On the inside

(Freo Prison again. Loved that place.)



In the final year of the prison's life (1990) the prisoners were allowed to paint on their cell walls. These paintings area all prisoner art and it will come as no surprise to you that every single painting is of an outdoor scene.










These drawings are from the colonial period. In the post-colonial period the cell was used as a broom closet. The drawings were found when a patch of paint was accidentally knocked off. There's Perspex over the walls now to protect the drawings from the grubby paws of tourists.




The cell once housed a convict who had been trained as a commercial artist. 19th century commercial art training involved drawing certain classics over and over until you got them right.




There in his cell he drew from memory, using whatever he had that would make a mark. How he kept the drawings hidden is an unsolved mystery.


Doldrums

Went off yesterday for a end-of-Dr-Who-season barbie and got a wee bit smashed and sunburnt. Other than that I've been head down arse up since I got back working. Another long day of it tomorrow then there might be a day or two off.


Bungalow alert



For sale. Railway Street Woy Woy. Dunno if it's been been sold yet so be quick. And if you buy it then do evil renovations to it, I know where you live.

Victorious

The more I learn about Brisbane Water’s ferries the more there is to learn. There’s been dozens of the buggers over the years. The half dozen we’ve got now is nothing compared to what there used to be. I’d draw you a map with all the old ferry runs inked in but it’d just be spaghetti.



Thursday was market day in Gosford and they came from all round Brisbane Water. Gives you some idea how much use the ferries got back then.

This is 1924 and a wharf in Caroline Bay/East Gosford. That's Longnose (Point Frederick) lying low in the middle distance with Point Clare (left) and West Gosford behind it.

(With Thursday being pension day, Thursday still is market day for many of the Dear Old Things. Possibly why some of them think it's still 1924.)



Victorious. The largest of Jack Murphy's Brisbane water fleet at 60 feet in length.

She was designed to carry 125 passengers and launched in 1916 from Beattie's Brisbane Water shipyard. She was 13.5 feet in the beam (across), her draught was 4 feet (hull depth) and she was driven by a 3-cylinder 30 horsepower Frisco Standard engine.

300 people attended the launch, including over 100 kids from the orphanage at Kincumber South.

Murphy also owned the 'Waratah' boarding house (long gone) in Brick Wharf Road at Woy Woy and was a land developers' agent.

The Bill and Roy Riley and their brother-in-law Jack Owens were running ferries at the same time. Their fleet consisted of Mavis, Regent Bird and Bellbird. Later Murphy's ferry service joined up with the Rileys' as Amalgamated Ferries and the name of the Victorious was changed to Wagstaff. She did the ferry run on Brisbane Water until around 1966. By 1980 she was part of the Church Point Ferry Service down in Pittwater.


Kin-Gro & Grower

These two boats often get wrongly labelled and I've fallen into the trap myself. I've read conflicting reports on it from local historians and seen Dear Old Things nearly come to blows over it and now I've had email on the subject.

The ferry I showed you yesterday was the Grower not the Kin-Gro. The title of the post was right and the label on the drawing wrong.

Thank yer to Bets of Central Coast Ferries* for the link to all the beautiful photos of the Kin-Gro now Lithgow working on Sydney Harbour. She looks great in her green and white livery.


Bungalow on the market



One of my readers fancies a bungalow on the Peninsula.

This one's at 36 Davis Street Booker Bay. Original windows by the look of it, the decorative slats on the front, original chimney. The advert shows a biggish backyard with a garage and says "big rooms, high ceilings, picture rails". The agent is on 4343 1788.

They don't come on market too often so don't hang about, girl.



* Them what runs the Codock II and Saratoga.

Picnic Parade

Sitting inside today slaving over a hot GIMP. I'm making some new lettering for the tee shirts in my wee shop. Or rather, I'm alternating between shouting at the computer and stamping away from it in a fit of pique, threatening to heave it out the window. There's something about making images I just don't get.



Inter War California Bungalow (circa 1915 - c. 1940) at the water end of Picnic Parade Ettalong. Love those double doors out ont that nice deep veranda. Lovely spot for sitting.

We're looking here at the side of the house facing the water. The grass just visible in the foreground is Lance Webb Reserve, which runs along the Ettalong foreshore between Picnic Parade and Ferry Road. The view from this house and the Reserve is of Wagstaffe, Barrenjoey Head and Lion Island and, between Barrenjoey Head and Wagstaffe, the Tasman Sea.



The view from the bungalow's front veranda. From left to right: Wagstaffe, Barrenjoey Head, Pittwater (distance) and Lion Island with Commodore Heights in the Ku-ring-gai behind it.