The Readers Digest Guide to the Australian Coast
Join me on a journey. But don't fret if you're feeling idle, it requires no energy or exertion on your behalf. This is a journey of the mind.
Let's go way back in time to when DOS ruled the desktops and the internet was confined to academia and Kraftwerk lyrics. Back to when Kelly Slater had hair, the Beastie Boys were relevant, and fat dacks paired with puffy-tongued Globes were considered de rigeur. Oh yeah, it's the early 90's.
It is here that I first laid my eyes on this book, the Readers Digest Guide to the Australian Coast. With a tagline, 'For all those who swim, sail, surf, fish, picnic, sightsee or holiday by the sea', the Readers Digest were casting a wide net for themselves. Though I doubt any other user – not the swimmers, not the picnickers – ever treasured this book as much as any surfer who scored themselves a copy.
With a thin grid of aerial photos the Guide to the Australian Coast gave a full-colour, 2-D reply to the question 'what's around the next headland?' And this was well before Google Earth blurted the answer to any rubberneck with a modem. It was a treasured pre-internet artefact.
I was recently gifted a copy and despite the prevalence and popularity of Google Earth the Guide to the Australian Coast is still a page-turner. Perhaps it's the visceral quality of paper and ink (says the website editor) that helps it retain appeal, yet in one clear and tangible aspect this book trumps Google Earth.
Unlike GE, which regularly updates and overwrites old information, the Readers Digest version provides a snapshot of the Australian coast in the year it was published – 1983. It makes an excellent curio to see how the coast has been altered, with some of the most obvious changes being on the Gold Coast.
See the Spit before the groynes went in, with South Straddie an unsurfable mess of shallow channels and shifting banks. Or Kirra before the Tweed River bypass sparked up and water splashed against the road. In fact, the whole Coolangatta Bay area resembles a 'before' and 'after' shoot for Weight Watchers except in reverse: the coast has been fattened up.
The written information also belies the changes the coast has gone through, 'Lennox Head pop 843', 'the two-lane Pacific Highway connects Sydney and Brisbane'.
Yet for mine, the most curious, and slightly troubling, aspect is that some of our more recent surfing discoveries – a few breaking under heavy swell conditions with reef-hugging whitewash tracks - are clearly visible in the photographs. How many people were surfing them when I first laid eyes on the Guide? And why the hell didn't I pay more attention to them the first time around?
The Guide to the Australian Coast was published by Readers Digest in 1983. There was only one edition and it has never been reprinted. Your only chance of getting a copy is by scouting second-hand bookshops or your oldies bookshelf. I got mine care of Steve Woodall who shall receive three set waves next time the Point is pumping. Cheers Woody! (and get well soon)
Comments
This is a classic old book. My copy is dog-eared (at least the paper outer-sleeve is) from sitting amongst the mattresses, eskys, boards and pots and pans in the back of the van, rattling down dirt tracks along the east coast in the days before google earth was on the radar.
We used to refer to it as the bible and plan exploration missions over 2 week trips in July based on the photos in the book, and the potential in every rocky outcrop you could make out that bent the swell lines into shape. Google and the surf media have really changed the mood of the east coast surf mish, leaving no stones unturned for the explorers at heart.
I recieved mine coutesy of helping my father clean out the belongings of an ageing relative. There amongst the hundreds of reader digest condensed classics was this hidden gem.
For years I plotted many successful south and north coast escapes from my suburban bed room.
I still have it carefully stored away for my son
I remember reading about it a decade ago, and searching high and low for a copy in every second hand book store I came across - no such luck. Prior to that I'd purchased every topo and bathy chart for the coasts I frequently surfed but there's really nothing quite like a good aerial photo to get the surf-exploratory senses charged.
Google Earth has a historical Maps function which is interesting and goes back a few years.
Similarly NearMaps has the same concept and is updated far more regularly but only really around built up areas.
As part of my uni work I've spent times in libraries of old Aerial photographs which extend from the 1940's onwards, its awesome looking at how our coast has changed over time. The libraries are so extensive but haven't been digitized, I look forward to the day when google or nearmaps have bought the old aerial photographs and digitized them into a database that lets us look back in time more easily, it'd be a really valuable tool!
