Catherine Hill Bay

The small costal village of Catherine Hill Bay takes its name from the Vessel Catherine Hill, which ran aground in 1867. It is a heritage listed historic mining village, featuring a beach twice named one of Australia’s 101 best beaches, and an iconic disused coal loading jetty. The jetty was built between 1889 and 1890 to transport coal from a mine site 4km away, by steam train.

For this image I wanted to be able to show off the picturesque jetty, so I chose to shoot on a night with a gibbous moon to provide some illumination to the night sky and the beach, without completely out-shining the stars. The waves rolling in created beautiful silky water around the rocks that are embedded in the sand on the shore, and a ship at anchor out to sea provided a little light and a soft glow behind the far end of the jetty.