Touring - Apostle Collapes

Anyone who has cycled the Great Ocean Road in Australia might find this of interest. One of the Twelve Apostles collapsed into the ocean this morning. The effect of the thousands of years of erosion which has shaped that part of the coastline. Evidently this now means there are eight of them left standing. I am almost in shock, even though it was inevitable. Incredibly, I can't find a picture taken since the collapse (not even with Google), but I understand it might have been the big one in the middle of this shot (the "third" one) -- taken by "yours truly" in 2002.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v375/the_chris_man_50/apostles.jpg

wow! I dunno what is more suprising..... the emergance of Chris or this act of nature!

Actually, from what I saw on TV, it's the closest one that went. It already has a lean to when you took this shot. It's just a "tooth stubb" in the water now. There were two pictures taken by a tourist on the occasion -- one immediately before and one immediately after.

Plus, the 12 Apostles was a bit of a misnomer -- there are only eight left now.

This follows the collapse of "London Bridge" (I think that was its nickname) getting on around eight years ago.

With luck, this will be closely followed by the collapse of the "Bush Regime"
(oh wait... this isn't the Political forum? Nevermind)


seriously... that is some cool natural stuff

I found the shots... the before and after shots on BBC News.

Anyway, they said there was a family there taking some shots just seconds before the apostle collapsed, then they took the after pic. So they are the last pics of the apostle. Sad, but fascinating.

Isn't there any way to reinforce the structures to prevent erosion, or are they just waiting for them to fall?

Here's the pic and article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4647857.stm

Koffee

Isn't there any way to reinforce the structures to prevent erosion, or are they just waiting for them to fall?

Attempts by man to control nature are always futile.

Attempts by man to control nature are always futile.

Gravity always wins!!

This is a pretty hostile environment, and the sandstone doesn't stand much chance against the constant wave motion. It's nature's way.

Isn't there any way to reinforce the structures to prevent erosion, or are they just waiting for them to fall?

It was erosion that created the structures in the first place. The 12 Apostles are basically what was left after some of the stongest ocean currents in the world wore away at the limestone over many years. In time they will fall, but it's also possible more will be created as the coastline changes. I just wasn't expecting it to happen less than three years after I was there.

Wow, that would have been something to see. Tons of stone crashing into the sea...

For years the state of New Hampshire tired to keep the "old man of the mountain" ( http://www.nh.gov/oldman/ ) from falling off, they filled cracks to keep out the water, drove steel rods into the rock to keep it from falling. But early one morning it slipped and fell into the valley below. Their have been plans to rebuild it by putting it back together and "gluing" it back on the mountain another company was going to build another from fiberglass and attach it to the mountain in order to restore it.... Nothing lats forever......

Only human beings would think of trying to prop the stones up, because only human beings would think that it's inherently better for them to be standing on end than lying in the surf.

New Hampshire's action was all about the Benjamins.

Yep... don't want to loose those tourist dollars!

after touring along here a couple fo years ago, i was in awe of the specatacular coastal scenery, but after awhile one eroded bit became the same as the next eroded bit ...
lovely bit of highway, but way spoiled by the rampant commercialism, crowds of people and the sprawling human development ... the grampians were much nicer [in my view]