The Milk Bar of Human Kindness

Little Davey came from a broken home in Ettalong , his mum was only 16 at the time and he lived in a house that partied 24/7 , often he would wonder into the local milk bar and the owners would give him whatever he wanted to eat for free , it did not matter how many times a day little Davey turned up the kindly owners would always stop and serve the young lad.
That was years ago , little Davey has grown up , the milk bar owners moved on and out of town , the milk bar demolished for housing.
Thanks to the power of social media these people were connected once again just recently on my page at Facebook .....

https://www.facebook.com/groups/goodoldwoywoy/

West Head Fort Revealed

4.7 inch gun West Head 1942

A new website has been established to document the wartime history of the Central Coast region , the site has interesting information and photo's of West Head Fort and Juno Point gun battery as well as a look at the seaplane base at Rathmines in WW2 - well worth a look at if you are interested in local history.

History and Heritage - Hawkesbury to Hunter  http://4hresearch.weebly.com/

Old Bob shared this wartime memory with the Elvina group just recently

There used to be an aircraft spotting group at the school during wartime and some time each week they would get together to compare what aircraft they had seen. One kid was the butt of many jokes when he reported that he had seen a Japanese float plane flying up the coast. It came out a few days later that the Navy had flown a captured Japanese float plane up the coast from Nowra to Port Stephens and return to test the observers for aircraft recognition purposes. Of all the hundreds of trained observers and stations along the coast only one person had recognised the aircraft as enemy; a boy from Gosford High School. 

Bob

This well produced video has been made about the history and construction of the West Head battery and includes interviews with ex personnel , the whole History of Pittwater series is worth a look at as well

Woy Woys' secret ANZAC ritual remains in good hands

Rain did not deter today's ANZAC  marchers as they mustered at the waterfront end of McMasters road at Blackwall , by rough estimate I figure there was close to 50 or 60 lads there.
This long time tradition started back in 1981 with myself and our band of mates who thought it would be fun to rough it straight over the top of Blackwall Mountain en route to Ettalong Pub for the two up games from a mates house along the waterfront at Blackwall.

Beer cooler 1994

For years there was our little band of mates always around 10 to 15 of us gathering to catch up but this began to dwindle as some of us moved away from town , a couple of years there was just a handful of us.
We often talked about how it would be great to establish some sort of local tradition that would perpetuate over time , I don't think any of us could see what would happen in the future.
Things began to change in the last 15 years or so , mates began bringing their younger brothers and people from outside of our circle , and those brothers brang their mates.
The numbers started to rise , year after year now , the local footy and AFL teams began to turn up and our little band of original brothers became outnumbered by a new generation of locals.
From those humble beginnings the head count at some recent marches has reached the 100 mark at peak , all by word of mouth.

2009 Marchers

What started as a beer soaked bush bash by some mates 34 years ago has become something that I am proud of having a part in , while not being an official ANZAC memorial of any sort we do pay our respects yearly at a raised flag in the front yard some long suffering persons house along the waterfront at Blackwall.
I think I recall we spoke to them once and they were puzzled for years as to who we actually were , but they did say that they now raise it specially for us.

2007 One minutes silence

What we do celebrate is the most important value of being an ANZAC and that is mateship , year after year we have met there to catch up with long lost friends , some of those guys have passed away which makes the next march that little bit more important.
I teared up today as I saw all the young blokes getting ready for the hill climb , a quick word was spoken by our long time march leader Tony about the origins of the march and respects were paid to a dear mate who passed away just before Christmas last year , his son and wife were there in the crowd.
So there was just 3 or 4 of us original lads there today in a crowd of 50 plus , a decent turn out for the despicable weather earlier in the morning , I know Rusho organised this because that march is so much more bloody funnier when it 's wet and muddy

R.I.P Glen " Rusho " ( far left )

R.I.P

Mark Suckling

Steve Neylan
Jim Labina
Sean Moy
Geoff Moase
Glen Rushton

March on ...

Vandalism or Art ?

No doubt you would have read about the 2 young dickheads caught smoking bongs and spraying tags on rocks at Somersby Falls last week http://www.nbnnews.com.au/index.php/2014/03/25/pair-charged-over-somersby-falls-graffiti/
While this was just plain stupidity and disrespect of the natural bushland in this case, I have a photo of some more graffiti of another type near the Kariong Glyphs site.

