Manly & Muriel

(Random Sydney walkies)

Up to my arse in work today. Took these at Easter just out the back of Manly Beach. Manly is the beach at North Head, which is at the mouth of Sydney Harbour. There used to be a Quarantine Station there. You can do a ghost tour.




Went to a mate of a mate's birthday, ate an ear off of an Easter bilby, messed about in boats, and helped rescue the birthday boy when he got drunk and fell in. A good time was had by all.

Lovely spot. There was hardly anyone around. It rained in the morning and the sky was still pretty black. We fossicked about in the bush on the shore and had a barbie and were only mildly eaten to death by the ants.




Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor)

"This small, stocky wallaby has dark brown fur, often with rusty patches on the belly, chest and base of the ears. It feeds on shrubs, grasses and ferns, Swamp Wallabies have been spotted at here in recent times."

"Body 66-85 cm, tail 64-86 cm." says Faunanet

For yer average non-biologist person, there's bugger-all difference between a wallaby and a roo except roos can get as tall as people and wallabies are short-arses.




Long-Nosed Bandicoot (Perameles nasuta)

"The long-nosed Bandicoot is probably best known for small, round conical holes it leaves behind as it forages at night. Dug with the front feet, the holes are for the animal's long, sensitive snout to reach in and detect insects, small inverterbrate prey and succulent plant material.

Once common in Sydney, it now occurs in isolated populations in bushland areas to the south and north of Sydney, including Manly. The small colony at nearby North Head is classified as an 'endangered population'."




Short-Beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) (left) and Bush Rat (Rattus fuscipes)

Wee beasties native to the area.


Muriel



Back to Woy Woy for this one, to West Street Umina to be exact. There's an empty shop on the corner near the brick church. Sacred Heart or something. The one that's due for demolition. Anyways. Shop's empty and there's these big murals left on the walls.

There's another one with a unicorn.


Time off for good behaviour

I am off for an unexpected holiday. And I bloody need it I can tell you. Comments and emails will go unanswered. I will be putting my feet up and resting my weary brian. And my weary brain.

See you in three weeks.

Old villages

The line of red dots in the centre is not an old village but the WWII emergency airstrip. It was gravel and its remains are occasionally dug up in someone's backyard.

The other isolated and grouped red dots are the old villages of the Woy Woy Peninsula:

Woy Woy (uppermost group)
Umina/West Street (lowest group)
Booker Bay (3 dots on right)
Pearl Beach (2 dots at bottom)


Woy Woy village:



Railway Street from the railway station



Masonic Hall Railway Street from the railway station



CWA Anderson Park, opposite the (current) ferry wharf. CWA stands for Country Womens' Association. The equivalent of the W.I. in the UK, not sure what it's American equivalent is.



Old Woy Woy Hotel, the one reputed to be built from bricks nicked from the construction of the railway tunnel.



Woy Woy Library, corner of Oval Avenue. Used to be the old Council Chambers in the 1930s but now the Peninsula's part of Gosford City Council and is administered from Mann Street Gosford.



Soldiers' Park, now known as Woy Woy War Memorial Park. On the water right next to the fish and chip shop.



Woy Woy Football Oval in Oval Avenue, next to the Library.



Woy Woy Wharf. Central part of the village then and now. Within 100 yards of the railway station, the shops and both pubs.

More photos of Woy Woy village at Bustling Downtown Woy Woy


Umina village (West Street):



West Street in 2005. West Street is not substantially changed in the last 2 years.
(Ignore the red circle, it marks a gas thingy up on the ridge.)



Shop down the quiet end of the shops, past the pub.



The pub, on the corner of Trafalgar Avenue. I have no front view of this pub. A glaring omission possibly caused by propping up the bar.



This servo (petrol station) stands where a cinema did in the 1950s, at the Ocean Beach Road roundabout at the south end of West Street.



The West Street anomaly.



Night safe on the former bank. Now the bike shop and now painted blue.



The Catholic church. Rumour has it this place is scheduled for demolition. I saw the drawings for the units to go up in their place but I was drunk at the time and may have imagined them.



Purple people eater, a recent addition to the old village of Umina.


Ettalong village:



The Excrescence. Where the carpark of this thing is there was the Ettalong Memorial Club, a three-storey lump in pebble-crete from whose open windows could be heard the aerobics instructor exhorting her ladies to lift! and lift! and lift!



Drop your pants/ A soul is wasted when there is no aim". Thus quoth the sign at the drycleaners opposite The Excrescence.

That's it for my Ettalong village photos. Hadn't realised it before but I've got bugger all from there. Must remedy!


Booker Bay village:



King's Store & Booker Bay General Store Booker Bay Road Booker Bay.



Old Brick Shop opposite King's Store Booker Bay


This post is about the villages of the Peninsula but it's also revealed some serious gaps in my photo collection. Mostly in Ettalong. So we all learnt summat today. Bless.


P.S.

I don't pass on chain email but this one is amusing.


For those of you who watch what you eat,
here's the final word on nutrition and health.
It's a relief to know the truth
after all those conflicting
nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Australians.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Australians.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Australians.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Australians.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Australians.

So eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you!