While having a sleepless night, I started to think of how the Nambucca River mouth may have looked without all the modern development.
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As a volunteer of the Nambucca Headland Museum I put all the photos, information and data in my mind together and after a few days of enhancing the Google 2017 photo I came up with the photo below.
This photo of the Nambucca River entrance was reproduced as a 'guestimation' from facts researched from historical information and surveys held at the Nambucca Headland Museum. It is based on what the river mouth could have looked like with out human intervention over the years.
In this photo, all the development prior to the 1890s, has been removed and the image represents the river entrance as it may have been, had the modernising development not taken place.
Research of historical information indicates that, had the river entrance not been developed prior to the sea break wall (V-Wall) being constructed to control and tame the river flow for shipping, it may have looked as shown in the reproduced image.
Originally, the river flowed directly in to the ocean, the break wall was built during the turn of the century (1845 to 1907 by contractors Wooden, Frost and Rogers). The wall had an indicator point for tide observation (The Glen) leading into the inner harbour, which was built by creating a (man made) sand island from the dredging of the river (opposite Wellington Drive). The edge of the shore was then used by trade shipping and the ballast rocks offloaded creating the shallow banks that are there now.
The Italian fishermen's cottages along the base of the mountain, now Wellington Park, was filled in and the construction of a pilot's residence and shipping rescue buildings were setup, now the White Albatross Park site.
- References: Dept of Lands, Nambucca River Hydrographic Survey 1891. NSW Harbours _ Nambucca River Entrance 07.07.1898. Nambucca Headland Museum, Wellington Drive Walks Site No 13 - General Information - "Sea Wall or Breakwater"
- Note: Background Photo is from Google Earth 2017. Digital Alteration by George Micolich from references above.