The Cove

Back in the bad old days, when the pea 'n' beans processor let their by-product flow straight into the channel, we'd string up a piece of bamboo with some nylon and a hook and go looking for herring.


We stood on wet black rocks with the conveyor belt ladies (the ones who picked out the rotten peas) and men whom we thought then were old - wrinkled knees and Stubbie shorts, fingers flattened and strong with manual work. No bait required, thanks to those rotten peas and bean shells. The herring were nuts. We'd get half a bucketful in half an hour.

Around the corner from the creaking, rusting factory, there lies a pristine little cove, secreted away from roads or tracks. It's a funny little spot on the south shore of the channel into Princess Royal Harbour, damp, often hidden from the sun, clad in paper bark trees that grow right down to the briny. Things arrive here, flotsam from the Sound and beyond.

It's a good place to play, catch whiting, and watch the schools of salmon trout meander by.



To get the massive Cape iron ore ships into Princess Royal Harbour, the Albany Port Authority and Grange Resources will dredge a channel from the harbour and straight through the middle of King George Sound.

Some of the spoils from this dredging will be used to fill in the cove, creating a berth for the iron ore ships. The cove, the last piece of natural coastline on the south side of the harbour, will be gone, forever ....


... and replaced with more of this:

The Google image above is shows where the cove will be filled to, using the spoils from the dredging. This information comes from the Public Environment Review,which is on the sidebar of this blog.

Postscript: This drawing of the proposed filling-in of The Cove is inaccurate. The Albany Port Authority are actually going to fill in a lot more, further towards the channel. Also ... for the info of original readers and followers, Save Our Sound is reposting 'The Cove' because this article disappeared into 'older posts' and I want newer readers to check it out ...