They spent how much money on a sound amplification structure in the Port Campbell Marine Park? Yep, 8 million bucks. Wow. What's it made of, gold? Nope, fibreglass. I had to go see it, I suppose, though that kind of shit makes me wild. Was I going to hate it as much as I hated the idea of it?

Okay let's start with what we were going to see, and work backwards. Here's Jamie standing inside the structure, designed to echo the sound of waves crashing into a large underground tunnel that came out in a big cavernous hole - it's called the Thunder Cave and blowhole.

You park a little way away from the famous 12 Apostles, near the Loch Ard gorge, also full of tourists. You can see where the money goes - on cultural consultancy, signs, gravel pathways, ecological surveys. It's easy to be cynical, but the local environment is sensitive and it can't handle the extra tourists. And all you'd get here is stories of shipwrecks, white coloniser stories, when there are, after all, other stories of place that are as important.

Poombeeyt Koontapool means"Breath of the Whale" in the Keerray Woorroong language, and I like the deeper cultural layer on top of the tragedy of shipwrecks. They consulted the Eastern Maar community, and the lookout is shaped to evoke a Southern Right Whale, and the loud and powerful blowhole of water obviously symbolised the breath. Coast, people and whales become connected here, and I do love this new view of the area.

Here's the blowhole section. On a really big day, the swell can be ginarmous and quite literally sound like thunder exploding inside the cave.

It comes through this narrow gap and is pushed through the tunnel into the blowhole. I wonder about how it'll collapse completely one day and that 8 million bucks is going to be entirely wasted.

Years ago there used to be steps leading down to the water, where you could really here the sound explode and you'd shout 'oooooh' in response. It really was an incredible place to visit, but perhaps it got too dangerous, and it's been fenced off so long new visitors wouldn't even know that was once possible.

So the structure itself looks like a giant worm. I think it'd look better painted with aboriginal art and story. It's like a pipeline - industrial, intrusive.

I find myself really loving it though. I love it as a bit of architectural design. I know my father would have loved it.

After the Thunder Cave you can keep walking along the path and explore more. The coastline is absolutely beautiful. Huge cliffs greet the wild sea. Looking down the coast, you have to picture the 12 Apostles, but you can't see them from here. We aren't interested, as there are afar too many tourists and we've seen it before.

Looking west, a lost apostle stands proud in the cove, buffeted by waves. One day it too will be a skinny tower that will collapse. Even though it's not a big swell today we spend fifteen minutes watching the waves crash into the cliffs. It's wild and beautiful.

Eight million bucks might be a lot to hear the breath of a whale, but still, it's worth a walk if you have time - and to be honest, I liked it more than the 12 Apostles and the millions of tourists crammed on boardwalks looking at rock stacks.

If you're planning a trip to southern Victoria and the Apostles, please don't miss this quieter, gentler walk.

With Love,