Rumbalara Reserve

(Gosford walkies #35)


Reasonable resolution at bigger sizes (click it)

Green Point from Yaruga Look-Out Rumbalara Reserve Gosford

Green Point* is at the end of Kincumba Mountain, that flattish bulk of hill taking up most of the left side of the view. I have done no walkies there yet.

The area in the foreground is, on the left, East Gosofrd and Springfield. The big park along Erina Creek is Hylton Moore Park. The bridge is Punt Bridge. The right side of the foreground is East Gosford and Peeks Point.



Resolution at biggest size is merely adequate

Fagans Bay from Rumbalara Reserve Gosford. The foreground is about half of Bustling Downtown Gosford. The two pyramids at the bottom are the courthouse at the corner of Henry parry Drive and Donnison Street. The curved street is Henry Parry Drive. On the right, halfway up the picture, is the footy oval, Grahame Park AKA Bluetongue Stadium. The blue block of flats is a block of flats. The beige block on flats on the left is the pebble-crete tower of the Gosford City Council on Mann Street next to the old conservatorium.

Feeling better yesterday so I went out for a bit of fresh air. Grabbed a mate and we walked down from the top of Rumbalara Reserve (the hill above Gosford).

Lovely walk. A faint breeze cooled our brows, the single notes of bell birds' calls reverberated in the gullies, the hillside was covered in spring fresh bracken and the tall thin trunks of the trees. There were plenty of wildflowers budding and blooming beside the track. It was an easy walk. Downhill for one thing but there was also steps and the occassional handrail. Just what the doctor ordered.


Putting Woy Woy on the map

i wish more people could tkae the time to do similar around the globe

They did, Vengaman, and are:

All Things Woy (another local)

World wide walkers
Catron County walk
Drew Kettle's 25,000kms
Fat man walking
New York City Walk
Strolling Round Socorro
Walking Berkeley
Walking Dunfermline
Walking Fort Bragg
Walking Hither Green
Walking Sydney streets
Walking San Francisco
Walking Turcot Yards


Oh, and if the Local Studies Librarian is reading, there is a large clear photo of the old Bay View pub in the upstairs office of the UFO.


* There's two. The other one's at Pearl Beach.

Bugger this for a laugh

Spent yesterday in bed. Still feeling like I've gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson, yacking up gross stuff, coughing so hard I forget my own name. Stupid flu aftermath.


Embiggen

On the up side, I tottered down to the beach today and laid there in the sun for a couple of hours.


Mailbag

I have a young family and am looking at moving to the central coast, maybe Umina direction. ...I am not overly familiar with the area, but Woy Woy gets lots of bad press amongst the Sydney-siders.

Is it really that bad? Having driven up there once or twice it doesn’t appear to be so….and reading your blog it appears you never got mugged, stabbed, robbed, etc. I guess I am looking for an honest local opinion. Would appreciate your thoughts.


Don't believe everything you read on the telly.

Woy Woy is safe. Naturally we got a few nutters and fuckwits and road collapses but so has every town, including Sydney. Bad news about Woy Woy sticks in the mind because of the memorable name. And because only bad news is reported.

Little old ladies are safe here. Fuckwits who lurk on the beach with an open beer and an attitude get punched by other fuckwits. They're not often active, it's a big beach and there's usually lifesavers on duty*. Housing prices are going up not down. They don't go up in unsafe places.

Bring the kiddies up for the weekend and have a look. You'll love it.


Snippets

Council risks second road collapse - scary cracked culvert photo of Pearl Beach Drive

Aboriginal place names


Righto. I'm off to bed with a couple of hotties called Whisky and Lemon.


* Swim between the flags and all that.

Secret WWII Business

I was wondering what the fuck I was going to blog about, still being too sick to go walkies, then I had a look at Steve's images relating to the WWII emergency airstrip under Trafalgar Avenue.


