Wednesday 12 October 2011

October 2011

What an exciting start to the second week of October - being taken out by friends to see a pod of dolphins frolicking between Little Wobby  and Dangar Island.  A magnificent sight, testament to the health of the river.

Another friend lent us Susan Duncan's pictorial book about Pittwater, which made me wonder if anyone has thought of doing the same about this beautiful area.  We have seen the wonderful book by Robert Adamson and Juno Gemes,(thank you Bhupen!), but this is a different genre.

A most interesting part of the book reveals that Frederick Eccleston du Faur (someone we'd never heard of, nor seen any streets, parks or other public places with his name), advocated the preservation of Ku ring gai Chase and in 1894,  35,300 acres, from Hornsby to Pittwater, bordering the waters of Cowan Creek to Broken Bay, were dedicated as national park.  Walking tracks and wharves built to attract holiday makers, still exist.

There is a strong link between this area and Pittwater.  For example, the convict Andrew Thompson started a salt extraction plant on Dangar Island, but then was granted a lease of Scotland Island, so moved his business there.

In the October edition of Afloat magazine, the little ferry Curlew is advertised for sale. She was built in 1922 and  is "the oldest ferry still working to a timetable". let's hope it is able to stay in the Pittwater/Broken Bay/ Hawkesbury waters, especially now that Reliance is back.

The little Sun ferry is back in operation, still sadly with ply cladding on the aft port side, but sporting a brand new red ensign.  It carried many people to the Island and back during the school holidays, and now an online grocery delivery service van is a regular visitor to the public wharf.

It is amazing to observe what is actually carted on the water - when we moved here first I saw a harp in a tinnie - a glorious sight and what a title for a book or  film!

King Tide Cafe had a very disappointing school holiday period because of the weather, but they set up a TV so the Samoa v Wales match could be watched live.  Unfortunately for them, Wales defeated Samoa, but all the King Tide girls were in their Samoa Rugby jerseys, the tables were dressed in blue and white cloths and some of  the guests were wearing tropical island shirts, so it was a lot of fun.

The girls at River Dreams had a party to celebrate their first year and although it was a cold night, many people turned up to show their support.

It seems that September just "come-d and go-ed".  (This expression is a hangover from years ago, when we delivered some platters for a party to some friends, early in the morning and only the children were awake.
We were going to attend the party later, but had an early morning commitment first.  The younger child said "How come you just come-d and go-ed?"). Now it's almost halfway through October, but there are more daylight hours to enjoy our wonderful surroundings.

1 comment:

  1. I am trying to visualise what our lovely river and surrounds would look like if Frederick hadn't advocated the preservation of Ku-ring-gai Chase so many years ago - horrible thought!!
    I actually laughed out loud at 'come-d and go-ed' - Jempops and Lucky wondered what was going on.

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