Yesterday I managed to drive over to Botany Bay. My old PowerPoint collection needed up dating. It’s too easy to begin teaching about yesterdays and immensely interesting to do the leg work required to teach about the present. Sure some things remain relatively unchanged, but in the really dynamic parts of the coastal zone changes are rapid.
By the time I got organised it was already afternoon. I wanted to photograph Port Botany from the east, from near the site of the old Bunnerong Power Station. Unfortunately by this time any photos taken into the sun would have been wasted, so I decided to drive past Port Botany and photograph it from the west, with the sun behind me. The result was surprising. I was quite unaware of the extent of the Port Botany Container Terminal Expansion Project and of the interesting technology being employed in its construction.
Sydney Ports advises that the port extension will include 1,850 metres of additional quay line for five new shipping berths, dedicated road access and rail sidings to the new terminal area and additional tug berths. It’s expected that the terminal will be operational from 2012.
In the construction of the terminal some 7.8 million cubic metres of sand will be dredged and 60 hectares of land created. This has already commenced, as has the construction and placement of massive concrete counterforts that will be sunk along the edge of the new land to provide a quay line suitable for the berthing of container ships.
The scale of this project surprised me and I’ll write more about it later. One thing that did concern me was the additional impact it will undoubtedly have of the movement of currents and the coastal morphology of Botany Bay. For the moment, I’ll pass no comment on this but simply direct attention to the video overview of the project from Sydney Ports.
Port Botany Expansion from Sydney Ports Corporation on Vimeo.
I could write a lot more about this but the video provides a wealth of information. I’ve already posted the link on my school’s Moodle site.
Russell Darnley Blog 