NOTHING ever stays the same, especially along Newcastle foreshore.
For there have been many changes over the past 200 years, mostly man-made.
Look, for example, at today's amazing main picture of expanding the foreshore on Wharf Road in July 1956 by dumping rubble and sand and then compacting it.
In the background is one of the Port of Newcastle's famous "seagoing main roads", the then Department of Main Roads (DMR) vehicular ferries, or punts, which plied the harbour until being made redundant by the opening of Stockton Bridge in 1971.
This now historic picture shows the 1956 construction of the Merewether Street Wharf. But, in the 65 years since, there have been more massive changes.
Would someone new in town, for example, know anything about the Merewether Street Wharf? Probably not. After it was constructed it was famous for years as the site of the busy Newcastle Fishermen's Co-Op, which moved some years ago now to Hannell Street, Wickham.
The dirty, congested, former East End railway yards over time became magnificent parkland.
Today, of course, the wharf's been swept away and replaced by the Becton Breakwater Apartments, next to the old Crown Plaza hotel.
You might say the major re-development of Wharf Road to create the concept of The Foreshore - as we now know it - really began with Newcastle's 1988 Bicentenary celebrations.
That's when the rough, rocky edge to Wharf Road along with once nearby derelict wharves (the original Queens Wharf) diagonally opposite Newcastle Customs House and near the pilot station were dramatically transformed. The dirty, congested, former East End railway yards over time became magnificent parkland.
Tonnes and tonnes of rock was also bulldozed into the water at the then harbour's edge to extend it towards Stockton. On top of it was built the present Queens Wharf hotel and function centre with Scratchley's Restaurant also later emerging.
In recent times, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent creating the ever-growing Honeysuckle residential and entertainment hub out of another old railway goods yard.
The once hectic Lee Wharf gradually vanished.
The huge development also meant the end of the heavy rail line into Newcastle and the loss of the old Newcastle terminus itself, plus Civic and Wickham stations. They were replaced by a state-of-the-art light rail system to a new terminal located amid the new high-rise apartments, at Wickham.
The Honeysuckle concept, including re-locating Newcastle Museum there, also brought some surprises. Once, during excavations in the middle of the project site, a long-buried 1871 metal ship came to light. It had been unceremoniously dumped there to "stiffen" the sand base of the former rail yards (a filled-in swamp) and everyone had forgotten about it.
And it may not be the only secret held on what was once the original foreshore down at Newcastle West. Here, before reclamation, harbour waters once lapped at the side of the tracks of the northern railway line (the then foreshore) near present Worth Place.
There's also a faint possibility there's a lesser-known burial ground around here, a paupers' graveyard, still undiscovered.
Let's move back now to the Queens Wharf complex and the new, vastly improved foreshore created from 1988.
Since September 2018 there's been yet more change. One prominent local icon has even gone missing. You guessed it, it's the Queens Wharf tower. A 30metre high, slender shaft of metal topped with an observation deck, this phallic landmark opened in 1998 as the centrepiece of a $13million development, but lasted only 20 years.
Like it or loathe it, the ageing tower was always a talking point with visitors, but a $1.6million annual maintenance bill and lack of disability access spelled its end.
But it's not the only radical change over the years at this prime location. The area is called Queens Wharf now, but sailing ships no longer regularly berth here.
A little up Wharf Road at the former tug berths, just before the pilot station, was the original Queens Wharf, which became Kings Wharf (after King Edward V1) in 1901 after the death of British monarch Queen Victoria.
Now, take a close look at the second historic picture, taken circa 1900, with a modern-day comparison. The foreshore picture, looking towards Nobbys, was taken about where Brown Street might today intrude on the waterfront if ever extended.
The picture is interesting because time has frozen. Wharf Road is very narrow. The present foreshore promenade doesn't exist, but instead a bunch of congested, saw-tooth timber wharves heavily laden with timber cargoes is visible.
There's also a small, brick boundary fence in the foreground indicating where the western estate (most of central Newcastle) of the mighty Australian Agricultural Company (or A.A.Co) once began.
Beyond it, almost hidden, is a small boat harbour (1902-1960), plus a large, open-sided fruit, vegetable and fish shed. (Just beyond it today is where Harry's Cafe de Wheels operates).
This 1902 boat harbour replaced the earlier, nearby Market Street Wharf and boat harbour, which was moved when land was needed for the railway to terminate at Watt Street.
Compare the photos, everything has changed, except for the distant Newcastle Customs House at the centre of the framed scene.
A final foreshore change though has gone almost unnoticed for 203 years.
When convicts began work to construct Nobbys breakwater in 1818, rock was quarried from the Hunter River face of a handy East End landmark known as Beacon Hill.
So much of Beacon Hill was quarried away that it left a convenient flat area where the huge Zaara Street coal-fired power station was built in 1915.
This was demolished in 1978 and the site renamed Shortland Lawn amphitheatre.