WWII emergency airstrip in Woy Woy (line of dots)

The numbers are possible locations for the "hideouts" mentioned in the secret document transcribed below.

Number 3 I think would have been where the Bowls is now, the one on the corner of "Wharf Road" (Brick Wharf Road) and North Burge Road. Number 2 I think exists today as the scout hall on the foreshore, about 200 metres from the bowls. Numbers 4 and 5 I think were using the proximity of the lagoon now in the golf course and Paperbark Forest as extra cover.

First page of document reads:

"[Stamp, upper right corner]
18 FEB 1945
SECRET
[Stamp, upper right side]
Recieved DD
19 FEB 1943

[Document proper]
DEPARTMENT OF HOME SECURITY.
PRE-PLANNING SECTION.
REPORT BY W.H. GODFREY.: WOY WOY N.S.W.

Report prepared from inspection of site on 16th February
1943 with:--
P/O Roberst ( 1 D.W.O.)
Mr. Priddle (1 D.W.O.)
Mr O'Halloran( Department of the Interior).
Mr. Lipscombe( Com. Land Valuer).
and from D.W.B. drawing No. 42/43/491A. and aerial photographs.

SERVICE: Department of Air.

LOCALITY: WOY WOY N.S.W.

ESTABLISHMENT: Satellite (Schofields)

OBJECT OF VISIT: To review proposed hideout locations andtaxiways.

RECOMMENDATION:
Taxiways to Hideouts 1, 2, 3.
WHARF ROAD. To be retained as a taxiway. To be widened
on North side only. This widening to extend from Blackwall Road
to runway. Wharf Road, West of runway not to be used as taxiway

These alterations were principally giverned by locations
of electric light poles and other services.

Hideout No.1 to remain as on plan 42/43/491A

Hideout No.2 to have access from west side instead of
from east as on plan

Hideout No.3 to be resited close to and on North side
of Wharf Road 150 yards West of Hideout No.2.

Taxiway to Hideouts Nos 4, 5.
OCEAN BEACH ROAD. This will not now be used as a taxiway.
Hideout Nos. 4 and 5 have been resited as follows:--

Hideout No.4: on west side of and close to Ocean Beach
Road about 100 ft. North of Watkin Avenue,

Hideout No.5: 150 yards east of hideout No.4

access to these two hideouts, it is suggested, should be by
a Taxiway in direct continuation easterly of Watkin Avenue, connecting
with Trafalgar -Avenue, (i.e., the strip).

Hideout Nos. 6, 7, 8. Nos. 6 and 7 were too closely spaced for
existing policy. No.7 remains as on plan. No.8 remains as
planned but access will be from south instead of from North.
No.6 has been resited in good timber on S-W corner of Keith Street
and Springwood Street.

Taxiway 6, 7, 8. Access to these three hideouts should be
by constructing Albion Street from Trafalgar Avenue to Springwood Street
and a short portion of Springwood Street, between Ettalong Street
and Palm Street. (Palm Street is already constructed and built on and gives
access to town). A certain amount of additional grading to Springwood St.
should be included in the camouflage Scheme ( See Aerial Photos.)."

(First page of document ends.)

"Keith Street" does not now exist but I think it would be either the existing Warwick or Wallaby Streets, as they are tucked into the shadow of Blackwall Mountain.
"Ettalong Street" also does not exist now but I suspect it was what is now called Bangalow Street.

Locals (and ex-locals) will be able to spot how much the area has changed from Steve's photo of the old strip overlaying recent shot of Trafalgar Avenue. For non-locals, I can tell you the trees around the strip in the photo are now almost all gone. A few venerable old gums still loom silently from people's backyards but the rest of the trees have been replaced with suburbia. But all is not lost! The gums still stand proud and wild on Blackwall Mountain barely 500 yards from the old airstrip.

Those secret 1943 documents are fascinating. Pretty much the top half of the Peninsula was going to be an airbase. The airstrip (runway) was built and so was a hangar in Alma Avenue which is a short street running off Trafalgar Avenue near its north end.

