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. |
10 comments:
Nice reporting from the beach.
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.
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!
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.
The vegetation along the beach is quite pretty.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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