Photo Description

Redhead Beach, Newcastle NSW.

This gorgeous beach lies in the north-eastern region of Lake Macquarie, just south of Newcastle in NSW. It’s well known for the stunning 80m high red-coloured cliffs (hence the name Redhead) at it’s northern end, and the iconic old shark tower on a small rocky outcrop on the beach.

The old shark tower has a great deal of valuable history in itself, having been constructed in the early 1930’s during the depression and the timber used coming from a local disused coalmine. The four main uprights supporting the platform are believed to be well over 100 years in age. It is also thought to be the only remaining purpose built structure on the eastern Australian coast.

This was the first time I had ever visited the spot, having put it on my “to-do” list not long before I had relocated to Newcastle. I arrived well before first light but unfortunately, through the darkness of the morning I could see there were four other keen photographers that had already made their way onto the beach and had set up. I concluded that five would be a crowd, so I’d opted to hang back in the dunes more and scope out another composition, where I found this small timber post at the bottom of the dunes, possibly a remnant of an old fence that once surrounded them.

There was a lot of cloud cover predicted to be coming in from the West and, coinciding with the rising sun made for an epic sunrise, with these amazing colours taking the show and helping to add a little more interest to the photograph.