“City and Sea” is a surf photo-journey that explores the stories and layers that make up the surf breaks and places we inhabit. Researched and photographed over three years, City and Sea, is one persons attempt to better understand where he lives in Newcastle/Muluubinba, through the intersection of history and ocean photography.
City and Sea
A photobook about Newcastle, surfing and understanding where you are.
Surf and ocean photography can so frequently be based on adventuring abroad to new places and new experiences, but the stories and details that make up home breaks are just as enthralling if we look. The scale and scope of histories embedded in any place is too vast and deep for a project like this fully capture but this is my attempt to better understand.
“Here, shellfish were harvested for thousands of years and their discarded shells were piled into enormous middens which were later burned by the Europeans to produce lime for building purposes.”
- A Harbour from a Creek: A history of the Port of Newcastle, Rosemary Melville.
“An early problem facing captains of sailing ships entering Newcastle was the loss of wind in the ship's sails as they passed the towering Nobbys outcrop at the Port's entrance. To alleviate this, the top was taken off Nobbys, reducing it to 27.5 metres, half its original height, with the resulting rock used in the construction of the breakwater. A lighthouse was erected on Nobbys and was brought into service on the 1st of January, 1858.”
- Newcastle Port Corporation, Wind in Ships Sails.
“Autralia's largest KFC restaurant stands above one of the country’s most significant Aboriginal heritage sites in Newcastle West, a new archaeological report has revealed … But the final excavation report, which rates the site as having ‘‘high to exceptional cultural and scientific significance’’ was only completed this month, even though the KFC building was built about a year ago.”
- Newcastle Herald, May 20, 2011.
“Merewether home smashes Newcastle sales record” - Described as a “once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece”, it’s no wonder this property attracted such high-profile interest.
- Newcastle Weekly, Property, 18 July 2023
