The Grand Pacific Drive: Stories Along the Way
Most guides tell you where to stop on the Grand Pacific Drive. This one tells you what happened there: a man lifted off a beach by box kites, shipwreck survivors who found coal on a 600 km walk to Sydney, a novelist in a beach bungalow, and a blowhole first described by George Bass.
Hear these stories in the Sitesy app →Please don't use your phone while driving. Have a passenger start each story, or listen before you set off.
This drive passes through Dharawal Country. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land and pay our respects to Elders past and present.
The stories, stop by stop
Stop 1: Royal National Park
You start in a national park proclaimed in 1879, just seven years after Yellowstone.
Royal National Park was formally proclaimed on 26 April 1879, founded by the Acting Premier of New South Wales, Sir John Robertson. That was just seven years after Yellowstone in the United States, and eleven years before Yosemite. The park sits on the traditional lands of the Dharawal people, and Aboriginal rock art sites survive within it. Otford Lookout, on Lady Wakehurst Drive at the park's southern end, looks down the coast you are about to drive.
Sources: Wikipedia — Royal National Park
Stop 2: Stanwell Park and Lawrence Hargrave
On the beach below, in 1894, a man lifted himself off the ground under four box kites.
Aviation pioneer Lawrence Hargrave chose to live and experiment at Stanwell Park for its winds. He invented the box kite in 1893, and the design became the aerodynamic basis of early biplanes. On 12 November 1894, on Stanwell Park Beach, he lifted himself off the ground under a train of four box kites, their line moored to two sandbags with help from his caretaker, James Swain. He rose 16 feet, about 5 metres, in a 21 mph wind, carrying instruments to measure the wind and the angle of the line. The same winds make Stanwell Park Australia's best-known hang-gliding and paragliding venue, so look up.
Sources: Wikipedia — Lawrence Hargrave · Wikipedia — Stanwell Park
Stop 3: Coalcliff
Shipwreck survivors, walking more than 600 km to Sydney, found coal in these cliffs.
In February 1797, after the ship Sydney Cove was wrecked off Tasmania, 17 men set out in her longboat for Port Jackson. They were wrecked again at the northern end of Ninety Mile Beach and had to walk more than 600 km to Sydney. Only three survived the march: supercargo William Clark, sailor John Bennet and one Indian lascar, picked up by a fishing boat at Wattamolla on 15 May 1797. On the way, Clark noted coal exposed in the cliffs here, which gave Coalcliff its name, and George Bass was sent to report on it. The mine that followed was driven straight into a coal seam in the sea cliff, less than 40 feet above the water.
Sources: Wikipedia — Sydney Cove (1796 ship) · Wikipedia — Coalcliff
Stop 4: Sea Cliff Bridge
This bridge exists because rockfalls closed the old cliff road for good in 2003.
The old Lawrence Hargrave Drive clung to the cliff here until August 2003, when regular rockfalls closed it permanently. It was the only direct road linking Coalcliff, Stanwell Park, Otford and Helensburgh to the northern suburbs of Wollongong, and the closure caused a public outcry. The answer was the Sea Cliff Bridge and the adjoining Lawrence Hargrave Drive Bridge: a $52 million, 450-metre crossing standing up to 70 metres out from the old road. NSW Premier Morris Iemma opened it on 11 December 2005. The name came from Makenzie Russell, an 11-year-old who won a naming competition for local primary school students. A 2.5-metre footpath runs across it.
Sources: Wikipedia — Sea Cliff Bridge
Stop 5: Thirroul and D.H. Lawrence
In 1922 the English novelist D.H. Lawrence lived in this beach town and wrote a novel here.
D.H. Lawrence visited Thirroul in 1922 and, while here, wrote Kangaroo, a novel about Australian fringe politics after the First World War. The house he stayed in, Wyewurk on Craig Street, overlooks the Pacific and is the earliest Australian bungalow to show the influence of the Californian Bungalow style. A park and a monument on the same street, dedicated on 21 November 1998, commemorate his time here.
Sources: Wikipedia — Thirroul · Wikipedia — Kangaroo (novel)
Stop 6: Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse
A wrought-iron lighthouse from 1871, built when this harbour served the coal trade.
Wollongong Borough Council asked for a light in 1866, to help ships into the port in the early days of the Illawarra coal industry. The Breakwater Lighthouse, known to locals as the Old Wollongong Lighthouse, was built in 1871 and its light shone regularly from January 1872. It was designed by Edward Orpen Moriarty, Engineer-in-Chief of the Harbours and Rivers Department, and made of wrought-iron plates on a concrete base to stand up to gales: one of only two such towers in New South Wales. The local fishing fleet still moors in Belmore Basin below. Remember Moriarty's name at the last stop.
Stop 7: Kiama Blowhole
George Bass wrote about this blowhole in 1797. It can throw water 25 metres into the air.
The blowhole formed in basalt lava flows around 260 million years ago, and local Aboriginal people knew it long before Europeans arrived. The first written account came from George Bass on 6 December 1797, while he explored the south coast in an open whaleboat with a crew of six. In the right sea it sprays water up to 25 metres high and drenches anyone standing too close, and it draws about 900,000 visitors a year. The lighthouse beside it on Blowhole Point was commissioned on 1 January 1887, designed by Edward Orpen Moriarty, the same engineer behind Wollongong's breakwater light. Keep back from the edge: in 1992 a freak wave washed seven people from the rocks here, and they drowned.
Sources: Wikipedia — Kiama Blowhole · Wikipedia — Kiama Light
Walking tours along the drive
Stop the car and explore on foot: these towns on the Grand Pacific Drive have their own self-guided walks.
8 stops · 3.5 km on foot Shellharbour walking tour
1 stop · 5.8 km on foot Albion Park walking tour
3 stops · 3.9 km on foot Kiama walking tour
8 stops · 3.3 km on foot
The drive continues south to Nowra.
Take these stories with you: open the app →Practical info
Route details from Wikipedia — Grand Pacific Drive. Check road conditions before you go.
FAQ
How long is the Grand Pacific Drive?
About 140 km. It starts in Royal National Park, crosses the Sea Cliff Bridge and continues through Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama to Nowra.
Where does the Grand Pacific Drive start?
In Royal National Park, south of Sydney.
When did the Sea Cliff Bridge open?
On 11 December 2005. It replaced a section of Lawrence Hargrave Drive that was closed by rockfalls in August 2003.
Can you walk across the Sea Cliff Bridge?
Yes. The bridge carries a 2.5-metre pedestrian path alongside its two traffic lanes.