Theroy's

Theroy's is gone. It was one of my favourite buildings in the area. It was up at Point Clare on Brisbane Water Drive, just across from the Pt Clare railway station. It was an old chemist.

Built circa 1920, fibro with a fifties facade added onto the front of it and a shopkeeper's residence attached to the side (right). It had been empty for yonks and a new chemist built beside it, a brick job with a long switchback ramp, instead of steps, for the Dear Old Things to get up to the door.




The wee old shop is gone as well. It was between Theroy's and the corner of Talinga Avenue. It wasn't number 5. It had a couple more numbers but they kept dropping off. It might've been number 155 but don't quote me on that.

Can't be sure of the shop's date but I'm willing to say around 1900. As for the style, I'll go with Plain Old Shopfront. Which is not an official style but a well-known one.

Notice the window on this end of the shopfront is longer. The door used to be there. Or rather, the wee ramp up to the door used to be there. The door itself ws set back about eight feet from the front of the shop, in the old way, and the wee ramp led up to it. There's a similar style here in Ettalong, minus the ramp.




Between Theroy's and the wee old shop was a fibro house of uncertain age, which squatted silently behind a hedge. On the other side, on the corner of Talinga Avenue was a front yard of trees with another old fibro house lurking rustily behind them. I liked that corner. I liked the trees and the wee old house and I liked Theroy's. I don't care that they were mostly derelict, I liked them.

The fish shop is still there on the other corner.

Map showing the demolition/building site
Map showing Point Clare & Woy Woy


New blogging schedule

I'm still up to my eyeballs in work and likely to be for a wee while. So the new posting days are Wednesday and Saturday. Or Wednesday and Monday for all you buggers reading at work.

To get reminders to your inbox, stick yer email in the slot. The Feedblitz slot in the sidebar, just about the Babel Fish thingy.


Links un-bunged

Sorry. All this time I've had the link for the PM's Apology and all the Sorry posts empty and I never noticed. Might be time to see an optometrist. Anyways, they're fixed now.

And here's the link to the Canadian PM's Apology. Onya, Canada.


Links new

Skippys List, 213 things Skippy can't do in the army, is olden but golden.

A mate has gun pronz on his blog, Terminal Ballistics. (Do take the bullets out before you make the sex with your firearm, gun fans.)


Spiketionary

Babel Fish is a translator bot. It's named after a small wet fish invented by Douglas Adams. There is a link to it on my sidebar for the convenience of non-English speakers who read this blog.

BabelFish the bot translates from one language to another automatically. You just bung a slab of text into the bot and it translates it into your language.

It works on picking the most likely meaning of a word so you can get some very entertaining translations.

You can also get some weird and disturbing translations. F'rinstance, when I write 'a wee bit of rain' Babel Fish translates it to 'a urine part of rain' in some languages. This may cause alarm and dismay amongst innocent readers.

So, in the spirit of clearing things up, I've made another translation thingy, a Spiketionary.

(And I've added chook strangler to the Ducktionary by the way, Ron.)

Fagans Bay

Fagans Bay is a small bay up near Gosford, one of Brisbane Water's many bays. It's a bit of a forgotten place. Even some of the people who live around it don't know what it's called.

This photo shows a small cove in Fagans Bay. The bay is fringed with mangroves and has a mangrove islet within it. It's a haven for ducks and lovely to walk round.



Only dog walkers and cyclists really notice it as they go along the cycleway. You can't really see it from the road, except on the Pacific Highway overpass next to the footy stadium.




I've walked round it but never mapped it and I know how much you buggers are liking the maps, so here it is.




Fagans Bay is the banana-shaped bay at the top with the two red dots.
Phegans Bay is down the bottom left with one red dot. It is the home of the lovely pink house Minerva.




A few hundred yards from Fagans Bay is Fagan's pub, the old Red Cow Inn. Peter Fagan owned it and Henry Kendall hung out there.





Narara Creek goes under Henry Kendall Bridge/the Pacific Highway and on into Fagans Bay. Just round that corner and yer in the bay. The kayaker, on the left, will be there in a minute.




He can paddle around amid the ducks on the calm waters of Fagans Bay or venture out into Brisbane Water and paddle down towards Woy Woy.