Airstrips generally have their hangars (plane sheds) to the side of one end of the airstrip. This is for a few reasons. It's a short distance for taxiiing (driving the plane onto the runway), which saves time and fuel, if there's a prang chances are the pranging plane won't hit the hangars and total the other planes, as pranging planes are more likely to come off the runway around the middle of the strip rather than close to the end.

How much of the rest was built I don't yet know but I will be fossicking around in those spots with a fresh eye.

Steve also talks about the WWII airstrip up at Tuggerah, about an hour's drive north of Woy Woy.

I'm looking at your aerial image, Steve, and reading this:

"in the centre there is a clearing in thick trees running north to south which is most probably the old strip"

I am inclined to think that's the one. An airstrip running north-south is much better than an airstrip running east-west in terms of dusk and dawn light-related landing mishaps.

By the way, I also liked your night photos of Woy Woy. You've even made the carpark and the Vati-can look good!


Ducktionary

A HD Fowler mailed me asking for permission to use the Ducktionary as the basis for his "The Australish-ish Dictionary (TAD)."

He goes on "I intend for it to be a compilation of slang and "proper" Australian and New Zealand English words and phrases. English as it's used Down Under, if you will ... I liked what you had done so much, it's what I'd like to use for a starting point."

No worries.

Pseudodictionary.com at which the embryonic TAD is.

Pseudodictionary.com's board has a list of other Australian slanguage dictionaries, none of which I've read yet so proceed at yer own risk.


Right, that's it for today. My flu-enfeebled brain and bod are worn out from sitting on my arse using the keyboard. I'm off to enjoy the wind.

West Gosford

(Gosford walkies #34)



Nice bit of Art Deco (circa 1915 - c.1940) on Pacific Hwy West Gosford, opposite Garnet Adcock Park, the sportsfield on the right as you come into Gosford.




Toothy building a couple of doors down from the one above, also on Pacific Highway West Gosford.

West Gosford is an industrial area up in the north-western shore of Brisbane Water, about 15 minutes drive from Woy Woy. It's official eastern boundary goes through Waterview Park (Presidents Hill) behind the racecourse and down Bately Street to the railway bridge over Fagans Bay.

That toothy business with the bricks (topmost edge of facade on this building) is not uncommmon but not often noticed. It's mostly seen on low brick garden walls in the Brisbane Water area though there are a few examples on buildings themselves.

Woy Woy has its own example of Deco on Blackwall Road near the railway station. It houses a $2 shop now and I have not been able to find out what it used to house. I keep thinking I've got a good photo of this building but nup. Must remedy.




The most notable Deco building in the Brisbane Water area is Creighton's, the former funeral director's on Mann Street Gosford. Love that fin. There's a smaller fin and stepped facade on the fish & chips shop on Dane Drive.

Its ceilings are georgeous too, though rather different in design, being in keeping with other floral plaster ceilings of the time. More on Creighton's.


Farts in jars

Well, near as damnit. Woy Woy tip's gas conversion plant is open.

"Methane-rich gas is produced as organic waste decomposes within landfill sites. The generation plants at Kincumber and Woy Woy extract this gas and combust it to generate electricity.

Each plant produces enough energy to supply the annual electricity requirements of about 1,300 average households. In the process, the two plants combined will destroy methane equivalent to 60,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum." (Sun Weekly)

Pity it wasn't thought of before this debacle.

I'm off to scuttle back under my blanket on the sofa. Thought I was getting better yesterday but today I'm as weak as cat's piss again. Can't even chuck a rock at that blasted cockie screeching its head off on next door's roof.

Ye olde Post Offices

You should be hearing this post in a faint scratchy voice frequently interrupted by a hacking cough and intemperate language. I am definitely Not Well. And definitely Utterly Fed Up. It's one of these new-fangled wogs that's resistant to anti-biotics and takes a while to shift.




