Dubyas

(Woy Woy Walk #77)

Good day for photos. Clear blue skies. Did some more lanes then the area around the McMasters Road end of Springwood Street. There's half a dozen streets there all starting with W. Waitangi, Warrigal, Waterloo, Warwick, Wallaby, Wyalong and Wyoming. The concentration of fifties houses is high there in that area bounded by McMasters and Gallipoli on the north and south and Ocean Beach Road and Memorial Avnue on the west and east. Another settlement pattern partly uncovered.


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A modern take on the fifties in Inkerman Avenue. This place is taking a long time to build. I went past it in June or July last year and there wasn't much difference.


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Back and front and the original fifties house next door. This is also the best shot of the house next door. It had a big tree in its garden almost entirely obscuring it.


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I'm presuming they'll bung a hedge or some other thick plants in the planter of that fence. That'd look rather pleasant.


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This one looks dead boring until you notice the back going up in the opposite direction. I think it would look pretty good without the carport and the bush in the front garden.


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Thought this one might be all repro at first but looking up under the eaves I could see old white fibro so it's the real deal.


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Not sure if this one's a rental or not. Houses scheduled for demolition or other forms of development tend to be. The veranda looks new enough but that yellow sign in the right corner is a development pre-approval sign. There was the same sign on the house across the road.


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This one's suffered a bit over the years from reno's but the basic shape is still there.


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The blue is nice but this one would look better all in white. Note the tiny flat over the garage out the back. Usually on the Peninsula the whole garage is made into a flat but this sort is common enough.


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It's good to see one still in a fifties colour and without any additions or alterations at the front.

Some of these photos, the ones in full shade for example, need to be re-taken at some point. But I learned my lesson when my favourite old shop was demolished before I got a photo and now I take 'em when I see 'em.

Felt bloody ordinary when I got up this morning. Chunderous and crapulent. But my walk sorted me out. Even though I've been a bit crook (ill) again lately, I'm miles ahead of where I was this time last year and I owe much of that to this walkies business. It's brought me back to life and perked me up with constantly changing scenery.

Whatsit Street

Some more pictures I took yesterday. (Yesterday I said I'd uploaded them to flickr but I was lying.) Some of the shops may or may not be fifties. It's hard to tell sometimes. I'll eventually get accurate info and we can all have a decko at them in the meantime.


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Great beach house. There's a few houses on this street that barely use the view at all. This one uses nearly every square inch of it. Plus I just like the house. Except that evil seventies window on this side, of course. Don't know the age of the bottom part. I'll peer over the fence at it one day when they're not home.


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Quick photo of the view from Ocean Beach. All the photos uploaded today and yesterday were taken with this much light. The rest are tweaked.


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This one's on the beach end of Trafalgar Avenue, just round the corner from West Street.


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Love the prow on the veranda of this shop. It's beside the pawn shop and across the road from the pub on the corner of Trafalgar Avenue.


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I wondered if this group of fifties shops around the Trafalgar Ave corner were earlier buildings updated in the fifties so I went round the corner for a look. The Lifeline shop (beige brick on left, grey fibro on right, brick loo) looks like it was built in place of an earlier shop. I'm using the dunny (outdoor loo) as evidence of that. Building an outside loo in the fifties would be unusual. It's a reno, I'll bet. I'd put money on the shop and that grey building being built fresh in the fifties. Ditto the shop next to it (the white building).

Got a few more Whatsit Street (West Street) photos to bung up next week. Presuming Blogger's working. It won't show me my own site today. Bastard!

Jasmine & Turkey Shit

(Woy Woy Walk #76)

Another cool one this morning. Well, cool for summer anyways. So I nicked off and did a couple of lanes in an area rich in fifties houses. This lot of photos today are only half of what I got. Have a decko at the rest here or wait until I post them tomorrow.


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The trouble with photographing houses on the weekend is you get cars in the driveways. But I'm stuck with walking on the few cool days until winter comes.

