Woy Woy RAAF Airfield WW2

Woy Woy Aerodrome
During the early years of the Second World War an aerodrome was constructed on the Woy Woy peninsula by the Australian Army for the RAAF.
Originally the airfield was designated as a dispersal airfield for the Schofields air base at Quakers Hill in Sydney, in the event of an enemy attack aircraft from this base could be deployed to the Woy Woy strip.
The Schofields air base was home to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm for the duration of the war, the aircrews and aircraft were from visiting British aircraft carriers that rotated in and out during the war years.
As the threat of invasion diminished at the end of 1942 the airfield was relegated to become an Emergency Landing Ground, part of a network of coastal airfields that ran along the coast.
The airfield at Woy Woy was originally designed to accommodate 8 medium sized bombers that were housed in "hideouts" at various locations around the main runway.
A typical bush hideout consisted of a U shaped soil wall and suspended camouflage nets above the bays.
For camouflage purposes the taxiways leading to the runway would utilise existing local streets, some new streets were constructed for this purpose, other roads had the telegraph poles removed to accommodate the wingspan of a large aircraft.
Fuel dumps , anti aircraft positions and slit trenches were also planned for the area, earlier maps show plans for a second intersecting runway crossing the main strip from east to west.
The main runway ran north to south from McMasters Avenue to roughly Oxford Street and alongside Trafalgar Avenue
The strip was built in early 1942 by the Australian Army engineers firstly by bulldozing the area then laying down a base of crushed local sandstone , the main landing strip was then topped with a red gravel.
Early documents hint that at least 4 of the proposed hideouts had been completed by the time it was inspected by the army camoufluer at the end of 1942, locals have also reported the existence of slit trenches dug in the area of McMasters Avenue at the time.

RAAF plan for Woy Woy airfield

Wartime use
During the war the strip was used by aircraft travelling up and down the eastern seaboard for stop overs refuelling and emergency repairs.
Locals recall large Americam bombers regularly landing at Woy Woy which would attract the local ladies much to the delight of the American aircrews , one such crew was so taken by the local hospitality that 3 of the men deserted the aircraft and stayed in town for several weeks at at house in Umina before being rouded up by the military Police, evidently they had sold their uniforms to the locals !
Locals also recall many aircraft stopping fo repairs and there are a series of photos held by the local Ettalong RSL showing an Australian Lockheed Venture meduim bomber configured for submarine hunting undergoing repairs at the strip in 1943.

Lockheed Ventura with experimental YAGI submarine hunting radar array undergoing repairs 1943

Interesting to note that there have been 2 large radial type aircraft engines dug up in the area over the years that may have been from these aircraft, it was army practice to bury such items after they had been removed and replaced with new parts.
The land used by the army for the airfield was eventually returned to the original owners or sold off by 1949
Post War use
After the war the runway was used by the locals for a variety of purposes, there were horse races and an annual motorbike race, many locals also used the strip to learn to drive on.

Runway looking south towards Sydney 1949

Aircraft also continued to use the strip, some local real estate agents would fly up prospective customers from Sydney and in the 50's Marshall Airways from Bankstown would also bring up aircraft on the weekends for tourist joy flights.

Marshall Airways aircraft at Woy Woy 1950's

As the area became more populated there were more houses and the landing of aircraft started to become hazardous, in 1950 a Tiger Moth biplane was trying to land in heavy crosswinds and was blown onto the roof of a house in Nelson St, the pilot and occupants of the house (who were not home) were unharmed , the pilot did injure himself when he fell of the roof of the house unfortunately.

Tiger Moth crash 1950 Nelson St Umina

Co-incidently at that precise moment a delegation from Gosford had arrived by boat at Woy Woy Shire Council chambers to petition the council to retain the runway for public use.
The runway was eventually incorporated into Trafalgar  Avenue and remaining land subdivided and sold off
The blocks were a curse and a bonus for buyers as they were well drained and level but near impossible to dig into for they were still topped with the red gravel and sandstone base.
The Mystery Fuselage
Locals recall the remains of a medium sized passnger plane that had been stripped down to the fuselage that lay in the bush blocks near Australia Ave until the early 60's, some have identified it as an aircraft similar to a DC 2, there is no knowledge of the fate of this plane.
The Drop Tank
Locals also remember as children in 60's the existance of a large military type aluminium drop tank (disposable fuel tank) that had been split into its 2 halves and used by kids to paddle about in the Everglades lagoons, this may have been a left over relic from the airfield.

