Sea fog has been a regular occurrence this summer in Sydney Harbour. To hear fog horns sounding in the middle of the day is a rare experience. From our verandah we can see the fog as it rolls through the Heads into Middle Harbour. It seems to stall and bulge up as a mound still attached to the sea surface. We saw this on 17 December and again last Friday. The fog then expands down the Harbour and over the cliffs into Vaucluse along the lines of our local valley and streets. Later in the afternoon it dissipates. Read More

During this past year, I have had the opportunity of working once again with Don Wright, formerly a colleague at Sydney University now based in Florida. Don and colleagues have been involved in producing collaborative reports in the USA through the Coastal Environmental Research Committee of the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA). Read More

Ever since my undergraduate days, I have been fascinated by pits in sand deposits around the eastern suburbs of Sydney. I grew up in Rose Bay. Trevor Langford-Smith had me digging a pit in the backyard of our home in Roberts Street. Read More

Many years ago in travelling across coastal Texas I encountered washover fans. These extensive sand flats occurred behind Mustang and Padre barrier islands. Read More

As with most other Australian Coastal Society members, I have been a salt water person for as long as I can remember, back to being taken to South Cronulla Beach as a two or three year old. While not academic or professional, I did pass Coastal Geomorphology at UNSW which I thoroughly enjoyed way back in the early 1970's. Since then, I have been an active volunteer in coast and wetland management, and whether walking, surfing or swimming, I have collected marine debris. Read More

One of our coastal colleagues, Dr Phil Watson, sent this "postcard" after a recent visit to Venice whilst holidaying in Europe. Read More

The 27th NSW Coastal Conference was held last week at Merimbula on the NSW far south coast. What a wonderful location enjoyed by 250 delegates. This is the first time the conference had been held in Bega Valley Shire, a tribute to the hard work and persistent endeavours of Derek van Bracht. Read More

There are 56 Natural Resource Management (NRM) regions around Australia and 36 of these have coasts. In the 1990s Coastal NRM was flourishing thanks to the federal government’s dedicated funding and national networking support. The Coastcare logo was visible at hundreds of sites around Australia showcasing the great work being carried out by an impressive number of volunteers. Regrettably, federal engagement in coastal NRM has steadily withered since that time. Read More

In my blog on moods of Sydney Harbour, I touched on the topic of slicks. I frequently see them on relatively calm mornings from my verandah and they never cease to amaze me with their clarity and spatial variability. Peter Cowell has been a fan of slicks since the early 70s and offered the following observations and comments. It is a privilege to communicate his thoughts in this ACS blog and look forward to any further discussion. It should be noted that Peter's comments do not specifically relate to Sydney Harbour. Read More

Last week Irene and I had the pleasure of attending the 80th birthday celebration of Roger McLean. The venue was Edrom Lodge on the south side of Twofold Bay located on the New South Wales south coast. It was a family gathering with a few old friends and it provided an excellent opportunity to pay tribute to Roger’s contributions to physical geography and coastal science as well as his dedication to teaching in Australia and New Zealand. Edrom Lodge had been used by Roger and staff from ADFA as the location for many field schools. From the perspective of coastal geomorphology and sedimentology there are few better places where one can demonstrate a range of features that show contrasting depositional histories than Twofold. And this commences on the beach situated right below the lodge itself. Read More