You may have heard. There have been race riots in Australia.
You will not be surprised to learn there was beer involved. Usually when you mix beer and nasty little pricks in Australia you get small scale fights on Saturday nights. So why is this is this increase in the level of violence happening here and now?
There’s no simple answer but I’m sure a large part of the blame rests on Howard’s shoulders. John Howard is our Prime Minister (President). He is not our leader. To be a leader a person needs to lead. Howard does not. He doesn’t have it in him. He’s a pathetic little wimp who gave tacit approval to Pauline Fuckwit Hanson (white supremist) and is extremely unconvincing when political expediency forces him to condemn things like this race riot shit. A Prime Minister like Howard encourages a culture of violence.
I’ll put it in writing so you know where I stand. Muslim and Middle Eastern Australians and migrants and all people of all religions, races and cultures are WELCOME on my site and in my country. The only people NOT welcome are child molesters, war criminals and others who victimise people in any way, including right wing fuckwits of all races and religions.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
Smoke on the Water - Pt Clare #4 - Brisbane Water Walk #8
Over the weekend there were two bushfires nearby. Both near Wondabyne I think. Smoke woke me up again at 5AM. I'd left a window open and my whole flat still smells like a barbequed gum tree. By the time I went walkies this morning the smoke was spread out over Brisbane Water in a thin blue haze. Couldn't tell where it'd started. I'll have to watch NBN (Northern Beaches telly) tonight to find out.
I can also find out why so many ambulances today. Fire trucks and the police go howling off from the stations here on the Peninsula three or four times a week. They go up Woy Woy Bay Road through The Bays and up onto the F3, which is the motorway between Sydney and Newcastle. Over the weekend, with the fires and whatnot, it's been non-stop sirens. On my way home an ambulance howled past one way then howled past again a few minutes later heading for Gosford hospital. Hope it wasn't picking up another of the Dear Old Things from here. They been dropping like flies, poor things, and not coming back. Strokes mostly.
On a more cheerful note, it's not hot today. Only 30 (86 F) and there's a gentle but cool breeze. Even the flies were not blackening the skies as they have been. Down in Fagan's Bay in a tiny nameless cove, I sat on a park bench next to the cycle path for a bit. The path was pretty busy. Retirees striding along, high school kids cruising past on their deadly treadlies, young mums stopping for a chat. A small kid picked his nose while his mother wasn't paying attention and fed it to the dog. The water was past the high tide mark but the tide was still running in and the grass on one side of the cove was flooding. Christmas king tides. It was pleasant sitting there looking out past the mangroves to the mangrove shore on the opposite side of the bay. I could see the roof of Spotlight (cheap towels & made-to-measure blinds), OfficeWorks (cheap desks & gormless delivery) and a series of low red roofs that turned out to be the Leisure Living Retirement Village.
Fagan Park was another nice spot to sit. It's mostly an oval (sports field) with the ubiquitous cricket pitch in the middle but along the edges there's a wide strip of trees and down at the cycle path end there's a small grove of tall pines. Beautifully shady. Mynahs were twittering over something interesting and some Council guys were lunching near the scout hall. A nice enough spot but not nearly as scenic a lunch spot as some of Dodderyoldfart's. A couple of magpies were warbling in a tree nearby and there wasn't much traffic on the road.
Come next June the Bay to Bay Fun Run will go pounding along that path. There was one last year, organised by some crowd calling themselves the Terrigal Trotters. Love the name. I'm tempted to organise a Woy Woy team just so we can call ourselves the Peninsula Pigs' Feet.
Anyways, I'll get onto them and see if they're doing another run next year. Not that I'd be running the bastard. Bit too tired still for that. I'll walk. It's only 12 kilometres (7.46 miles) and it's along the water all the way. Very nice. 12 kays is not much longer than the Long March, my first long walk on the Peninsula. I've lost a bit of endurance since then so I'll have to build it back up again. Started today. Nothing major. Just walked a bit longer than last time.
I can also find out why so many ambulances today. Fire trucks and the police go howling off from the stations here on the Peninsula three or four times a week. They go up Woy Woy Bay Road through The Bays and up onto the F3, which is the motorway between Sydney and Newcastle. Over the weekend, with the fires and whatnot, it's been non-stop sirens. On my way home an ambulance howled past one way then howled past again a few minutes later heading for Gosford hospital. Hope it wasn't picking up another of the Dear Old Things from here. They been dropping like flies, poor things, and not coming back. Strokes mostly.
On a more cheerful note, it's not hot today. Only 30 (86 F) and there's a gentle but cool breeze. Even the flies were not blackening the skies as they have been. Down in Fagan's Bay in a tiny nameless cove, I sat on a park bench next to the cycle path for a bit. The path was pretty busy. Retirees striding along, high school kids cruising past on their deadly treadlies, young mums stopping for a chat. A small kid picked his nose while his mother wasn't paying attention and fed it to the dog. The water was past the high tide mark but the tide was still running in and the grass on one side of the cove was flooding. Christmas king tides. It was pleasant sitting there looking out past the mangroves to the mangrove shore on the opposite side of the bay. I could see the roof of Spotlight (cheap towels & made-to-measure blinds), OfficeWorks (cheap desks & gormless delivery) and a series of low red roofs that turned out to be the Leisure Living Retirement Village.
Fagan Park was another nice spot to sit. It's mostly an oval (sports field) with the ubiquitous cricket pitch in the middle but along the edges there's a wide strip of trees and down at the cycle path end there's a small grove of tall pines. Beautifully shady. Mynahs were twittering over something interesting and some Council guys were lunching near the scout hall. A nice enough spot but not nearly as scenic a lunch spot as some of Dodderyoldfart's. A couple of magpies were warbling in a tree nearby and there wasn't much traffic on the road.
Come next June the Bay to Bay Fun Run will go pounding along that path. There was one last year, organised by some crowd calling themselves the Terrigal Trotters. Love the name. I'm tempted to organise a Woy Woy team just so we can call ourselves the Peninsula Pigs' Feet.
Anyways, I'll get onto them and see if they're doing another run next year. Not that I'd be running the bastard. Bit too tired still for that. I'll walk. It's only 12 kilometres (7.46 miles) and it's along the water all the way. Very nice. 12 kays is not much longer than the Long March, my first long walk on the Peninsula. I've lost a bit of endurance since then so I'll have to build it back up again. Started today. Nothing major. Just walked a bit longer than last time.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
More Phegans Bay Photos
From The Bays #2 - Brisbane Water Walk #6.
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Downtown Phegans Bay on a busy weekday morning. The houses are on Phegans Bay Road. The boatshed is at the broken jetty. The ridge separates Phegans from Woy Woy Bay. Woy Woy itself is on the right out of frame.
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With the clouds coming and going, the light was changing constantly. These 3 photos were taken between 8.30 and 10.30 AM the same day.
On the left: Gurdon Park on the tip of the ridge that separates Woy Woy Bay from Phegan's.
On the right: Woy Woy. The hill is either Blackwall Mountain or Daley's Point. Hard to tell from this angle.
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On the left: Woy Woy Road, Woy Woy. The ambulances and firetrucks go howling up this road to the F3 almost daily. The F3 (motorway/intercity highway) connects Sydney to Newcastle.
On the right: Horsfield Bay is behind the ridge. There's 4 bays in The Bays. Woy Woy Bay, Phegans, Horsfield and Deadman's (AKA Correa).
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Downtown Phegans Bay on a busy weekday morning. The houses are on Phegans Bay Road. The boatshed is at the broken jetty. The ridge separates Phegans from Woy Woy Bay. Woy Woy itself is on the right out of frame.
(Big version)
With the clouds coming and going, the light was changing constantly. These 3 photos were taken between 8.30 and 10.30 AM the same day.
