Places

From the recent discovery of five new submerged ‘Apostles’ in the Port Campbell National Park, to the world’s never-ending fascination with Australian wildlife. When one of the ‘Apostles’ – a large limestone column reaching up to 50m – crumbled right before the eyes of a group of tourists visiting the Port Campbell National Park of Melbourne, 20 million years of history collapsed as it fell. It was 2005, when the Twelve Apostles – breath-taking cliffs that rise out of the Antartic ocean, framing the iconic coast of the state of Victoria – once again redesigned themselves, as it is, after all, in the nature of their geological composition. Something similar had happened in 1990, when one of the two arches of the natural rock formation of the ‘London Bridge’, in the same area, collapsed nearer to the coast, leaving two people stranded on the other peak, unable to trace their steps back off the cliff. Since then, the Bridge has changed its name to ‘London Arch’. The Apostles and the Arch are some of the attractions that comprise the panoramic route of the Great Ocean Road, which also includes the Razorback Apostles, the Island Archway, the Thunder Cave, the Bakers’ Oven Rock, the Sentinel Rocks and The Grotto. Each of these formations is fighting off the same process of erosion that brought them to life.
‘Apostles’ is a relatively new nomenclature: until 1922 the same cliffs were known by the moniker of ‘Sow and Piglets’, where the Sow was the island of Muttonbird, located just before the mouth of Loch Ard Gorge, and its ‘Piglets’ the still-intact rock formations scattered around it. It is impossible to know precisely how many there were in the beginning: local accounts mention many more than the ones that are visible today. More than 8 rocky formations can be counted on a map dated 1846, while the first European sailors to travel here counted as many as Jesus’ disciples – hence the name. Officially, the ‘Piglets’ were rechristened as ‘Apostles’ in the Twenties, given the evocative power of the Biblical moniker, well-suited to these massive but delicate stone structures, studding the coastline along the 243km route of the Ocean Road, between Torquay and Allansford.
With the recent discovery of five new Apostles – submerged but intact despite the relentless lapping of the waves – the full Biblical formation has been reinstated, with a few add-ons on the original number. This new finding represents a rather extraordinary occurrence, according to Melbourne University researchers. “When we first saw them it was a shock,” said Rhiannon Bezore, from the department of Geology, “the apostles have a specific structure, built on layers of matter. It is hard to believe that these ones haven’t been eroded to their core. The fact that they appear intact is a reason for celebration.”
The experts explain that the new Apostles may owe their survival to a sudden rise in water levels, which took place around 60.000 years ago, following a ‘glacial maximum’. “Back then the level of the oceans could rise twice as fast as it does nowadays,” Bezore continues, “so fast that the waves didn’t have enough time to erode the pillars, undermining their stability.” That’s why these five relatively small stone towers have survived until today, 70m underwater and a mere 6km off the coast of one of the most famous tourist locations in the country. While we have no way of telling how many rock formations originally rose in this area, we do know that they have been changing quickly since we first started observing them, and we are bitterly aware that their sudden collapse could be just around the corner, as it is the natural outcome for this type of natural sculpture. The latest discovery, however, gives us new hope in the stupefying nature of the ever-changing Australian ecosystem, forever moving at unexpected paces, from the imperceptibly slow to the eye-blinkingly fast.
The same fascination drives millions of tourists to visit the Australian continent every year, to explore its boundless wild landscapes. Australia’s peculiar balance between the hyperurbane, hyperpopulated metropolitan areas on the south-eastern coast, and the ‘outback’ (or the ‘bush’), the enigmatic, 6 million and a half km-wide red desert that lies at the heart of the nation, enraptures travellers from all over the world. This huge, indefinite and all-encompassing space represents an archetype for Australians too, who fail or flat-out refuse to pin down its boundaries (or so the legend goes). The great outback has provided both the setting and the subject to a long line of cinematographic successes, from George Miller’s much celebrated saga Mad Max (its first installment is from 1979, the latest came out in 2015), to legendary comedy Crocodile Dundee (1986) by Peter Faiman, as well as some more intimate dramatic takes, such as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert by Stephen Elliott (1994) and Phillip Noyce’s The Stolen Generation (2002). The ‘bush’ and its shape-shifting borders, the countless natural parks, the richness of its flora and fauna and its ancient aboriginal heritage make Oceania a kind of mythological place on Earth, unique in its kind. This is a place where rocks can challenge the sea, rising up to the sky in layer upon layer of matter, just to disappear completely in less than a minute. But fear not: there is a whole other continent waiting to be discovered, just below the surface.

Words – Silvia Schirinzi