This wee old cottage is the former Saratoga Post Office, on Steyne Road, facing Point Clare across Brisbane Water. It has been posted on a stamp-fanciers' board (ta for the acknowledgement & link, Skippy), along with a lovely old photo of when it was the P.O..

Also check out the old Matcham PO further down the board. It is barely bigger than a backyard dunny.




One of the old Kincumber Post Offices, on the corner of Avoca Drive & Davies Street, opposite Frost Reserve.

Run by William George Humphrey from 1945 to the 1990s. Before that the P.O. was down the road a bit at Manasseh Frost's place (below).



You can still see the old "Kincumber Post Office" sign up under the upholsterer's sign.



The old PO Boxes are still there, albeit closed up. I wonder if the upholsterer uses the backs of them as a cupboard?




The other of Kincumber's old Post Offices, and Manasseh Frost's Store (1901), just a couple of blocks down the hill from the other old P.O..

The sign on the right of the building reads "M Frost Kincumber Cash Store".




Sheets of tin over the top of each stone stump to stop the ants eating the wood of the building.

More on Frost's Post Office


Woy Woy's own old P.O.'s are long gone but you can see their photos up in the current P.O. (opposite the library, just near the station) and here, second from the right.

There's the old "PMG" (Post master General) lettering on a Woy Woy manhole cover on Brisbane Water Drive between the Bay View pub and the footbridge.

You can have fish and chips in an old Post Office (albeit a seventies one) by getting the ferry to Empire Bay and walking to the orange and brown building you can see from the wharf.

Recommended fiction for stamp-fanciers is Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. It is amusing even to non-philatelists and has a hero called Moist von Lipwig.


Snippets

Old news but worth having: Australian researcher saves the planet

"An Australian researcher has won an international prize for her plan to wrap a giant asteroid with reflective sheeting to stop it colliding with the earth and destroying all life.

Such an impact would have the force of 110,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs if the asteroid, which actually exists, hits the planet in 2036, said Mary D'Souza, a PhD student with the University of Queensland's School of Engineering."

Click for the spectacular digital mock-up picture, stay for the scary asteroid stats.

Woy Woy girl competes in her fifth consecutive Paralympic Games - Australian basketball capt. Liesl Tesch in Beijing


Right then. I'm logging out before I crash on the keyboard. Thank you very kindly for all the hugs and haiku and tips. It makes a person get well a bit faster than by mere meds alone.

Crook

Got the flu. Fucking painful cough, raging temperature, heartfelt desire to be put out of my misery, all that crap.

Come back on Saturday. I'm going back to bed.

Walking Sydney Streets

Alan Waddell of Walking Sydney Streets is gone.

From his website:
"Alan's Passing 2 September 2008

Alan died peacefully at 3.00 this morning from complications after a successful hip replacement. In memory of Alan we will retain the site and continue to add accumulated photos of his discoveries. We trust that this will still help to brighten your day and encourage exercise in the interests of better health."

Sydney has 642 suburbs. Alan walked every street of 284 of them. He started in January 2003. On his 94th birthday last month his site got its 500,000th visitor.

A massive walk for anyone, let alone a guy in his nineties. Onya, Alan.

Latest updates

Alan in the news

FAQ


Little red man

Skitster at Walking New Cross seems to have stopped walking for the moment. Hope it's not permanent.

Matt and Tiffany haven't blogged a walk since April, and Rob McIntosh's power has been out since June.

Our New Zealand cousins seemed to have stopped. Their blog has said "Error establishing a database connection" for months now.

On the up side, I've added Rob Burdock and Wulf and Eric to the world wide walkers blogroll at last.


Today's picture post

Wee old churches

(My favourite Woy Woy churches)

It pissed down all yesterday and rained out my walkies. Below is a post I've been meaning to put up for a while. I like the shape of wee old churches. These ones are all on Blackwall Road, going away from the station in the order they are here. (Map)



Seventh Day Adventist Church Blackwall Road Woy Woy. It's set back from the road a bit and easy to miss. Locals, it's between KFC and the optometrist near Westpac.