On the left: Gurdon Park on the tip of the ridge that separates Woy Woy Bay from Phegan's.
On the right: Woy Woy. The hill is either Blackwall Mountain or Daley's Point. Hard to tell from this angle.
(Big version)
On the left: Woy Woy Road, Woy Woy. The ambulances and firetrucks go howling up this road to the F3 almost daily. The F3 (motorway/intercity highway) connects Sydney to Newcastle.
On the right: Horsfield Bay is behind the ridge. There's 4 bays in The Bays. Woy Woy Bay, Phegans, Horsfield and Deadman's (AKA Correa).
Friday, December 09, 2005
Fairlight - Point Clare #3 - Brisbane Water Walk #8
I must be doing something right because I get plenty of pussy. This one ran out from its garden meowing at me. A pretty little grey thing with a white nose and chest. I stopped and gave it a few nice firm backrubs and it wound itself tight round my leg. People say cats don't like their tails touched but I've always found the opposite to be true. Wrap your fist round it firmly but don't tug too hard. (This works on certain other creatures as well.)
Got going fairly early this morning. Six thirty. By seven the cicadas had started and the flies were bad. The birds were twittering like Christmas came early so maybe it's going to rain today after all. I bloody hope so. It'd cut the humidity a bit. There was the heavy perfume of gardenias in Fiona Street and a mynah bird plucking small orange fruit out of a palm tree and chucking them to the ground.
There's quite a steep hill on Fiona Street and a decent bit of view down into Fagan's Bay. It's a small fairly muddy bay lined with thick mangroves, more of a cove than a bay. The other side of it is West Gosford and the Garner Adcock Memorial Park with all its sports fields.
'Fairlight' is a lovely cottage with wide verandas at No10 Welwyn Avenue. My hist list has it as "House, John & Eliza Parr ... c.1910". Looked like there'd been a few repairs over the years but mostly it was original on the outside. Nice big pine beside it too. And before the street filled up in the seventies it would've had a clear view across Fagan's Bay to the race track at West Gosford and to Gosford and Longnose (AKA Point Frederick).
At the end of Welwyn is the pedestrian thingy under the train. Cyclists and walkers were coming through it in droves when I was down at TS Hawkesbury the other day. My map (this year's street directory) shows the cycle path as starting at Collard Road but it actually starts at the pedestrian thingy. I followed it round until I came to a lane back onto the streets. Nice and shady, the cycle path. Bloody noisy with pink-and-greys (galahs) at that hour but nice. Couldn't see that bay for mangroves and feral monsteria but there was plenty of shade from the pines and the path was nice and wind-y like all good paths should be.
Jason and the argonauts were at work on the trees. The argonauts anyways, maybe Jason was at the office doing the paperwork. They had a truck and a cherry-picker and called themselves "Argonauts Tree & Timber Service". There's also a bloke who does gardens and calls himself "The Lawn Ranger".
By 8.30 I was bloody hot and covered in fly tracks and the streets were filling up with reluctant sprogs dragging themselves off to school. There were cumulus going down to Sydney but none for us and the rain's not due till Sunday. I got on the bus and I was coming in as next door was going out.
Got going fairly early this morning. Six thirty. By seven the cicadas had started and the flies were bad. The birds were twittering like Christmas came early so maybe it's going to rain today after all. I bloody hope so. It'd cut the humidity a bit. There was the heavy perfume of gardenias in Fiona Street and a mynah bird plucking small orange fruit out of a palm tree and chucking them to the ground.
There's quite a steep hill on Fiona Street and a decent bit of view down into Fagan's Bay. It's a small fairly muddy bay lined with thick mangroves, more of a cove than a bay. The other side of it is West Gosford and the Garner Adcock Memorial Park with all its sports fields.
'Fairlight' is a lovely cottage with wide verandas at No10 Welwyn Avenue. My hist list has it as "House, John & Eliza Parr ... c.1910". Looked like there'd been a few repairs over the years but mostly it was original on the outside. Nice big pine beside it too. And before the street filled up in the seventies it would've had a clear view across Fagan's Bay to the race track at West Gosford and to Gosford and Longnose (AKA Point Frederick).
At the end of Welwyn is the pedestrian thingy under the train. Cyclists and walkers were coming through it in droves when I was down at TS Hawkesbury the other day. My map (this year's street directory) shows the cycle path as starting at Collard Road but it actually starts at the pedestrian thingy. I followed it round until I came to a lane back onto the streets. Nice and shady, the cycle path. Bloody noisy with pink-and-greys (galahs) at that hour but nice. Couldn't see that bay for mangroves and feral monsteria but there was plenty of shade from the pines and the path was nice and wind-y like all good paths should be.
Jason and the argonauts were at work on the trees. The argonauts anyways, maybe Jason was at the office doing the paperwork. They had a truck and a cherry-picker and called themselves "Argonauts Tree & Timber Service". There's also a bloke who does gardens and calls himself "The Lawn Ranger".
By 8.30 I was bloody hot and covered in fly tracks and the streets were filling up with reluctant sprogs dragging themselves off to school. There were cumulus going down to Sydney but none for us and the rain's not due till Sunday. I got on the bus and I was coming in as next door was going out.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Photos from The Bays #2
From The Bays #2 - Brisbane Water Walk #6.
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Looking across at Woy Woy from the top of Central Avenue.
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When good reno's happen to ugly houses. Look at the brick foundation on the left side and you'll see that this was once some hideous seventies house. Looks waaaaay better now.
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'Geebung'. Looking at the bits added on and the pitch of the original part of the roof, I'm putting this one at 1890 - 1920 for the original fishing shack-sized building and its front veranda, with the left side lean-to, the brick piers (stumps) and the piers under the water tank out the back at post-war 1940s.
(Big version)
'Minerva' is on Phegan's Bay Road in Phegan's Bay and my research tells me she's circa 1920. Which puts her construction at 5 years after the Federation style (circa 1890 - circa 1915).
She's also about twice as big as she looks due to several lean-tos on the back. Lean-tos being the standard method of adding space to such houses and, when the sewage came to town, of enclosing the old dunny within a nice new washhouse (bathroom & laundry).
From The Bays #1 - Brisbane Water Walk #6.
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The wee blue boathouse at the shore end of the jetty has a lace curtain in its single window. Taken standing in front of 'Minerva'.
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1920s for this one I think or maybe 1930s.
A minute after I took this photo a floppy-eared goat baaed at me and gazed down at me over the edge of the terrace.
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This is a mural painted inside the bus stop at the bottom of Phegan's Bay Road. It's taken from an old photo which one of half a dozen on the walls of the bus stop. Given the amount of weathering from wind and spray in that spot, using the inside of the bus stop as historical display seems a bloody good idea.
The house in the foreground is Phegan's. Phegan ran a ferry service in The Bays around 1900. The house is gone now and the bus stop stands about where the back left corner of the house was.
(Big version)
Looking across at Woy Woy from the top of Central Avenue.
(Big version)
When good reno's happen to ugly houses. Look at the brick foundation on the left side and you'll see that this was once some hideous seventies house. Looks waaaaay better now.
(Big version)
'Geebung'. Looking at the bits added on and the pitch of the original part of the roof, I'm putting this one at 1890 - 1920 for the original fishing shack-sized building and its front veranda, with the left side lean-to, the brick piers (stumps) and the piers under the water tank out the back at post-war 1940s.
(Big version)
'Minerva' is on Phegan's Bay Road in Phegan's Bay and my research tells me she's circa 1920. Which puts her construction at 5 years after the Federation style (circa 1890 - circa 1915).
She's also about twice as big as she looks due to several lean-tos on the back. Lean-tos being the standard method of adding space to such houses and, when the sewage came to town, of enclosing the old dunny within a nice new washhouse (bathroom & laundry).
From The Bays #1 - Brisbane Water Walk #6.
