Venice Road

(Pretty Beach walkies #2)

Finished Pretty Beach in two walkies. One in May last year and one in October this year (2008). Pretty Beach is not a big town. It's barely a town at all. Doesn't even have its own pub. Or even a corner shop with pies and newspapers. Just seven streets, two private schools and a public wharf.




Rock Oysters abound on the Brisbane Water. Every wet rock, every jetty, every old bit of wharf is covered in them.

Pretty Beach is just across the water from the Woy Woy Peninsula. Go down to the Ettalong ferry wharf (in Ferry Road) and look across to Wagstaffe and Hardys and it's in between them. (Map)




No trailer needed

To get to Pretty Beach, get the Cockatoo ferry from Woy Woy in the school holidays, or get onto Wards Hill Road off Empire Bay Drive opposite Palmers Lane and follow the signs to Hardys Bay. Then go down into Hardys and onto Heath Road and yer in Pretty Beach when you see the primary school.




Native flowers on a small native tree on the waterfront. The tree looked like a tea tree except for these flowers.




The house on the right is yer average house as seen around Brisbane Water. The one on the left is not. Looks very stylish in a rather sixties way. Can't find a precise style for it in my architecture book so we'll just say 1960s. It's in Venice Road Pretty Beach behind the tennis courts.




Hakea or grevillea. I'm back to forgetting which. Venice Road Pretty Beach.


Michael's bits

Michael's got some nice local photos over on his Flickr. I particularly like these three views from Killcare.

And there's a lovely sunny picture of the Codock punting past Wagstaffe on some stranger's Flickr.

How cool is America now?

Onya, 'Mericans! You voted in the black guy. Now yer cool enough to play with the cool kids.

Australia's cool because our Prime Minister officially apologised for being evil to the blackfellas.

So did Canada's so they're cool.

New Zealand is cool because they got a girl Prime Minister.

England's cool because they had a girl Prime Minister, even if she was pretty scary.

And we're going to be even cooler when we vote in either the rock star, the redhead, the chick (same person as the redhead) or the poofter.


(Wiki Creative Commons)

......Peter Garrett..................Julia Gillard.......................Bob Browne

Bustling Downtown Hardys Bay

(Hardys Bay walkies #3)


(Embiggen)

A view from Araluen Drive to Hardys Bay Parade. Very restful spot with the sound of water slapping on boats and the seagulls all gone to Woy Woy for fish & chips.



Can't resist the combination of a twisty tree and wee boat. Low tide at Araluen Drive.



Early 20th century building with brand new houses on either side. Pretty typical of many Brisbane Water towns and particularly of Hardys Bay. It is not a town in which real estate is hard to sell.



Fifites house and the remains of its former companion. On the other side is an active building site. All of Araluen Drive is prime land, it's all waterfront.


(Embiggen)

Bustling Downtown Hardys Bay has everything one needs in a town:
waterfront cafes (far right & hidden behind loo)
public loo in which to find companionship (green, end of wharf)
real estate agent for those impulse buys (far right, part of cafe)
bottle shop (behind green & white boat)
street sloping down hill to provide picturesque-ness
glob of brand new units smack dab on waterfront (left of wharf)
quiet old houses to retain charm (left of glob)
public wharf to attract the tourists ("Killcare Street Public Wharf" says the sign)
public boat ramp (left of glob) for the use of locals unwilling to wade through tourists.

And, last but not least, it is but a short row across to the Ettalong pub.


Gotta love you and leave you. Plumber's bringing his plunger over in a sec. Hot it's the cute one this time.