The bulldozer cometh

(Random walkies in Woy Woy)

I was bloody lazy yesterday. Too bloody lazy to walk. Too bloody lazy to do bung something up here. Laid on the sofa most of the day yawning and watching those nice big storms. Nice light show here but they made mincemeat of Western Sydney again. Anyways, here's the latest bits of Woy Woy to be menaced by the bulldozer.




Empty block next to Deepwater Plaza and across the road from the railway station. Corner of Railway Street & George Street. The local rag's just announced plans for the multi-storey carpark (from which this photo was taken) to be extended and the only logical extension is onto that block. It'll make a hell of a difference to the street.

That's Woy Woy Bay in the right background and Phegans Bay in the left background. The red roof on the right edge of the picture is the bottle shop.




Bit of bush on the corner Ocean Beach Road & Pioneer Road Umina, just near the service station. Lorikeet fans should note that flowering gum is the same type as they feed on all over the peninsula.

Snippet of bushland on the corner of the main road. Two 1940s houses got demolished next door and I'm thinking that land and this snippet is going to be sprouting more bloody villas soon.


Bits and blobs

Steve's Woy Woy photos are up and he's added some new articles and a spiffy new forum.

Pop over and leave a comment on Olive's blob. She's been blobbing over a year now. Pretty good going for a 108 year old.


Right. I'm off out onto the balcony to await for today's storm.

Ye Olde Woy Woy

Annotated & embiggened versions

Woy Woy's first railway station. It was just opposite where the Railway Street/Charlton Street roundabout is now.

George Fletcher, who wrote for the Gosford Times under the name Perong, wrote in 1928 that the station master delivered the post by emptying the mail bag out onto a bench and reading out the names on the envelopes.



Annotated & embiggened versions

Woy Woy's first railway station with train pulled in (middle), the beautiful old Bay View Hotel (the original one, right) and a bit more of Woy Woy on the left edge, prior to 1910.

The water is Woy Woy Inlet. The current railway station is about where that long jetty is.



Annotated & embiggened versions

The Boulevard Woy Woy early 1900's. Looking north-north-west round the curve of The Boulevard towards the railway and the hill of Parks Bay/Koolewong across Woy Woy Inlet.

The pub on the left is still there, minus it's upper veranda. The buildings of the right hand side of the road have been replaced by other shops, a factory-now-motel and the 1929 Bay View pub.

The amount of people you can see on The Boulevard in this picture (a dozen) is not much changed.



Annotated & embiggened versions

The Boulevard Woy Woy early 1900s. Looking from what is now the Bay View pub corner north-north-east along The Boulevard (then called main Street).

The distant hill visible behind the trees is Saratoga/Davistown.

On the right hand edge of the photo is "Gilan's Woy Woy" which looks like a shop of some kind. To its immediate left is the old Post Office, built in 1906 to house the post when Postmistress Minard Crommelin came in 1906.

On the left hand side of the picture is another shop with "COX" and some unreadable words on its awning, then another smaller shop, then a butcher. The open ground next to the butcher is where the fish and chip shop and the Woy Woy Memorial Park (Soldiers' Park) are now. Huck Finn's, which was once a butcher shop, is still standing in about the same spot as this butcher shop.

The second Bay View Hotel is not yet built but its site is just out of frame on the left bottom. The camera is standing on the corner of The Boulevard and Brisbane Water Drive.



Annotated & embiggened versions

Bustling Downtown Woy Woy


Linkage

Thanks to Michael for the links.

Railpage - trainspotter talk.

Steam train to Gosford & OSCAR trials - YouTube, shot at Tascott & Hawkesbury River/Brooklyn.

Ain't what she used to be

Annotated version & large version (not annotated).

Aerial photo taken in the 1960s or 70s of the Woy Woy South/Correa Bay area of the Peninsula. Look at how much empty land is still there. Mostly gobbled up now by houses.

The area marked in green was once a paddock with a scout hall on it. Now it's a Home for the Terminally Bewildered. The scout hall however, is marked on my street directory as still in existence, at the Shoalhaven Drive end of this area.

On a sixties town planning map, the marked area is down as "R 66258 FOR FUTURE PUBLIC REQUIREMENTS". Public requirements certainly fits with a HftTB.

Blogged the HftTB in February. Michael lent his long-time local knowledge and told us that area was once a horse paddock with a "crumbling scout hall" in it and his mate lived behind it. Can you spot your mate's house, Michael?

That curved road going right across the photo is 2 roads and the railway.

On the left edge of the photo, the railway goes under the hill, alongside Mullet Creek, past Wondabyne & Brooklyn, over the Hawkesbury River and down into Sydney past the Ku-ring-gai National Park.

Also on the left edge, Woy Woy Road loops and wiggles up to the F3 to Newcastle and the Old Pacific Highway. Just out of the frame on the right it peters out.

Cross the level crossing just before it does and Railway Street, the 2nd road there, takes you all the way into Bustling Downtown Woy Woy. Which is all of five blocks from the outskirts. It ain't a big town.



