Fire on record

No-one wishes natural disasters to descend upon anyone, but from amidst the Blue Mountains bushfires has come a Flickr Group dedicated to recording the events now and from the past. The Blue Mountains Bushfires is one way for the people in the region to post their photographs and for the rest of us to attempt to grasp the enormity of the situation.

The photostream of the Flickr group

The Group's banner image is of the Chateau Napier in Leura. The photograph was taken soon after the 1957 bushfire which destroyed large areas of the towns of Leura and Wentworth Falls (more than 150 properties were lost on the 3rd December). Although the Chateau ruins have since been demolished, the site remains undeveloped. The remains have a heritage listing and this has presented certain difficulties for potential developers.From a colour slide, dated Jan 5, 1958, the image is now part of the Local Studies collection of the Blue Mountains City Library.
 

Chateau Napier, Leura

Like the local Grampians bushfires in February, photographs play an important role in the description of and remembrance of major episodes and catastrophic events.

Our thoughts are with all those involved.

Island out of time

 

Cockatoo Island - the Alcatraz of Sydney

Cockatoo Island sits in the middle of Sydney Harbour, in sight of the Harbour Bridge, but is a world away from the city.  The island is 500m long, 360m wide, and covers 18 hectares. It consists of two parts – the Lower industrial area - where shipbuilding activities were carried out (two tunnels were driven through the centre of the island to facilitate this work), and the Upper plateau – which was originally the convict prison and later where draftsmen, pattern-makers & management worked and lived.

Storage caves and tunnels

The island has a long and illustrious history dating back to the first settlement of Sydney. In 1839 Governor Sir George Gipps chose the island as the site of a new penal establishment, to alleviate overcrowding on Norfolk Island. Convicts were put to work building prison barracks, a military guardhouse and official residences. 

Remains of the convict barracks on the plateau (500 prisoners in the cells)

It continued as a convict station until the 1850s. The convicts were transferred to the Darlinghurst Gaol on the mainland in 1869. Then in 1870, Cockatoo Island was used for an Industrial School for Girls and a reformatory. The ship, Vernon, was anchored nearby to train wayward and orphaned boys. From 1888 to 1908 it reverted back to a gaol due to prison overcrowding.

Convict Grain Silos - 20 were built 1839-42, only 13 now survive. Approximately 7m wide & 6m deep it had an opening in the ceiling. This one was excavated in the shipbuilding period.

The pontoon in Fitzroy Dock, built 1840-50s, it took convicts 11 years to excavate the dry dock

From 1850 the island has been associated with shipbuilding. The Fitzroy Dock and a workshop were built by convict prisoners to service Royal Navy and other ships. 

The caisson in Fitzroy Dock

The Sutherland Dock was built between 1880 and 1900 as shipbuilding and repair activities expanded. 
The dock is 210m long, 27m wide and 8m deep.

When completed in 1890, the Sutherland Dock was the largest single graving dock in the world and a fine example of late 19th century engineering. The two docks nearly bisect the island.

Crane on Sutherland Dock

The Timber Drying Store, built 1916-17 used for storage & seasoning of timber

WWII Air Raid Shelter, built in 1942 it was surmounted by a crane

In 1913, Cockatoo Island became the Commonwealth Naval Dockyard, and Australia’s first steel warship was constructed on the island. Following the Fall of Singapore in World War 2, it became the major shipbuilding and dockyard facility for the South West Pacific. 

Turbine Shop, built 1944-45 for assembling the massive propulsion engines, it was excavated from the sandstone escarpment

Heavy Machine Shop North, built 1898-1903 & extended in 1910-11

Following the end of the war, additional buildings are constructed for shipbuilding and repair, and the dockyards refitted the T-Class submarines and built the Navy destroyers, HMAS Voyager and HMAS Vampire. From the mid 1960s, the island's work included the servicing and refit of Oberon-Class submarines and the construction of HMAS Success. The dockyard closed in 1992, most of the machinery was sold off (nearly 50 cranes are left), and about 40 buildings and several wharves are demolished.

The office section of the Heavy Machine Shop North

The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust assumed control of the island in 2001 and embarked on major restoration works. After extensive remediation works, it was opened to the public for cultural activities in 2007. It is now the venue for art installations, concerts, sporting events, and for tourists. It is possible stay overnight on the island in the old residences or to camp out. The camping area was the plate yard where steel was cut and bent to space into the hulls.