(Big version)
The wee blue boathouse at the shore end of the jetty has a lace curtain in its single window. Taken standing in front of 'Minerva'.
(Big version)
1920s for this one I think or maybe 1930s.
A minute after I took this photo a floppy-eared goat baaed at me and gazed down at me over the edge of the terrace.
(Big version)
This is a mural painted inside the bus stop at the bottom of Phegan's Bay Road. It's taken from an old photo which one of half a dozen on the walls of the bus stop. Given the amount of weathering from wind and spray in that spot, using the inside of the bus stop as historical display seems a bloody good idea.
The house in the foreground is Phegan's. Phegan ran a ferry service in The Bays around 1900. The house is gone now and the bus stop stands about where the back left corner of the house was.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Mount Penang - Pt Clare #3 - Brisbane Water Walk #8
Another shortish walk, an hour and a half. But I found a house I've been looking for since I got my hist list. Every time I go past the corner of Penang Street on the bus to Gosford, I look for the 1907 house and don't find it. And no wonder. It's barely visble from Penang and not visible from Brisbane water Drive unless you know exactly where to look (beside the retirement village opposite the B&B).
It's a nice old Federation cottage with flat arched windows and a large frangipani at the front. Flat arches are those vertical rows of bricks over a window and they're not often arched. The chimneys were great. Tall elegant concrete things topped by the standard terracotta pepperpots of the time. The veranda wasn't wrap-around. I could see only the back, one side and the front but the back had no veranda. There was a small 1940s garage there instead. The roof had red 1940s tiles on it too, no shingles. But with all those big gums across the front of the block dropping their leaves on it, a shingle roof would've been well and truly buggered by the forties.
Mount Penang isn't the oficial name of the hill Penang Street goes up, but it's steep in places so I'm betting the locals call it Mount Penang. The garbage truck had to heave itself up the steepest part in low gear and turning round at the top didn't look like a picnic. It's a dead end like so many of the streets on the ridgesides. At the top there's a trail going up into the bush. It's not part of the Great North Walk. It goes from Pt Clare to Park's Bay and looking at my contour map it's along the ridgetop or just behind it.
The name of Penang Street interests me. The houses are forties and seventies plus a few sixties. Penang is famous in Australia (and America) due to the Vietnam war. So the timing of naming the street Penang interests me. I'm thinking, with all the kerfuffle about the war in the seventies it wasn't named Penang then. Another item for my research when I get back to it. Which is looking like after Christmas.
From the top end of Penang The view was not bad. Between the trees on my right I could see Gosford and I'd bet ten bucks the house on that side of the road could see down into the cool green water of Fagan's Bay. Dead ahead was Longnose (Point Frederick) with Ironbark Point and the hill of Terrigal behind it like layer cake. It was a hazy day and the hills and ridges I was looking at were still in shadow. They were dark green and soft with haze and the water was blinding silver with the morning sun on it. The wind had died down again. The cicadas were going mental on the ridgeside behind me and the sweat was trickling down my spine. I took a picture and scurried off into the shade.
There was a beautiful wind at dawn. Soft and cool. The sky was overcast and it looked like a cool morning ahead. But the wind kept dying away and it was hot and sticky. As I was coming home people were plodding miserably along the footpaths to the station, already sweaty. There's a slight breeze coming in the window now but I can feel the heat off next door's roof. Afternoon storms forecast again. Can't hardly wait.
It's a nice old Federation cottage with flat arched windows and a large frangipani at the front. Flat arches are those vertical rows of bricks over a window and they're not often arched. The chimneys were great. Tall elegant concrete things topped by the standard terracotta pepperpots of the time. The veranda wasn't wrap-around. I could see only the back, one side and the front but the back had no veranda. There was a small 1940s garage there instead. The roof had red 1940s tiles on it too, no shingles. But with all those big gums across the front of the block dropping their leaves on it, a shingle roof would've been well and truly buggered by the forties.
Mount Penang isn't the oficial name of the hill Penang Street goes up, but it's steep in places so I'm betting the locals call it Mount Penang. The garbage truck had to heave itself up the steepest part in low gear and turning round at the top didn't look like a picnic. It's a dead end like so many of the streets on the ridgesides. At the top there's a trail going up into the bush. It's not part of the Great North Walk. It goes from Pt Clare to Park's Bay and looking at my contour map it's along the ridgetop or just behind it.
The name of Penang Street interests me. The houses are forties and seventies plus a few sixties. Penang is famous in Australia (and America) due to the Vietnam war. So the timing of naming the street Penang interests me. I'm thinking, with all the kerfuffle about the war in the seventies it wasn't named Penang then. Another item for my research when I get back to it. Which is looking like after Christmas.
From the top end of Penang The view was not bad. Between the trees on my right I could see Gosford and I'd bet ten bucks the house on that side of the road could see down into the cool green water of Fagan's Bay. Dead ahead was Longnose (Point Frederick) with Ironbark Point and the hill of Terrigal behind it like layer cake. It was a hazy day and the hills and ridges I was looking at were still in shadow. They were dark green and soft with haze and the water was blinding silver with the morning sun on it. The wind had died down again. The cicadas were going mental on the ridgeside behind me and the sweat was trickling down my spine. I took a picture and scurried off into the shade.
There was a beautiful wind at dawn. Soft and cool. The sky was overcast and it looked like a cool morning ahead. But the wind kept dying away and it was hot and sticky. As I was coming home people were plodding miserably along the footpaths to the station, already sweaty. There's a slight breeze coming in the window now but I can feel the heat off next door's roof. Afternoon storms forecast again. Can't hardly wait.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
More photos from The Bays #1
Read The Bays walk #1.
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A quiet day on a quiet bay.
Taken from Gurdon Park off the end of Taylor Street.
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Private jetties out over the shallows.
Taken from the end of Bassan Street off Taylor.
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The lower landing of the public jetty at the end of Bassan Street at high tide. It was cool and peaceful.
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A passerby told me the green house was the ferryman's house and the rotting hull is the remains of Phegan's ferry from the late 19th or early 20th century.
Taken from Gurdon Park off the end of Taylor Street.
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More private jetties. Wherever there are suburbs around Brisbane Water there are private jetties.
The hill on the right is Skion Kop. There is definitely no TV repeater (signal relay tower) on it. It's on the ridge above Koolewong and Park's Bay.
(Big version)
A quiet day on a quiet bay.
Taken from Gurdon Park off the end of Taylor Street.
Big version)
Private jetties out over the shallows.
Taken from the end of Bassan Street off Taylor.
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The lower landing of the public jetty at the end of Bassan Street at high tide. It was cool and peaceful.
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A passerby told me the green house was the ferryman's house and the rotting hull is the remains of Phegan's ferry from the late 19th or early 20th century.
Taken from Gurdon Park off the end of Taylor Street.
(Big version)
More private jetties. Wherever there are suburbs around Brisbane Water there are private jetties.
The hill on the right is Skion Kop. There is definitely no TV repeater (signal relay tower) on it. It's on the ridge above Koolewong and Park's Bay.
Monday, December 05, 2005
First fly of Summer - Pt Clare #2 - Brisbane Water Walk #8
Swallowed one today. Not that, you filthy creatures! My first fly of the summer. Bloody things were swarming thick and early. It didn't get all the way down my gullet though it had a bloody good try. I felt it tickle and yacked it up. As soon as I said, "Fly!" my fellow commuters were okay with the yacking. Yack up anything else in public and it's gross but a fly recieves the utmost sympathy.
The forecast for today is 32 hot stinking degrees (89.6 F) and it was already warm at quarter to six this morning and it's touching hot now.