It has a lovely door.




St John the Baptist, Blackwall Road Woy Woy. On the roundabout near the Roosters and the Thai restaurant.

It used to have a couple of lovely shady trees out the front but they went. Then some silly bugger has built a giant silver cake across the road.

There's units round it now. Rather nice units actually. In sympathy with the old brick and flat arches of the church. Before the units there was some old school buildings.




Old St John's also has a lovely door.




St David's Blackwall Road Woy Woy

Very plain inside but a charming exterior. If you look on the left edge of the picture, just above the fence, you can see more units being built behind the church. They're finished now. Units for Dear Old Things.






St Luke's Blackwall Road Woy Woy, now the Woy Woy Environment Centre. My favourite. Built in 1908, a stripped-down version of Carpenter Goth. The style is circa 1840 - circa 1890 but it can be years between the plans being drawn up and the building actually starting.




The green dots are the wee old churches.

From the top they are:
Seventh Day Adventist
Old St John's (twin dots, upper, lower dot is the giant silver cake)
St David's
St Luke's, now the Woy Woy Environment Centre

I rambled on a bit about wee old wooden churches a bit in 2005.

The red line of dots is the old WWII emergency airstrip.

Fagans Bay

(Random Gosford walkies)



Fagans is a tiny bay hidden in plain sight, barely noticed by commuters as they rattle into Gosford on the train.




I like the lazy blue swirl of the speedboat's wash on the water.




Looking south from Gosford, down the western side of Brisbane Water.

From the foreground back into the photo:
Gosford foreshore
Point Clare, with TS Hawkesbury
Tascott (pretty much invisible behind the bulk of Point Clare)
Kooelwong, Murphys Bay
Woy Woy
Lion Island (spottable only by the eagle-eyed)
Saratoga (left edge of photo)


Low tide in Woy Woy Bay - very atmospheric

A Photo a Day - Col, Woy Woy blogger


UFO (or not)

So there I am this morning sitting half asleep on the bus to Gosford. The sky was blue, the warm morning sun came in through the window like a warm blanket. The bus pulled up at the lights next to the trots and the traffic jerked and flowed in and out of Racecourse Road.

Then I saw it. It was beautiful. A small spherical silver craft hanging perhaps 300 feet above Brisbane Water, right near TS Hawkesbury. It was lit by the sun and glowed white. It just hung there absolutely still in the air above the water.

I goggled at it for a moment or two and reached out the tap the person in front of me.

Then the lights went green and the bus moved off and the UFO flickered and moved off with us. It was just a reflection and nothing more, but for a few short moments I thought we had LGMs!

Magnificent beasts

(Davistown walkies)



Giant cactus flower. Golden knobs along a sort of flat thingy. This was taken a couple of weeks back so it might be open now. Locals zooming along Davistown Road can see it if they slow down at they come up to the roundabout at the school. Look for the giant cactus.




A magnificent beast, maybe 40 feet high. Easily dwarfs this one in Ettalong and this Woy Woy one with the big knobs.


Sucks to be me

This ghost-blogging job is giving me the shits. More work in it than expected. I'm not getting out for walkies so posting for a couple of weeks might be spotty. It's sorta fun though, as long as you don't have to come into contact with upper management. Those buggers can talk for hours and say nothing. No wonder they go into bloody politics.

Right. I'm off. Be good and I'll chuck something up on Tuesday night.

Grab bag

(My poor over-worked brain is in recovery mode. Here’s something it prepared earlier.)


Local linkage

Gosford Times

Ettalong Beach Reporter

A photo a day - Woy Woy local

The Lost Railway of South Woy Woy



Spiketionary

Added fillum to it.



Blog for free, or near as damn it

The last bits of the how-to posts. Probably.