Campers having jockey races in the luggage trolleys, beside the beam benders

Now & Then goes to the movies

FILMography is an ongoing art project by Canadian photographer Christopher Moloney that matches scenes from movies with their real-life, present-day locations.
As with other Now & Then projects, it features photographs of stills from famous movies juxtaposed with the exact locations where they were shot.
Central Park in New York features again and again, obviously a popular location to set up your movie camera. The capture below is a little different - from 'Doctor Who : the angels take Manhattan' it features the again popular setting of Bow Bridge.

There are the famous, easy to find locations, like the New York Public Library, here about to get a drenching in 'The day after tomorrow' as Fifth Avenue is inundated.

 The Library has also featured in a number of other films, notably 'Ghostbusters' (the messing with the card catalogue).
Then there is the scary - the Dakota apartments in Manhattan, here with Mia Farrow in the horror film 'Rosemary's Baby', it was the scene of John Lennon's death.

There are the locations everyone must have their photo with, like Audrey in 'Breakfast at Tiffanys', though this one is of the apartment on 71st Street.

Even remakes - the 2004 version of 'The Manchurian candidate' with Liev Schreiber instead of Laurence Harvey in Times Square.

To finish, a cute one from 'Kramer vs Kramer' Dustin Hoffman with a young Justin Henry, outside school on 82nd Street.

Cruisy shipwrecks

With the refloating of the Costa Concordia, it must be time to revisit the topic of shipwrecks, especially as WebUrbanist recently published - Unloved Boats: 8 abandoned cruise ships & liners. Among the ships was one of my favourites the SS America (my post). The WebUrbanist post said the America had further succumb to the ocean (In 1996 the stern section collapsed into the sea. From November 2005 to April 2007, the bow section suffered a successive series of collapses. By March of 2013, the ship’s superstructure was only visible at low tide) and included a photograph from Ocean Inspire of the last remains.

The section on the Concordia begins with - 'The most notorious recent example of a buoyancy-challenged large passenger liner is the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia, which struck a reef and partially sank on January 13th, 2012 off the coast of Italy’s Isola del Giglio. The disaster cost 32 lives (with 2 people still officially missing) and roughly $500 million, the latter figure referencing the ship’s value after being declared to be a “total loss”.
Though hope that the Costa Concordia will someday sail again has been abandoned, the ship itself has not: salvage operations began a mere month after the tragic accident and the liner was successfully refloated on September 17th, 2013. Current plans are for the Costa Concordia’s hulk to be towed to an Italian port sometime in 2014, where it will be broken up and sold for scrap.' There go my hopes that it would become a marvellous dive site.
-The Costa Concordia off Isola del Giglio - WebUrbanist

The Costa Concordia at night - CNN

The crushed superstructure - CNN

Other ships featured on the Urbanist post were the World Discover (my post).  The Duke of Lancaster -launched in 1956, the TSS Duke of Lancaster was built at the Belfast shipyards where the RMS Titanic was constructed. The passenger steamer operated as a ferry and as a cruise ship. In November 1978, it was retired from service and in August 1979 was moved to Llanerch-y-Mor near Mostyn, Wales to become a static leisure center known as “The Fun Ship”. Legal issues crippled the idea, and the Duke’s slab sides were gradually covered by rust and unauthorized graffiti. The ship became the largest open air art gallery in the UK when graffiti artists spray-painted large-scale artworks on the ship’s side, which have been augmented and complemented by a wealth of bright and surreal graffiti. 

 And finally the ice-strengthened Lyubov Orlova cruise ship was launched in 1976 with the express purpose of exploiting the lucrative Antarctic and Alaskan cruise market. Originally owned by the Soviet Union-based Far East Shipping Company, by early 2010 the ship had been seized and impounded in St. Johns, Newfoundland due to mounting debts.

The Lyubov Orlova in better days

In February of 2012, it was planned to tow it down to the Dominican Republic to be broken up for scrap, but the tow rope snapped after just one day at sea and the Lyubov Orlova unpowered was at the mercy of wind and waves. Declaring the vessel to be a danger to nearby offshore oil platforms, Transport Canada sent another tug out to tow it into international waters, and cut it loose.
The ship was last seen on February 23rd 2013 drifting off the western coast of Ireland. On March 1st, the Lyubov Orlova’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon indicated it was 700 nautical miles off the Kerry coast. Since EPIRBs are programmed to broadcast automatically when exposed to seawater, it’s presumed the ship may have sunk, but it could still be out there.