So anyway, I marched off and did about an hour at Point Clare. Took my hist list this time and found one item on it and the place where another had been. "Shop, 'Theroy', 59 Brisbane Water Drive ... c.1920" is still there. It's the old white shop next to the new pharmacy near the corner of Talinga Avenue. It's empty now, with a 'for lease' sign on it. It's not in bad nick as far as I could see. Bit of peeling paint and so on but nothing major visible from the street. "Shop, Point Clare General Store, 51 Brisbane Water Drive ... c.1920" is long gone. There's a couple of seventies shops on its site there at the corner of Talinga. A Thai restaurant and the aquarium shop.
Today's streets were mostly forties houses. Very few seventies, a refreshing change. A dozen or more fifties, half a dozen eighties and maybe a dozen 1910s - 1920s cottages. There was a forties church in Takari Street, St John's (Anglican). There was no date on it and it looked late Carpenter Gothic (circa 1890 - circa 1915) but the building was not that old. The foundations were the standard 1940s and so were the oleanders behind it. The school next door (Point Clare Primary) also has a weatherboard forties building. They're not in the same style though so maybe it was never a church school. There's nothing about it on their website.
The streets I walked today weren't very high up the ridgeside. High enough though for views across to Presidents Hill in West Gosford, Gosford, the length of Longnose (present name Pt Frederick), Green Point and, from the Takari Street end of Hughes Street, the pointy hill of Saratoga. The water was blue and like glass. Not much cloud and a long con trail low across the sky from north-west to south-east.
I was feeling bloody crook this morning. Plenty of pain. The pain is all through my large intestine. Your large intestine starts just belong your lungs and goes down to your bowel and out towards your sides. So when you get pain through it it's all through your lower torso and when you get bad pain it makes you breathless. Just as well I had only a couple of short slopes on today's walk. The pain's the same if I stay home so I mostly walk through it and just stop for a bit when I can't breathe.
The school bell was just going as I finished and I came home on the bus. The train is a smoother ride but although the bus goes along Brisbane Water Drive and so beside the train, it also darts off on little excursions up onto the ridgeside. You get better views and you see more of the suburbs. Today I noticed a lift (elevator) I hadn't seen when I walked its street last month. It was at the back of a carport. The ridgeside dropped like a stone from the road's edge and I couldn't even see the roof of the house. The carport must've been on forty foot poles at the back. The lift had a slit window in its door and the lift itself looked wide and deep enough to fit one skinny person holding their breath. Apart from seeing the views and conquering the hill streets, my other ridge-related ambition is to see one of those private funiculars in use. Barring that, watching someone squeeze into that lift will do.
The forecast for today is 32 hot stinking degrees (89.6 F) and it was already warm at quarter to six this morning and it's touching hot now.
So anyway, I marched off and did about an hour at Point Clare. Took my hist list this time and found one item on it and the place where another had been. "Shop, 'Theroy', 59 Brisbane Water Drive ... c.1920" is still there. It's the old white shop next to the new pharmacy near the corner of Talinga Avenue. It's empty now, with a 'for lease' sign on it. It's not in bad nick as far as I could see. Bit of peeling paint and so on but nothing major visible from the street. "Shop, Point Clare General Store, 51 Brisbane Water Drive ... c.1920" is long gone. There's a couple of seventies shops on its site there at the corner of Talinga. A Thai restaurant and the aquarium shop.
Today's streets were mostly forties houses. Very few seventies, a refreshing change. A dozen or more fifties, half a dozen eighties and maybe a dozen 1910s - 1920s cottages. There was a forties church in Takari Street, St John's (Anglican). There was no date on it and it looked late Carpenter Gothic (circa 1890 - circa 1915) but the building was not that old. The foundations were the standard 1940s and so were the oleanders behind it. The school next door (Point Clare Primary) also has a weatherboard forties building. They're not in the same style though so maybe it was never a church school. There's nothing about it on their website.
The streets I walked today weren't very high up the ridgeside. High enough though for views across to Presidents Hill in West Gosford, Gosford, the length of Longnose (present name Pt Frederick), Green Point and, from the Takari Street end of Hughes Street, the pointy hill of Saratoga. The water was blue and like glass. Not much cloud and a long con trail low across the sky from north-west to south-east.
I was feeling bloody crook this morning. Plenty of pain. The pain is all through my large intestine. Your large intestine starts just belong your lungs and goes down to your bowel and out towards your sides. So when you get pain through it it's all through your lower torso and when you get bad pain it makes you breathless. Just as well I had only a couple of short slopes on today's walk. The pain's the same if I stay home so I mostly walk through it and just stop for a bit when I can't breathe.
The school bell was just going as I finished and I came home on the bus. The train is a smoother ride but although the bus goes along Brisbane Water Drive and so beside the train, it also darts off on little excursions up onto the ridgeside. You get better views and you see more of the suburbs. Today I noticed a lift (elevator) I hadn't seen when I walked its street last month. It was at the back of a carport. The ridgeside dropped like a stone from the road's edge and I couldn't even see the roof of the house. The carport must've been on forty foot poles at the back. The lift had a slit window in its door and the lift itself looked wide and deep enough to fit one skinny person holding their breath. Apart from seeing the views and conquering the hill streets, my other ridge-related ambition is to see one of those private funiculars in use. Barring that, watching someone squeeze into that lift will do.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Photo from The Bays #1 - Brisbane Water Walk #6
Read The Bays #1.
(Big version)
Taken from the end of Taylor Street.
(Big version)
(Big version)
(Big version)
Do not let one of these run up you. It's painful.
(Big version)
Potential storm clouds heading down to Sydney.
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Waterfall Bay. That's Skion Kop on the left and the back of the ridge above Park's Bay and Koolewong on the right.
(Big version)
Beautiful Federation (probably) house on the corner of Taylor Street and Meena Road. Apparently owned by Della Bosca who appears to be the Minister For Everything Else for NSW.
(Big version)
Right side of the house.
(Big version)
Left side of the house.
P.S.
It's not you, it's the comments thingy again. I couldn't comment on Vamp's blog earlier today. It's a conspiracy I tell yer.
(Big version)
Taken from the end of Taylor Street.
(Big version)
(Big version)
(Big version)
Do not let one of these run up you. It's painful.
(Big version)
Potential storm clouds heading down to Sydney.
(Big version)
Waterfall Bay. That's Skion Kop on the left and the back of the ridge above Park's Bay and Koolewong on the right.
(Big version)
Beautiful Federation (probably) house on the corner of Taylor Street and Meena Road. Apparently owned by Della Bosca who appears to be the Minister For Everything Else for NSW.
(Big version)
Right side of the house.
(Big version)
Left side of the house.
P.S.
It's not you, it's the comments thingy again. I couldn't comment on Vamp's blog earlier today. It's a conspiracy I tell yer.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Photos from Tascott walk #2 - Tortured
From Tortured - Tascott #2 - Brisbane Water walk #5.
(Big version)
There you go, Suzanne, a cocky up close. Sulphur-crested cockatoo escaping from the papparazzi. These are the ones that fly low over you and deafen you with one screech.
(Big version)
Pleasant house on Murrumbooee Road. House 1900s - 1940s, gable with pendant & finial, bullnose veranda and fence late 1980s Federation repro.
In other news
Imagine my surprise when I went to the NaNoEdMo site to log in and start work. It's not this month, it's March next year. Huh. There I was all revved up for a month of hard-core editing.
In the meantime I'm having a read of Holly Lisle's thingy for a giggle. Especially the bit about overcoats.
And the "But" characters in another of Holly's thingies are why I don't belong to any formal writers' groups.
(Big version)
There you go, Suzanne, a cocky up close. Sulphur-crested cockatoo escaping from the papparazzi. These are the ones that fly low over you and deafen you with one screech.
(Big version)
Pleasant house on Murrumbooee Road. House 1900s - 1940s, gable with pendant & finial, bullnose veranda and fence late 1980s Federation repro.