Little remains of the airfield today as housing has now fully covered the strip, small park at Trafalgar Avenue between Alma Ave and Waterloo Avenue is basically the original runway surface, skirting the edge of the car park  are remnants of the red gravel that can still be seen today.

In 2016 with the assistance of the Umina Community Group and myself the small park on Trafalgar Avenue is to be re named Runway Park , new play amenities will be added and it is hoped a small plaque with historical details of the site will be added in the later stages on construction

S.Spillard

Aboriginal Cave Art Panoramas

The new generation of cameras with built in panorama mode are perfect for capturing Aboriginal cave art in the sandstone overhangs around the coast , here are some examples courtesy of Bob Pankhurst - click on each photo to enlarge.

Woy Woy by Night

Taken back in 2008 , much to the amusement of by-passers who thought I was some kind of pervert with a camera lurking around in the dark corners of town ..
I have long been a fan of the art of Jeffery Smart , I discovered his work when I was an apprentice working at the Art Gallery of NSW , I have tried to emulate his style in these photos.

This is the new Catholic church on Blackwall affectionately known as the " biscuit tin " , you can't see the tin bit in this photo , this is a side view of the air conditioning ducts that had nice shadows of the trees on them.
When the church first opened I had to add a little commentary to my old blog

Recently the new church on Blackwall Road was opened and the new set of bells were brought into action for the first time. For years the local parish saved up and purchased the mammoth set of 3 bells that first roared out over the Peninsula just before Christmas.
The beaming Reverend John Hill was quoted as saying " These bells kick arse ! for years my poor parish has been bombarded in their homes by the local heathen population playing Black Sabbath and Megadeath at ungodly hours , but come Sunday there will be final atonement as these babies kick in ! "
Obviously the bretheren had done their research as the pastor detailed...
" We had the bells cast overseas in the same factory as the bells used by AC/DC on the Hells Bells Tour and Sister Mavis was trained to use the state of the art computer controlled bell ringing software that drives the 3 bells we have nicknamed
" Big Bopper " " Left Scrote " and " Right Scrote "

The Sentinel , lamp post with rarely monitored security camera K-Mart carpark



Silo 8 - well Fire Stair 8 K-Mart carpark



Air Lock - top of staircase K-Mart carpark , sorry to the lady I scared the shit outta while taking this pic hehe



Car Park - I like the colours in this one , I should of taken the time to walk down and move those bloody trolleys outta shot :|

The Shaking Poles of Woy Woy Town

Inspired by the last story and in need of some better pics , I headed into town last Saturday night to do some shooting.
It's hard to get some different looking pics to the usual fare , so I figured no one had taken night photos of Woy Woy before and set about my task , much to the bewilderment of some locals ( it's called art not stalking ffs )
Anyway when I get to this building my memory comes back and I am reminded of a tale from long ago ............
It's brisk and bitterly cold winter morning at Woy Woy station , waiting for the 5.17 am train to Central , my fellow travelers stand fast on the platform with backs to the waters of Woy Woy Bay in hope that the sun may come out just a tad earlier and warm our souls up.
There is always one lark who will wear shorts to work everyday ( even in mid winter ) , he stands there grinning as folk say to him " Aren't you f#@king cold mate ? " and replies " nah it ain't f#@king cold enough mate ! "
One morning this lark says to our assembled group " check out the flagpole on that building across the road , one is wobbling all over the place " and it was true , one of the twin flagpoles was going berserk wobbling like a giant had just flicked it with it's thumb !
Mind you there was no wind present and the wobbling did not slow down , we noticed this event for many mornings over the next few months. Theories abounded on what caused the pole to rattle , there was no wind or passing heavy traffic , it shook in cold or warm weather - maybe some sort of magnetic influence ?
The shaking became so evident that the staff inside the building noticed it and the pole was secured according to another bystander on the platform at Woy Woy , so that's the story of the shaking poles - only known by a few until now !

June 2008 - This is an old post from my Woy-Woy.net blog , I need to clean up that web space so I will be moving selected stories from dat one to dis one over the next couple of weeks

Gosford Glyphs 2010 Update

New Website - Enter here 

The discussion about the Egyptian Heiroglyphs have surfaced once again as the developers try to move into Bambara Road at Kariong in 2010
Many are happy to dismiss them as fakes and just as many believe they are real and many people believe those people...
Of course if they were real our history would have been re-written long ago , but rumours and people's beliefs cloud our judgement some times ( not all of us though ! )
Once the story of the glyphs reached the web it also garnered a new following of "new agers" and self declared experts and theorists , for which the carvings validated their beliefs in nice colour photographs.

