Friday, October 31, 2008

Culinary differences

I've been toying with this idea for a cartoon all week after the poo in the chocolate desert incident at Coogee Bay Hotel Bistro recently .......
p.s ask a surfer what a Bondi cigar is ........

Click image to see the big copy

Culinary Differences

Enemies in the Freezer - feeling cold ?

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Stuff

Just a few bits n pieces

Hi to Ann Marie from Calvary Funerals your link has been added to the growing local business and links directory

Hi to Kev from the Watersedge Motel in Woy Woy , nice looking site there

To the lady who wrote into the Peninsula News recently about the local ferry service dropping surfers off in the "middle of the ocean" to surf the Box Head breaks , don't be alarmed.
These guys would only have to paddle for longer through some dodgy shark infested channels if the local ferry master wasn't so kind as to offer this service.
Points awarded to whoever thought of this idea , and lets encourage our youth to do more healthy activities , sitting safe behind a keyboard is not an option
I've done the paddle out there myself many times when I was a young fella and still here to tell the tale , in fact no one has ever lost their life out there surfing the break , which is often called the best left hander on the east coast when it is working , the waves are never ending and you can ride a wave for near 500 meters or more in big swells.
It can take near 30 minutes to paddle to the break from Ettalong Point , and the same to return , many a time once we made it to the beach we'd just colapse exhausted in the sand and wake up sunburnt a couple hours later
I'm sure the Captain ensures the surfers deploy safely into the water and their added bonus is that he will be coming back that way within an hour or so if trouble does arise.
Surf on I say

Ahh and I joined Facebook and have found half of my family and many other Spillards who are possibly related
I also joined two Woy Woy Facebook groups : I survived Woy Woy High School and Woy Woy South Primary School
and there a a few pages more of Woy Woy groups like:
Drivers on the Woy Woy Peninsula are dangerous and stupid! - I feel your pain yes.
I reserve the right to get "woy woy" tattooed on my chest - fair enough , group has 1 member
Woy Woy is eating away my soul! - for emo kids who don't like the sun , salt water or sand
I was a slave @ Kmart Woy Woy - teach you not to finish your School Certificate then eh lol
Woy Woy Leagues needs to get some1 who actually knows how to run a bistro - 3 members - disgruntled former employees ?
I WENT TO WOY WOY HIGH SCHOOL IN THE 80`S-90`S AND LIVED - sadly only 2 people survived to join this group
I am proud to say I went to the Asylum and drank test tube shooters!! - 63 members who got pissed at Woy Woy Leagues Club woot !

Monday, October 20, 2008

The Fruit Man

My parents moved to Woy Woy in 1964 , they purchased a block of land in Gallipoli Avenue at Blackwall and built a fibro house.
Dad was from the river country around Albury , Echuca , Wodonga and Mum was born and raised in Sans Souci , a suburb in the southern shire of Sydney.
Often we would pack the old Holden station wagon up and go visiting my Grandparents in Sans Souci , a fairly long journey in those days before all the new highways were built.
Before I could remember when I was around 3 years old on a return trip from the city , my father pulled over to help a stranded motorist near Mt White.
After giving the guy a lift home to get parts and return from his farm at Somersby they managed to get his car going and they parted ways as it got late in the evening.
Some weeks later the farmer turns up on our doorstep with a giant basket of produce from his farm , oranges , apples and other fruits , this was to continue for many years , every season we would be rewarded with a basket of fresh farm fruits.
I moved out of home when I was 20 , my father passed away when I was 22 , when I was 28 and I found myself sitting on the front step of the old house at Gallipoli again ( albiet temporarily )
A car pulls up and a young lad aged about 18 gets out , opens the back door , leans in and lifts out a washing basket full of fruit and walks up the driveway grinning.
I stand up and greet him and he hands the basket over , my memory flashes back and I say to him " Mate you guys have been doing this for years it's bloody awesome "
He says to me " My dad died years ago and he told me to keep dropping the fruit off here in repayment for being helped out all those years ago , I don't even know why or what really happened "
I told him I was too young to remember the events of that night and we laughed , shrugged shoulders and he left on his way.
I never seen the fruit man again after that day , but if you are reading this - Thanks mate

