Miners, Carleton, Sophie, Steve & lunch

The miners walked out of the mine before dawn this morning. Thank fuck.

It was torture waiting for them to be rescued so imagine how they must've felt spending two weeks down there a kilometre underground with a fucking great rock poised over their heads.

Just before I went to bed last night the probe had broken through and the miners could see it. When I got up this morning there was footage of them walking out of the mine lift (elevator) at about five this morning. Their mate Larry Knight is being buried this afternoon.

Carleton

You may also have heard that one of our well known journos Richard Carleton dropped dead on the job. He'd just asked a question of the mine manager down at the Tasmanian mine rescue. "Before [the mine manager] finished his answer, Carleton turned to his crew's camera, walked about eight metres, and collapsed." He didn't look crash hot that day but who would after being up at all hours covering a story like that. Poor bastard.

Sophie

Five-year-old Sophie Delezio is still in a stable condition in intensive care. She's the poor sprog who was badly burnt and lost her feet in 2003 and run over on Friday. She's got a lot of injuries and will be in hospital for a while. When she recovers from this lot of injuries she needs to have more operations relating to the burns. Jesus.

Steve

Okay. Let's have some good news for a fucking change. Steve (Fat Man Walking) is a star. The media are all over him like a rash and his inbox is clogged with people who want to walk the last few miles with him as he finishs his walk across America.

The latest from Steve's site:

"May 8, 2006

Want to walk to NYC with Steve?

Meeting Place: Leaving from the north walkway of the George Washington Bridge at 6pm on May 9th.

MEDIA ADVISORY May 8, 2006 Steve’s honored by all of the attention his quest to walk across America has gathered from the media...

...he walks across the Bridge and into New York City tomorrow. Contact: Melinda Cataldo mcataldo@att.net"

It's the 9th here already, Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully he'll be on the news tonight at the end of his epic journey from California to New York. Onya, Steve. Knew you'd make it all the way.

Lunch

Meanwhile, in Woy Woy, it's another blue blue day. Bitey cold last night, down to 1 degree celcuis (33.8 Fahrenheit) then another day of warm autumn sun. Went down to Ettalong and had a pie for lunch in the park.


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A busy Tuesday at Ettalong Beach. Wagstaffe on the left, Barrenjoey Head on the northern beaches of Sydney on the right.


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Nice old shop on Broken Bay Road behind The Excrescence.

Might be Inter-War Free Classical (circa 1915 - circa 1940). Not sure. The tethers on the veranda roof are gone from shop fronts by 1940.


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Banskia flowers and seed cone. There's plenty of blooms still out this autumn. It was the same last year with the same warm sun we're having now. Beautiful.


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Smart colours and the trees on the Mountain behind it. Pleasant old building in a pleasant setting.

Ettalong was settled in the 1830s and this hall was built in 1954. Doesn't look it. I would've said 1930s at the latest so there yer go.

It was a nice warm gentle walk in the warm gentle sun. Just what the doctor ordered. Will have another dose of the same tomorrow.

St John the Baptist

(Random walkies)

Last week the old wooden buildings were gone from the 1914 brick church grounds. They're not in my Hist List and the NSW Heritage Office has only this to say about them:

"Timber framed school buildings and hall on site of some note."


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View from Blackwall Road. Pre demolitions.


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View from Regina Close of the back of the church and the gap where this building was.


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A strange little building on the corner across from the chuch, facing the Thai restaurant.

I think it's a classroom and was an extension of the school (housed in the old wooden buildings recently demolished) before the school was moved to Woy Woy South.


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Don't know the current status of the Presbytery or whether it's occupied at the moment. I do know there's a new Presbytery being built or built out at Springfield.

This Presbytery is immediately to the left of the little fifties building above.


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Immediately to the left of the Presbytery above.

Can't find any reference to this old house in my notes or online. I've a feeling it was or is used as a some sort of boarding house and called Mary McKillop House. It seems to be empty now. No idea what it's fate is.

The Mary McKillop connection is through the Josephite Sisters who run the Catholic Primary School at Woy Woy South. McKillop was their founder and the school was once in the grounds of the church. This building is part of the church buildings on the Blackwall Road-Victoria Road corner.


The trapped miners & little Sophie

Little Sophie was run over on a crosswalk (zebra crossing) on Friday and is still in a critical condition in hospital. The driver has been charged.