Despite being presented with valid scientific proof and reports from a variety of experts , it seems some will reject all and continue with the myth.
Most of this seems to stem from a man named Ray Johnson who supposedly translated the glyphs and sent the results to a few experts overseas and the local authorities in Australia.
While we have copies of the letters he sent , we do not have any of the replies , so the translations have never been verified or acted upon.
Ray Johnson claimed he had written 4 volumes about Egyptian heiroglyphs and language and that it was accepted by the Musuem of Antiquities in Cairo.
In the letters I have Ray never states his qualifications other than the fact he is a researcher.
This all happened nearly 15 years after the NPSW , Gosford Council and Sydney University carried out studies and declared the work fake.

All the experts agree that the symbols are badly done and are probably carved by someone who was studying Egypt or was copying what he saw in a book.
So it is true some of the symbols actually are real and spell out words , this must not be confused as them being translated into the story as told by Ray Johnson
It also doesn't mean that they were carved by the Egyptians either , nearby dated Aboriginal carvings are around 250 years old and are much more eroded.

A property located within 60 metres of the glyph site existed from around 1929 , the owner was E.F Gilford who was so fascinated with the local Aboriginal carvings , that he wrote an article for the local newspaper in 1931.
E.F Gilford scoured the land around his home and recorded many sites unknown to anyone at the time , later in 1960 he was aided by a local researcher B. Pankhurst and they mapped and photographed every Aboriginal site in the Kariong area.
Remember Mr Gilfords property boundary ( in red ) was only 60 metres away from the glyphs site and he lived there for over 25 years.
2 other private holdings were in the area owned by Follan who had a pig farm and the Camerons who had a house and farm.
By that time the area had been extensively surveyed for roads , power lines , mineral and scientific explorations , the army in both wars and Lyre Trig was built just 120 metres away from the carvings.
With all that activity not one person or valid report exists of the glyphs prior to 1975
Parish maps of the area note the locations of Aboriginal sites but not the glyphs in every edition.

As the popularity of internet forums grew the topic of the glyphs arose on several sites , this brought the attention of Egyptologists like Dr Meltzer who was actually paid to examine the glphs via correspondence , while he agreed that the symbols spelt out names and words he never offered a full translation.
Later on as people informed him about the local history of the area and prevoius reports he began his own research into the background.
I note in his final posts he pleas for valid information on the status of the glyphs pre 1980's , but never gets a reply.
He is also sent a confusing letter from Ray Johnson offering to send him his translations , he remarks later on that he cannot agree with Ray Johnsons " archaic theory "

Private website owner A. Keating made a website based on the report on Ray Johnson findings by a Dr Gilbert.
Dr Gilbert also called the glyphs forgeries.
After that report was published online , Paul White who had help place Ray Johnsons story online and had a written an article , distanced himself from the whole affair.

On the Ancient Lost Treasures forum in 2004 a member ( Tom Walter ) contacted the Gosford History group and was told the carvings were done by a schoolboy in the 60's , the Elvina group has recently contacted members of that group who verified the story again in 2010.

Since 2007 all discussions involving Dr Meltzer have ceased , many sites have stories on the glphs and all use parts of the story from different parts of the web , no new reaseach has taken place since.

In October 2010 I personally contacted the first person documented to find the glyphs and spoke to him on the phone at length , Alan Dash worked as a surveyor for Gosford Council and discovered them in 1975 , he also witnessed them being created.
Read the full account here

To get a better picture of the story I've made a timeline with all relevant links included:


1825
- First land surveys carried out in Brisbane Waters

1923
- Woy Woy Road built

1929
- Gilford , Follan and Cameron purchase blocks at Bambara Rd
- Parish map of blocks here

1931
- Gilford writes article on nearby Aboriginal carvings
- Article here

1955
- Bob Cummins visits site and notes carvings are present but faint - rumour not confirmed ( see letter from R Johnson to Gosford Council 1997 )

1960's
- Students from Gosford High School carve/re carve/ add to glyphs - rumour confirmed by Tom Walter* in 2004 and Elvina group* in 2010 after contact with members of the Gosford Historical Group
1964
- University students visit site and carve/re carve/ add to walls - rumour not confirmed ( see letter from R Johnson to Gosford Council 1997 )

1975
- Council surveyor Alan Dash notes site
- Alan Dash notes site being added to - Read interview here