Here the line is harder to define , while the spray can works are more suited to urban environments and are some times called art , here we have something which is as not offensive but still is technically vandalism.
The location of Mr Yabby is not known but if inside the national park this could be deemed as an act of vandalism.
True it's not offensive and there are plenty of rocks about to carve on and it's not in anyone's face, but it is in Aboriginal lands and the Australian bush and shows a total lack of RESPECT for either

New Kariong Hieroglyphs Blog

I have decided to move all my Kariong " business "  to a new stand alone site just to keep it a bit tidier , hopefully this will inspire me to do some more things with this blog.
The new site has a ton of info I have collected over the years about the glyphs hoax and will be updated as needed

Please bookmark http://karionghieroglyphs.blogspot.com.au/ ladies and gents

New Kariong Glyphs Evidence Fails to Excite

During the week our orb chasing friends at Wake Up World and the Strong circle of tin foil hat fanciers published their latest finding. 

Here was new evidence that would de bunk the hoax theories surrounding the Kariong Glyphs they claim.

A Statutory Declaration stating that a young lady had recalled as a 10 year old visiting the glyphs site in 1958 , intriguing but hardly earth shattering.

Part of the statutory declaration claiming the glyphs were sited in 1958

Lets have a look at:
http://wakeup-world.com/2014/02/02/1958-visitor-to-bambara-hieroglyphs-refutes-official-hoax-theories/


Bad Research 
" One of the most common hoax myth is the oft quoted tale of a ‘deranged Yugoslav’ who, in 1975, allegedly exited the ‘glyphs with a store-bought chisel in hand (minus a hammer), was then chastised by Gosford Council employee Alan Dash and sent on his way, unpunished, due to his limited intellectual capacity (the Yugoslav’s, not Dash’s). "

The above statement is not correct:
1. NPWS Ranger Neil Martin was the person who caught the " old Yugoslavian man " red handed and confiscated his chisel ( which is now in possession of the Gosford Historical Society ) in 1984 not 1975
2. Alan Dash first noticed the glyphs in 1975 after observing a man exiting the hole leading to the glyphs site, this man was living in the abandoned Gilford farmhouse ruins nearby.
He noted the appearance of more glyphs on returning visits over the next 5 years.

Source: Debunking the Gosford Glyphs by David Coltheart in Archaeological Diggings Vol 10 No 5 Oct/Nov 2003 Issue No 58

Quote " The remoteness of the site, "

Often the glyphs are referred to being in a remote location when in fact the glyphs site is located less then 1 kilometre from the town of Kariong and 5 km's from the town of Woy Woy and near Gosford , less than 100 kilometres from Sydney.
*The glyphs are located and the end of a unsealed road and only metres into the bush, within 100 metres there is the Lyre Trig marker point which has been in use since the 1800's.
*Up until 1999 access to public traffic was allowed into Bambara Road and you could park within 20 metres of the glyphs site , due to large amounts of illegal dumping the road was gated in 2000.
* From Woy Woy road it is only a 20 minute walk via Bambara Road to the site
* In the peroid between 1930 and 1974 , 3 families were living and farming along Bambara Road ( Cameron , Follan , Gilford )

Quote 

" Likewise, the obscure myth of the unnamed students from Sydney University (or a nearby college) engraving all of these hieroglyphs in either 1964 or 1984 – or any number of other dates that have at one time formed the ‘official’ story – always seemed improbable. "

Hardly anyone agrees with this theory , the whole idea is flawed and based on hearsay 
Archaeologist Dennis Gojack researched this theory:

"It should be made clear that in 1964 the Sydney University Department of Archaeology taught classical [Greek, Roman] and Near Eastern archaeology, which had an emphasis on Cyrus and the Middle East. There was a single newly appointed lecturer in Prehistoric Anthropology, Richard Wright, who had commenced a few years previously. The number of students enrolled was very limited and ancient Egyptian archaeology was not part of their curriculum, and neither was there any teaching in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs or language. As a student within the Department from the late 1970s I never heard about any such activities taking place from either staff or former students. "

Source http://secretvisitors.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/kariong-when-were-the-glyphs-found/#more-811

Why even bother discussing this and the Sphinx memorial , it is common knowledge that these 2 things have absolutely nothing to do with the creation of the glyphs hoax site.
The author goes to some length to state that this new evidence refutes previous theories and yes it would if it could be verified 100% , it would put the earliest sighting of the glyphs back about 15 years but still not prove who did them.

Quote " Those who claim it a hoax can’t seem to get their stories straight "

I suggest that the editors of Wake Up World review their own research before making such fanciful claims

So what does this supposed new information reveal ?

More than likely the whole document has been faked as Strong and Co have been caught out on a few occasions faking archaeological finds at the site and nearby

Can we trust the faint memory of a 10 years old girl from over 50 years ago ? How accurate are her recollections ? How can she be sure of the actual year she supposedly visited the glyphs

Does it prove Egyptians carved the glyphs ? Not at all