Illawarra Escarpment - looking south to Wollongong

At the end of my day trip to Bundeena, we had wanted to drive south, through the Royal National Park. Unfortunately, we were unable to do so because of roadworks. That necessitated a trip back out to the Princes Highway, at Loftus, north of Engadine. We then headed south to Waterfall, and took the McKell Avenue turn off, and re-entered the Royal, on that road which would take us down a long winding gully to Lady Wakehurst Drive.
Click here to see the map of yesterday's trip. When we met Lady Wakehurst Drive, we turned south, through to Otford, and then Stanwell Tops.

We stopped to capture the view as best I could,
in the late afternoon light.
You can see the same basic view on a clear day - here.

Regular readers will note that this is the opposite view of the Illawarra Coastline and Escarpment, from that taken a few days ago, at Lees Road Lookout, near Knights Hill.

Stanwell Tops is famous for its cliffs overlooking the Illawarra coast.
Here is another Google Map showing the viewing point
and it marks the vista of the photo above.

Click to enlarge, to read the notes on marked points.

Stanwell Tops is famous for Lawrence Hargrave's early experiment with flight - below a train of four box kites on 12 November 1894. Hargrave was suspended on a line below the lowest Box Kite, and he was tethered to the ground by a line held by an assistant. He rose 16 feet in the air.

Hargrave's design of the Box Kite eventually led the way for the Wright Brothers experiments in flight, in their biplane (a powered box kite, if you think of it in those terms), the Wright Flyer 1 (or Kitti Hawk).

Bald Hill at Stanwell Tops is also famous for Hang Gliding. It is a simple equation of the geographical feature of the proximity of the cliffs to the ocean. This means the place combines reliable sea breezes and uplifts owing to the cliffs and mountains behind them. It is perfect for non-powered flight - such as in Hang Gliders and Paragliding.

Nearly every point along this road seems to commemorate Lawrence Hargrave, in some way or other.

This is Zoe standing beside the Lawrence Hargrave Memorial
on Bald hill, Stanwell Tops. Photo taken in 2007.

Now this patch of the Illawarra Coast has another feature to boast about - the Sea Cliff Bridge.

Here is the Illawarra Coastline and Escarpment, as seen from Otford.
Looking south.

"The Sea Cliff Bridge, opened in 2005, restored the connection between Clifton and Coalcliff, broken by frequent rock falls onto this section of the Lawrence Hargrave Drive. The bridge lies parallel to the former "coal cliffs" and offers scenic views of the cliffs, the sea, and surrounding coastline."

Here is a clearer shot, taken in 2007, from Bald Hill.

Here is a snapshot taken out the window, just on dark.
It shows the cliff line, as seen from the bridge.

You can see the cliffs from the free-standing bridge which is built on pylons which runs parallel to the coast. It was designed to overcome repeated blockages from landslips of the original road (the Lawrence Hargrave Drive)

Here is one of the official RTA aerial shots.

Clearly the RTA is very proud of this bridge.
They have many images of the bridge under construction and completed.

The Nature of the Illawarra Coastline

This is Wollongong and the Illawarra coastline, as seen from Mt Keira lookout, above the city. Click on that image to see my panorama of this spectacular coastline - perhaps the most dramatic in Australia.

This fractured coastline is formed by the broken-off edge of the Illawarra Plateau, which is, in effect, a huge sandstone slab which stretches for 40 Kms behind the point of this viewing platform. Indeed it forms part of the huge sandstone formation which includes the Blue Mountains, and the area north of Sydney, nearly as far as Newcastle.

That is the geological formation known as the "Sydney Basin" (see the image of that region - at left - adapted from "Google Earth").

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Here is one of the most popular scenic views of the Illawarra coastline, taken from"Bald Hill", at Stanwell Tops. The view is looking south along the edge of the Illawarra Escarpment, towards Wollongong.

You can see the tiny settlements along the Illawarra Coast. Also visible is the new Sea Cliff Bridge which forms part of the Lawrence Hargrave Drive.



The dominant peaks seen in the image above all slope upwards on their eastern edge, reflecting the general tilt of the Illawarra Plateau.

Consequently, the water drainage of the entire Plateau behind Wollongong flows inland from immediately behind these coastal peaks, into the 4 main dams on the Illawarra Plateau (see image at left).

Those coastal clifftop peaks form the boundary of the Sydney Water Catchment.

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Stanwell Park is famous for its historical association with Lawrence Hargrave, who developed and tested his revolutionary Box Kite there. So, this place is important in the history of aviation, for Hargrave's design and plans proved to be of great inspiration to the Wright Brothers.

Hargrave's image and his Box Kite were included in the first Australian $20 note, when decimal currency was introduced to this country in 1966.