The Collapsed Island Arch

If you ever needed evidence of erosion on the surf coast, the remnants of the Island Arch would rank at the top. This shot was taken in April 2010 during my umpteenth visit to the surf coast (Great Ocean Road has a way of calling you back if you’re a landscape or seascape photographer). When I first visited Great Ocean Road in the southern summer of 2007, the Island Arch was still whole.
The central section that is now void between the two limestone stacks still stood, and remained standing till June 2009 when I’d paid a visit. A few weeks later, I’d read the news reports… the arch had finally collapsed. It happened at dawn with just a couple of tourists nearby who heard the rumbling and the crash, only to turn around and see that the scene that they had observed just moments earlier had completely changed. For now, this is how it lies, before mother nature carves another piece off the rocks into the waters of the ocean beneath.
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