1983
- Article in Central Coast Express
- Mr David Lambert Rock Art Conservator of the Cultural Heritage Division of the NPWS visits site
- Pictures taken in 1983/1984 by the NPWS
- Photographs of the hieroglyphs were sent to Prof. NageebKanawati, head of the Department of Egyptology at Macquarie University, Sydney.
- Prof. Nageeb Kanawati replies and declares the carvings as fake

1984
- Ranger Neil Martin catches old Yugoslavian man carving at site
- Ranger Neil Martin notes additional carvings being added afterwards

1994
- Ray Johnson visits site with Dr Whitehouse and Yahn
- Ray Johnson sends letter to Dr Abou - Gazi Director of the Museum of Antiquities Cairo
- Copy of letter here

1996
- Paul White writes article for Exposure magazine Vol 2 No.6
- Copy of article here

1997
- Ray Johnson writes to Gosford Council
- Copy of letter here

1998
- A. Keating establishes contact with Dr Gilbert and creates website here
- Dr Gilbert denounces carvings as fakes
- Article here
- Paul White rejects his own story and agrees with the forgery theory
- Bambara site under threat from developers - letters of support from local Mp's

2001
- Hans-Dieter von Senff writes to Carmel Tebutt assisting the Ministerfor National Parks and Wildlife [Refschauge]
- Carmel Tebutt confirms carvings are fake based on NPWS study
- Carmel Tebutt confirms air shaft / underground chamber not present in 1983 inspection
- See post at Ancient Lost Treasures

2003
- Article written by David Coltheart in Archaeological Diggings Vol 10 No 5 Oct/Nov 2003 Issue No 58
- Article here

2004
- Tom Walters contacts Philippe Tabuteau of the Gosford Historical Group
- Philippe Tabuteau confirms carvings were done by persons known to him
- Dr Meltzer is contracted by John Anthony West to decipher the glyphs
- Dr Meltzer's post at Ancient Lost Treasures

2005
- Don Hitchcock maps writes article here

2007
- Dr Meltzer discusses the glyphs online at the Glyph Doctors
- Dr Meltzer receives information from Ray Johnson
- Dr Meltzer dimisses Ray Johnsons "archaic theory"
- Last post from Dr Meltzer here
2008
- Glenndining, Minto and Associates apply to build at Bambara Rd
- DA rejected by Gosford Council

2009
- Developers launch appeal in Lands and Environment court

2010
- Court hearing April - decision reserved to a later date
- Elvina group contacts Tabuteau family member
- Tabuteau family member suspects carvings were done by a pupil/s from Gosford High School in the 60's
- June - Land and Environment court rejects current DA by Glenndining, Minto and Associates
- Alan Dash confirms carvings done between 1975 and 1983 - Report here
- Blocks in the area are offered for sale again , Council does not buy them
- I am sent the original NPWS site photos taken in 1983 , after examination I found evidence of the glyphs being added to after the photos were taken - see article here

2011
- Single block sold to private purchaser
- Local protest group camps on site for 90 days in action against development proposals
- I contact the NPWS for information on the glyphs - letter here
- I contact Prof. NageebKanawati, head of the Department of Egyptology at Macquarie University, Sydney. - email reply here
- Glyphs featured on History channel documentary , Tony Robinson visits site. - video here
- Gosford Council appoints mediator to negotiate purchase of blocks along Bambara Rd
- Steven Strong and Dr Hans Dieter Von Senff enter Brisbane Waters National Park to conduct illegal archaeological studies and excavations at the glyphs site and illegally remove artifacts

2012
- Unemployed school teacher Steven Strong writes articles for New Dawn magazine and Indigenous Times
- Retired bus driver Hans Dieter Von Senff releases " Ancient Egyptians in Australia " 
- Gosford Council agrees to buy one of the blocks on Bambara Road for inclusion into the BWNP
- Fringe website Wake up World publishes Steven Strongs Kariong theories
- News article from Steven Strong about his Kariong theories is pulled down from the ABC website
 within hours of it's release

2013
- Glyphs site suffers from increased traffic , underground cavity which theorists claim is a " tomb "
is continually interfered with , NPWS fill in the cavity and post warning signs
- Steven Strong claims to find UFO carving close to the glyphs site , it turns out to be an Aboriginal
carving of a whale

2014
- New website created http://karionghieroglyphs.blogspot.com.au/


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TO THIS DATE NO ONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO PROVIDE SOLID SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT THE EGYPTIANS OR ANY OTHER CULTURE VISITED KARIONG OVER 4000 YEARS AGO