In other news
Imagine my surprise when I went to the NaNoEdMo site to log in and start work. It's not this month, it's March next year. Huh. There I was all revved up for a month of hard-core editing.
In the meantime I'm having a read of Holly Lisle's thingy for a giggle. Especially the bit about overcoats.
And the "But" characters in another of Holly's thingies are why I don't belong to any formal writers' groups.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Photos from Tascott walk #1 - Changing of the guard
From Changing of the Guard - Tascott #1 - Brisbane Water Walk #5.
(Big version)
Looking along the ridge and Brisbane Water Drive to Koolewong from Kateena Avenue.
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Bachelor brush turkey on Kateena Avenue.
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Morning peak hour on Brisbane Water Road looking from opposite Tascott station.
Updated the progress map as well. Go here for a big version or have a gander in the whatsit on the right.
(Big version)
Looking along the ridge and Brisbane Water Drive to Koolewong from Kateena Avenue.
(Big version)
Bachelor brush turkey on Kateena Avenue.
(Big version)
Morning peak hour on Brisbane Water Road looking from opposite Tascott station.
Updated the progress map as well. Go here for a big version or have a gander in the whatsit on the right.
Rabbits & promises - Pt Clare #1 - Brisbane Water walk #8
Haven't finished #6 or #7 of my Brisbane Water walks but I'm on #8 already.
#6 is The Bays. Started The Bays in November and haven't finished them yet.
#7 is Kincumber. The last three weeks have been all over the place. Had to go up to Kincumber a few times so I walked while I was there. Haven't yet sorted out the photos to blog with them. Yep, photos attached to their walkies posts! How cool is that?
Okay, on with #8, today's walk. The forecast promised "possibly violent" storms this afternoon and getting back from The Bays is a pain in the arse. So I thought, Fuck it, I'll start Point Clare and get home in time to enjoy these possibly violent storms in the comfort of my own home.
Point Clare is piss easy to get to. Leap on any bus in the low 50s at Woy Woy station and leap off at Point Clare shops. Point Clare is a squarish sort of peninsula with Noonan Point at the Woy Woy end and Point Clare itself at the Gosford end.
Noonan Point is nearly opposite the tip of Longnose (its current name's Point Frederick but it used to be called Longnose, which is a much more accurate & fun name). At the end of Noonan Point Avenue there's a rough low sea wall. It's made from purple and orange and golden rocks like the ones along the Woy Woy waterfront. There's ducks by the dozen there, an upturned kayak in the shallows, mangroves and rocks oysters and a long private jetty with a barbeque and a seat. The ducks were quacking and the water was quietly slapping and gulping amongst the rocks.
On my right was the ridge above Tascott and the houses at its foot. The ridge and Brisbane water Drive curved away to the south and the ridge stopped at the Woy Woy end of Koolewong. The Woy Woy station area was hidden by the ridge but I could see the pines in the Memorial Park on Brick Wharf Road and Pelican Island low and green in front of them. To the left of the pines was the hulk of Blackwall Mountain. It's a funny bugger. Looks like a small hill from close up but the further away you are the bigger it looks. One of them optical illusions I expect, haze and all that. Anyways, to the left of Pelican Island and in front of Blackwall Mtn, there's that little mangrove islet at the tip of Saratoga then the steep hill of Saratoga itself. And between it and Blackwall Mtn, was The Rip Bridge and Daley's Point and beyond them the distintive shape of Lion Island and, behind that, the lighthouse on Barrenjoey Head. Didn't think know you could see that far from Noonan Point, particularly on a hazy morning.
There were a fair few Federation era (circa 1890 - 1915) houses at Noonan Point, mostly with the usual forties fibro and red-tiled roof renovations. But there's only one place on my hist list for Noonan Pt ("House, 'Katie Dawson's', 15 Alukea Ave... c.1910") and I missed the bastard due to forgetting my list. Been sitting here racking my brains for the memory of all the houses in that street but nada. Ah well. I'll get it next time.
There's a pedestrian tunnel under Point Clare station and another one at Point Clare itself that must come off Welwyn. The Welwyn one comes out at TS Hawkesbury (the TS is for Training Ship) and you wander along a narrow road beside the water until you get to Kurrawa Avenue. TS Hawkesbury consists of an obselete mortar cemented to the ground, flagpole, a large boat shed and jetty and several dozen kayaks in open air racks. Just past TS Hawkesbury is the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol. They share the jetty with the Navy but they have powerboats. They also have rabbits though they may not kno it. Rabbits are not native to Australia. Some dickhead brought them over from the UK (Britain) in the 19th century and we've been trying to get rid of the bastards ever since. You know that movie Rabbit Proof Fence? That fence is real and tells you how desperate we are to get rid of the bloody rabbits. After the rabbits came, some other idiot introduced foxes from the UK to get rid of the rabbits so we got feral bloody foxes to get rid of as well as the feral bloody rabbits.
Anyways, I digress. Stopped beside the water for a while and drank in the view. Immediately opposite me on Longnose was a park. A wide strip of grass down to the water and a single large tree at the top end of it. Not marked on my map but it looked like it's between Spears and Dunn Streets. I'll find out when I walk Longnose.
It was a pleasant spot but not particularly quiet, not at that hour. The throb of early peak hour traffic came across the water from Gosford and I could see it jerking and flowing at the lights by the pool on Dane Drive. Out on the still silver water a couple of blokes were sitting silently in a tinny, hunched over their rods. Behind me the narrow shady road was fairly busy with walkers and joggers and cyclists and dog walkers. A couple of cattle dogs bolted from their owner and plunged into the water after a duck. Another dog passing by bolted as well. I heard the clatter of claws on bitumen and a despairing "Nooooooo!" from its owner then I got a warm wet nose up the bum. I turned around and there was a grinning mongrel and its embarrassed owner. I must smell pretty good bcause I've had a lot of dogs' noses up the bum over the years. I'm way past embarrassment. They usually just want a scratch, the nose thing is the canine handshake. This one slobbered on me a bit and thumped its tail and was dragged away still grinning.
I did a few more streets after that. The sun came out in the last few minutes of my walk and the flies started to swarm thick and bold. If there was a poll I think the prize would go to Lightly But Persistently Alighting On The Ears with Swooping In And Straight Up The Nose coming second. Perching On The Tip Of The Nose And Making People Cross-eyed With Rage would run a close third.
Got the train back from Point Clare station and by the time I got back home half an hour later the sky had clouded over again and a cool wind started. Looks like we'll have those possibly violent storms in a couple of hours. Excellent.
#6 is The Bays. Started The Bays in November and haven't finished them yet.
#7 is Kincumber. The last three weeks have been all over the place. Had to go up to Kincumber a few times so I walked while I was there. Haven't yet sorted out the photos to blog with them. Yep, photos attached to their walkies posts! How cool is that?
Okay, on with #8, today's walk. The forecast promised "possibly violent" storms this afternoon and getting back from The Bays is a pain in the arse. So I thought, Fuck it, I'll start Point Clare and get home in time to enjoy these possibly violent storms in the comfort of my own home.
Point Clare is piss easy to get to. Leap on any bus in the low 50s at Woy Woy station and leap off at Point Clare shops. Point Clare is a squarish sort of peninsula with Noonan Point at the Woy Woy end and Point Clare itself at the Gosford end.
Noonan Point is nearly opposite the tip of Longnose (its current name's Point Frederick but it used to be called Longnose, which is a much more accurate & fun name). At the end of Noonan Point Avenue there's a rough low sea wall. It's made from purple and orange and golden rocks like the ones along the Woy Woy waterfront. There's ducks by the dozen there, an upturned kayak in the shallows, mangroves and rocks oysters and a long private jetty with a barbeque and a seat. The ducks were quacking and the water was quietly slapping and gulping amongst the rocks.
