Despatch # 7 - The Twelve Apostles

This is another picture of those limestone stacks. There are twelve of them some in sight and some hidden in coves. One collapsed sometime in the past year. The surf erodes them at the bottom and they implode. They are so heavy that the stacks more or less sink into the sand at the bottom. Eventually the coast will be eroded back to the denser rock.

This is the entrance to the Great Ocean Road. We approached the beginning from about two thirds of the way along. The road was an infrastructure initiative by the government during the Great Depession. A 40 km stretch of the road was washed out by the recent flooding. Victoria had the wettest summer on record. Still the reservoirs are only about half full.

A huge de-salination plant is being built on the east coast of the state and will be on-line at the end of the year. Australians pay $250 a quarter for water and that is expected to rise about 50% over the next couple of years. Consumption is irrevelant; the rates are for the infrastructure.