View from the fifties

View of 1950s Woy Woy Peninsula from Blackwall Mountain.

Emailed by an anonymous blog reader. Thank yer kindly.

Have had this photo for yonks and went up the mountain several times trying to get the same view now. Couldn't find it. It's a bit bushier up there than it was then. Got all hot and cross and nearly fell down the hill coupla times but not photo joy.

If you can't read the green print, the bottom right street is Wallaby I think, could also be Warwick. Memorial Avenue in the middle bottom. A major thoroughfare* morning, noon, and night.

Above Memorial is the bent bit at the eastern end of Gallipoli Avenue. Above it is Springwood Street. Then Trafalgar Avenue, the one with the old WWII airstrip is the top street.

The arrows are pointing at Lion Island (left) and Pearl Beach.




Bit closer. So many wee small houses back then. And Umina (most distant part of flat) is hardly populated at all.

More fifties photos at 1950s Woy Woy


Straylya Day

Had a good weekend away. Bit too warm but the beer was cold and the company was hot. Hoped to get back in time for the Woy Woy fireworks but didn't make it.

Shame because, as Michael confirms it apparently pissed down but they set the fireworks off anyways! That woulda made some interesting photos.


Storms & bushfires in the Hunter over the long weekend (Woy Woy is on the Hunter Coast, as well as on the Central Coast, in the Sydney region, the Greater Gosford, and regional Australia.)


This month I reached 2,000 uploads on my Flickr.

While yer at flickr have a decko at Michael's latest local photos, including a Tassie devil from the local reptile park.

Matt Lauder also has some spiffy local water-scapes.

Stevo has more models of old Woy Woy buildings and a link to the near-extinct Masonic Hall.


Time off for good behaviour

The dreaded February heat has well and truly kicked in here in Woy Woy. This means its my annual month off from walkies. I'll be back in March. Be good or I'll rip yer bloody arms orf.

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* A major thoroughfare by Woy Woyan standards, so as many as twenty cars an hour!

Back

X marks the spot. Clouds over Woy Woy. They look like con trails but I didn't see any planes.

Found these laying about in my photos folder. Took them late last year. No good for photos today. Very overcast.




Low tide off Blackwall foreshore. That bit of sand is a tiny tidal islet and smells hideously of pelican shit.




Rip Bidge and Orange Grove Road from the aptly named Bay View Crescent. Which is the only road on the mountain. The other one is just a short acess thingy for the council workers.




Meandering path going up Blackwall Mountain. It's not too steep if you follow the paths. Makes a pleasant bushwalk.

Views from the lookout


Did yer miss me?

I had a good Chrissy and New Year's, thank yer for asking.

New Year’s smelt like jasmine and beer and BBQ sauce, a heady perfume. My sex drive popped in for a visit. Strolled in like it had never been away, beckoned to a couple of old fuck-buddies, had its wicked way with them, then pissed off again. Leaving me clutching my beer with my mouth open.

The visit was due to spending two whole days watching that pair of spunky lust bunnies in Supernatural and talking about all the strange that’ll be coming to town for Mardi Gras.

And how the fuck did I miss this photo?

Okay, they're not starkers or nothing but that is worth all the photoshopping on the internets. Think I'll have a little lie-down now.

P.S. Don't tell me it's just good photoshop! I can never spot good photoshop and then someone tells me when it was allegedly taken one of them was in Siberia or dead or something and I just get cross.


Argh

Cane toad found at Umina

"Once established cane toads can spread quickly. A female cane toad can deposit up to 30,000 eggs at a time, and may lay several times over the summer season.

Cane toads can be identified by their dry, warty skin and their large glands located behind the ears.

Cane toad sightings in the Central Coast area can be reported to the local NPWS office at Gosford on 4320 4200."

Cane toad factoids & photos


Tattoo aces interview

Tattoo gets island reef job (includes video)

Ta for the heads up from the mystery correspondent.


Local linkage

Stevo's models of old Woy Woy buildings. I particularly like Noonan's as she was, and the old cinema which was where Woolies is now.

Miniature train spotter's blog (Woy Woyan)

MyDoona's Monologue ('nother local blogger)

Great texture photos from Umina Beach

Straylya Day sail past wants you and yer boat

Cockatoo ferry running to 25th January

Australia Day at Woy Woy - Anderson Park (beside the ferry wharf) 2pm - 9.30pm (last year's, Straylya Day at the Ducktionary)


International Fairy Bread Appreciation Day



For Suzanne's and Vangaman's kids.