And thank Christ it wasn't hot and sunny when I went down the first lane. Someone had an old shed full of turkeys against the back fence and they must reek something cruel on hot days. They were whiffy enough today. Luckily there was a jasmine climber further on and I buried my nose in the last of its blooms.

The summer flowers are starting to die away now. Plenty of frangipanis and roses are still flowering but the brightest flowers are faded or gone. Just a few more weeks until autumn then the deciduous European trees will start to lose their leaves and show their bones against the sky. If we have another warm winter half the plants will flower again and at the end of winter the Magnolia denudata will shed their shady leaves and put out their beautiful flowers.

After I'd wandered the lanes I went into the streets with fifties houses and clicked away like a mad person. Occasionally when I photograph someone's house their head pops up in the window suddenly and they stare at me suspiciously. The Dear Old Things tend to peer out through the screen door after they've found their glasses. I go to the door and explain what I'm doing. It never hurts to allay the fears of Dear Old Things and sometimes it's the only bit of conversation they've had all day.


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It'd be nice to see this house minus that fugly add-on in the front but I suspect it's a rental now and will remain one.


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God, I hate a brick-over on a fifties house. It just looks weird and disturbing. The iron lace valance on the veranda is not helping.


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Love the pitch on this one's roof. It's the steepest I've seen so far on a fifties house on the Peninsula. The foundation is forties or earlier. Check out the forties piers (brick stumps) at the side.


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This place had two goats in the front garden last time I went past. Big floppy-eared buggers that baaed at me in a friendly way. The left half of the house is forties or earlier. No stone or wood piers or brick piers (stumps) but they could be concealed by the fibro of the wall.


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If this house had been white and had a cactus out the front, it would've made my day complete. I think the colour may be classic fifties anyways. I'm not going to add fifties houses to my research burden.

Speaking of my research

I've now got a broad picture of the Peninsula (Woy Woy) and the Brisbane Water/Greater Gosford Area. This means I've been able to narrow my research interests down to:

1. village centres of the Peninsula (Woy Woy, Ettalong, Booker Bay, Umina)

2. origins of street names

3. identifying the architectural styles

4. local celebrities & movers & shakers (Spike Milligan's family, Rock Davis,
etc.)

5. Gosford's convict past (apparently it was a bit of a
rambunctious town)

That's still a lot of research but I'm in no hurry.

Shingles

(Woy Woy Walk #75)

Bit cooler today so I toddled off. We didn't get the promised storm yesterday but there was a bit of a cool breeze last night. Today is grey and overcast.


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Got a couple of views of the old shingled place down on Orange Grove Road. It's listed in my hist list as "hospital (part): former house, Rock Davis ... 1860s". From Orange Grove Road you can only see the roof. The gate's at the end of Cedar Crescent and the block runs from Orange Grove Road down to the water. The old building is heritage listed according to local rumour and the way the new wall and the building don't touch it makes me think the rumour's true.


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Detail of the shingled roof. Shingles were made from thin wood or slate slab. These are slate.


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These are wooden shingles on the roof of a house on McMasters Road. Taken last week.


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Detail of the iron lace. Iron lace is cast or wrought iron veranda railings and other bits on the exterior of a house. It is much loved.


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Wandered off to the foreshore near Blackwall Mountain. There's a lovely old house there painted in Federation cream and red. Could I find the bastard? I could not.

Lurked in the park for a bit enjoying the mistiness and the colours of a grey day. It was low tide and you could see just how shallow most of the water round the Peninsula is.


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More mudflats, Saratoga (hill) and St Huberts Island from Blackwall Road above Blackwall Point. That looks like Green Point in the right background.

Eyebrow-less House

(Woy Woy Walk #74)

Bloody hot again this morning. Steamy and sunny. Not ideal walkies weather but it's been four days since my last walk. The lanes themselves were nothing unusual. Fences and sheds of various colours ages and states of repair. But I enjoy the differences and textures and the way the colours change in the light and with age.


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After I'd done a few lanes I went into a street with quite a few fifties houses in it. This green house I call the Eyebrow-less House. Those two front windows look like eyes and then there's nothing up to the hairline.