Sophie is now five. When she was two she was badly burnt when a car ran off the road and into her child care centre. Quite a few kids were hurt and Sophie lost both feet and ear and a couple of fingers.

Sydney Morning Herald article.

The miners trapped a kilometre (0.62 miles) underground after a rock fall in a Tasmanian mine are still down there after 12 nights.

The last bit of the rescue tunnel is a bastard. The rock is the last couple of metres (6.56 feet) is as hard as buggery and far harder than expected. The last section of the tunnel has to be done by hand with small drills & pick axes to due to the danger of another rock fall. It's 1.5 metres (4.92 feet) wide and goes upwards. So it's a bloody tricky width and angle to work.

The tunnel will come out in the floor where the miners are trapped. They're in the cage of the machine they were operating and there's a very small space just outside the door of the cage. That space is where the tunnel will come out.

Due to the tiny work space and the hardness of the rock, this last tiny section of tunnel could take all of today to complete. The rescue has to be slow and careful in case of more rock falls.

The miners are still in good nick and good spirits. They've been getting food, air and newspapers through a narrow tube drilled the day after the fall. One of their mates, Larry Knight, was killed in the fall. These two guys are sitting there in a small steel safety cage with a big slab of rock on top of it.

Sydney Morning Herald article.

Blackwall foreshore

(Random walkies)

Off down to the Blackwall foreshore this morning. Nice and nippy, no breeze, magpies squawking and sparrows twittering in the trees, the gentle lap of water against private jetties and the jingle of dogs' leads as they trotted past with their owners.

The foreshore looks out across the water to St Huberts Island, Daleys Point and Saratoga and Davistown. It's fringed with private jetties and moorings with old wooden dingies tied up on tide ropes. There are clumps of mangroves here and there an small stands of pines and paperbarks. The park runs from Blackwall Mountain to the point behind the bowls club where the boat ramps are.


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Lovely old Federation (circa 1890 - circa 1915) place near McMasters Road. (There's a wee carpark opposite McMasters. Go through it to the park, turn left and it's 3 or 4 houses along.)

Can't find a chimney like that earlier than 1890. The chimney pot is as new as it looks but they're often replaced. The style and age of materials of the the chimney stack is the key.

That pleasant little portico is of the same period. Either Arts & Crafts (circa 1890 - circa 1915) or Federation Bungalow (circa 1890 - circa 1915). I plump for Bungalow.

Can't find this house in my Hist List. That just means its origins are uncertain. But I'll stumble across an old photo of it in the library eventually.


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The front section is original 1950s. The age and style of the roof materials are definitely fifties though the windows and walls have obviously been renovated.

It'll be interesting to see how the extension looks when they've finished. It does look like it could be in keeping with the original section to some extent.


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These people have chosen one of the colour combinations I most loathe. But other than that, the house is quite pleasant. The octagonal window is clunky but I like the rectangular repro windows and the veranda is lovely.

How much of this house is original is hard to say. The section under the back roof is not. The main roof (with the octagonal window) looks like a new steeper-pitched roof over the oldest section of the house. The portico and the pillars I'm not even going to try to date. They could be repro, second-hand or original. I can't tell under that paint.

The steps are badly cracked as you can see. They and the white thingies beside them are inter-war, between the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Steps and verandas are often updated and so can be younger than the oldest part of the house. Having a gander at the foundations would give me a better idea of the age of this house.


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Sometimes I get a nice surprise when I date a building. Sometimes they turn out to be older than I think at first glance. When I took the photo of this one I was thinking Federation (circa 1890 - circa 1915). But the book (Apperly, Irving & Reynolds' Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture) puts it at circa 1840 to circa 1890, Victorian Georgian.

Ignore that square hip on the roof. I'm pretty sure that's recent. Look instead at the shape of the roof without the square hip, at the shape of the veranda roof, the chimney, the boxed eaves and the two narrow windows on the left. Those windows have stone lintels and flat arches which are gone from domestic architecture by circa 1915, according to the book.

It was a nice walk. Not terribly long but walking beside the water is always nice. Didn't notice your dad's house, Jimmy. What end of the foreshore is it?

Start spreading the news

Steve (Fat Man Walking) will reach New York this week. How cool is that?

He started from Oceanside in California on the 10th of April and he's walked across America. His end point is the Rockefeller Center in New York and he's hoping to be there on the 8th of May.