Monday, October 13, 2008

Woy Woy's Haunted locations

A Halloween special tour of some locations around town that could be haunted by lost souls from long ago .........
1. The Rip ( formerly known as Webb's Reef ) a treacherous part of the entrance to the Brisbane Waters - in 1871 the ketch " Tim Whiffler " capsized in rough weather , trapped under the vessel was Mrs. Watkins and her fifteen year old daughter.
Men from the Rock Davis shipyard sailed to the scene in a whale boat and rescued the passengers on top of the upturned vessel and then turned their attentions to the trapped women , they could hear them banging on the hull and decided to cut throught it with an axe. Tragically this action allowed air to escape from the hull and it sank immediately , Mrs. Watkins made it out of the vessel as it sank , her daughter didn't.
2. Phegans Bay Public Wharf- In 1834 a local boy Ron Inman aged14 , dived off the wharf and straight into the mouth of a large shark and was killed
3. Correa Bay - in the 1830 a body was found floating at the end of Woy Woy creek , it was buried at the " head of the creek " , locals later referred to the area as Deadmans Creek up until 1968 when it was decided to change the name to make the area more appealing to visitors and land buyers. Another local man was buried here as well after a tragic accident , Angelo Lazzarino died after his gun exploded while trying to get throgh a fence while hunting wallabies , his body was not found for some weeks and because of his rumored connections to the Black Hand Society ( Mafia ) many thought he had neen murdered.
4. Bogan Rd , Ettalong - a small cemetary existed here , marked today by two large Pine trees , the last person was buried there in 1910 , by 1920 the land had been bulldozed over and sold to an unsuspecting buyer.
Buried here were: Mr and Mrs Bogan - former residents whom the road was named after.
Nine victims of the infamous Maitland bay disaster in 1898 , the bodies were recovered by men from the Rock Davis shipyard and brought to Ettalong for burial
A man named Mr Bushell
Mr and Mrs Booker - Booker Bay was named after the original land holders. The graveyard was never officially " sanctified " records show.
5. Ettalong Point - 3 persons from the ketch " Southern Light " were buried " on the rise at the back of the beach " in 1864. Rock Davis had found the badly decomposed bodies washed up on the beach and parts of the vessel which he could easily identify as he himself had built the craft some years earlier
6. Mt Ettalong - in the early1950's a group was having a picnic at the lookout above Pearl Beach , one of the group decided to lay back on the rock after his meal , looked up and began to go into hysterics.An ex serviceman had chosen the tree above him to hang himself from some months before , all that remained was a bleached skeleton dangling there above him.

Steve Spillard COPYRIGHT 2015

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Peninsula News

Last week I got an email from Clare at the Peninsula News asking if I was interested in submitting some stories to them , sure why not I thought , anything that may help lead me away from my poisonous pastime of being a painter and decorator gotta be worth a shot.
First article has been sent for the next deadline , hopefully I'll be able to bash out a fair few more over the next while or so
So pick up a copy next time you see one at various points around the Peninsula

Hi to Jenny from www.impressionablekids.com.au who has been recntly added to the links page at Woy-Woy.com, they make those lil plaster casts of kiddies feet and hands , pretty cool.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Ghost Plane



In the early 80's an aircraft engine washed up on the beach at Umina , It was reported in the local paper at the time and the motor was dumped at Woy Woy Tip.
I decided to do some research at ADF Serials and see if I could find a list of aircraft crashes in that area and stumbled across this most amazing story.........
It was Tuesday the 5th of August 1955 and Anthony Thrower had just landed his Auster J/4 Archer at Bankstown airport when his motor stalled at the end of the runway , he decided to hop out and manually start the engine by hand turning the blade ( a push start for a plane ) . the engine kicked into life and the plane moved off with a bump - trouble was Tony was not in the cockpit but running alongside trying to grab a wing strut !
Much to his horror the plane gathered speed and started down the runway and took off , it circled the field in tight banks and at one stage the control tower was evacuated as the plane swooped close by before heading off into the sky towards the coast........
At 9.30 am a call was sent out to the R.A.A.F to assist in bringing the aircraft back to earth as it was now headed towards Sydney , a Wirraway trainer was sent up to shoot the plane down once it had reached the ocean and it was found about 5 miles off the coast at 9000 feet , the pilots hands were so cold in the Wirraway that he was unable to operate its guns so it turned back
In what was now becoming something from a Monty Python movie a second aircraft was deployed - a Meteor jet fighter was sent to shoot it down but it's guns jammed.
At 10.15 a.m 2 Sea Furies on loan from the Royal Navy were sent out to bring down the rogue aircraft , guided by the radar installation at South Head they intercepted the plane at 10.000 feet about 7 miles east of Broken Bay and it was shot down into the sea.
The Civil Aviation Authority later described the incident as a billion to one happening !