Lantern making.

Cockatoo. B1 & B2 & friends from 'Bananas In Pyjamas' produced by the ABC.

For a long time now MinTieS have been well-known mint sweets. This Cockatoo looks as if it has been on something stronger!

Construction site where King street, Newcastle, almost reaches the sea and maybe the drill will.

Festive lights associated with Ramadan were for sale in a Sydney suburb.

This must be a new model Citroen van. Below is the recently released C5.
The Citroen adverts talk of 'Australia's longest continually imported car brand - celebrate 85 Years of Citroen. Visit citroen.com.au.'

The above van looks useful. Some model vans have a lot of height which need not be a good thing and is less aerodynamic. Naturally, it is a different matter if a high van is fitted with shelving up to the roof and if the owner wants room to walk inside to the shelves otherwise a large van can be inconvenient with wasted space.
The storage area in this Citroen van is accessible as it has a door on each side as well as rear doors. It can fit into parking stations and other places with height restrictions. The engine does not intruding back into the cabin space and I guess it would be similar to driving a large car and it looks quite good.

Hornby model railway or Katoomba Station? A Station with a curve.

J Bradshaw said on ABC radio that the neural fibres interconnecting the two sides of the brain are far less evident in Australian marsupials than in other mammals.....

This 'roo is reading from May Gibbs: 'Boronia Babies' first published by Angus and Robertson in 1922.

Bali Dance.

A children's multicultral festival stage and a dance program filled with the funky and the esoteric, with contrasts of subtlety and 'in 'yer face'.

It is just possible that community members might view some dance as unsuitable for their daughters and sons.

Under the influence of debased neo-Marxist and postmodernist theory (SMH 20 Sep) one could question modern Western dance and its influences. But one would have to admit that hip hop exercise rountines that get kids moving are excellent in times of an obesity epedemic.

In all, this fest was AOK and five stars to the parents, teachers and local council who had been harnessed for the events.

Emu just turned up. Update: Realized this animal is probably a Cassowary not an emu. Cassowary: any of several large three toed flightless ratite birds of Australia, New Guinea and nearby islands, superficially resembling the ostrich but smaller. (Macquarie Dictionary)

Transparent trading? The markets were closing at the end of the days trading.

North Head and the entrance to Sydney Harbour are some distance from the CBD.
In linear time darkness fell during the time it took the Manly Ferry to reach Circular Quay. Mirage city was transformed. The ferry passengers liked taking photographs.

The Dark Side of the Moon is topical.
The Opera House, Sydney, round 7pm Monday evening in point and shoot style.

Olympians received a big welcome-home from the City of Sydney yesterday.

Sand was washed or blown onto the paths recently which is not unusual at Bar Beach. Today, we saw warm spring weather and a rough surf.

Council Work vans. The stranded Pasha Bulka recorded in the folk art above.

Local Government elections, with compulsory voting, take place on (this) Saturday Sep 13. Will we have a new Lord Mayor or more of the same? We expect the councils to give us services that help make out lifestyle better but they probably don't have a massive budget to play round with.

The Federal Government makes nice little statements about specialized fields that are beyond them and receives constant publicity. For example, of course, a national curriculum would probably be a good thing, blind Freddie could see that but does it take a massive, nation wide, duplicate tier of government to say as much?
All of that deflects attention from the State Government who get up to all sorts of ticks on the quiet but has to do the hands-on work. Who cares about a five star rating from some distant suspect instrumentality?
We always have to strive to improve; our services have shortcomings, they are uncreative, yet are pleasing, some things are just slack enough to be strangly reassuring except for hi-tech medicine, which is scary, and investment funds.

Serene reflections - a parody. Here is water storage, in a commonplace dam, excavated on a country property.
More good news. Much of our low lying coastal lands have acid sulphate soils and care needs to be taken if the soil is disturbed by digging etc because, I think, it causes water and acid to develope and create problems. Strangly, as a result, some nice ponds of extraordinarily clear water are not good at all but are abnormal. Perhaps thats counter-intuitive. The ecology is in delicate balance.

From National Museum of Wales. c 1900

Fathers Day 2008

......from the one and only Under Milk Wood....'DAI BREAD:

Me, Dai Bread, hurrying to the bakery, pushing in my
shirt-tails, buttoning my waistcoat, ping goes a button,
why can't they sew them, no time for breakfast, nothing for
breakfast, there's wives for you.

 MRS DAI BREAD ONE:
Me, Mrs Dai Bread One, capped and shawled and no old corset,
nice to be comfy, nice to be nice, clogging on the cobbles
to stir up a neighbour. Oh, Mrs Sarah, can you spare a loaf,
love? Dai Bread forgot the bread. There's a lovely morning!
How's your boils this morning? Isn't that good news now,
it's a change to sit down. Ta, Mrs Sarah.

 MRS DAI BREAD TWO:

Me, Mrs Dai Bread Two, gypsied to kill in a silky scarlet
petticoat above my knees, dirty pretty knees, see my body
through my petticoat brown as a berry, high-heel shoes with
one heel missing, tortoiseshell comb in my bright black
slinky hair, nothing else at all but a dab of scent, lolling
gaudy at the doorway, tell your fortune in the tea-leaves,
scowling at the sunshine, lighting up my pipe.'