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That entrance protruberance there looked fairly new from close up. The front door (on the right side of the protruberance) is a four-panelled job with flowers on the glass part of the panels. Personally I would've gone with fifties repro but each to their own.


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Another renovated fifties place. Next to the house with the protruberance but otherwise unremarkable.

By the time I'd taken my photos it was really starting to heat up. Sweat was dripping onto my map and the viewfinder was steaming up. I tramped off home and glugged down a big bottle of cold water.

Bugger

I was hoping to finish the lanes by the start of autumn (1st of March) but the weather looks like putting the kybosh on that. Such is life. I'll just walk when I can and speed up again in autumn. Can't hardly wait for those nice nippy mornings.

Bingo!

I've pasted a wee video of the lorikeets' feeding frenzy. It might take a minute to show up and load. Let me know if it won't work or goes funny. I'm trying out the free video hosts.

[Video removed 5-2-06 re bandwidth]

Long road

Steve is walking across America. He's three quarters of the way and is walking through Indiana now. Americans might've seen him last week on the Today Show.

Fucked if I know how he does it. Onya, Steve. Keep at it, mate.

Melting moments

Woke up this morning to the faint smell of vomit. Stumbled into the kitchen and the floor was wet and sticky. The smell was strong there. I'd forgotten to close the window and thought one of Downstairs's drunken mates had chundered outside. After a few bleary moments I realised the wet floor and the smell were coming from the fridge.

The bloody thing had widdled itself during the night. It was due for defrosting in about a month but had defrosted on its own and stinky sticky water had trickled out. Great. Looks like I need a new fridge pronto. The old budget will just have to withstand another rogering.

I'm particularly peeved about the mess becuase this morning was half decent walkies weather and I had to waste it cleaning up fridge juice instead.

Ah well. While the next floor-scrubbing effort is drying, I can have a fiddle with Fucckit's video hosting recommends (thanks, mate) and paste that lorikeet video in here for your listening pleasure.

Resting

Got some decent video this morning of those sodding lorikeets twittering and feeding on the flowering gum. Now all I need is a place to upload it. Anyone know of a decent (free) video site?


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The bushfires in the Grampians in Victoria (south-east corner of mainland Australia) are still burning. Must be a week now. Poor bloody farmers and poor bloody fieries. They barely had time for a nap after the fires here then they were off to Victoria and Tassie and WA. Anyways, a guy on flickr has put up some great aerial shots of the Grampians fires. Check out the one of Elvis the tank chopper.

George Street

Went down to Sydney today to see Brokeback Mountain. Train trip from Woy Woy to Central station then a trot up George Street to one of those massive fridge-cold cineplexes.


(Big version) Belmore Park

Chinese New Year celebrations were happening in Belmore Park as I came through from Central. Couldn't see much more than the ears of the dog above the crowd. There was a stall for the Guide Dogs Association (it's the year of the dog) and acrobats round the side of the stage. Didn't have time to linger but the celebrations will be going on for another week or so.


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I love this building. It's on the corner of Parker & Hay Streets between Belmore Park across the road from Central) and Chinatown.

UPDATE, 29th: No trouble picking the style on this one. It's used in the book as an example. Federation Anglo-Dutch (circa 1890 - circa 1915) and it's "Corporation Building (formerly Municipal Building ... George McRae, City Architect, c.1893". I'll be keeping an eye out for his other stuff.


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One of my favourite libraries. The shelves are built into deep niches like narrow rooms.


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I love the wee portico. It could do with a sandblasting though. George Street near the Goulburn Street lights. I'm taking a punt and putting this one in the 19th rather than the early 20th century. Would've looked at the foundation plaques to find out but I was too tired to think.

UPDATE, 29-1-06: Don't know yet when it was built but the design is Victorian Free Gothic or Victorian Tudor (both circa 1840 - circa 1890). They're very similar styles when it comes to red brick churches.

