A DANGEROUS COAST.

Barrier Miner, Thursday 28 March, 1912.

A Dangerous Coast.

The coast along which the Koombana

travels is most dangerous. It is noted

for storms of a sudden and particularly

severe nature There are few lighthouses 

between Port Hedland and Port Darwin 

to guide the mariner, and the course so 

far has been imperfectly surveyed. 

There are numerous hidden obstructions 

which might at any time be responsible for 

a wreck. The toll is heavy already. A network 

exists of shoals, bars, reefs, tides, and currents.

The Ninety-Mile Beach, which forms part of the 

coast, is especially low and sandy. To illustrate 

the variety of the unexpected dangers, it is 

recorded that in one instance, as the result of a 

mischance, a vessel ran aground on the only 

stretch of soft sand in an otherwise rockbound 

island, and was floated off without injury, while 

another ship went on the one flinty ridge in a 

deep water channel and sank. The tidal fall 

of King Sound is one of the largest in the world

its maximum is 42ft. There are innumerable 

maelstroms at the entrance to the harbor, and 

a few of the currents travel at about 12 miles

an hour. An irregular ridge is formed where the 

Fitzroy river pours its flood into the harbor, and 

the various forces set up a terrible fight. 

Numerous islands dot the coast, and ships 

cannot approach near to it. There are but

few ports, and pearling is the chief industry. 

The heat is intense at Port Hedland, which is 

the starting of the recently completed Marble 

Bar Railway. The roofs and chimneys of some

of the houses are anchored with chains.

The flourishing town of Broome has

been created by tho pearling industry.

There the tide runs out as much as 28ft.

and the efflux is remarkably rapid.

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