With destinations ranging from the neighbourhood city pool to remote outback waterfalls, this book is a celebration of not just these magnificent swimming spots, but of the diverse landscapes and communities that make up Australia.
Beaches of the Queensland Coast provides the first description of all Queensland's ocean beaches between Cooktown and Coolangatta, including beaches on 18 islands and in several large bays. It is based on the results of the Australian Beach Safety and Management Program, a nationwide assessment of Australian beach systems. This book has two aims. First, to provide the public with general information on the origin and nature of Queensland's beaches, including the contribution of geology, oceanography, climate and biota to the beaches, and information on beach hazards and safety. Second, to provide a description of each beach, including its name(s), location, access, facilities, dimensions and the character of the beach and surf zone. The book comments on the suitability of the beach for bathing, surfing and fishing, with special emphasis on the natural hazards. Based on the physical hazards, all beaches are rated in terms of public safety and scaled from 1 (least hazardous) to 10 (most hazardous).
"Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia, Vol. 2," tells about the discovery of Australia by the expeditions of Phillip Parker King, an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. He led several expeditions around the coasts of Australia in 1818 and 1820, during which they established contacts with the locals and made important historical observations.
Willingly into the Fray comprises the personal stories of sixty-five individual nurses, their voices preserved and their words, often fraught with emotion and mired in distress at what they have seen, endured and railed against, carefully retained. Many of these stories are told for the first time, particularly those of the recent campaigns, peacekeeping operations, disaster relief and humanitarian missions. These are men and women who, like those before them, often worked in the most primitive conditions, as one nurse remarked tellingly, ‘with TLC and little more’. It is typical of Australian Army nurses to proceed ‘willingly into the fray’, often with little warning, but always with courage, determination and a strong sense of humour. In the hundred or so years since the first intrepid Boer War nurses set out, Australian Army nurses have forged a proud and enviable reputation. They are justifiably renowned for their determination to provide quality medical care despite extreme privation, perilous circumstances, and a lack of the most rudimentary medical equipment. If this is the reputation they can forge in the face of such adversity, then we have much to look forward to over the next one hundred years. Willingly into the Fray provides a rare opportunity for the reader, to take a personal journey through the lives of Army nurses from the early days of 1899 to modern times, and to experience the vast changes in society that accompanied those hundred or so years.
Produced by the Australian Beach Safety and Management Program, a joint project of the Coastal Studies Unit, University of Sydney and Surf Life Saving Australia Ltd.
Writing the Australian Beach is the first book in fifteen years to explore creative and cultural representations of this iconic landscape, and how writers and scholars have attempted to understand and depict it. Although the content chiefly focuses on Australia, the beach as both a location and idea resonates deeply with readers around the world. This edited collection includes three sections. Forms of Beach Writing examines the history of beach writing in Australia and in a number of forms: screenwriting, social media writing, and food writing. In turn, Multiplicities of Australian Beach Writing examines how forms of writing—poetry, travel writing, horror film, and memoir—engage with some specific beaches in Australia. And, finally, Reading the Beach as a Text considers how the beach itself functions in cultural narratives: how we walk the beach; the revealing story of beach soccer; and the design and use of ocean baths. Given its scope, the collection offers a unique resource for scholars of Australian culture and creative writing, and for all those interested in Australian beaches.
