Bloody freezing Tis been lately with temps hitting -1 , no good for a skinny fella like me
so I've been indoors alot , when not at work which has been outside for most of
this year.
The magazine I was doing a cartoon for went bust and left me unpaid for my work
, at least my work is out there in thousands of households for many years to
come I spose , the mags will become collectors items like old copies of
Hightimes in time no doubt.
New toy
Picked up the new work ute a couple of weeks ago , glad I did my trade as a
young bloke and now reaping some tax free benefits !
It's war !
Oh no ! ..... I've discovered this really addictive online game called
War Rock and have been listed as M.I.A on it's
battlefields for the last 4 weeks. I grew up with video games from the first
Pong and Atari machines and have dabbled ever since when I have time to spare.
I was actually checking out
Second Life when I stumbled across it , Second
Life seemed to be full of fake people pretending to be someone else , in War
Rock you just shoot everyone you come across !
This blog may be affected by my absence but do drop by as I will try to update
it bi - monthly.
Ever wanted to change the
sign ?
Coaster Festival 2008
+
Comment on this post at Woy-Woy.com Forums From the
website .. " Coaster 2008 takes place on Saturday the 20th
September at the Gosford Showground’s in Gosford. It is an all ages event
centered around bringing the biggest Australian acts together on the Central
Coast for a one off show. We know how much Australians love their music and this
will be the place to be for anyone from 5 to 105 with a love of music, arts and
the outdoors. Pioneering and reinforcing the strong music, arts and creative
culture of the Central Coast, our aim is to make Coaster the biggest event held
on the Coast each year "
Bombi Point Radar Station 1942
+
Comment on this post at Woy-Woy.com Forums
A couple of years back my mate was working on a property at
MacMasters beach and took some photos of a sandbagged bunker in the bush at the
rear of where he was laying some concrete. At the time we just thought it was an
elaborate kids cubby house and left it at that , a while later I found this
page at Ozatwar.com.
One of the more secret stories of WW2 lays on top of the hilltop along the old
Scenic Drive road at MacMasters beach now named Bombi Rd , during WW2 land owned
by Mr Dunlop ( Dunlop Hill at Kincumber is named after him ) was purchased by
the armed forces for the deployment of one of Australia's first early warning
radar systems.
An existing installation at Shepherds Hill in Newcastle was packed up and moved
to the site in 1942.
Recently
The Bouddi Society placed an ad in the Sydney
Morning Herald asking for information in regards to the site , after reading
about it on Spikes
blog I sent off what info I had gathered to
them.
A quick reply was sent back from Dave Dufty with some basic info and an invite
for an inspection of the site ( most of it is on private property now ) , also a
photo of that same sandbagged bunker , which was a gun emplacement.
Foundations of some of the original buildings are still visible and I just might
take up that offer of a visit thanks Dave !
Work
Just finished repainting a house for a well known female
singer from the 70's , nice little spot in the Matcham Valley TC ! , got a quote
in for Sterlo's house as well.
Blame the current rainfall on The Palms Apartments at Avoca , no sooner had we
ripped the roof off to repaint it's structural steel beams then it started to
rain !
Mind you when it's nice and sunny it's a great view out to sea with the
occasional whale cruising by.
R.I.P Olive Riley +Comment
on this post at Woy-Woy.com Forums Sad news this week about the passing of local blogger
Olive Rileyat the ripe old age of 108. Her blog maintained by local artist
Mike Rubbo has been inundated with messages
from around the world.
Tuggerah Airfield update +
Comment on this post at Woy-Woy.com Forums
Today I drove to Wyong to visit
The Wyong Museum
to look for info on the old airfield before I visited the location , while there
was no info readily available for my impatience ( well I could have paid 10
bucks to sift through a room full of paper records ) the rain looked imminent
and I was keen to get to the site for some groundwork and pics
On the way out to the site I saw an old bloke walking a greyhound down the road
and I pulled over to ask him if he knew of the airfield.
In a stroke of luck he did indeed know of the strip and pointed over the fence
from where we were and said " that's it there " - right in the spot I suspected
, he also told me to go see a local further down the road who had lived here all
his life.
So I drove to the end of Lake road to see the " Mr Lake " , that was what the
greyhound guy called him.
