Ship Restoration - Kanangra

Another activity I started on after retirement was ship restoration!! Quite a turn around from a Chartered Accountant?? Driving home one day I saw this sign "Your Fleet Needs You!!" on the side of a ship in dry dock at Roselle. So I applied and a few weeks later spent my first day there. It was a completely different experience!!

After 40 years in an office, my first day was spent on my back, lying on a floating pontoon (which was actually taking water and slowly sinking) unbolting a boat cradle. The sun was shining and the breeze was lovely - such a change from the air conditioned suited world. So I went on, and finally joined the Kanangra team.

Kanangra is a 1912 steel hulled double ended ferry that used to work the inner Harbour runs around Sydney. She carried up to a 1000 passengers and originally steam was converted to diesel in the 1950s. She was donated to the Sydney Heritage Fleet in the 1980s, and after being being used as a Fleet Head Office for a number of years, was left moored at Roselle and allowed to deteriorate. However around 2003 our boss (The King, Col Tooher) got the work moving again. Over the years he built up a crew of willing retirees who have steadily moved through the vessel, stripping down the old paint and repainting on the upper deck, and also removing and re-installing doors, windows and life belt racks.

There is a lot of work involved - many of the hull plates need replacing - parts of the middle deck are in need of replacement, the wheelhouses at either end need some restration as well as recladding, and all the window frames need repairing and the glass replacing. This should keep me employed for the rest of my time.

At least we don't fear of completition from lower paid employees fropm third world countries.

Progress is slow as there is no money for any large repairs or or restoration. Still Kanangra looks a lot better for the repainting, and at last there is a bit more interest being shown in her future well ing by other Fleet members.

That is me - behind the mask - we are burning off lead based paint, so the safety equipment is necessary.

Hopefully one day we will have her back in full service taking seniors around the Harbour on a vessel they probably rode on as younger children, etc. Plans are that we will carry about 200 passengers to enjoy a day on the Harbour.

Power House Discovery Centre

One of my many volunteer guiding experiences is with the Power House Discovery Center (PDC) at Castle Hill. This is an offshoot of the Power House Museum in the city which is very well known.

The city section is the actual museum, whereas the Castle Hill facility is the "storage" area, but parts have been set up to enable people to view some of our collection. At Castle Hill we have over 50,000 objects - but of course not all are viewable. On general we operate Tu-Fri each week (for pre-booked groups), with one Saturday a month for an open day. Tours are normally 1 1/2 hours and the attending groups are generally Probus, Lions, Community Groups, etc with numbers in the 25-40 area. Most tours we have about 4-5 guides on duty. Sometimes there are what are called Focus Tours, with emphasis on a particular section of our collection.


At the moment the only focus tour available is on the motor cars, but whilst I am up at Nabiac in the next few weeks I plan to try starting to "rough: out another focus tour on "Furniture" as well as try to develop one of my own interest of the people BEHIND some of the items we have on show - the people who actually invented the items - like Ransom Eli Olds (Oldsmobile), John Fowler (who developed the steam plughs), Hugh Victor Mackay (behind the Sunshine Harvester Company and its agricultural equipment ).

Our guiding day starts with a round table briefing with Lysele (our Guiding Manager), regarding times, keys, safety requirements, wheelchairs, etc. The guests are normally greeted by Kelly or Natalie. Then one of us does a 10 min intro about the museum and then we split up into the groups, and off we go.

Downstairs in the main building we have the big (boy's) toys, in the form of steam traction engines, ploughs, coaches, buses, planes hanging from the ceiling, etc, and upstairs we have lots and lots of drawers containing various things inclusing needlework, toys, dolls, ships models, Doulton pottery, and on - this is the part which attracts most of the ladies, who state they will have to come back to finish looking.

Some of downstairs - steam ploughs, buses, the old P76 motor car, gliders, ultra light planes, etc.

Upstairs we have all the drawers and smaller objects - this is where the visitors get lost in the number of items on display - around 3000. We have the original mouse trap machine, which between 1944 and 2000 produced some 90 odd million mousetraps on the home made machine.

Jan - Feb 2008 - Horse riding

One of the "trips" included in our time in Peru is a horse riding trip up into the mountains and overlloking a scared valley. The receptionist at the Travel Doctor where I have been going for all my jabs is Peruvian and she wondered why I was going by horse. She told me that the horses need to go around the mountain, but the tourists can walk straight up the side - and therefore it is much quicker.

However the attraction appears to be the horse ride, so considering I have not been on a horse for around about 20 years (and that was for an hour, so the girls could have a trail ride) it was suggested that I should have a few lessons, and so here is the modern day Hopalong Cassidy on his trusty horse. Bear in mind these are my 2nd and 3rd lessons, and I haven't fallen off yet!!!




The lessons included brushing the horse down before and after, saddling and then climbing aboard this great horse. So far I have been able to stay on whilst the horse canters. I don't hink I will need to go to the galloping stage!!! (Gene Autry needn't worry!!) My instructor's name is Carolyn and her riding stables are at Dural. I have about 2-3 more lessons to go - probably won't really need them for the day trip - but better to be safe than sorry - although friends who have been horse-riding before have said that I will be SORE!!

See I can get on board!!! And stay there.

Carolyn following me around - the horse has a long lead back to her hands!! Just in case.

And I can bounce up and down - to some degree in time with the horse!!

2008 - Jan 26 - Australia Day

I mentioned a bit about my tours on the Saturday (Australia Day) at Old Government House - but didn't add any photos so that you might be able to imagine things. We took around 1000 people through the House, and did the big sell on them returning for a full visit, and also "Come along to the Ghost Night" tours when we will tell you about the sightings that we have had in the House over the years!!!

Quite a few liked the idea of that tour, and I know that February tour (my last before going away) is already booked out with around 45 people. So here goes - (can you pick me??)

Our Acting Manager, Lin Henry took us around and briefed us on the routine for the day. (Lin in the black top giving out instructions - she looked better later in the day when she changed into her bright red period costume)

We all wore costume for the day, and had groups of about 10 people each time. And it was go,go,go - 15 minute limit per tour - finish in the Governor's Bedroom, say good-bye and thanks and then round to the front door to greet the next group.

Things got a bit frantic at times as they were waiting for guides at the front door to admit the next batch of visitors. Then on the way through the house you had to watch timings very closely, as with so many tours going through - if you were too fast then you caught up to the group ahead, and if you were too slow then the group behind caught you up.

Some of our team (left) and Brian lining up the waiting people (right).

2008 - Jan 20 - Feb 2

Well another part of the future has passed on!! And now it is on to Feb - the year is rushing again - and so is my timetable. I have now just about finished bookings for the forthcoming trip - Faye has yet to do hers. The big events for the last period were Australia Day (I worked at Old Government House - doing 15 minute "highlight tours" - that was heavy, and I am not sure just how many tours I did, but as usual it was all fun) and also Ray's birthday.

We had the family together again for a quiet dinner on the Friday night. That left Ray and Ottilie to have a more "hectic" party the following night. Apparently their party went until around 3am, and they were glad for the Australia Day public holiday on the Monday to recover!!!

I am still settling back into regular routines after last year's operation. Faye's car is still with Ottilie and Faye is driving mine, so we are becoming accustomed to a single car. Actually it is not that bad - I am getting very used to public transport - amazing just how one can get around with it - all it takes is a little bit of researching, a bit of logic, and more observance to times, and a bit of patience at waiting. And of course it is cheaper - $2.50 for old people (like me), which is about 1 1/2 liters of petrol or about 10 kms. Also you don't have the strain of the other drivers on the road!!Above are some reminders of the birthday.