Steve's been walking alone and without a support vehicle. He's been sleeping in a tent beside the road and buying food in towns along the way or cooking on a camp stove. He's had to content with dickheads, weather, self-doubt, injuries and TV crews. He's lost a lot of weight, gained a lot of health and worked through some heavy personal shit. He's been doing it tough but he hasn't given up. If you're in the area, lend him your support by walking the last few miles with him and tell him I sent you.

There's some newspaper articles and so on about him here. Australian current affairs programme 60 Minutes did an interview with him in April and will presumably show it when he reaches New York.

From Steve's blog for the 1st of May:

"I am trying to get to NYC between the 8th and 10th of May. It looks as though I will make it by the 8th if nothing goes wrong in this last week. So if you are planning on walking with me into NYC then get ready, let me know and we will meet up in Newark, May 7th and walk into NYC across the George Washing bridge, then walk along a bike / walking path down to around 50th street then cross over to Rockefeller Center which is my ending point."

Kuttabul

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This is the HMAS Kuttabul in June 1942., Kuttabul was an obsolete ferry before the war. When the war came she was converted to a barracks and moored off Garden Island naval base in Sydney Harbour.

The, Kuttabul is one of Australia's most famous ships. It was wrecked in the attack on Sydney Harbour. It also has a personal connection. Twenty one sailors died on the wreck and my great uncle wasn't one of them.

My great uncle Herbie was on the, Kuttabul in July and September of 1941. Four of the ships he was on went down and one was torpedoed while he was on it, according to my Nana. He had a fair few near misses, as might be expected in the middle of a war. But he came through the war with nary a scratch on him and died in 1947 of cancer. He was a bachelor and had no known children. Other than that I know bugger all about him and seeing a ship he slept on during the war brings me a tiny bit closer to him.

In her days as a ferry,, Kuttabul seated 2,250 passengers. In the photo of the wreck she looks quite small because we can only see her upper deck. She was 56 metres (183 feet) long and 11 metres (36 feet) wide.

In the wee hours of Saturday the 30th of May 1942 a Japanese Navy plane flew a reconnaissance flight over Sydney Harbour. It spotted two big cruisers (warships) in the Harbour, the USS Chicago and the HMAS Canberra. The plane was mistaken for American by the navy.

There were five Japanese submarines off the coast of Sydney. Three of them (the I-22, I-24 & I-27) carried Ko-hyoteki class midget submarines. At sunset on the 31st the three nameless midget subs (M-22, M-24 & M-27) left their mother submarines and headed into Sydney Harbour.


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The midget subs were 23.9 m (78.5 ft) long, 1.8 m (6 ft) wide and 3 m (10.2 ft) high. I poked my head into this one at the Garden Island museum and it's tiny in there, really tiny. Each sub had two guys in it and it must've been hell in there, stinking and hot and noisy as hell. These guys knew they were going to die. It was a suicide mission. These little subs didn't have enough power to do the job then get back to their mother ships.

M-27 ran into the Harbour's anti-torpedo net and was trapped there. It was spotted by a Harbour watchman and depth charges were dropped from the HMAS Lolita. They missed and its crew self-destructed the sub after more than two hours trapped in the net. They died instantly. The bang shook stuff off shelves in houses onshore and people rushed out into the streets.

By this time Pearl Harbor had already happened (December 1941) and fear of a similar attack can't have been far from their minds. Civilians and forces personnel alike must've filled their pants as soon as they realised the Harbour was under attack.

The second sub was spotted near Garden Island and fired upon by the HMAS Geelong and the USS Chicago. A few of the Chicago's shells knocked bits off Fort Denison and the bits landed in Mosman and Cremorne. The sub got off a couple of torpedoes. One ran ashore on Garden Island but didn't go off. The other one shot under the Dutch submarine K-IX, exploded underwater against Garden Island and the impact sunk the, Kuttabul and damaged the K-IX. Twenty one sailors on the, Kuttabul died.

The third sub into the Harbour was spotted and seriously damaged by depth charges. Down there in the dark its crew committed suicide with a handgun rather than be captured alive.

Four bodies were recovered from the midget subs and their ashes returned to Japan. Twenty five people died altogether and no warships were sunk.