Lucky I didn't fall asleep in Brokeback Mountain. It was excellent. Beautiful landscape shots (it's set in Wyoming I think), decent bit of cloud porn, plenty of blokey reticence. The straight reviewers said "graphic sex scenes". Realistic yes, graphic no. You saw a flash of arse when the American guy hits on Our Heath, some snogging and hugging and another flash of arse later when they went skinnydipping. Check out Cocktalia's photos for nekkid Heath and some other Brokeback photos. Hope my local cinema shows it soon. I want to see it again.


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Went up George Street a bit further after the movie. Love the carved stone window arches on this building. It's the KFC on the corner of George & Bathurst Streets, just across from St Andrew's.

Love the carved stone window arches on this building. It's the KFC on the corner of George & Bathurst Streets, just across from St Andrew's.

UPDATE, 29th: I'm guesstimating the date on these beautiful arches at 1890 - 1900. There was a recession in the 1890s and work like this would've been cheaper to get them. The wear on the sill is hard to date. This building is on the corner of George Street and George Street has been a major thoroughfare since 1788. I can picture a lot of blokes over the years knocking their pipes out on it while they wait for the missus to come out of St Andrew's across the road and probably so horse and cart accidents taking chips off it. The walls on both sides of the corner have damage up to head height.

Straylya Day

It's the 26th of January down here in this wide brown (and singed) land. It's the celebration of Australia's settlement by us whitefellas and the celebration of survival by the blackfellas. Half the country smells like bushfire and, from about ten this morning, the other half will smell like barbecued snags (saugages).


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I was wrenched from slumber at the arse-crack of dawn by the bloody lorikeets outside the window. They're having a feeding frenzy on these trees. All over the Peninsula and wherever these gums are flowering it's the same.


(Big version) In the middle there's one and over on the left hand side. The rest are all perched on top of the flowers and can't be seen. Pity they can't be heard. Talk about raucous.

Mind you, a bit of racket is nothing compared to what's happening in other states. Down in Victoria and Tassie and over in WA the bushfires are still burning. Victoria is expecting wind and 40 degrees (104 F) today. Shit.

Weggly has a satellite photo of the Victoria fires and Mayken has several photos including close-ups of the damage.

Might wander down to hobnob and watch the fireworks tonight. Hopefully they won't set anything on fire.

Collecting

(Woy Woy Walk #73)

Beautifully cool this morning. The forecast said 23 (73.4 F) so I marched off and did a decent walk. The lanes walkies aren't always very exciting but I get to peer into people's backyards and get a better idea of how old their houses are (New house, old shed? The house is a reno, the shed gives the real age) and I just plain enjoy walking the lanes to add to my knowledge of the Peninsula.


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There's not much to photograph in the lanes themselves but as I cross out of one lane and into the next, I look for fifties houses for my collection. There's some renovated ones but quite a few of them are in their original state. Here are the first two, both reno's but reno's of a different ilk.


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I wanted to walk along the Blackwall foreshore after the lanes but it started raining and my brolly was hanging on the back of the bathroom door. There's a couple of houses along there I really like. Maybe next time the light will be better.

The knowledge

Been thinking about who knows the streets best. What jobs would get you well-acquainted with the streets and how would the jobs themselves colour your knowledge?

Dodderyoldfart the roadworker sees the crumbling surfaces and the dodgy corners where someone's going to come a cropper one night and mess up the nice new shoulder he's just put in.

Garbos probably see the places it's difficult to get close to the curb and remember that No12 Something Street never puts the bloody bin close enough to the curb anyways.

The postie would know which streets always have a dog running loose and whose letterbox is way too small to get their brochures into and which streets are steep enough to make the motorbike whine with effort.

Tom the ambulance bloke sees them as a road map taking him to the next customer and as being full of memories of past customers.

Police can probably drive straight round to the local serial offender's place without looking it up but they don't patrol so maybe they don't know the streets as well as all that.

So, apart from them and us every-street walkers, who else would get to know the streets?

Back from the dead

Some good news first
Race: The Power of an Illusion was on the telly last night. Fascinating stuff. All this genetics research has turned up the fact that there's no such thing as race. There's no genetic markers for race, we really are all the same.