Fairy bread is the favourite party food of Australian kids and gentleman who prefer gentleman. IFBAD was last week.

Instructions

South Lobster

Embiggened version

The Brisbane Water/Great Gosford area is chockers with cliffs like these. They are a magnet for rock climbers.

Not that I'm a rock climber. I ain't that intrepid. I'm more yer supervisory sort. Very good at standing at the bottom of the cliff with a beer, waiting until they get to a hard bit then saying "Nah, see, yer doing it all wrong, you shoulda turn left twenty feet back". And no doubt I'd show up in the morgue a bit later with a crampon rammed up the clacker.

But they fascinate me. They show up in searches I do for posts and I love their secret climbers' language. Don't understand a bloody word of it but I love it anyways.

An example of ClimbSpeak:
"Reach up around the lip for a large jug then crank out onto the main face... Crux move up thin face to the juggy lip."

What?



The red blobs are local rock climbing sites. The orange blob on Box Head is a look-out you can bushwalk to.

Bear in mind this map marks only the sites I could find online. Doubtless there's more mapped and to be mapped.


Rock linkage

Links have got maps and stuff and more examples of ClimbSpeak.

Blackwall Mountain

Phegans Bay, cliffs visible from Woy Woy station/Railway Street

Reeves Street/Fountain Creek, Narara which is just up past Gosford. Gosford is at the mouth of the Narara valley.

Wards Hill is a "...surprisngly impressive crag located right beside Ward's Hill Rd, Empire Bay.
The crag has two distinct walls - the first is a nice looking 10m high grey wall with 5 or 6 mainly bolted routes (old carrots plus some rather mangled fixed hangers). The main wall is a bit further on, and reaches about 20m in height, with superb orange rock at the base. There look to be about another half dozen routes or so on this wall, with a variety of carrots and fixed hangers for protection."

The Bouddi has the South Lobster climb and a lot of others and some interesting info about the terrain there in the national park.

Good Bouddi pictures

Good Barrenjoey pictures


Coupla cliffy photos



Sandstone boulder fallen off the cliff at Dark Corner (Patonga).



The cliff it fell off.

Patonga walkies

Path to Pearl Beach

Cliff face on path to Pearl Beach

These cliffs are dangerous bastards. I'd rather just take a
nice walk myself.


Gotta be in it to win it

You Americans and the Kiwis as well, yer funny buggers. I still don't get non-compulsory voting. Anxious bulletins about polling day weather, all this talk about how many voters have got off their arse and registered or might feel like voting on the day.

We got compulsory voting. You turn 18, yer registered to vote. Only way out is to cark it when yer 17.

And it's not like it's a big deal. You just show up at the local primary school on the day, collect yer forms, traipse over to the cardboard booths, tick a few boxes and give the forms back.

No-one knows how you voted and it's not kosher to ask. You vote with your conscience or, if yer a goose, with someone else's, and it's over for another 3 years. It's a communal experience and you don't even miss the cricket.

Mind you, non-compulsory voting is nothing like as scary as some of the voting systems in undeveloped nations. I've seen on the telly how they do it up in PNG (Papua New Guinea) and some places in Africa where they put a different coloured piece of paper in the box depending on who they vote for and everyone in the room can see the box. Couple of heavies standing near the door watching and their mates outside waiting to beat you up if you didn't vote for their guy. Bugger me! I'm very glad I live in Straylya where we got the secret ballot.

"One of the most common forms in the modern world provides for pre-printed ballot papers with the name of the candidates or questions and respective checkboxes. Provisions are made at the polling place for the voter to record their preferences in secret. The ballots are specifically designed to eliminate bias and to prevent anyone from linking voter to ballot. This system is also known as the Australian ballot, because it originated in Australia during the 1850s. In the United States, it is also known as the Massachusetts ballot since Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to use the secret ballot." (Wiki)

Compulsory Voting (Australian Electoral Commission PDF)

International IDEA - Compulsory Voting (International Institute for Democracy & Electoral Assistance)

Compulsory Voting (Wiki)

Secret Ballot (Wiki)

The Australian ballot - born 1855 and still going strong