Black Rock Beach - Melbourne

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Description

Black rock Beach is situated in Half Moon Bay, a picturesque cove formed by a distinctive orange seacliff called Red Bluff. Black Rock is 18 km south-east of Melbourne's CBD, near the seaside town of Sandringham.
It is a sandy bay beach, around 200 metres long, on the east side of Port Phillip Bay. It features a pier, a yacht club and a unique breakwall formed by the wreck of HMVS Cerberus, a monitor class warship placed there in 1926.

Name

The suburb and beach of Black Rock was named for a house built in 1856 by Charles Ebden, Victoria's first Auditor-General, who named it after a place in Dublin. The house, 34 Ebden Ave, is now owned by the council and is open for inspection every Sunday between 2pm-4pm.

Black Rock Beach Map

Blackrock beach is patrolled by volunteers on weekends between Nov and March

Toilets

Outdoor coldwater shower

Blackrock beach features a small pier. Fish are caught occasionally, there are flathead, flounder and snapper around.

Concrete boat ramp and parking for trailers.

Small café/kiosk on the beach.

Black Rock beach has some protection from north and south winds, has nice clean sand and is in the scenic Half Moon Bay.

Half Moon bay is a fairly sheltered place to swim.

The HMVS Cerberus is a monitor class warship scuttled in shallow water 200 metres from shore (100 metres off the pier) to serve as a breakwall. See Article below.

HMVS Cerberus

His/Her Majesty's Victorian Ship Cerberus is a monitor class warship that launched in 1868. It has historical significance as one of the first modern battleships - it was the first British warship to run completely under its own power without the aid of any sails.
Built as the flagship for the Victorian Navy, it served always on Port Phillip Bay, at a time when the people of Melbourne feared invasion from the sea. This fear, which also prompted the building of South Channel Fort at the Heads, and Bare Island in Sydney, may have been well founded. Credible reports of a planned Russian sea attack in the 1870's designed to empty the gold from Sydney and Melbourne banks have emerged.
In 1911, after Federation Cerberus became the foundation of the newly formed Royal Australian Navy. A training base on Westernport Bay was named after the ship in recognition of its service.
The Cerberus never fired a shot in anger, but none the less mades a significant contribution to the early history of Port Phillip Bay.

As a well known ship she is often blamed wrongly for the actions of others, including bombing a chemist in St Kilda and killing 2 men with a shell burst on Queenscliff Beach.
In 1926 the Cerberus was retired from active duty and sold for scrap metal. It was purchased by Black Rock Council who installed it as a break wall where it has steadily rusted away over the last 80 years.
Many people think this is not a fitting end for such an important part of our history and there have been many attempts over the years to save the vessel.
More information about this and the HMVS Cerberus is available at http://cerberus.com.au