This book does look awesome however!
Google is currently trying to digitise every book for its Google Library Project. I believe it's underway now and they are cutting through copyright as quickly as they are scanning books. If this book is still available in libararies (or was recently) there's a good chance it'll be available on the internet soon anyway.
Anyone up for a guessing comp?
For those who dont have a copy, who can name the spot on the cover (pic 1)?
without using Google Earth
boomerang?
I can't name it even with Google Earth.
It's not Boomerang though
I know the cover shot spot.
Nice spot.
Yeah I was bitterly disappointed when I finally found the place and saw all the swell going past the island headland and fattening out into deep water!
That's the thing about exploring, the spot you thought would be good turns out to be average, but you just need to look around the next corner to find a set-up that you would think is your own secret discovery.
I thought you would know it Steve. Its a good fishing spot. Not so good for surf.
And no its not Boomerang.
I've had some good waves there, both off the tombola when the sand builds up and some really nice lefts peeling up the river.
it's still mostly a fishing spot.
Interesting to look at that spot on Google earth and compare it to the photo. A lot more sand showing on the beaches in the Google pic.
Is a great book Stu - a real piece of Aust history....found mine in a back alley bookshop at Freshie years ago.....felt like I'd found the gold Wonka Bar ticket, after seeing Andy Pitt's copy numerous times and wishing I'd had one.....
Proud to say I have my copy, and a spare one as well. At $2 a copy at the Salvo's it was impossible to leave it on the shelf. It now sits in the same bookshelf as Mark Warren's classic.
If only man's involvement improved our surfing beaches. Good sandwiches though!
I bought a copy when new. Did a few east coast surfaris with it. Still have it on the garage bookshelf. For years I've wanted to know where the front cover is. Come on Scott and Freeride, it's only a fishing spot. Where the hell is it????
Worth its weight in gold. I'll go looking for that one and maybe tell my wife. She is always going through second hand book stores.
Yeah Yocal and Freeride76 are on the money. I've got a mate who goes glassy eyed and whispers its name every time a big sou/sou'easter rises. Me thinks its a myth though. Still dreamin. Cheers lads.
P.S. This WAS google earth for us oldies.
My granddad built a house at that spot on the cover, we were spewing when it was published. I've been going there since I was a kid and still do. Beautiful place and that point looks like it would be all time but it just fills up with sand and gets a bit fat and breaks too wide when it's big. It's better for mals out there. Make sure you have your fishing permit otherwise the ranger will give you a nice fine!
Had the book for donkeys.Cover just along from Brooms Head.
Was wondering how long till somebody would open their big mouth. Do you feel more important now don. Notice how everyone who knew somehow managed to keep it to themselves. Perhaps you should post all of your favorite spots and let us all know when they will be working just so we can join you....
explains a few things
I have a copy for Tas, Vic and SA. You can sometimes find them on EBay.
try the 2nd hand bookshop in narrabeen ben, they had a couple last time I looked -
cool! I did the aerial photography for this book - the eastern coast from the SA/Vic border up to Cape York. The project took about eighteen months while I was travelling up & down the coast doing other aerial survey work for mapping. (A. Sandon)
What a great job!
I imagine it would be hard keeping the plane steady while trying not to look at the setups yourself out the side window.
Did you have to wait for calm flying conditions to photograph, or nice clear sunny days? What was the protocol, or was it just go out and try and get it all covered in the shortest amount of time?
The job is totally unique ... this book actually talks about the tasks required on page 82. The camera is a Wild RC-8 or RC-10, 9 1/2" square format mounted over a hole in the floor of the aircraft. A Navigation sight, very similar to a bombardier's sight, is also mounted through the floor. "The precision achieved far excels that of wartime bomb aiming" because in wartime the plane only has to hit the sweet spot whereas in survey work the plane has to maintain that line for miles. Cloud free days were needed - if there was cloud below we couldnt see the ground and cloud above the aircraft meant unwanted shadows covered the ground. The photos in this book were made from 3000m. The Victorian pics were done from a Cessna 206 (VH-DGD) and the rest were done from VH-CJA a twin engined Cessna 402.
