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.

Peeks Point

(Gosford walkies #33, East Gosford)

My records say the last time I walked in Gosford was November 2006. Bollocks! More like November 2007.



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View from Caroline Street. Lovely clear day for photography today. Now that summer's over the rain has gone away.

Left to right: Rocky Point, Green Point/Kincumba Mountain behind it, Killcare in the distance, and Saratoga's Bayview Wharf area on the right.




The sign reads:

"East Gosford
Samuel Peek's Township
at Brisbane Water

The population of Brisbane Water in 1828 was 99 [white people],
of whom 56 were assigned servants [convicts], with only 11
women living on the estates of 14 large landholders.
There was no urban development, no township
or village, no provision for young couples to buy
an allotment where they could build a cottage and
raise a family while practising an independent trade
There was no road, no bridge, no shop, baker
butcher or general store.

Samuel Peek was a Sydney businessman of many
interests and achievments. The population of the colony
had much increased since 1831 & he saw the need
for a township, and seized the opportunity offered.
He bought a vacant area of 500 acres of land at
Brisbane Waters and commissioned a proficient
surveyor to lay out a proper township with provision
for public amenities: Court House Churches,
Marketplace, and Pound.

The first allotment was offered for sale in Sydney on
13 February 1838.
The Census of 1841 informs us that already 178 people
lived at east Gosford:
95 men, 33 women, 50 children in 21 dwellings.

Sponsored by
EAST GOSFORD PROGRESS ASSOCIATION
ROTARY CLUB of EAST GOSFORD".

Bugger all remains to be seen of the original township. The houses there now are mostly 1940s and '70s with an occasional Federation cottage like this.



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View from the park in Caroline Street.

Left to right: Ironbark Point (pair of yachts), Rocky Point, Green Point/Kincumba Mountain behind, Saratoga, and the water tank of Woy Woy Peninsula's Mount Ettalong on the right.

The water views were taken within an hour of each other and at pretty much the same angle from the sun, but check out how different the colour of the water is.



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Looking across the water to Ironbark Point from Russell Street. Another quiet little bay in an estuary full of quiet little bays.



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Red-tipped leaves on some sort of eucalyptus tree. Don't ask me what sort. I ain't no botanist.

Extra photo, didn't quite make the grade.

Moody views

(East Gosford walkies #3 or thereabouts, map)



The yellow flowers are everywhere around Brisbane Water, on large loose bushes. The purple ones are a climber that hangs over the wire fence along the railway line.

(Took this before the light went to hell. Right now it's gone all dark again, as dark as the third photo. Pissing down raining too. Been at it since all day. it nippy actually. Funny old weather for the last day of Spring. Usually I'd be blogging in me underpants and whinging about the heat.)

Anyways, I went into Gosford then tramped up and over Henry Parry Drive and into East Gosford. Went to a street there I'd seen from when I found the old quarry. Between it and the quarry is a small valley and across the valley I could see a street. So today I walked it.




Rumbalara Reserve from Bay View Avenue East Gosford. Nice street Bay View. Not too badly infested with the 1970s buildings, bush and water views on one side, water views on t'other side, and bush up the back.




This bay doesn't have a name in my 2006 street directory. Let's just call it Punt Bridge Bay because you can see it from Punt Bridge as you drive along The Entrance Road to Bloody Erina (Erina Fair).

The grassed bit on the lower left hand of the photo is Hylton Moore Park soccer oval. The trees around the bay are mangroves. The houses on the other side of the water are the Sun Valley Road area off Avoca Drive near Ironbark Point. The hills behind them are part of Kincumba Mountain.




The hill in a line with the road is Saratoga. The tree on the right of the photo is obscuring Woy Woy. The low bit to the left of Saratoga is Yattalunga. The hill behind is Killcare Heights (beyond which is the Tasman Sea).

Behind the tree in the left foreground is Green Point and Kincumba Mountain slopes off to the left edge of the picture.

The street was bloody steep. And it was raining. I muttered and grumbled and whinged my way up it. Turned round when I got to the top and had a look at the views. Bloody excellent. No doubt you could see all the way to Barrenjoey Head on a clear day but I rather like the misty views of a rainy day.




I particularly like this one from the other side of the road. TS Hawkesbury & Point Clare seen across The Broadwater, with Kariong and the ridges folding in behind on their way to Mooney Mooney Creek and the Great North Walk.




The Broadwater, Fagans Bay (right) and the houses along its southern edge. Fagans Bay is separated from The Broadwater by the railway line as it comes into Gosford from Woy Woy.

Up the top of the street it was flat and the houses were back from the road. The rain spattered on my brolly and the wind shook the tall gums. I could see Rumbalara Reserve across the valley and hear a bell bird in a tree somewhere. Despite being quite close to the traffic down on York Street, it was quiet and isolated.




Ignore the ferry routes. Look at the red wiggly line up the top. That's Bay View Avenue. It's way up on a ridge and the view from up there goes right down Brisbane Water.