In alphabetical order:

John Samuel Asher, Kuttabul
Mamoru Ashibi, M-24
Katsuhisa Ben, M-24
Leslie William Bland, Kuttabul
William Richard Boundy, Kuttabul
Sydney William Butcher, Kuttabul
Kenshi Chuman, M-27
Leslie Joseph Dennison, Kuttabul
Arthur William Francis, Kuttabul
John Edward Gannon, Kuttabul
Jack Albert Gardener, Kuttabul
Frederick Arthur Glanford, Kuttabul
Walter George Gordon, Kuttabul
Leonard Walter Howroyd, Kuttabul
Lester Richard Jamieson, Kuttabul
Kenneth Francis Killeen, Kuttabul
Frank Kirby ((British) Royal Navy), Kuttabul
Takeshi Mamoru, M-27
Keiu Matsuo, M-22
Jack Edmund Numan, Kuttabul
Norman Leslie Robson, Kuttabul
Arthur James Smith, Kuttabul
Herbert Arthur Smith, Kuttabul
David Black Trist ((British) Royal Navy), Kuttabul
Masao Tsuzukuc, M-22
Raymond Owen Venning, Kuttabul
Thomas Jospeh Watson, Kuttabul

Australia's war 1939 - 1945 - photos
Australia honours gallantry of Kuttabul: Survivors, memorials and stories of old mark 60th anniversary - first hand accounts of the attack
HMAS Kuttabul Memorial - Garden Island - includes a photo of the, Kuttabul in her glory days as a harbour ferry

No milk today

It put me in a terrible mood. I'm a grouch in the mornings. No-one gets between me and my breakfast and lives to tell the tale. This morning I was worse than usual. The milk was off and I had to have black tea. It was hideous.



Got this photo yesterday on The Esplanade. No walkies today. Not a proper walk anyways. No time. Spent the morning trotting hither and thither at the behest of various doctors. Useless buggers.

On the way home I was rendered even more irritable. St John's have demolished the buildings below.


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These two.


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These two.


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And this one. My favourite.

Bastards! Not only was the one above one of my favourite buildings on the Peninsula but also I hadn't finished photographing them either. I knew they were going to do some developing of their land on that corner but I thought it was that strange and unattractive brick building on the other side of the road that would be getting the chop.

The Esplanade

(Random walkies)

Fucking hell. The one day you don't back up your post as you work is the day you get a fucking crash. Don't go to sex-pistols.net. It fucking crashed me. Which is pretty appropriate for a Pistols site come to think of it.

Was going to get back to my every-street walkies this morning. But then I thought Stuff it and went to the beach instead. The Esplanade is a road running along the beach from Umina to Ettalong. I started at the Ocean Beach SLSC (Surf Life Savers Club) at Umina and walked round to the pie shop at Ettalong. Nice day for it. Warm but not hot, very faint breeze, front of grey cloud coming in from the south-east but clear over the Coast while I walked.


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The entrance to Broken Bay. Box Head on the left, Barrenjoey on the right with the lighthouse.


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They've trimmed those whatchamacallit trees since I was here last I think. The house looked quite gloomy before. I'm not loving the seventies fence but regular readers know I hate all that is seventies. Except some of the music. The Pistols of course and the Master's Apprentices.


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The extension at the back's pretty much dobled the size of the house.


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Right across the road from the beach. No prizes for guessing surfies live here.


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Corner of Barrenjoey Road. Fifties with maybe sixties windows. Or it could've been the whole thing was built in the sixties with a flat roof. Hard to say. Whatever era it is, that roof'd be a good spot for a fag and a cuppa tea on a sunny winter morning.


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Last chance to see by the look of it. For sale and that chimney has a dangerous lean so I'm thinking it'll go under the dozer.


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Won't have much trouble filling these holiday rentals. Dunno about the name though. Santorini's a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea. I can see the whole Greek island influence thing but you wouldn't say 'safe as houses' on Santorini.


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I like Box Head. Very restful to look at. Took another angle on it last year.


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From the seats opposite Half Tide Rocks. The large white building on the left is The Excrescence. To its left, on the edge of the photo, is the tea tree grove.

Sat there for a bit listening to the waves quietly lapping on the sand. The Palm Beach ferry swung in close to the Ettalong side as it came round the green buoys between Half Tide Rocks and Ettalong. It disappeared round the corner into Hardys Bay and was there so long I thought it'd run aground. I could see the passengers waiting on the wharf over at Ferry Road in Ettalong and eventually it nosed its way across to them.

