Tuesday 4 November 2014

Chinamans Beach, Mosman (3/5)

The boy - probably 8 or 9 years old - has a (partially obscured) red net. He expended copious amounts of energy dashing up and down, capturing white butterflies, of which there were plenty. His father told me he had already played a game of football, and swum the length of the beach countless times. Imagine having that cooped up in a living room!

The girl on the right is his sister. The three on the left are Alannah, and her two friends, Eleanor, and Annabel. They were all VERY impressed. Alannah wants a red net. But she wanted one last week, too, to help her scoop up jellyfish.
We were up the back of Chinamans Beach where the sand dunes had been stabilised with native grasses. The image above on the left is "Kangaroo Grass" (Themeda australis). The image above on the right, is "Hare's Tail" grass (Lagurus ovatus). The image below left is "Hairy Spinifex" (Spinifex sericeus). The hind dunes were planted with low growing forms of "she-oak", through which a short-cut has been trodden.
Running around stupid catching butterflies, and waves is not for everyone. Some like to evacuate their mind, and catch a fish.

10 comments:

Stefan Jansson said...

Nice reporting from the beach.

Allan Lloyd said...

That big dark structure beyond the fisherman, Julie – is that some kind of old installation a few hundred metres to the south of what used to be the Spit Baths? In my childhood days (the early fifties) there was a huge wharf/jetty out from it, even though the building/whatever had ceased to be used. I never knew what it had been, and I can’t believe it’d still be there.

Julie said...

FM - I have diuscovered that this uis the Parriwi Road end of the Northern Suburbs Ocean Outfall Sewer (NSOOS) constructed from 1920-1925, and still in use today. There are matching strucures which slice through Clontarf Reserve on the opposite bank of Middle Harbour. Here is a link http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=101958

When I go back to Clontarf, I will try to document the entire project and come up with some posts. The sewerage is carried across Middle Harbour in two massive concrete pipes which lie on the harbour floor.

So ... still important today, although none of us know why!

Allan Lloyd said...

Thanks Julie. It’s all something of a blast from the past for an old Neutral Bay boy. And fascinating to find out sixty years down the track what that building actually was. I’d never seen anything happening in/around it, so assumed it was defunct.

We also played in and around what I believe was an entire de-commissioned sewage treatment works (but I could be wrong there) at the head of Cammeray’s Primrose Park.

William Kendall said...

The vegetation along the beach is quite pretty.

Julie said...

Primrose Park is a joy, FM, with a you beaut bicycle track which my grand-daughters use.

This treatment works at Cammeray is also part of the NSOOS system. It cuts a swathe across the north of Sydney from beyond Parramatta. I have found a map!!

Joan Elizabeth said...

The Kangaroo Grass doesn't look right to me. Perhaps because the seed heads are only developing. In the next shot in addition to the hairs tail there is another flower that looks like a lomandra.

Julie said...

Aah, yes. A lomandra longifolia aka "Spiney-headed matt-rush". I nearly put in a shot of just that grass, but decided I preferred the shape of the one I used. Thanks for the id, Joan.

And the "Kangaroo grass" is not quite right? I value your expertise on this sort of thing, be it a grass or a "weed". I will go out and do some more searching.

Back later this evening.

diane b said...

Nice story telling shots. Yes "Imagine having that cooped up in the lounge room" Sonya has two of them like that, well one especially like that.
I love examining different grasses but unlike Joan, I don't know the names.

Julie said...

Fox? Alannah is a bit that way, and must be taken somewhere in a morning session, and in an arvo session. She is good at entertaining herself, but must be able to run, and jump, and ride, and swim. The water has a magical effect upon her. Can change her modd instantly.