HIGH tide had been at 5am that day, and by 8am sea levels in Sydney Harbour were dropping. Suddenly, "the waters, as if impelled by some extraordinary influence, returned up the harbour with great force", The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Further down the coast, at Jervis Bay, the ocean was surging into Currambene Creek. "It raced back in a similar manner, sweeping away a large portion of sand that impeded navigation," the paper noted. The date was August 15, 1868, and the previous day a large earthquake had rocked Chile, creating a massive tsunami... The event is highlighted in the first scientific study to catalogue all the tsunami that have battered the continent's coast. It reveals 37 have been reported in NSW in the past 150 years.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...548022991.html