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How was your Chrissy?

Mine was bloody nice. Spent most of it laying about in the altogether at a mate's place in Tumbi. Lovely spot out the back. Nice flat paddock going down into a valley and a capacious beer fridge on the veranda. What more could a person want in a mate?




Derelict old cottage squeezed in between the railway and the road on Brisbane Water Drive at Murphys Bay (Koolewong), just opposite Sheathers. It might've been there before the railway.

It's gone now. Demolished recently.




Gone now. Demolished recently. Ten bucks says there's a dozen villas on there before you can say development approval.

Gone




The UFO AKA St John's Blackwall Road Woy Woy. Rumour has it late arrivals to services are locked out and have to buzz to be let in. Seems a bizarre way of dealing with worshippers in these times of shrinking congregations.

Rumour also has it this church is a Pope-lure. Il Papa is visiting this wide brown land later this year and is holding some sort of shindig at Randwick Racecourse. Gosford's racegoers have successfully had him banned from their racecourse.




Old St John's Blackwall Road Woy Woy. It's a bastard to photograph due to being on a busy intersection.

The large building is the old 1914 St John's church. To the right of it are the villas built about a year ago. They are in a very sympathetic style, using an almost identical brick colour and even have flat arches (bricks arranged vertically on across the top of the windows).

They replaced the eccentric collection of old school buildings and sheds that were on the church grounds.




Yacht moored off Ettalong Beach on a warm day. Looking out between Wagstaffe (left) and the knob of Ettalong (right) to Lion Island (behind yacht), Barrenjoey Head and Pittwater. Taken a dozen yards from the house above.




Ocean View Road Ettalong. Lovely old place with a large tangled backyard. From the veranda it's perhaps 50 steps to the water. I am suffering terribly from envy.




Messing about in boats at Ettalong Beach. Looking out between Wagstaffe (left) and the knob of Ettalong (right) to Lion Island, Barrenjoey Head and Pittwater. Taken a dozen yards from the house above.


Odds and sods

Lisa and Derrick's Wobbly Pole House at Umina


Jack Randall's email wants to know "how did you find out all that infomation also where all the heratage houses are." I take photos on my walkies and look them up in architecture books, online and in old local photos. I'm just another keen amateur.


The comments on Palm Beach again are a rich seam of local info, including more support for wooden boats, a Freo connection, a flash flooding report and news of "a gateway to the fabled lost Egyptian civilisation at Kariong". Thank yer and a belated Merry Hogswatch to all who participated.

On other posts Woy Woy Steve reveals himself as a fellow map geek and Greg avails himself of Dr Spike's Woy Wegian Family History & Ferry Tours Service.


And Dr Annona Pearse of the Uni of Newcastle wants you.

She's after info on and photos of the old Ocean Beach Aquarium. "The Aquarium, owned by the late Eric Worrell, operated in the late 1940s and early 1950s on the corner of West and Augusta Streets Umina ... Many Peninsula residents may have memories of visiting the aquarium or supplying Eric Worrell with funnel web spiders for his early work in the supply of venom."

Read the rest of the article at the local rag or ring Dr Pearse on (02) 4382 6514.