Abandonments - the LO in the Bay of Hebron in 2009

This is only 5 of the ships see the rest at Unloved Boats: 8 abandoned cruise ships & liners.

Challenging collections

I'm quite impressed with 'Collections : spot the difference' photographed by Rick Schwab.

It is 100 photo puzzle challenges, in each there are subtle differences between each pair of seemingly identical photos.

Just to make things even trickier, the puzzles feature all kinds of collections - including vintage cars, butterflies, kites, tattoos, seashells, flags...

There are three levels: keen, sharp and masterful, and just in case you aren't masterful, there are answer pages too.

This is just one of the 'Spot the differences' series that Rick has produced. 

The feature that really appealed to me is Rick's choice of subject matter in some of the photos, the everyday and the exotic - a line-up of fireman's gear, a page of music, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and these ones below.

Have a go, see how good you are!

Tested trestles

So much after my own heart (this proves I’m not alone) here is 'Highest Steam: 9 Abandoned Railroad & Train Bridge Trestles', another WebUrbanist post.

Durable by design and situated by necessity in difficult to access locations, railway trestles are often all that remain when rail lines are closed and abandoned.

Tallulah Falls Railway, Georgia

Georgia’s Tallulah Falls Railway operated for nearly 90 years – from 1st September 1871 to 25th March 1961. The railway featured in several films including 1951′s ‘I’d Climb the Highest Mountain’ and the 1955 Disney production, ‘The Great Locomotive Chase’. The 1972 epic film ‘Deliverance’ (have Duelling Banjos playing) featured two of the main tourist attractions of the Tallulah Falls Railway: the waterfall at Lake Tallulah Falls, and the view from Tallulah Gorge.

Only the steel & concrete trestles of the Tallulah Falls Railway remain

In order to keep trains running on the straight and level along the railway’s 58 mile stretch from Cornelia, Georgia to Franklin, North Carolina,they had more than 40 wooden trestles and one series of steel and concrete trestles constructed. It’s little wonder the railway closed due to a mounting and unsustainable debt load.

Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad, Michigan

A combination wood and steel trestle and pocket dock was constructed in 1931, to bring iron ore to ships waiting in Marquette, Michigan’s lower harbour. 

The wooden trestle portion standing in majestic solitude after the adjoining steel dock was salvaged

The dock officially closed on December 31st, 1971 when ore shipments were diverted to Escanaba and the railway, trestles and dock subsequently fell into disrepair. In the early 2000′s, redevelopment resulted in portions of the trestle and dock being demolished.

Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railroad, Colorado

In 1903 when the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railroad first laid rails across the Great Divide at Colorado’s 11,660 foot high Rollins Pass, it was hailed as a triumph of American railway engineering. 25 years later, another engineering triumph – the Moffat Tunnel – negated the need for the Rollins Pass line and the rail bed was converted to accommodate road traffic.

Devil's Slide

  









Supported by the east and west Devils Slide Trestles, the route has been off-limits to vehicles since 1990 when a rock slide blocked the Needle’s Eye tunnel. 
Hikers and cyclists are still allowed to cross the over-a-century-old wooden trestles, though one might end up meeting the Devil himself should he or she take an unexpected slide.

White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, Yukon, Canada

 This isn’t the “After The Gold Rush” Neil Young was thinking of, though it’s almost as moving as the man’s music, and any excuse to play the track.

The old Dead Horse Gulch railroad trestle bridge is on the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad to the heart of the Klondike. The rail line was constructed during the gold rush of the 1890s. The Dead Horse Gulch bridge being built in 1899. 
After 70 years of stalwart service, it was bypassed in 1969 by a new tunnel and bridge designed to withstand the weight of loaded ore trains from the Faro lead-zinc mine, which opened the same year. 
The new bridge was just a stone’s throw from the old one, providing riders on the revived WP&YR Heritage Railway an awesome sight, especially when the fog rolls in.

