Today I was once again reading the news online and I came across an article about a man made island, I thought, I didn't know we could do that, so I opened the article to read more. It turns out in the 1870's that Port Phillip Bay needed protection from potential marauders looking to steal it's gold , and so they dumped 14,000 tonnes of blue stone onto a sandy shoal and built a fort on top. South Channel Fort was used in defense into the 1900's when it was outdated by longer ranging guns, and at the point of retirement had never fired a shot in anger.
Today the island still exists and South Channel Fort is still standing on top and apparently doesn't even have a crack in the structure, despite being built on the constantly moving surface of the man made island. I was astounded because it seems we can't even build a three bedroom house these days to stand for more than a year without a crack, even though it is built on solid ground! And here these people were with over 100 years less technology and they can not only build a defensible fort but they can build the island on which to hold it! It makes me wonder if our years of ever developing technology is perhaps making us lazy and less concerned with the longevity of the products we create?
If you would like to read more, there isn't much out there in a ten minute Google search but the original article was on The Age website http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/little-island-protector-was-made-by-man-but-embraced-by-nature-20120103-1pjox.html and as usual I also found a Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Channel_Fort.
Another day, another fact!
Today the island still exists and South Channel Fort is still standing on top and apparently doesn't even have a crack in the structure, despite being built on the constantly moving surface of the man made island. I was astounded because it seems we can't even build a three bedroom house these days to stand for more than a year without a crack, even though it is built on solid ground! And here these people were with over 100 years less technology and they can not only build a defensible fort but they can build the island on which to hold it! It makes me wonder if our years of ever developing technology is perhaps making us lazy and less concerned with the longevity of the products we create?
If you would like to read more, there isn't much out there in a ten minute Google search but the original article was on The Age website http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/little-island-protector-was-made-by-man-but-embraced-by-nature-20120103-1pjox.html and as usual I also found a Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Channel_Fort.
Another day, another fact!
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