On my right was the ridge above Tascott and the houses at its foot. The ridge and Brisbane water Drive curved away to the south and the ridge stopped at the Woy Woy end of Koolewong. The Woy Woy station area was hidden by the ridge but I could see the pines in the Memorial Park on Brick Wharf Road and Pelican Island low and green in front of them. To the left of the pines was the hulk of Blackwall Mountain. It's a funny bugger. Looks like a small hill from close up but the further away you are the bigger it looks. One of them optical illusions I expect, haze and all that. Anyways, to the left of Pelican Island and in front of Blackwall Mtn, there's that little mangrove islet at the tip of Saratoga then the steep hill of Saratoga itself. And between it and Blackwall Mtn, was The Rip Bridge and Daley's Point and beyond them the distintive shape of Lion Island and, behind that, the lighthouse on Barrenjoey Head. Didn't think know you could see that far from Noonan Point, particularly on a hazy morning.
There were a fair few Federation era (circa 1890 - 1915) houses at Noonan Point, mostly with the usual forties fibro and red-tiled roof renovations. But there's only one place on my hist list for Noonan Pt ("House, 'Katie Dawson's', 15 Alukea Ave... c.1910") and I missed the bastard due to forgetting my list. Been sitting here racking my brains for the memory of all the houses in that street but nada. Ah well. I'll get it next time.
There's a pedestrian tunnel under Point Clare station and another one at Point Clare itself that must come off Welwyn. The Welwyn one comes out at TS Hawkesbury (the TS is for Training Ship) and you wander along a narrow road beside the water until you get to Kurrawa Avenue. TS Hawkesbury consists of an obselete mortar cemented to the ground, flagpole, a large boat shed and jetty and several dozen kayaks in open air racks. Just past TS Hawkesbury is the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol. They share the jetty with the Navy but they have powerboats. They also have rabbits though they may not kno it. Rabbits are not native to Australia. Some dickhead brought them over from the UK (Britain) in the 19th century and we've been trying to get rid of the bastards ever since. You know that movie Rabbit Proof Fence? That fence is real and tells you how desperate we are to get rid of the bloody rabbits. After the rabbits came, some other idiot introduced foxes from the UK to get rid of the rabbits so we got feral bloody foxes to get rid of as well as the feral bloody rabbits.
Anyways, I digress. Stopped beside the water for a while and drank in the view. Immediately opposite me on Longnose was a park. A wide strip of grass down to the water and a single large tree at the top end of it. Not marked on my map but it looked like it's between Spears and Dunn Streets. I'll find out when I walk Longnose.
It was a pleasant spot but not particularly quiet, not at that hour. The throb of early peak hour traffic came across the water from Gosford and I could see it jerking and flowing at the lights by the pool on Dane Drive. Out on the still silver water a couple of blokes were sitting silently in a tinny, hunched over their rods. Behind me the narrow shady road was fairly busy with walkers and joggers and cyclists and dog walkers. A couple of cattle dogs bolted from their owner and plunged into the water after a duck. Another dog passing by bolted as well. I heard the clatter of claws on bitumen and a despairing "Nooooooo!" from its owner then I got a warm wet nose up the bum. I turned around and there was a grinning mongrel and its embarrassed owner. I must smell pretty good bcause I've had a lot of dogs' noses up the bum over the years. I'm way past embarrassment. They usually just want a scratch, the nose thing is the canine handshake. This one slobbered on me a bit and thumped its tail and was dragged away still grinning.
I did a few more streets after that. The sun came out in the last few minutes of my walk and the flies started to swarm thick and bold. If there was a poll I think the prize would go to Lightly But Persistently Alighting On The Ears with Swooping In And Straight Up The Nose coming second. Perching On The Tip Of The Nose And Making People Cross-eyed With Rage would run a close third.
Got the train back from Point Clare station and by the time I got back home half an hour later the sky had clouded over again and a cool wind started. Looks like we'll have those possibly violent storms in a couple of hours. Excellent.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Bugger
Spoke too soon. Bloody ISPs! The old one expired 5 minutes after I blogged that I was back online and the new one isn't connected yet. Bastards!
But anyways, here's a picture for you too look at. From my last walk at Tascott.
But anyways, here's a picture for you too look at. From my last walk at Tascott.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Jam tomorrow
Yes, peeps, I'm back. Back online at home and with a shiny new computer.
Will bung up a few photos tomorrow.
Will bung up a few photos tomorrow.
Cool wet silver drops
We had a really beautiful day a couple of Tuesdays ago. It got hot again and muggy. Not as bad as the week before but not great. The sky was clear at dawn but the cumulus had slowly been building up. By lunchtime there were some pretty dark clouds in the west. I went out at one o’clock and as I stood at the bus-stop I heard a rumble of thunder and felt a raindrop on my arm.
It’s a short bus ride into Woy Woy from my place. By the time the bus got to the station the breeze had started to blow. A cool refreshing breeze but not strong enough yet to blow away the flies. By the time I got to the library round the corner the breeze was a wind. The date palms outside the library rustled and people looked up at them and listened to the sound.
From inside the library I could see the tops of the trees behind the Post Office tossing and the agapanthus in the library courtyard were nodding and bowing. I bunged my stuff through the photocopier and went back out into it. The wind was stronger again. The street was clearing, people were scampering for coffee shops and cars. Leaves were flying through the air and forming drifts across the road. The main cloud, with the storms in it, was coming down from the Hunter Valley in the north. There was also some low dark wispy cloud coming in from the south-east. It was moving fast. Cloud normally moves fast in a storm but this cloud was coming in at running speed. I stood at the Post Office and stared at it in the gap between the old Fire Station and the supermarket.
I was finished in town so I walked home. I wanted to stay out in the wind. There’d been a couple more drops while I stood outside the Post Office. As I walked along some more fell. Cool wet silver drops that hit hard. The sun was coming and going in the gaps between the clouds and it lit them perfectly. Against the hill of Phegan’s Bay and the black cloud above it they looked white.
As I walked along the symphony of the wind in the trees changed constantly. It gusted and the trees it gusted through changed. There was the soft constant background of the street trees (gums) and shifting over them the sound of different trees in front yards. Palms at that old white house, a maple a few houses further along, the liquidambar, a frangipani in full leaf and a waft of scent from its wet flowers, the silvery rustle of a lilac tree and the faint clatter of the rain on the leaves of a huge old rose bush.
The thunder came again and the scent of the wet earth started to rise just as I got my key in my front door. Every now and then a dog left out a brief bark but most of them were hiding with their paws over their ears.
By half past two it was storm dark. The palm outside my bathroom window clattered and I could hear the thunder every now and then and the snap of a sheet on a clothesline somewhere nearby. The rain came down suddenly. A beautiful noise on next door’s tin roof. When the wind gusted it pattered on my balcony and on the leaves of my geraniums. God, it was a beautiful afternoon.
It’s a short bus ride into Woy Woy from my place. By the time the bus got to the station the breeze had started to blow. A cool refreshing breeze but not strong enough yet to blow away the flies. By the time I got to the library round the corner the breeze was a wind. The date palms outside the library rustled and people looked up at them and listened to the sound.
From inside the library I could see the tops of the trees behind the Post Office tossing and the agapanthus in the library courtyard were nodding and bowing. I bunged my stuff through the photocopier and went back out into it. The wind was stronger again. The street was clearing, people were scampering for coffee shops and cars. Leaves were flying through the air and forming drifts across the road. The main cloud, with the storms in it, was coming down from the Hunter Valley in the north. There was also some low dark wispy cloud coming in from the south-east. It was moving fast. Cloud normally moves fast in a storm but this cloud was coming in at running speed. I stood at the Post Office and stared at it in the gap between the old Fire Station and the supermarket.