I was ravenous by then and went off for a pie. Some bloke near the memorial barbie tried to crack onto me but he'd just tried to crack onto a dog so I wasn't terribly flattered.

Alive

Might've been on the news overseas. Two Tasmanian miners have just been found alive after 5 days trapped a kilometre down by a rock fall. Lucky bastards. We were expecting to see their bodies brought up under tarps. Good to hear they survived.

At last

(Random walkies)

Short one today. Had to run hither and thither like a blue-arsed fly. My grandfather used to say that. Never have seen a blue-arsed fly.


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I wonder if they take turns or if one guy has to do the sweeping all day?


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Bought with my bequest from Gran. Took a while to get one with the right shape but here it is at last.

Gran didn't have a lot of success growing one of her own but she loved them and the all day sun on my balcony is perfect for it. They do quite well in pots. I've seen them on balconies all over the Peninsula and they get to a decent size.

Hideous kinky

Put your coffee down before you click.

Stolen from Dooce.

Brick Wharf Road

Brick Wharf Road is where I finished up my every-street walk of Woy Woy last September.



From my September 2005 post:
The Woy Woy Tunnel was built in the 1880s. It's the longest railway tunnel in NSW, has 10 million bricks in it, is 1791 metres long (1.11 miles) and takes three minutes to go through on the train. Rock Davis (local mover & shaker after whom Davistown is named) brought the bricks in by boat to the wharf and they were moved to the tunnel site on the rails already laid this side of the tunnel. Hence Brick Wharf and Brick Wharf Road. (Read the rest or see the photos)


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Black clouds rolling in from Gosford. Lions Park and private jetties with Pelican Island and Davistown in the background. Lions Park runs beside Brick Wharf Road.


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Woy Woy narrowest house? I don't remember a narrower one and I've walked every street and seen every house on the Peninsula.


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"Perfect for redevelopment" says the sign. Bugger that. Just do a nice reno and add on a veranda please.


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A very calm-looking house. Something of a farmhouse air about it with its post-and-rail fence and wide-hipped roof.

Those lights behind the house are at the footy oval. Some sort of kiddies training or something happening there today. I could hear the PA system halfway down the road.


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Some bugger's always parked in front of the blue house and I can never get a head-on shot of it.


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I'm going to say Federation Bungalow for this one. Though, looking at the line of the main roof, it could be that the original house was a cottage and it was just renovated and added to when bungalows came into style (circa 1890 - circa 1915). Whichever it is, it's a beautfully balanced shape.


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Love this place. The shape, the colours, the age, those lovely frangipannis. Around 1900 I think. Need another look at its chimney.


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From the age of the materials there was a reno in the last 15 years and a repaint in the last five. Looking at the chipping on the windowsill under the veranda (not under the carport), the style of the windowsill and the chimney, I'm going to put the main part of this house (under the main roof) at circa 1890. Could be a couple of decades older but I'm hedging my bets.

The veranda wall, the front fence and the carport have the crisp clean lines of the very new, as young as five years maybe.

The middle roof I don't know about. The windowsill looks old but it also looks untouched by the ravages of time and it certainly doesn't match the sill on the main part of the house. Scratch it and I bet it's concrete.

All up, whatever the original date of the house turns out to be, it's a beauty. Good colours, well-made and maintained and just the right amount of decoration.


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The dingy's been sinking for months. 'Passen' the name on the back is.

As you can see there were no fifties houses on Brick Wharf Road though there are a few unfortunate seventies and eighties fuglies up at the station end. It's one of the older streets on the Peninsula and one of the nicest. Haven't been along it for a while and I'd forgotten just how nice it is. There's the Memorial Park and the Lions Park along one side and the water and Pelican Island beyond them. You're never out of sight of water all the way along it. Very nice.

Quickie
Cyclone Monica is no more. Darwin escapes worst of Monica and no-one killed.

Kudos
You have Fuckkit to thank for giving me a kick up the arse about widening my columns so the photos don't overlap the links column. Pop over and leave some cake.

Anzac Day

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

For the Fallen

Anzac Day isn't a celebration. It's a commemoration of the sacrifice made by our war dead. It's also about the beginnings of our nation. We were made into Australia by a vote in 1901. In 1915 at Gallipoli we started to feel like a nation. Gallipoli is our birthplace.

I could go on a bit but I think I'll let yesterday's photos of Woy Woy's war dead do the talking.