The Home for the Terminally Bewildered on the old paddock. Locals will see it as they come through the underpass onto Railway Street.

Anonymous gave us some detail on the HftTB, telling us the place consists of "6 "cottages" each with about 14 residents. Nice big rooms, cosy fireplace in winter, kitchen and laundry, and gardens to walk in..." Sounds a pleasant place in which to spent one's declining years.

He or she also tells us "each cottage is named after a local shipwreck!" Check out the shipwrecks here.



73 Blackwall Road Woy Woy in 1971 (left) and in 2006 (right). Part of Bustling Downtown Woy Woy. Locals, it's opposite Woolies.

You can see the balcony on the top right part of the 1971 building. And again on the 2006 building, bricked over in white. Now look at the pillars supporting the windows on both versions. Same. It's surprising how little some buildings change innit?

In 1971 it was Arthur Young's Studio and Photo Store. Now the upstairs flat looks like it's used for storage.



This is the hardest house to photograph in Woy Woy. It's a lovely old cottage near Rawson Road and in all seasons but winter it's hidden behind a row of flourishing trees.

It's hard to see its foundations and so on but the roofline, the width of the windows and the general style suggest circa 1900, which is the Federation period.

Okay, peeps, that's it for today. I'm all blogged out and not sure I'm making much sense anyways.

Keeping an eye on things

(Random walkies)



We don't get much good graffitti on the Peninsula so I snap it as soon as I see it. This one appeared to be keeping an eye on the new traffic lights nearby.

We're getting two more sets of traffic lights. One on the corner of Railway Street & George Street, where you come out from Deepwater and another one two blocks away at the corner of Railway Street & Ocean Beach Road, where this graffitto was.

The Dear Old Things are very excited about the George Street lights. That intersection is a menace to DOTs and even to the fleet of foot. The Ocean Beach Road intersection is mostly a menace to front fenders.

Went walkies this morning. No idea where. Started out from home brooding on things and ended up in the bottle shop (liquor store) a couple of hours later with no clear idea where I went in between. It's been a tumultuous couple of months with all this family stuff, plus there's some other crap we won't go into. But I'm enjoying the winter and so life goes on.




Challenger TAFE Centre

Back to Freo again and one of my all-time favourite Freo buildings. Once the Royal Norwegian Consulate, now Challenger TAFE.

The style could be Federation Free Classical (circa 1890 - c. 1915) but I'm putting it down as Victorian Free Classical (circa 1840 - circa 1890). Why? Because of the whaling connection. There was a lot of stuff in the Maritime Museum about the Norwegian whaling connection to Freo.

That wee round room up the top there probably still has some sort of view over the harbour, which would once have been an uniterrupted view right across the harbour to North Freo, proably as far as the Dingo.

Grab bag

Graffitti, or more grammatically graffitto, on Mrs Wilson's shop (circa 1910) at the Charlton Street-Railway Street roundabout.

Thank yer, that graffitist, this is much better than the usual tags.

Would've sworn on a stack of beer bottles I had a photo of Mrs Wilson's circa 1910 shop. But diligent searching on Flickr turns up nowt. Buggeration!



This is the Belinda K, a local working boat. She's a familiar sight to those on the ferry out of Woy Woy. She's moored at a private jetty on Brick Wharf Road.

Presumably the owner's house is just across the road. That'd cut down on yer commuting time, wouldn't it? You could totter across the road still clutching yer breakfast coffee cup, cast off and putt off down the channel coffee still in hand.



I rabbit on a bit about catching the ferry so here's where I catch it from. "Woy Woy Public Wharf" as it says on the sign. In the background there's the commercial wharf, the fish and chip shop all the tourists go to, the CWA and, behind the CWA, Roma.

The park (right, where the tree is) is where the Woy Woy to Gosford Fun Run leaves from. It's coming up again soon. Better start training for it.

Barely a step from Bustling Downtown Woy Woy and a nowt but short stagger from the pub.


Quizzed

The questions below arrived in a very straightforward email. I know what curious buggers you all are so here's my answers for all to enjoy:


Hi.. I just found your site recently and I love the blog.. I have a couple of questions..

1. How old are you?

I have not long been dragged kicking and screaming into my third decade.

2. What do you do for a living that you can walk in the daytime?

I am a freelance correcter of other people's theses.

3. Where are all the people? .. It looks like scenes from Stephen King's The Stand.. kind of creepy..

You are not the first to ask.

Woy Woy is at its busiest on sunny weekends when the roads are clogged with boats in the mornings and afternoons and the fish and chip shop clogged with tourists all day.

On weekdays there's the Dawn Walkers and their dogs, then the commuters, then a bit of a hiatus until the commuters come home and the pub shuts. On pension cheque days the pavements are chockers with Dear Old Things called Mabel walking very slowly to the supermarket.

Thanks.. Keep those house pictures coming..
Diane

Yer welcome. I will.