For free

Blogger.com (blogspot)
Flickr basic account
Sitemeter.com (tells you who is reading your blog)
Technorati (publicise your blog)


Near as damn it

Flickr Pro at $30 a year (American dollars)


Gotta get you into my life

Schedule blogging into your week. Mark off Wednesday nights for pottering about on the internet and start putting a blog post together.


Yeah but no but

Gorn! Have a go. Whatcher got to lose?

Too chicken? Got nothing to say?

Read an amusing blogtionary instead.


How to take decent photos
How to blog (ideas, writing stuff, tips)
Put your old film photos on the internet
Put your digital photos on the internet
Put your photos on a blog


Okay, that's all my brain is capable of tonight. I am buggered.

Waterfowl & land birds of Brisbane Water

(Walkies gleanings)



Shag on a rock on a hot day. Just near the Veterans Hall ferry stop at Henderson Road Saratoga.

All these walkies I do make me notice stuff I never noticed before. Stuff like the flowers and trees and birds. I don't know a lot of the names of them but I like to see them living along side us humans, floating on the water between the ferries, wandering about on the foreshores, harassing tourists for chips, that sort of thing.




Waiting for fish heads at Correa Bay Reserve Woy Woy Bay Road Woy Woy South.




The bog standard breed of ducks, hoping for free food at Empire Bay. Someone got on the ferry with hot chips and the ducks soon clustered round. Buggered if I know why because if you chuck them a chip they won't eat it.




Pelican soliciting for chips at the fish and chip shop on Brick Wharf Road.

(In the background is an interesting 1950s block of units called "Caprice" in red brick with a pattern of dots on it formed with white bricks. The block was demolished last year, possibly earlier.)




Still can't believe how close I got to this kookaburra. They're normally very timid. This one seemed to be waiting for the local office workers to deliver its lunch.

Kookaburras are seen at all times of day up on the hills and ridges, but here on the flat of Woy woy they come in groups at dusk and laugh in gum trees.




Brush turkeys. They look like such ungainly buggers but they climb these trees quite easily, slowly placing one scaly foot ahead of the other on the gently sloping branches.




Rainbow lorikeet in bottlebrush, Woy Woy. Lorikeets are rather shy birds but as noisy as buggery in groups. At dawn they cluster excitedly in flowering trees, squabbling over the best blooms and waking up the neighbours.




Pink & grey galahs feeding in a jacaranda in someone's back yard in Umina.




Sulphur-crested cockatoo (white bird). Haven't yet got a decent photo of one of these. They move too quick and perch up high in tall trees.

The other birds are a couple of plump owls of some sort, a rainbow lorikeet hanging upside down to feed and there's a nervous-looking tree possum down the bottom.The black birds flying at the sides are black cockatoos, a seldom-sighted bird.


Colin

It's all over the internet that Colin's been put down (euthanased). Poor little bugger lost his mum last week and was found nuzzling a yacht in Pittwater, just across the water from here. A post-mortem revealed Colin was actually Colette and her mum's body may have been found washed up on a beach down south. Wildlife officers had to put the poor thing down as she was getting weaker and weaker and they couldn't feed her.

From the Herald:
"A female humpback whale abandoning her three-week-old calf? Not likely.

Experts say a baby whale alone in Sydney's Pittwater was probably separated from its mother by force. ...

The baby humpback, believed to be about two or three weeks old, was first spotted on Sunday, nuzzling up to a yacht in an apparent search for its mother.

Authorities have suggested that the calf, nicknamed Colin, may have a biological problem, which led its mother to abandon it.

Experts have disagreed, saying a humpback female is very unlikely to abandon her calf, and would nurture it if it was sick.

Wally Franklin, Hervey Bay-based marine biologist with research group the Oceania Project, says ships in the waters off Sydney could be to blame, because they can break up sonic communication lines between whales." (Humans could be to blame for stranded calf)

Sydney Morning Herald


The truth about mozzies

I posted a map and some stuff about the paperbark forest last month, the wee jewel officially known as the Everglades Lagoon Wetland, nestled amongst the paperbarks next to the local golf club.