A couple of Australian songs about war:

And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - about a young soldier sent to Gallipoli, also used by American Senator Bob Kerrey in his 1988 Presidential campaign.

I was only 19 - about a young soldier sent to Vietnam, by Australian band Redgum.

Memorial Park

Trotted into Woy Woy for some stuff this morning and nipped into Memorial Park with my camera. The sun was in and out like a fiddler's elbow but I wanted to get some close-ups in the park in time for Anzac Day tomorrow.


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Woy Woy Memorial Park seen from Brick Wharf Road. Pelican Island in the middle distance, Saratoga and Davistown in the background.

On the fence beside the gate there's a wee plaque saying: "Wall completed 1974 RSL Sub Branch Memorial Club Gosford Shire Council". RSL means Returned Services League.

The sign says: "Gosford City Council Woy Woy Memorial Park A Place of Remembrance". In front of the sign is the Australian flag in coloured stones.

Note the rosemary bush growing in front of the sign. Rosemary is for remembrance. Many people wear a sprig of it on Anzac day and those with large bushes of it in their garden often cut sprigs to hand out to strangers in the streets.


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The left plaque I can't read at any magnification. I'll have to go back for the wording. UPDATE, 26-4-06: Wording is: "Decidated as a soldier's memorial park by His Excellency Sir Philip Game GBE, KCB, DSO Governor of New South Wales 19th October 1932".

The right plaque reads: "Dedicated to the memory of John Joseph (Jack) Ryan 15th January, 1895 [?] - 2nd November, 1982 Their bodies are buried in peace but their names liveth for evermore! ANZAC Day 25th April, 1998".


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The main memorial in the park.

As you can see in this photo, the park is on the waterfront. That's Pelican Island across the water and Saratoga & Davistown in the background.

Hopefully the rain clouds will be gone by dawn tomorrow and it will be dry for the dawn service.


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At the top there's a silhouette of the ship. The words read: "Presented to Gosford City Council and the people of the Hawkesbury River area by the ship's company of H.M.A.S. Hawkesbury (K363) on the 50th anniversary of the frigate as a token of regard and in appreciation of the wartime and ongoing relationship with the Royal Australian Navy presented by Commander H.J. Weston, DSC, RD, (Retd) Legion of Merit (USA) (To Hawkesbury for meritorious service within the US Seventh Fleet) Commander Officer H.M.A.S. Hawkesbury 1944-45 to Councillor D.B. O'Connor Mayor on behalf of the City of Gosford".

HMAS stands for Her Majesty's Australian Ship. (Retd) means retired from the service.


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At the top it says "A.D. 1925" on either side of what looks like the rising sun motif from the Australian Army with a crown (for England) on it.

The plaque reads: "To our boys Who have stood in the forefront of the battle with the Elite of the world's heroes, fighting for Liberty, home & Empire: This Monument is gratefully dedicated by the citizens of Woy Woy."

The carving under the plaque is a wreath.


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West side of the main memorial. Pelican Island in the background. The wall behind the memorial is covered in memorial plaques for individual services personnel.

The carving at the top reads: "War declared 4th August 1914".

The main plaque reads: "Lest We Forget 1914 [wreath] 1918 [C]ox M.O. Cox E.R. Fountain R.C. Geraghty W. Murphy A.A. Ormiston H. Peel H. Roberts R.C. Roberts J.H. Stuart F. Tonkins L.C. Tonkins R.C. Taylor J.O. Weaver C. 1939 - 1945 Bassan T.W. RAAF Biggs R. AIF Butler A.F. AIF Cheyne C.J. RAAF Crews H.W. AIF Fitzell C. AIF Humphries W. AIF Jones D.H. AIF Morante E. AIF Mulligan R.P. AIF Murphy M. AIF Neal D.O. RAN Parks Les AIF Parks J.R. AAF Peters K.A. AIF Reeves G. RAN Riding E.H. RAAF Skene A.J. AIF Snellgrove F.N. AIF Steinbeck W.J. AIF Van Gelder F. AIF Webb B. AIF Webb W. AIF Williams R.S. RAAF".

The AIF was the Australian Imperial Force in WWI and WWII. RAAF is the Royal Australian Air Force. RAN is the Royal Australian Navy. I suspect the AAF is a typo for AIF.

The small plaque reading: "Korea" was presumably put up after the Korean war in 1950-53.


