Lydia's clean sweep for harbour's floor

LEVELLING THE BED: "Lydia" crew member Daniel Burgess works on the sweeper vessel, as the dredger, the "David Allan", passes in the main channel of Newcastle harbour. Picture: Simone De Peak

IN Newcastle harbour, a dredger's work is never done, especially after a string of floods along the Hunter River.

As Mother Nature has poured hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of sediment into the river mouth - and into the main shipping channel - in recent months, the launch this week of Port of Newcastle's sweeper vessel, the Lydia, is timely.