The colour of your skin comes from how much sun your ancestors got where they lived and how much vitamin D that gave them. That is, pale peeps such a myself with ancestors who lived in a cold rainy climate needed all the vitamin D they could soak up while the Aborigines, who've lived in this sun-soaked land for 70,000 years, have dark skins because they got plenty of sun. Eye shape and hair are just geographical too. If your ancestors lived in ancient China they didn't trek off into the great unknown to find someone to marry, they just married someone in the next village and so the gene for black hair was carried on locally. You look like your parents because they're your parents not because of race.

We really are all the same :)

Three dead

Bad bushfires, worse than the New Year's Day fires here, are still burning down in Victoria and there's been some deaths.

Articles here and photos from those close by here, here and here. I hope it pisses down in Victoria and Tassie and on all the other fires big and small.

Half dead
Also watched Alone across Australia which was about a guy who walked from Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria. 128 days and 2,500 kilometres (1,553.43 miles).

At the end of the film it said he'd lost a third of his body weight on the walk. Then it said "Four months later he walked to the North Pole". Fuck. I'd want a bit more than four months rest myself. More like four years.

Back from the dead

Little recap. Last year I lost my sexinthesuburbs.info URL (long tedious story). Hadn't backed up as carefully as I thought and lost #48 - 59 walkies posts for ever.

The rest of them I've rescued and bunged up on their own site called Woy Woy Walkies. Now you can catch up from my very 1st walk through to when I finished walking the Peninsula.

Twittering

(Woy Woy Walk #72)

Got wet feet today wandering through the weeds. Lovely cool wet feet on a hot summer morning. Round beside the Everglades golf course, there's three streets called Everglades, Florida and Miami. They and the golf course have names suggestive of swamps because they're built on swampy ground that's been drained.


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The houses are all seventies so it's a safe bet the draining was done in the seventies. The street trees are mostly paperbarks and the lanes have plenty of paperbarks in them. Lanes don't usually have trees in them but these lanes are actually just wide drains. Wide enough in fact for the Council blokes to get their ride-on mowers in there. The grass is short enough but the weeds have flourished in the rain of the last coupla weeks.


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Hard to tell how old this house is. It's on Dunban Road so it could be forties or seventies or even sixties. Just the windows left to do then it will be a very pleasant Federation repro.


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No53 The Boulevarde/Brick Wharf Road Woy Woy, beside what might be the former 'Roma' boarding house. The front is here. Looking at the amount of doors on the side of this place, I'm wondering if its been a boarding house too at some point.

Roma

Another building in bustling downtown Woy Woy. Due to its position and size, this one 's a good candidate for "former boarding house, Fred Couche 'Roma', 45 The Boulevarde Woy Woy ... c.1891". For some reason I keep forgetting to ask what street number it is.


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It's not hard to see where the windows have been bricked up. The ones on the other side are still there. So is half the ceiling decoration.


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T'other side. That line just above the side windows looks like where the veranda roof went on.


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One half of the ceiling is still like this. The other half is smooth plaster so perhaps the building has been divided into two shops at some point and renovated separately.

Sunny day

Bit warmish for walking but I got a few snaps round the station area.


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The building at back (beige brick) is dated 1973 and appears to be used as a Sunday school or Saturday school or whenever Seventh Day Adventists do that stuff.

Didn't find a foundation stone on the church itself. The windows and the roof on the portico (entrance thingy) are saying 1960s to me but such things aren't hard to replace. The design is Gothic but which period?


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The front door was rather pleasant.


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Detail of the right hand side. Those windows might be 1960s.


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It's set back from the road a fair way and easy to miss. Locals, it's between KFC and the optometrist near Westpac.


(Big version) This guy is the photo trapped in my camera the other day when the battery died. Thirty three bucks the camera shop wanted for a new one. Thirty three fucking bucks! I gotta get a recharger.

The antidote
For those suffering from a surfeit of blogger awards, here's the antidote awards, which I nicked from Dawei.