I was finished in town so I walked home. I wanted to stay out in the wind. There’d been a couple more drops while I stood outside the Post Office. As I walked along some more fell. Cool wet silver drops that hit hard. The sun was coming and going in the gaps between the clouds and it lit them perfectly. Against the hill of Phegan’s Bay and the black cloud above it they looked white.
As I walked along the symphony of the wind in the trees changed constantly. It gusted and the trees it gusted through changed. There was the soft constant background of the street trees (gums) and shifting over them the sound of different trees in front yards. Palms at that old white house, a maple a few houses further along, the liquidambar, a frangipani in full leaf and a waft of scent from its wet flowers, the silvery rustle of a lilac tree and the faint clatter of the rain on the leaves of a huge old rose bush.
The thunder came again and the scent of the wet earth started to rise just as I got my key in my front door. Every now and then a dog left out a brief bark but most of them were hiding with their paws over their ears.
By half past two it was storm dark. The palm outside my bathroom window clattered and I could hear the thunder every now and then and the snap of a sheet on a clothesline somewhere nearby. The rain came down suddenly. A beautiful noise on next door’s tin roof. When the wind gusted it pattered on my balcony and on the leaves of my geraniums. God, it was a beautiful afternoon.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Effing and Blinding
Thank Christ the comments thingy is back on and my links column is back as well. I was starting to get rather paranoid re my recent computing catastrophies.
No news yet on a new proper site. Will update you as soon as I get it.
No news yet on a new proper site. Will update you as soon as I get it.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
The Bays #2 - Brisbane Water Walks #6
Bloody near froze to death yesterday. Went off to The Bays again. That's Woy Woy Bay, Phegan's Bay and Deadman's (AKA Correa) Bay. It was a beautiful stormy afternoon Tuesday and Tuesday night was cool enough for a quilt. Shoulda took a jacket Wednesday but the old brain was still asleep.
Anyways. It was rather pleasant. I did a circular walk that took me up hill and down dale then back to where I started.
There was a quirky old place on the waterfront section of Phegan's Bay Road, a wee cottage called "Geebung". Geebung is from a rather funny Banjo Paterson poem. This place looked like it'd been a tiny one-room fishing shack built around 1900. I'd say there was a veranda on the front of it then. Once you've done the fishing you need a veranda to drink and boast on. The next lot of building visible was around the forties. Fibro (asbestos sheeting) extension at the side and back, wooden or stone foundation stumps relaced with the classic forties brick ones, and the amateur concreting under the Hills' hoist. Delicious.
Further along at No 62 there's a house called 'Minerva'. Minerva, according to my hist list, is circa 1920. It's still going strong up there on the rise and has a rather pleasant view across to Woy Woy.
Round the corner at Nos 10 - 18 my hist list has "Houses (5) 'Eric' et al ... c.1915/18". 12, 14 (Eric), 16 and 18 are still there. Where No 10 should be there's someone's 1970s or 80s driveway.
No 18 is a seventies brick-over job but the "1915/18" roofline is still there and it's got some Federation repro in the form of iron lace and wooden cut-out trim on its veranda.
No 16 has 40s fibro sheeting down the sides but the clapboard is still on the front and looks in pretty good nick. 16 & Eric have both got 40s concrete steps and a 40s addition at the back as well and I'd bet good money they've both got a 40s or 70s kitchen. No 16 has a seventies sliding door as a front window and Eric has one of those unlovely seventies aluminium frame sliding windows.
No 12 is untouched (on the outside anyways) by the 40s and 70s. But it's not in the besst of health. It's got a significant sag on the right side and leans towards its middle. That sort of thing does the frame no good at all.
From the top of Phegan's Bay Road you can see across to The Excrescence at Ettalong and all the way over the Peninsula to Barrenjoey Head and its lighthouse.
That was the mid point of my walk and from there I wandered back down to the bus-stop on the waterfront. The sun was in and out like a fiddler's elbow all morning and the water was green and bright one minute and beautiful shades of grey the next. The wind was getting up again and it was quite nippy. There was a bit of rain but I cowered in the corner of the bus shelter and enjoyed the view.
The bus shelter was a view as well. There was a big painting behind the seat entitled "James & Annie Phegans waterfront house in the early day's of Phegan's Bay" (their errant apostrophe not mine). It was taken from a photo in an historical advert in a frame next to it. There was a large Federation house right on the waterfront. Nipping out for a look at the terrain between showers, I worked out the house must've been right where the bus-stop and that wide bit of the road is. I was probably sitting on the back left corner of the house. There was another historical advert flogging furnished cottages. The one price I could read looked like 63 pounds. There was another photo, this one of a dangerously overcrowded ferry of grinning people. The women were wearing those wide hats that look like meringues and Gibson Girl blouses so that's early 1900s. There was another photo with a small crowd of adults and kids (plus two dogs) around a car. A woman in that was in a Gibson Girl blouse but the others were wearing what looked like 1910 - 1920s gear. Droopy sailor frocks sorta thing. Couldn't get a make or model off the car. They were all draped all over it.
It was pleasant sitting there waiting for the bus. The galahs screeched and scrawed on the hillsides until the rain started, I could track the progress of the garbage truck from its muffled lifting and clanking noises, the Sydney train sighed as it pulled into Woy Woy station. "All stations Berowra then Strathfield, Redfern and Central, negs top will be Wondabyne, passengers for Wondabye alight from the rear carriage only". Couldn't hear it but I know it by heart. A siren left the copshop in Blackwall Road opposite the library and hurtled off down Ocean Beach Road. Somebody'd thrown a tanty in the TAB perhaps. (For my American viewers, that's chucked a tantrum in the betting shop.) Nearby someone backed a V8 cautiously down a steep driveway, high tide lapped against the rocks and goat baaed at me from the terraced garden of the 1920s house there on the corner. I poked my head round the bus shelter and the goat and I stared at each other for a few minutes.
Looking from the shelter across to the hill with Phegan's Lookout on it (the hill appears to be nameless on all my maps) I was looking at a hill untouched by houses and covered in big old gums swaying in the wind. Between it and me there were a few private jetties and an old falling-down jetty that belong to 'Minerva'. It had a shag perched halfway along it and a tiny blue clapboard boatshed at the shore end. Closer to me there was a small old blue and white dingy riding at a yellow buoy and if I turned my head to the right I could see the old pines at Memorial Park in Woy Woy and beyond them the hills of Saratoga and Daley's Point.
The garbage truck worked its way down the hill and backed up near the bus-stop. Never noticed before but it's got two small spotties beside the taillights. For garbage collecting on dark winter afternoons I presume.
Anyways. It was rather pleasant. I did a circular walk that took me up hill and down dale then back to where I started.
There was a quirky old place on the waterfront section of Phegan's Bay Road, a wee cottage called "Geebung". Geebung is from a rather funny Banjo Paterson poem. This place looked like it'd been a tiny one-room fishing shack built around 1900. I'd say there was a veranda on the front of it then. Once you've done the fishing you need a veranda to drink and boast on. The next lot of building visible was around the forties. Fibro (asbestos sheeting) extension at the side and back, wooden or stone foundation stumps relaced with the classic forties brick ones, and the amateur concreting under the Hills' hoist. Delicious.
Further along at No 62 there's a house called 'Minerva'. Minerva, according to my hist list, is circa 1920. It's still going strong up there on the rise and has a rather pleasant view across to Woy Woy.
Round the corner at Nos 10 - 18 my hist list has "Houses (5) 'Eric' et al ... c.1915/18". 12, 14 (Eric), 16 and 18 are still there. Where No 10 should be there's someone's 1970s or 80s driveway.
No 18 is a seventies brick-over job but the "1915/18" roofline is still there and it's got some Federation repro in the form of iron lace and wooden cut-out trim on its veranda.