Dramatic heavy weather today. A terrific Pasha Bulka storm. Things fell down. Not a day for Kiwi Ice cream either.
This is trivial when millions are currently flooded out in some non-western countries.

This was moored in the harbour. Is it literally a platform?

McRae family circa 1862 Winda Woppa signage.

A bit, sort of, about Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest has been an idea for a while. However, the topic has, sort of, been gazumped (which is of minor importance) as the area happens to be getting publicity lately. Round the time of visiting there, a very upsetting incident of cruelty and neglect was publicised and my interest in Hawks Nest was shelved. However, although I am not an/a historian or a writer, some facs about the genealogy of Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest will be set down here.
Prof Steffen Lehmann of University of Newcastle, tells us about maintaining a sense of memory when it comes to Heritage. Heritage cannot be reproduced, he said. Yes, new work or renovations can be so perfect that they looks phoney. It is interesting to hear him put a name to the impression that is found, namely 'disconnected from place' when places all turn out looking the same with a loss of what's local and a loss of identity.
The prof will lecture at the City Hall tonight at 6pm on .....Sustainable urban growth.

Maintaining a sense of memory, the Pioneering Poles: stilted figures, still and isolated, kith and kin of the timber trade, watching the seen. Rediscovery of the family, after decades, has led to this embedded wooden group and what did they saw?
Industry and noise, work and play, sore-dust, saw-millers by the shore while the tree rings out, clawed into the saw blades.
Ancient, noble timbers, sequestrated carbon, shipped away, now found prostrate on an Indian rail line or lining a building in England.

Remnants of a jetty with a load bearing capacity licenced to carry a white see-gull and its brother. The story board tells of the pioneer's household and the planting of pine trees which maybe those tall trees in the background.

The patriarch pioneer was only 14 years old when he arrived from Stroud in the UK and began the timber trade. Eventually, three vessels were used to transport timber to Sydney. Timber work ended round hundred years ago and the family changed to the fishing industry, on up to the present day.
The twin towns of Tea Garden and Hawks Nest have seen amazing treasure on their waterways.

On higher land around the district, away from the lakes in the rainforest brushes, red cedars were felled. From Karuah to Mount George and Gloucester down to 12 mile Creek timber getters worked away.

Around Winda Wopper the timber mills were fed by loads carried by Droghers or steam driven punts. The mills became steam driven. Taylor's mill at Winda Woppa was large and was there till 1953. The Booral Company began thereabouts.

Hardwood was another treasure which was in demand with the development of railways and was shipped out to India. The axe men became expert at producing lots, such as, 1500 rail sleepers each week - by hand. Pavers were made for London.

Steam locos came into use in the Myall to carry the timber and workmen travelled ontop of the rolling stock - that is, massive logs on axels and wheels - and they controlled the long load using ropes and leavers in daring feats. Footage is recorded in old movie of a train thundering downhill. Tall timbers by Ken Hall in 1937 is one such film. Timber works operated around the Myall lakes and beyond.

The information is from a local historian who is with Parks and Wildlife.

Picture below: The singing bridge links Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest. Before this was a ferry which crossed where the concrete slab is shown.

Older federation timber houses are in the township and development is changing the scene on the banks of the waterway and estuary of the Lower Myall River with the Myall lakes 18 kilometres upstream.
A classic little old weekender is shown.

Camping at Mungo Brush is close to the shores of the Myall Lakes and has delightful little bays for swimming, boating and exploring where the overhanging paperbark trees shade the water and the scary water weeds prevail. Parks and Wildlife manage the camping areas.
Dingoes prowled around as this was the off-season. They were timid yet would steal from the camp site while the back was turned. Massive gonnana lizards are cheeky visitors in the summer months.
Other visitors were the French tourists in the camper van.


Mungo Brush Walk is a simple pleasure.
A grey strangler fig is visible, above, in an early stage of growth.
MUNGO BRUSH seems to be a small area of littoral rainforest between the sea and the lake. The canopy is quite low with relatively few species of plants such as strangler figs, vines, mosses and ferns that have adapted to the harse, salt ladened winds off the ocean.
The rocky hill, Mungo Brush, was one of the off-shore islands once before geological change set in. The waters have risen and fallen and big sand dunes have also formed far and wide disguised under the vegetation.
Sand mining for minerals was undertaken relatively close by and concern led to action to curtail mining activity and preserve and extend the domain of the park. The Worimi people occupied the lands living a fisher-hunter-gather lifestyle. Middens and other evidence of their occupation has been found.

The path through Mungo Brush is cool.


From the easterly shores.
A short distance to the north, a very narrow point in the lake has a vehicular ferry crossing with a tow line.
Crossing the water leads to Myall Resort and water activities, more popular in warmer weather.

Myall Shores Resort has cabins, caravans, camping and restaurant and grew from the legendary Leggs Camp.


Return north-west by the circular route on a gravel road follows the Myall River to Bulahdelah where house boats can be hired for a jaunt around the lakes. Navigating the narrow but tranquil river to the lakes would mean all hands on deck and advice and assistance is only a phone call away for the seafarer adventurer.