This is Pyrimad Rock, mid way along the southern coast of Phillip Island, 2 hours drive from Melbourne. This area, which lies just south of the famous Motorcylce Grand Prix track, is a good example of the dramatic coastline common to this part of the country.

We had some great fun here when we were younger. I remember one time my brother Glenn tied a parachute to the back of the car and attempted to parasail down the dusty road. After being airborne for a few seconds he was dragged along the stony road for 20 meters, his head stopping inches away from a large post. As we waited for him to start moving again I remember thinking, 'How the hell would we explain this to Mum!'

We used to spearfish here alot, one time we encircled the entire island. The left hand side is usually pretty calm, as opposed to the right hand side where huge waves smash right into an exposed reef platform ( like the start of Hawaii Five-O). We always wanted to fish the rough side, but it was usually too dangerous. Then one perfect day we were able to get three quarters of the way around before things deteriorated badly. We swam as fast as we could for the gap between the island and the mainland, getting smashed into the rocks on the way. (There are no sandy beaches here).

The Nobbies (Above) is an amazing place, and home to an equally amazing diversity of wildlife. In the distance is Seal Rocks, home to hundreds of Australian Fur Seals, while the surrounding cliffs are honeycombed with penguin burrows, who come to shore at dusk and roam the deserted roads.All this probably explains why this area is also one of the largest breeding colonies for the dreaded White Pointer shark....

Woolamai Beach (Below) is one of my favourite surf beaches in Victoria. When it is working well, it is hard to beat the powerful rides you can get from the outer sandbank. This beach can be treacherous, water that is moved forward by waves retreats out to see via deeper channels between sandbanks. Swimmers are often attracted to these 'Rips' as the water is usually much calmer, but soon find themselves drifting quickly out to sea, towards the big breakers, which they must swim through to make it back to shore.
Woolami has also had its fair share of shark attacks... White pointers are known to cruise the waters between here and Seal Rocks looking for prey. They sometimes have difficulty seperating seals from surfers in black wetsuits.
This beach is not all bad news, though. If you are a surfer the Rips are a great way to get a free ride out to the best waves, and at least one shark attack victim on these beach reported that dolphins came to his aid, chasing the shark away....