No 16 has 40s fibro sheeting down the sides but the clapboard is still on the front and looks in pretty good nick. 16 & Eric have both got 40s concrete steps and a 40s addition at the back as well and I'd bet good money they've both got a 40s or 70s kitchen. No 16 has a seventies sliding door as a front window and Eric has one of those unlovely seventies aluminium frame sliding windows.
No 12 is untouched (on the outside anyways) by the 40s and 70s. But it's not in the besst of health. It's got a significant sag on the right side and leans towards its middle. That sort of thing does the frame no good at all.
From the top of Phegan's Bay Road you can see across to The Excrescence at Ettalong and all the way over the Peninsula to Barrenjoey Head and its lighthouse.
That was the mid point of my walk and from there I wandered back down to the bus-stop on the waterfront. The sun was in and out like a fiddler's elbow all morning and the water was green and bright one minute and beautiful shades of grey the next. The wind was getting up again and it was quite nippy. There was a bit of rain but I cowered in the corner of the bus shelter and enjoyed the view.
The bus shelter was a view as well. There was a big painting behind the seat entitled "James & Annie Phegans waterfront house in the early day's of Phegan's Bay" (their errant apostrophe not mine). It was taken from a photo in an historical advert in a frame next to it. There was a large Federation house right on the waterfront. Nipping out for a look at the terrain between showers, I worked out the house must've been right where the bus-stop and that wide bit of the road is. I was probably sitting on the back left corner of the house. There was another historical advert flogging furnished cottages. The one price I could read looked like 63 pounds. There was another photo, this one of a dangerously overcrowded ferry of grinning people. The women were wearing those wide hats that look like meringues and Gibson Girl blouses so that's early 1900s. There was another photo with a small crowd of adults and kids (plus two dogs) around a car. A woman in that was in a Gibson Girl blouse but the others were wearing what looked like 1910 - 1920s gear. Droopy sailor frocks sorta thing. Couldn't get a make or model off the car. They were all draped all over it.
It was pleasant sitting there waiting for the bus. The galahs screeched and scrawed on the hillsides until the rain started, I could track the progress of the garbage truck from its muffled lifting and clanking noises, the Sydney train sighed as it pulled into Woy Woy station. "All stations Berowra then Strathfield, Redfern and Central, negs top will be Wondabyne, passengers for Wondabye alight from the rear carriage only". Couldn't hear it but I know it by heart. A siren left the copshop in Blackwall Road opposite the library and hurtled off down Ocean Beach Road. Somebody'd thrown a tanty in the TAB perhaps. (For my American viewers, that's chucked a tantrum in the betting shop.) Nearby someone backed a V8 cautiously down a steep driveway, high tide lapped against the rocks and goat baaed at me from the terraced garden of the 1920s house there on the corner. I poked my head round the bus shelter and the goat and I stared at each other for a few minutes.
Looking from the shelter across to the hill with Phegan's Lookout on it (the hill appears to be nameless on all my maps) I was looking at a hill untouched by houses and covered in big old gums swaying in the wind. Between it and me there were a few private jetties and an old falling-down jetty that belong to 'Minerva'. It had a shag perched halfway along it and a tiny blue clapboard boatshed at the shore end. Closer to me there was a small old blue and white dingy riding at a yellow buoy and if I turned my head to the right I could see the old pines at Memorial Park in Woy Woy and beyond them the hills of Saratoga and Daley's Point.
The garbage truck worked its way down the hill and backed up near the bus-stop. Never noticed before but it's got two small spotties beside the taillights. For garbage collecting on dark winter afternoons I presume.
Monday, November 14, 2005
The Bays #1 - Brisbane Water Walk #6
Warm again today but not as stinking hot as last week. Went over to Woy Woy Bay and did a little walk there.
Pleasant spot. Plenty of Federation (circa 1890 - circa 1915) houses still there. Some built in the twenties too I think and plenty in the forties. A dozen fifties places, nothing in the sixties (which is normal for Woy Woy) then a few dozen seventies places and about the same in nineties and noughties new builds or renos (renovations). That's more Federation stuff than I expected and it was very pleasant to find it.
There's a beautiful place on the corner of Taylor and Meena. Owned by Della Bosca who appears to be the Minister For Everything Else for NSW (a Minister is like a Senator). Whatever his politics, his house is beautiful. Federation or maybe a little earlier, judging by the decorative bits. I'll be looking the bugger up and finding out exactly how old it is. The bugger being the house not the Minister For Everything Else. Can't think of much more boring than looking up pollies.
I wandered and drifted along, taking in the glimpses down into Woy Woy Bay and Waterfall Bay and staring at people's houses. A lonely kelpie high up on a balcony barked for attention and watched me with interest as I fiddled about with my camera. As I went I took its photo and it seemed quite pleased with that. I suspect boredom is the No1 killer of Woy Woy's dogs.
There's a park at the end of Taylor Street. Gurdon Park. From there I could keep an eye on the clock across the water next to Woy Woy station. There was a shady seat right down on the water's edge. I sat there and soaked up the breeze and the view.
Grey-bottomed clouds were coming down the F3 from the Hunter, passing over on their way to Sydney. I could see Skion Kop on my left. The TV repeater tower isn't on it afterall, it's on the hill backing Park's Bay. Couldn't see Park's Bay but I could see half the railway bridge you go under to get to it. Beyond that was maybe Caroline Bay. Maybe. Then Green Point and Saratoga with Pelican Island at Woy Woy in front of it. I could see the Bay View pub and the big old pines at Memorial Park. Then the mangroves at the far end of the station then the station with its concrete walkway and the clock behind it then the multi-storey carpark and the crane behind Kmart.
It was a nice spot for a sit down and I stayed there until the bus came. Mind you, I kept an eye out for the black snake that's rumoured to live there.
Pleasant spot. Plenty of Federation (circa 1890 - circa 1915) houses still there. Some built in the twenties too I think and plenty in the forties. A dozen fifties places, nothing in the sixties (which is normal for Woy Woy) then a few dozen seventies places and about the same in nineties and noughties new builds or renos (renovations). That's more Federation stuff than I expected and it was very pleasant to find it.
There's a beautiful place on the corner of Taylor and Meena. Owned by Della Bosca who appears to be the Minister For Everything Else for NSW (a Minister is like a Senator). Whatever his politics, his house is beautiful. Federation or maybe a little earlier, judging by the decorative bits. I'll be looking the bugger up and finding out exactly how old it is. The bugger being the house not the Minister For Everything Else. Can't think of much more boring than looking up pollies.
I wandered and drifted along, taking in the glimpses down into Woy Woy Bay and Waterfall Bay and staring at people's houses. A lonely kelpie high up on a balcony barked for attention and watched me with interest as I fiddled about with my camera. As I went I took its photo and it seemed quite pleased with that. I suspect boredom is the No1 killer of Woy Woy's dogs.
There's a park at the end of Taylor Street. Gurdon Park. From there I could keep an eye on the clock across the water next to Woy Woy station. There was a shady seat right down on the water's edge. I sat there and soaked up the breeze and the view.
Grey-bottomed clouds were coming down the F3 from the Hunter, passing over on their way to Sydney. I could see Skion Kop on my left. The TV repeater tower isn't on it afterall, it's on the hill backing Park's Bay. Couldn't see Park's Bay but I could see half the railway bridge you go under to get to it. Beyond that was maybe Caroline Bay. Maybe. Then Green Point and Saratoga with Pelican Island at Woy Woy in front of it. I could see the Bay View pub and the big old pines at Memorial Park. Then the mangroves at the far end of the station then the station with its concrete walkway and the clock behind it then the multi-storey carpark and the crane behind Kmart.
It was a nice spot for a sit down and I stayed there until the bus came. Mind you, I kept an eye out for the black snake that's rumoured to live there.
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