Silly Buggers I read this
story
in the local Peninsula Times , a small locally produced newspaper that is quite
informative ( who still refuse to link me despite me linking them for several
years *cough* mind you my site has been crap at sometimes heh )
anyway a group of lads got lost and after all my training in bush survival by my
dad who would have yelled at them too I fired off an email to their forum thingo
and it seems it got published
here
albeit a tiny bit of editing because I can be quite harsh when people try
to kill themselves lol and a quick bit of " yeah what he said "
here
from Peninsula News itself.
Forums now have free Image Hosting The forums have now been upgraded to web 2.0 technology whatever that is, so you are now able to upload your own photos into your posts as well
there are a lot more features like profiles and the forum is more user friendly
for posting Youtube videos etc So why not help me re-birth this
popular forum
that I had to leave unattended some years ago due to personal issues ( gawd )
lol
This month I added more local links to woy-woy.com's
links
page so check out Richards new software for organising people or confused people
at
www.tinyrock.com and his lady has a nice
blog at
A Simple Abundant Life
also a new online Real Estate agency at e-realtors.com.au
I keep forgetting To mention that I bought a new website a few weeks ago
www.dontbuyjapanese.com
I was getting angry at those buggers for continuing whaling so I used
some spare change in my Paypal account to buy this URL , basically you can help
buy not buying Japanese products until they stop killing our whales and I'll
keep the site up until they do just that.
New Story on Bungaree and the Broken Bay
Aborigines I'm sorry I had to read all this when I'm 42 they should teach us about
these times at school -
Read Story
I was going to use my mum's photo's for this story but they are old colour
photo's from 1976 ( before Gwen Dundon's photos ) and are not really scanable
( did I just invent a new word ? ) So I decided to go get some updated digi pics
and set off on a small hike up Woy Woy Tip last Sunday morning.
Packed a small pack with supplies : water , map , mobile phone , knife , 2 x
Chomps ( sugar hits ) , body parts bag ( hey you don't know what you may find )
, digital camera and a lighter.
Headed to Woy Woy tip and parked outside of gates and notified garbage guy at
the weighbridge of my intentions and possible return time , then set off up the
track to Dillions Farm , once you hit the first corner just go along a bit and
look over the right side and start looking for the raised soil that was the
foundation for the small gauge railway that ran from the top of the tip ( the
old loco shed site is now buried under tonnes of landfill )
Once you are on this raised path you will get familiar with it's shape and you
will hit the first creek crossing soon after , here it's just a small bridge
with some retaining stones still there and a concrete foundation , also some
nice red yabbies and some kind of lizard that can hold it's breath longer than
my patience !
About 30 metres further through some really dense and scratchy bushes you will
come to the best bit which is the big trestle bridge that crosses a creek , here
there are several foundation blocks and 2 large piers made of concrete spanning
across the sandstone creek bed ( you can see this from Google Earth ) I then
climbed up the other side and continued to follow the raised path again through
some spectacular bushland as it wound its way round the mountain curves.
Another couple of small creek crossings and after about 15 minutes I was at the
end of the top line at the crusher chute site , here you can see the old remains
of the crusher chute which ran down a 45 degree slope to the crusher bin just
near the sewerage treatment works ponds , I bit the bullet and headed down the
steep incline ( knowing I had to come back up argh ) and checked out the crusher
bin site , the cutting for the lower line and the other big trestle bridge site
, here it is thick with lantana so take a machete ! As I was heading back I went
down a different path and found the last remaining piece of rolling stock left ,
an old skip car - the same one my mum had pics of , so a took a few piccies and
headed back up that bloody hill !
Then off to part 2 of the mission - to investigate an alleged ammo dump from WW2
that the NPWS mention in a tour brochure , heading down and across another
valley I came to the top of the tunnel and began to work my way down when I came
round a corner into a large cave on the hill overlooking the railway line, the
first thing I see is an army ammunition box ! geez talk about bingo I thinks
before seeing the rest of the cave contents - it was obviously an old hobo's
home and from the items around I'd say he was living there around 10 years ago,
the ammo box was from 1953 and had a newspaper from 1998 in side so that
discounted it being WW2 vintage , I scratched around in the dirt on the floor
and found a Halfpenny from bloody 1942 to confuse things even more !
I then set off to look at the intended area , a small tunnel directly above Woy
Woy Tunnel , here I took more pics to send off to Pete from
Ozatwar.com who I annoy every now
and again and who was interested in seeing it as there were actual plans to blow
certain tunnels and bridges in WW2 if the Japs ever landed.