The crowd that looks after the wetland is having walkies there next month, combined with talkies.

From their flyer:
"Everglades Wetland... Walk & Talk
Saturday 27th September, 2008
RSVP by 24th on (02) 43494756
Email: wetlands@cccen.org.au".


Nose to the grindstone

Spoke too soon about getting some time off. Got an unexpected job dropped into my lap. Some ghost-blogging. The writing sort not the woo woo sort.

So anyways, Tuesday's post may or may not be late. Put yer email in the thingy to get pinged.

Enter your Email





Powered by FeedBlitz

Atom

Empire Bay

(Empire Bay walkies #6? I'm so off track with these walkies numbers.)

Lovely warm blue winter sky again this morning. I popped out after breakfast and went across to Empire Bay on the Saratoga. Bit nippy with the cold breeze but the ride was nice.



Nice old place soaking up the morning sun. Boongala Avenue.

I'm putting this place in the Victorian/Federation period (c. 1840 - c. 1890/c. 1890 - c. 1915) with the veranda closed in around the 1940s and the windows at the back and sides updated in the 1980s or 90s.

It looks like there's a wee bit of sagging on the veranda but it's possible that's the camera angle. Other than that it looks like it's been looked after.




Wee old rusting cottage. Federation period (c. 1890 - c. 1915), with the front veranda partly closed in and those curly iron posts put on around the late 1940s or 1950s.




"Gosford City Council
Wetlands keep our
waterways clean and healthy
Wetlands are important
for fish breeding
Please respect the ecology
of our wetlands".




Mangroves and crab holes and bike tracks, yellow mud and scrubby succulents and native birds wading in the pools. Off Myler Avenue.

List of flora and fauna likely to be found at the Empire Bay Wetland

Gosford & District in Pictures has a lovely lot of historical photos of Empire Bay

Sat on the foreshore after my walk, waiting for the ferry in the warm winter sun. A dog was leaping with great joy into the water and bringing a ball back to its owner. A few seagulls and magpies wandered about looking for chips, a dingy puttered by.

Overhead there came the faint drone of an ultralight. We see them fairly often, crawling across the sky over Brisbane Water. They look like a cross between a paraglider and a lawnmower.



Wiki Creative Commons image

This is the type seen over Brisbane Water/the Greater Gosford.

Wiki says:
"In Australia a "Sport/Recreational aircraft" must have:

* a maximum all-up weight (MAUW) of 544 kg or 1,200 lb or less;
* a stalling speed under 45 knots (83 km/h) in landing configuration and
* a maximum of two seats.

In Australia, microlight aircraft are defined as one or two seat weight-shift aircraft, with a maximum takeoff weight of 450 kg, as set out by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. In Australia microlights are also referred to as trikes and are distinguished from three-axis aircraft, of which the smallest are known as ultralights.

In Australia, microlight aircraft and their pilots can either be registered with the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia (HGFA)[1] or Recreational Aviation Australia (RA Aus)[2]. In all cases, except for privately built single-place ultralight aeroplanes[3], microlight aircraft or trikes are regulated by the Civil Aviation Regulations."

Ultralights at Wiki, includes gallery
Rayhay102's fantastic ultralight flight over the Central Coast


Flickrite in exhibition

The wonderful Cade has been exhibited in the MMOMA in Moscow. And he thoroughly deserves it.

Barbie's Love Dilemma
Barbie does time
Survivor Toyland

Partial lunar eclipse

Got up at five o'clock this morning to see the eclipse. Stood out on the balcony watching it until it disappeared behind the ridge. Would've gone up to The Rampart or somewhere to watch if I'd had my wits about me, but who does at that hour? Anyways, it was good. Not as good as the last one with the blood moon and everything, but good.

