Working boats of Woy Woy

(Woy Woy and nearby anyways. The title looked way better without the nearby bit.)

Did not go walkies this week. Too much slaving over a hot keyboard and not enough exercise. I'll get fat. Anyways, here's some boats to look at. How'd yer be spending yer working week out on the water on one of these?



Hard to tell with a boat this size if it's a commercial fishing boat or just belongs to a very keen amateur. Moored at Eulalia Wharf Davistown in 2007.




This one is definitely a commercial fishing boat. Belinda K moored off Brick Wharf Road Woy Woy in 2007.




Oyster farm boat moored at Empire Bay in 2006.




Jetty building pontoons moored just off Woy Woy Wharf, along side Brisbane Water Drive. 2006.




MV Gladstone at Gosford Wharf in 2006. She appears to be a picker-up of flotsam and jetsam from Brisbane Water's traffic lanes.


Could not post yesterday. Bloody ISP had some sort of fit. Either that or the whole internets was down. Then I forgot it was Saturday. My brain is going soft. Thank fuck nothing else is. Fucking hours it's taken me to do this post today. Sunday brain. See yer next week.

On the water

Only things and angles of things seen from the water are in this post.



The bridge nestled into a bit of bush at the Daleys Point end. The other end is at Booker Bay.

The Rip Bridge




Old wooden boat in Hardys Bay. Is it me or does this boat have a certain ferry-ness about its lines?




Ramp to St Huberts Island. A very well-known feature of the landscape to locals but a sloping ramp to an island is probably not a common sight.

It's not as steep as it looks. A person with a 40-a-day habit could get up there without an ambulance.




From the road and other shores all you can really see of Daleys Point is all those balconied houses from the 1970s to now.

But nestled in among them, dozing in the sun, are little old houses bearing witness to the price of land on the waterfront just a few decades ago.




1950s and 1940s houses nestled down among the big balconied houses.




Merritts Wharf, at the end of Rickard Road Empire Bay.

Meritts Wharf Estate 1912

The "Anniversary Day" referred to in that link is now called Australia Day




Perched above Merrits Wharf on Rickard Road Empire Bay. You can see it in the photo above.

The style could be Federation Arts & Crafts and it could be Federation Queen Anne (both circa 1890 - c. 1915) but I think it's Victorian Rustic Gothic (circa 1840 - c. 1890) with its Rustic ripped off. The Rustic bits are generally wooden bargeboards and that rough-ish stone you can just see under all that ivy.

There are only a few houses I really fancy. This is one of them.


Clean forgot to blog yesterday. Got to bed at dawn. Still got that stunned mullet feeling today. Off to another barbie in a bit. Sunshine, bit of breeze, the scent of firelighters, beer and sausage sangers. Bliss.


Excellent photo

Ghost Ship by New Found Hero (Glen Holdaway) on Flickr. Clicking on the "go large" link is recommended.


Dear Old Games

Been thinking about death and old age recently, what with losing so many of my own oldies. My grandmothers were both in their nineties but my grandfathers died young and all around me are old men drinking themeselves into the grave. I'm fucked if I'll end up like that.

My Gran and Olive Riley were good Dear Old Role Models. I'm aiming for the way Gran and Olive did it and the way the Masters Games crowd are doing it.

On the telly last week there was a thing about some bloke of around 70 who rode 50 kays to get to the start line and then won his race then entered another. Can't find the bloody link but I remember he planned to ride home after. Bugger me, that's fit.


Aussie Aussie Aussie

Posted a couple of weeks back about the Woy Woy local at the Beijing Paralympics and missed a perfect opportunity to start a chant:

Aussie Aussie Aussie! Woy Woy Woy!

Bewildered Americans click here

Hardys Bay

(Hardys Bay walkies #4)



Bustling Downtown Hardys Bay

View down Killcare Road to the waterfront near the ferry wharf, across Hardys Bay to The Rip Bridge. Look at the colour of that water.

It's yonks since I walked at Hardys. More than a year in fact.

To get to Hardys you can go via Empire Bay Drive and Wards Hill Road, or you can get the Codock ferry from Woy Woy Wharf during the school holidays. Get off at Hardys. (Map)




Bustling Downtown Hardys Bay from Heath Road Hardys Bay

That long jetty you can see is the public wharf and the marina. The ferry pulls in there (after waiting patiently for fishing lines to be shifted), there's a concrete boat and a crowd of yachts tied up along it.

At the shore end there's a public loo and a couple of nice shady trees, a bus-stop, 3 cafes, a real estate, a gallery, and a bottle-shop with icecreams, newspapers and milk.




Hardys Bay from Araluen Drive Hardys Bay

A quiet sunny day on the foreshore. You wouldn't be dead for quids.




Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo at Hardys Bay

Local resident enjoys morning tea. No idea what he was eating but he was clearly enjoying it.

Wooden boats in Hardys from another post last year.

I'm buggered. Had a rowdy weekend and it's bloody ten thirty already. Shit, I've missed half of Shameless.

Clear blue sky

(Random ferry rides)

I am buggered so very few words today. But after a long weekend of wind and storms and rain, the pictures speak for themselves.



Gone fishing. Off Woy Woy.




Wading on the sandbar off Ettalong.

(Both photos have low res at larger size. Click on them to get to it.)


Bits & bobs

Umina bloke gets medal for rescue

Ghost Plane - always put the handbrake on, people!

Tourist's review of The Excrescence & some beach photos

The Excrescence

Illoura Reserve

Got off my arse this morning and went walkies. The sun was on the warm side but the breeze was fresh out on the water and there is no better way to see Brisbane Water than from the ferry.

Wandered along the other half of the Illoura Reserve and very nice it was too. (Map)



Mary-Lou and Four Winds moored off Illoura Reserve. That's Mary-Lou on the left in the blue & white.

Hardys may be the boatiest bay in Brisbane Water but have a gander at the background in this photo. You can't hardly see the houses for boats.

Davistown (foreground) and Empire Bay (background).



Mary-Lou's and Four Winds's backsides. Just looking at wooden boats gives a person a restful feeling.

In the background is Sorrento Road Empire Bay.



Can't afford a whole wooden boat? Want something with wood but with grunt? Here's yer solution.

Her name's Milly. I like her double wooden doors down into the cabin. Very gambling saloon.



MV Rustbucket moored off Amy Street. Clearly she's had a hard life and it's not over yet. She's for sale.



Quiet spot for a bit of fishing and dreaming.

That's the old orphanage across the water there. St Joseph's and the Holy Cross Church.



All these photos were taken from Illoura Reserve. That green line on the map is it. Goes from Restella Avenue, just down from Central Wharf, to round past the Davo.

The Davo is the Davistown RSL and is a popular daytrip if you want a decent feed and a gargle sandwiched between to rides on the water.

That cross on the right edge is Holy Cross and St Joseph's.

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