Florida East Coast Railway, Florida

Just over 101 years ago and 7 years after construction began, the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway was finally completed. Dubbed “the Overseas Railroad” and “the 8th wonder of the world”, Henry Flagler’s dream was made real at the cost of $50 million and the lives of dozens of workers. Until 1972 the Bahia Honda Rail Bridge connected Bahia Honda Key and Spanish Harbor Key. The Hurricane of 2nd September 1935 put the money-losing railway out of business. Flagler’s innovative bridge construction techniques were not wasted, however, being quickly re-purposed into the 127.5 mile (205.2km) long Overseas Highway that opened in March of 1938 (the Overseas Highway was substantially rebuilt in the 1970s and ’80s).

The Bahia Honda Rail Bridge looking more like a take-off ramp

 The Bahia Honda Rail Bridge’s notorious gap wasn’t caused by storms or decay - two spans of the bridge were removed to accommodate boat traffic and discourage pedestrian use of the span.
As always there are more photos and stories at WebUrbanist.

Boy-O Boyeo

This is the full unauthorised version 'the Director's Cut' of my Boyeo story. The original shorter version was for our iPad videographing classes (and Larissa made me edit it down to the pre-requisite 90 seconds, so the interior pan sequence hit the cutting-room floor. So now here it is in its entirety).

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It was from my mission to photograph the schools or school sites across the Wimmera region, that I discovered the Boyeo School building. And I knew I had to return to make it the subject of my video, as still photos didn't portray the full atmospheric feel of the place.
The Boyeo School opened in February 1884 in a temporary building on a 2 acre site. In 1885 the Department erected a timber schoolroom with an attached 4-room residence. Finally like most rural schools it succumbed to declining attendance and finally closed in February 1944.
The old abandoned, derelict structure has stood for 127 years on a rise above a timbered swamp, part of a Crown Land red-gum reserve.

The worłd according to Terry

This audio books starts off with the declaration that the Discworld books are probably the most annotated of all time, probably a correct statement.

In 'The folklore of the Discworld', Terry Pratchett teams up with leading British folklorist Jacqueline Simpson to take an irreverent yet illuminating look at the living myths and folklore that are reflected, celebrated and affectionately libelled in the uniquely imaginative universe of Discworld. 

Most of us grow up having always known to touch wood or cross our fingers, and what happens when a princess kisses a frog or a boy pulls a sword from a stone, yet sadly some of these things are now beginning to be forgotten.

Legends, myths, fairytales: our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got there. It is the same on the Discworld, except that beings which on Earth are creatures of the imagination - like vampires, trolls, witches and, possibly, gods - are real, alive and in some cases kicking.

Discworld folklore is a trivia test to identity the original idea, character, or how Terry has warped our commonplace into a Discworld setting. He also explains how Discworld traditions floating through the multi-verse helped inspire some of Shakespeare's works.

The Annotated Pratchett File now sadly out-dated, is an example of the breadth of  the many jokes, parodies, allusions and literary references that litter the pages. There are the bits of Shakespeare, pieces from the Bible and a whole lot of pop culture from the worlds of music, film, media...

Some of my favourites come from the sixteenth Discworld story - "Soul music", in fact I think "Pathway to paradise" says so much more than "Stairway to heaven", but I appreciate the whole music with rocks in it and the many references to Meatloaf's seminal "Bat out of hell", or the running gag with the main character "Imp y Celyn"  a Welsh transliteration of 'Bud of the Holly' who is a bit elvish. Just some more I couldn't resist: "'Cliff? Can't see anyone lasting long in this business with a name like Cliff'."and the University "Born to rune" and "Rebel without a pause".

The final section is a discussion on folklore between Terry and Dr Jacqueline Simpson (she is a long-standing member and office-holder on the Folklore Society's committee), where they quiz a young member of the audience about her knowledge of Shakespeare, and go off on a tangent to complement John Tams on his 'Sharpe' song lyrics "Over the hills and far away", etc. (Just found the John Tams version of the folksong on YouTube, have to love YouTube sometimes). All a very laid-back exchange with Terry breaking out into song ditties - the man has a phenomenal knowledge and must have undertaken research into many branches of  scholarship.

A must read for Pratchett fans.

I still luv rock n roll

News today, that Victoria’s first and only female Premier  - Joan Kirner is being treated for cancer. Ms Kirner, 75, was diagnosed last month and has started chemotherapy and radiation treatment for oesophageal cancer.

So I’m prepared to put in the background all the old Razor Gang business with Race Matthews & the Arts, and remember the night when Joan decked out in leather did a version of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ “I love rock n’ roll” on the Late Show (It was also the first thing that everyone here recalled about her).

Good on you Joan!