Bentleigh Motor Inn

Afternoon storms

by iandsmith

There's a hill immediately at the back of Coffs Harbour. They say that when the clouds obscure the top it's about to rain or raining. They're usually right. Although the hill isn't in view here the cloud was touching it and they were such dramatic clouds I took a snap from my motel carpark.
5 minutes later it was raining. Heavily.

Fishing with a conscience.

by unravelau

We have pretty strict regulations in Australia relative to the type and size of the fish that we may keep having caught them. The other morning and in the space of a minute I guess, this young man started reeling in his catch, agreed to allow me to photograph and with smooth movement brought his catch ashore, and immediately (seeing its size and type), flicked it back to grow a little more. He was fishing off the north wall of the Coffs Harbour Jetty area not far from where a few days before, a small aircraft lost part of its undercarriage on its approach to the airport. Landed that safely too, by the way.

Y go to Yuragir

by iandsmith

About 10 kilometres north of Mullaway there's a turn-off to a National Park. This place, despite being adjacent to the nation's second busiest highway, is seldom visited by anyone, though it's only 14 kilometres down a formed road to reach the ocean, and what a special ocean it is.
The Tasman Sea rolls in and sand holds in the north east corner of the beach so that it is shallow for a long way out to sea. Much more so than any other beach in the Coffs Harbour area.
There's a rocky headland that marks the demarkation point between this long beach that stretches to the southern horizon and Pebbly Beach to the north.
The second time I visited it was filthy weather. Rain clouds scudded across the sky driven by strong winds that buffeted the sand, causing small dunes to form close to the surface. The washing machine action of the surf left foam on the beach and the water was stained an ugly brown with the soil escaping from land.
Adding to the feeling of waste was the area that had been razed en route yet this day it was sodden with fresh falls of rain.
All in all, not what you call your typical beach weather!

THE STAMPER BATTERY

by BerniShand

Stamper Batteries crush the gold bearing rocks to release the gold, the powdery gold then sticks to mercury on copper plates, where it forms an amalgam with the mercury, this amalgam is then heated in a furnace, the mercury evaporates [ it is collected and reused ] leaving the gold behind, this is then poured into ingot moulds ready for weighing and selling

George Ellis owned two stamper batteries, so not only could he process his own ore, but that of other miners

one of the stampers is still in working order, and is demonstrated twice daily, it is extremely noisy, the other stamper laying nearby will be restored in the future

Coffs Harbour

by Openseas

"General Information."

Coffs Harbour:

www.coffscoast.com.au Coffs Harbour is about a 6.5 hour drive from Sydney. Coffs has some excellent beaches, like Gallows, Park Beach, Diggers, Sapphire, Emerald, Sawtell, Sandy and more. Whale watching and professional fishing charters are also available at the Coffs Harbour Marina. It is one of the busiest and largest towns along the Pacific Highway.

Now, if you have some spare time to explore, discover the wonderful towns of Belligen, known for its National Trust buildings and the Dorrigo National Park. Take the road from Macksville to Dorrigo and see some wonderful scenery, then take the road from Dorrigo back to Coffs Harbour.