Mr Lake was only to happy to regale me with his knowledge of the strip in the
wartime years , it was built by over 100 men who had a main camp in Church Road.
The strip runs right past Mr Lake's backyard and he recalls many
Catalina flying boats doing practice " bump and
control " landings on the strip , this was to practice landing with the planes
ground landing gear.
He also told me of a British aircraft carrier borne fighter ( possibly a
Supermarine Seafire ) crashing on the strip one afternoon , with it's tanks
leaking fuel and the locals being under fuel rationing , a few locals gathered
with jerry cans in anticipation of some free juice. The British Marines arrived
soon after to guard the wreck and let the planes tanks drain entirely into the
ground before the dismayed locals , after that " we didn't like those poms " Mr
Lake says.
Another time a local in a private aircraft had to make an emergency landing on
the nearly completed strip at Tuggerah , Mr Lake was watching him approach the
field and was worried he was also about the shot down by the troops guarding the
area , luckily they didn't but the plane rolled on landing and Mr Lake had to go
save the unfortunate chap from the tangled mess of his overturned craft.
The Tuggerah strip was recorded as being a satellite of the Fleur airfield at
Penrith , one of 6 satellite field used by the American Navy Fleet Air arm , Mr
Lake doesn't recall any Americans at the strip and said that it was a dispersal
airfield which was only to be used if things heated up and the Penrith strip had
to deploy it's aircraft to defensive positions.
He pointed to an area on his property that was a proposed hideout for a medium
bomber , it was never constructed like the other locations he knew of near his
home. In fact he knew of no aircraft permanently stationed at the field , that's
not saying there wasn't - it was wartime and public knowledge of the army's
movements was very limited.
It brings the question of whether aircraft were actually stationed at the Woy
Woy strip during WW2 and if the proposed hideouts were actually constructed , by
the documents it seems many were completed and roadworks carried out , I decided
to go dig out some more info on the Woy Woy airfield ....
Lose a hangar - find a picture theatre ! +
Comment on this post at Woy-Woy.com Forums
Over the years there were rumors of old aircraft
hangars in Alma Avenue , leftover from WW2. I decided to go have a closer look
at the oldest building in the street to see if I could recognise any features
that would make it a
Bellman
type hangar - a popular style building of that era.
The current building is being used as a workshop for a smash repair business and
I met a fella by the name of Warren Todd who set me straight on the old sheds'
real origins - it's not an old hangar but in fact it's the old Ocean Beach Rd
picture theatre. It was bought by his family in the 60's and relocated to the
current site , Warren also told me of a large radial engine being dug up out of
a backyard adjacent to the rear lane of the workshop , he reckons it looked like
an aircraft engine saying it had 12 - 14 rotary cylinders and was " massive " in
size.
The Grumman bombers that were supposed to be at Woy Woy had 14 cylinder engines
, this could be the best proof so far that actual planes were housed nearby.
Warren also put me onto his grandfather who was born here in the 30's , Bruce
was a friendly old bloke who took a few minutes of his own time out to answer my
questions
( you can't help but love this town with folk like this living here ).
Bruce used to deliver the mail on horseback back in the early days and told of
the airstrip being constructed by using the sandstone base from the quarry at
the base of Mt Ettalong , the famous red gravel topping came from a quarry at Peats Ridge.
He also told me about an airplane that crashed on the Peninsula in the early
50's in which the aircraft hit a house in Nelson St Umina !
Air Force records show an RAAF Tiger Moth trainer crashing at Woy Woy in 1950 ,
in fact I'm starting to compile a list of local military aircraft crashes /
forced landing and military sites in general
here.
Bruce then showed me some beautiful old panorama photos of Ocean Beach and Pearl
Beach from the 1900's , the Pearl Beach photo showed no houses whatsoever - all
bush
Hopefully he will be able to find some photos and more info for my next visit- until then thanks Warren and Bruce for your time.
Nissen Hut
Those curved army buildings have a name , they are called
Nissen Huts after the guy who designed them ,
there is one at Ourimbah was has been there since the 60's , I haven't found
where it came from but according to locals it's not from the Tuggerah airfield.
Another Nissen Hut was seen by my mother in the 60's at Booker Bay being used by
Bullions Marina
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
