Worimi National Park, NSW Australia

Had Captain Reid sailed up a little further, he would have come across Nobby’s Head. On the other hand, maybe just as well he didn’t because in the same year at Broken Bay a gang of 15 convicts seized the sloop Norfolk and sailed northwards, wrecking it at the entrance to Hunter River. They then seized another boat in nearby Newcastle. They carried on in their attempt to escape, but nine of them were eventually captured. The peninsula near the Norfolk wreck was subsequently named Pirate Point after the convicts’ piratical act. The area seemed prone to piracy as a further seven ships were illegally seized from Newcastle in the first half of the 1800s.

Pirate Point carries a dual name, where the Traditional Owners, the Worimi people, know it as Burrabihngarn. The dual naming convention of geographical features and cultural sites illustrates the NSW Government’s support and recognition of the Aboriginal cultural heritage.

Hopping on a ferry, I sailed across the Hunter River into Stockton, a suburb of Newcastle, to venture down the break wall where the remnant of Adolphe, which sunk in 1904, is still visible, probably because it’s actually resting atop SS Wendouree, wrecked in 1898, SS Lindus in 1899 and somewhere further below is the steamer Colonist wrecked in 1894. 

Returning to shore, I walked along Stockton Beach, where, at one time, the 700ft (200m) Norwegian bulk carrier MV Sygna ran aground in 1974 after a heavy storm with swells 56ft (17m) high battered the port entrance. Fortunately, all 30 crew were rescued. When salvage operations commenced, the back unfortunately split in two. While the bow was towed away, the stern settled deeply into the sand and, over decades, slowly decayed while visible from the beach. In 2016, the structure finally collapsed and sunk into the ocean, with only a small section above the waterline. 

From the beach, I continued along the shore until I reached the Stockton Bight Sand Dunes within the Worimi National Park. It stretches an incredible 20mi (32km) parallel to the park  and contains a forest of blackbutt, smooth-barked apple gums and paperbark. The sand dunes are the largest moving coastal dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. This is one place for serious quad biking or 4WD adventuring while tossing in a sandboarding ride or two. For an extra experience, there’s a visit to Tin City, built as a squatter’s village during the 1920s Depression Era. Made up of a bunch of small tin shacks half buried by the shifting sands, the shacks have a post-apocalyptic feel about it, almost like a scene out of a Mad Max movie. 

And now, onto Hawks Nest to check out some dolphins.