The moon passed partially into the earth's umbra (shadow). This is fairly common. It didn't achieve totality, so the whole if the moon was not in shadow. It set here on the east coast of Australia before we could see the whole thing but on the west coast of Western Australia it got to its full 81% before it set.

Annoyingly, there's no amateur uploads to flickr yet from WA and the Perth Observatory's blog is also mum on the subject. Bastards. But the observatory does tell us a "lunar eclipse can only happen at full moon, when the Sun, the Earth and the Moon are in line (in that order) and the Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon."

Sydney Observatory's blog

Flickr:
This morning's eclipse seen from Norway

Annotated northern moon, seen from California

Blue moon, seen from Ireland - use bold italics in his profile but has some nice moon photos
Spooky clouded blood moon

Solar flare at totality, solar eclipse 2006, seen from Turkey

Partial solar eclipse seen from England

Plane in front of eclipsing moon, 2006, seen from England


Blood Moon


(2007)

A blood moon is when the moon goes red during a total eclipse. There's bugger-all light on it and no blue bits in the light and voila! blood moon. There's a clearer picture of it here.


Total lunar eclipse August 2007




Full moon from France (left) and Brazil.


And while we're at it, let's look at the partial solar eclipse in February


More Sydney Observatory linkage

Major upcoming sky events

The dreaded Mars hoax returns

The dish at Parkes and the Apollo moon landings - the film was "historically fairly accurate"

The SO has podcasts and you can buy an annual sky guide.


Coming to a sky near you

20th to 22nd August 2008
Mercury close to Venus, under two moon-widths apart. Low in western sky.

December 10th and 11th 2011
Total eclipse of Moon. Visible Australia from 11.45pm (Sydney). Likely to be a blood moon.

June 6th 2012
Transit of Venus. Venus crosses in front of Sun, appearing as a small black disc. A rare event. Visible on the eastern coast of Australia from 8.16am (Sydney).
Capt. Cook's transit & the 2004 transit
Cook at Ducktionary

November 14th 2012
Total eclipse of the Sun. Visible in Australia, Cairns (Queensland) in path of totality. Full eclipse 2 minutes from 6.40am (Sydney).

July 31st 2018
Favourable opposition of Mars. Close to Earth (nothing like that stupid bloody hoax).

July 22nd 2028
Total eclipse of the Sun. Fully visible in Australia, path of totality from WA (north) to Sydney and New Zealand. Begins 12.44pm (Sydney), totality about 2pm.

April 14th 2029
Close pass by the asteroid 99942 Apophis, around 40,000 kilometres, height similar to communications satellites. Visible from Australia in hours before dawn.

September 8th 2040
Five planets closely grouped in the night sky. Visible to naked eye in the west after sunset.

July 29th 2061
Halley’s Comet returns. Last visit 1986.

Palm Beach

While the Palm Beach ferry is a hot topic, let's pop back across to Palmy.




Pittwater and Brisbane Water ferry routes. The bottom route goes from Ettalong to Palm Beach and is the one threatened by the sandbank.

(Incidentally, everything on the green and blue map is on the Central Coast and everything on the blue map is in Sydney.)




Fantasea Crystal at Palm Beach. A comfy and efficient ferry but not exciting as ferries go.

These two are also of the Palm Beach fleet:

Crystal Spirit, at Wagstaffe
Myra & friend, wooden ferries at Palm Beach

Floating life - ferries, dingies, wooden boats, putt-putts, a hull, a raised wreck, and a sub




Lion Island from the Palm Beach ferry. I never get tired of Lion Island.

List of birds & beasts on Lion Island
Islands of Broken Bay







Seaplane at Palm Beach, with Barrenjoey Head behind it. The seaplane takes off from Sydney Harbour and does sightseeing tours up the coast to Pittwater.


Work work work

Have been working long hours. Hence the late posts recently. Made the deadline though and there's a bit of calmer water ahead, thank christ.