Sorry and Sydney history

A snippet of info about the start of Sydney.

In 1788 the First Fleet and its load of English convicts and marines arrived.

It was summer and there were plenty of fish in the harbour. The Eora, the Aboriginal people of Sydney Cove, shared their catch with the funny-looking strangers.

Then winter came and the fish stock was low, as usual. The strangers hadn't left and they were taking all the fish.

The Eora took some of the fish away from the strangers. The strangers came after them with their guns and also shot some kangaroos, which were an important source of winter meat for the Eora. The Eora took a goat, a sheep and a few lambs from the strangers' camp. The strangers came after them with their guns again.

Relations went downhill from there.

Sorry

At 9AM this morning, the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd apologised on the behalf of the Australian Government to Aboriginal people. The Aborigines are the native people of Australia who were in possession of the land before white people came to settle in 1788.

He apologised for their treatment at the hands of past Australian Governments, particularly for the Stolen Generation.


This apology was a good thing.


A snippet from SMH:

"Australia has formally apologised to the stolen generations with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reading a speech in Federal Parliament this morning.

The apology was read at 9am to the minute, as the first action of the second sitting day of the 42nd Parliament of Australia.

Both Mr Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin received a standing ovation as they entered the Great Hall before the Prime Minister delivered the speech.

The reading of the 361-word apology was completed by 9.03am and was watched by hundreds of parliamentarians, former prime ministers and representatives of the indigenous community.

Former prime ministers Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser and Sir William Deane were all seated on the floor of the Parliament as well as 17 people representing the stolen generation.
...
In another address directly after reading the apology, Mr Rudd spoke of removing a "stain from the soul of Australia".
..."


Mr Rudd's speech received a standing ovation at the Redfern Community Centre, where hundreds gathered.

Residents, workers, families, students and Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore braved the rain to watch the speech via a large outdoor screen.

David Page, composer with the indigenous dance group Bangarra Dance Theatre, said he liked the fact that Mr Rudd made a personal apology.

"It was very moving to see a prime minister with a bit of heart. I loved it when he said he was sorry. There was just something personal about it. It's very hard for a prime minister to be personal," he said.

Enid Williams, 72, who was brought up on a mission in north Queensland after her father was forcibly removed from his family, said she was happy with Mr Rudd's speech, but said it was now important to look to the future.

"I'm 72. The main thing is the young people, to give them a better future."


At Martin Place in Sydney, hundreds of Sydneysiders from all walks of life gathered to watch the Sorry Day celebrations holding Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.

Men and women in business suits, schoolchildren and other passers-by of all different backgrounds cried, smiled and stood in respect as they listened to Mr Rudd apologise."


Can't find the transcript of the whole speech but there's a full audio of it here and you can send a message to the PM here at the PM's official website.


My personal apology

I am sorry for Terra Nullius, the taking of Aboriginal land in 1788 that started it all.

I am sorry for all the racism and rip-offs I and my fellow Australians have put upon the Aborigines in the 220 years since 1788.

I am sorry most of all for the Stolen Generation, for the forcible removal of children from their Aboriginal parents on the flimsiest of excuses and sometimes without any excuse, for no other reason than race. No matter what advantages those children may or may not have gained by their removal, it was wrong.


Read all about it

Kevin Rudd says sorry

VIDEO of the Sorry speech (if link not working, go via link above)

AUDIO of the Sorry speech

Day of healing for Aboriginal leaders

Speech gets standing ovation in Redfern

Martin Place crowd weep for the Stolen Generations

Backs turned on Nelson's response

Ancient tensions fail to mar apology

Sorry speech was maginificent

Thunderous appause in Sydney for Rudd's speech

Long queue to witness Rudd speech

Bondi BBQ for live apology

Britain urged to back Rudd's apology

A nation apologises

Family saddened by apology that came too late

A nation shocked by tales of sorrow

Protest against intervention

Welcome ritual marks opening of Parliment

Tears for those who vanished never to return again

Mother's regret carried to the grave

Finally their voices will be heard


Have your say

Rate the apology

Send a message to the PM


Rudd's speech on screens at east Gosford posted on Flickr by Keith Pitty


If anyone has the full transcript of Rudd's speech, feel free to paste it into the comments.