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South side of the main memorial. The low wall behind the memorial is covered in plaques for individual services personnel. Behind the wall is the baths (a fenced off section of the channel), the fish&chip shop where they feed the pelicans (right, green) and shops (left, yellow) then Parks Bay (right) andWoy Woy Bay (left) in the background.

The carving at the top of the memorial reads: "Armistice signed 11th November 1918".

The main plaque reads: "Honor Roll Alderton C. Adams C.W. Adams D. Browne W.J Brown C.A. Bourke M. Bartlett H. Costello W.R. Cox E.R. "D" Cox M.O. "D" Cooper W. Davis W. Davis P. Davis O. Davis H. Driscoll F.W. Daley C. Endicott E. Easterbrook C. Ford S.R. Forfar C. Flynn L. Fegan W. Fountain C.R. "K" Clover R. Garrett L. Gridland W. Geraghty W "D" Hagan A.H. Hagan H.B. Hutchinson A.S. Holt R. "M.M." Hughes A.P. Hawker C.W. Jones C.J. Jacobsen S. Jacobsen W. Jacobsen E.C. Jenkins C.W. "D" Keogh M."

I don't know what the "D", "K" and "M.M." mean. Some sort of regimental thingy perhaps.

The bottom plaque reads: "Malaysia" and was a WWII hotspot I think.


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The carving at the top of the memorial reads: "Peace signed 19th July 1919".

The main plaque reads: "Carey W.T. "D" Kirby W. Kirby E. Lukene C.M. Lawrence C.P. Loydstrom C. Larsen C. Martin A.A. Murphy A.A. "D" McFadden F.A. "M.M." Ormiston H. "K" Preston E.C. Piper J. Peel H. "K" Roberts Jim Rand F. Ransley [] Richards O. Settree W. Stuart W. Stuart F. "K" Bayliss E.O.D. Peak E.J. "D" Smith C. Seymour F. Stapleton A.E. Singleton Jas Singleton C. Singleton R. Singleton J. Taylor J.O. "D" Tonkin L.C. "D" Tonkin R.C. "D" Vidler R. Viret J.C. Vokes B. White E. White C. Warmoll R. Warmoll F. Wallwork [] Watts C.J. Wheatley D.F. Woolford H. Weaver C. "D" B[l]ackwall J. "D"".

The bottom plaque reads: "Vietnam" and it's always a relief to find Vietnam mentioned on a war memorial.


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Buggeration. Haven't got a photo for the plaque on top of the wall. Can't remember what was on it but it was a dedication plaque I think. UPDATE, 26-4-06: Plaque on top of the wall reads: "Erected by Woy Woy Ettalong Hardy's Bay Retrned and Services League Sub-Branch Significant Contributors: Commonwealth Government State Government of New South Wales Gosford City ouncil RSL NSW CCDC Vietnam Veterans Federation Gosford City Sub-Branch National Malaya and Borneo Veterans Association War Widows Guild Ettalong Mr A Laundy AM Generous Members of the Sub-Branch Dedicated by DEJ Rowe State President Returned and Services League New South Wales 4th September 2005 President B Router Secretary J Carney This plaque was donated by E McMyrtrie & Son's [sic] Monumental Masons Point Clare".

The white plaques on the closest wall have dates from 1981 to 2006. Eight more years and there'll be a century of war dead commemorated in Woy Woy. A centenary I could do without. UPDATE, 26-4-06: When I was there today there were wreaths of poppies and other flowers all over the foot of the main memorial and along the walls. In front of a plaque bearing the date 2006 was a tiny wreath someone had twisted together from rosemary sprigs.


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The left plaque has the Navy, Army and Airforce insignia across the top then: "Korean War 1950 - 1953 Active Service 1953 - 1958 Peacekeeping".

Right plaque: "In commemoration of Ettalong War Widows Guild Club 50th Anniversary 1954 - 2004 ANZAC Day * April 25th 2004".

The low wall behind is the Brick Wharf Road edge of the park. The building site is possibly Woy Woy's slowest ever building site. It's been going at least a year and maybe 18 months. It's just a block of units for fuck's sake, how long do they take?

I know I'm not the only one who hates seeing repeated surnames on memorials to the dead. In a small town like Woy Woy it's almost certain they were related. Private Ryan wasn't the only poor bastard to lose all his brothers.

Bloody hell, I'm sniffling already and it's not even Anzac Day yet. Think I'll go to the pub.