This book has played a great role in my life.My mother(a genius,and a surfer)gave me this book in '83.For a Victorian making trips up the East Coast,or down south,or Tassie,this was the bible.Not only did it show potential set ups,or known classics,but it's greatest advantage was it showed you the roads and tracks to take to get to them.My copy is covered in notes and wave symbols.In '85 a guy in Pambula Pub offered me $500 for my copy,in'87 two Sydney guys camped next to us at Clarkes in Byron stole it while we were surfing and split town.We chased them south and found them(or their car actually)in Yamba.Sitting on the passenger seat was the bible.I smashed the window and stole it back.I still use this Guide to this day,fuck Google,when I touch this book I get the electricity of a thousand waves I'd never have ridden without it,a hundred lineups I'd never have seen or discovered,dozens and dozens of trips we scored all becuase of this book.I love it like a brother.To Marka,the photographer,and Readers Digest,the publisher,I thank you.You work made a great impact on my life.
my great-uncle won this book at his Bowls club in Neutral Bay in the early 80s and gave it to me - lucky me!! it has provided spatial information over the years, apart a few gaps where there is no civilisation. took me a couple of years to work out where the cover shot was ... a good mystery to solve, and right in my backyard it turned out. thanks Uncle Don RIP
What a beautiful book. I never knew about it until now, and that includes my early 90's Oz surf sojourns resplendent in Kingswood and Cruiser wagons .
Is the West in the book in detail? - that would have been handy!
I also notice that the cover shot has changed quite a lot in terms of sand deposition since the early 80's (can we take Kirra's current sand and deposit it on the inside section there??) As a kid I remember how the Maroochy was in that time, compared to now. The current 'island' of rock over the river used to be on the south side, and we'd play games in it. Mudcrabs would form a carpet as you walked along the river, burying themselves as you passed and rising again.
It's with fondness for a bygone time that I view all these changes, such as the new road north of Lanno now. The time we spent exploring and surfing the places was gold, you never knew what was round the corner.
Congrats to all those involved in making the book.
I picked this book up in 1985 when I was studying in Geelong. What I probably didn't realise at the time was 27 years later I'd still be using it.
The Guide is simply amazing and I have spent hours pouring over pages bit by bit. It is simply the most amazing book of its type I have ever had.
Google earth now offers the latest online, but I still get drawn back to the book. I agree with other posts here that the beautiful maps of our coastline now deserve historical online referencing. Whether this is in the realm of Google or another provider remains to be seen, but it really would make sense to immortalise this historical record.
It's going to be interesting to start seeing the differences in coastal movement through natural and man made impacts.
Until this is available online I always have the Guide to reference :-)
Just saw a copy in the local book store for $10. I'm going back this afternoon to pick it up.
In the distant future swellnet stalwart zenagain fires up Stu's Rebel - (Coast) Forum...
Stu's future crew are convinced this Book & / or Stu's Forum never existed...sounds so unreal.
swellnet 2022 crew sent tbb back in time to restore Earth's Timeline & Stu's reputation.
No exemptions!
"No Wot?"
WTF...is how it's pronounced!
"WTF...& Why you sound like some Alien Yuppie?"
If you must know >
Exemptions are 2022 VIP Oz Currency & The Ultimate Surfer saves the Planet.
"This Ultimate Surfer is a real serious thing then!"
Yes! It's deemed VIP Essential! Would the crew send tbb back to 2011 if it wasn't so serious...
tbb will hook up the time portal...doing that now...
All you Hodads have to do is Click this swellnet link to upgrade Stu's Coast Forum to 2022.
"Don't think our 2011 crew are that Stupid...we can't Hyperlink 11 years ahead in a swellnet Forum!"
You're absolutely right...you're gonna need masks & shots & boosters + heaps of Toilet Paper!
All good, click the hyperlink..."WTF"
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2022/03/31/the-ultimate-...
Well done TB, I'm skeptical but I think I may have scored a copy.