By now the old legs were getting like jelly so I headed back along my original
path and stopped for a breather at the first trestle bridge , sat in the creek
with my feet in the ice cold water and had a Chomp , filled my water bottle up
with new cold spring water and hit the scrubby bit on the way back , all the
time being circled by evil looking crows
I was back by about 1.30 so it was about a 5 hour journey and without the tunnel
detour you could just do the railway walk in under 3 hours if you wanted to ,
just be careful to get out before they shut the tip gates at 4pm !
Pete from Ozatwar has knocked this page up on the
Ammo Dump
New Woy Woy Files Story I just added a bit of a write up on the old basalt quarry at South Woy Woy
in the 1920's , my mum trekked over this site in the 70's when she was president
of the Brisbane Waters National Parks and Wildlife Service , the story is an
interesting one and there is also some great remains in the bush this day to
check out - Read Story
Phew ! Thought I'd lost my entire hardrive this week until this morning with a
clear head I sat down and had a good geek at the old Arscer ( Acer lol ) and
discovered my graphics card had indeed pooed itself rendering my screen blank ,
so I plugged the plug into the old monitor socket and away she went thank christ
! No wonder we get reminded by people to back that stuff up regularly which I
shall shortly heh
zzzz... oops sorry there's nothing for January reader for I was enjoying my holidays
and then was thrown back into work and into the Northern Beaches area ( Manly )
to work for the first 3 weeks back. Anyone who has had to get up at 4.20 am and
then drive 80 kilometres through some of the worlds nastiest traffic would know
it takes it toll by the end of the week and leaves you in a zombie like state
for Friday night and part of the weekend , my dad commuted for 40 odd years to
Sydney - no wonder first thing he did was get straight off the train and head to
the Bayview for a beer in the afternoon ! The hardy commuters from Woy Woy endure some testing situations like getting
stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours in the dark , trains running late or
not at all - you name it - I did it myself for several years before
smashing my alarm clock and biting the bullet and taking a lower paid job here
on the coast for pure sanity reasons !
The carnage on the F3 this past week has been again raising the question of a
second separate carrigeway possibly for trucks only to be built , bring it on I
say , the next time I have to blow my horn to wake up a trucker who is drifting
across 3 lanes of traffic doing 120 km/ph ..... I'll surely be signing that
petition.
and on that subject I now present the lyrics to a song written in 1952 abot the
general crappiness of the railway service to Woy Woy - my how times haven't
changed !
The Woy Woy Workers Train
A poem by Joe Fernside (1952).
Have you
ever travelled to Sydney
On the Woy Woy Workers Train?
It rattles along the railway
It rattles through your brain
Fills your clothes with smoke and soot
Filthy dirt and grime
You never travel in comfort
And you never get there on time.
You run to catch the dreary thing
Quite early in the morn,
You gaze out of the windows
For the breaking of the dawn.
Everything looks dreary
Nothing's looking right,
And half the flamin' carriages
Don't even have a light.
As the train pulls into Woy Woy
The crowd all gives a roar,
Starts climbing through the windows,
And breaking down the doors,
They got no seats to sit on
So they stand up with a frown,
The whistle blows, the engine goes
And you head for Sydney town.
You come to the Hawkesbury River
Put an engine in the lead,
There's twice the smoke soot and grime
And half the bloody speed.
They say we own the railways
But they don't belong to me,
We only pay the interest to
The Bigwigs overseas.
The train pulls out from Brooklyn
Climbs up the Hawkesbury Hill
The darn thing travels such a speed
You'd swear your standing still!
When at last you get to work
The boss is in a rage
And when it comes to payday
He docks your bloody wage.
They say we own the railways
There's breakdowns here and there
If the people own the railways
I'll give away my share
You never travel in comfort
You always get there late,
We want to change the system
Cause the whole things out of date!
Projects I'm still working on the Google project I just want to read Swancotts books
one more time and get all the positions double checkedbefore I put the
files online. I will be adding some new bits to the Woy Woy Files soon including some
highlights from Swancotts books and the true story of the local Guringai tribe
of aborigines that lived here around the Woy Woy area , not many people know of
Bungaree and his amazing feats I feel they deserve some net time - stay tuned...
The Woy Woy Peninsula and
surrounding areas including: Ettalong , Umina , Blackwall Booker
Bay , Orange Grove , Pearl Beach , Patonga , Daleys Point , Empire Bay
St Hueberts
Island , Rileys Island , Pelican Island , Koolewong
New South Wales , The Central Coast , Australia
