An aerial look at the Sydney coastline and its famous beaches
Tag Archives: Sydney Beaches
Bondi Beach
A visit to Bondi Beach
Sydney Beaches
A quick tour of some of the lovely beaches found in Sydney.
Sydney beaches – Coogee Beach
Coogee Beach
Coogee, a beachside suburb is located 8 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
The Tasman Sea and Coogee Bay along with Coogee Beach lie towards the eastern side of the suburb. Coogee beach is popular for swimming.
The name Coogee is said to be taken from a local Aboriginal word koojah which means “smelly place” or “stinking seaweed”, a reference to the smell of decaying kelp washed up on the beach. Although at certain times large quantities of seaweed are still washed up, it is usually removed before it gets a chance to stink. Coastal winds can carry the stench to surrounding suburbs and as far westwards as the University of New South Wales.
Early visitors to the area, from the 1820s onwards, were never able to confirm exactly what “Coogee” meant, or if it in fact related to Coogee Beach. Another name,”Bobroi”, was also recalled as the indigenous name for the locality.
Some evidence suggests that the word “Coogee” may in fact be the original Aboriginal place name for the next bay to the north, now known as Gordon’s Bay.
The Aboriginal population had largely relocated by the mid-19th century after being decimated by disease and violent clashes with early settlers, though some Aborigines still live in the area today.
Coogee Beach – Sydney Australia
Located in Sydneys Eastern Suburbs a view from the northern end of popular Coogee beach.
Coogee Bay Road runs from Randwick to Coogee Beach which is relatively protected through its formation as a bay. The surrounding coastline is mostly cliffs, decreasing in height down to the beach in the western part of the bay. The bay is sheltered from the roughest seas by Wedding Cake Island, a rocky reef about 800m off the southern headland. There is an annual swimming event around the island each November.
The beach itself drops off rapidly at the edge of the water, which can result in a dangerous shore break particularly when the surf is large. The combination of this shore break and high visitor numbers mean that Coogee has more spinal injuries than any other Australian beach.
In larger surf, there are often rip currents at both the northern end and at the southern ends, and also quite frequently in the centre of the beach. These are simply the places where the incoming water escapes most naturally. It is claimed by some locals that the rip in the centre of the beach is partly caused by the remaining foundations of the old entertainment pier.
Coogee Beach writing source wikipedia.