Wondabyne to Woy Woy

By -


With spring in fill swing Jean and I have been putting aside our museum going and been hitting the trail on the weekends. A large patch of green on the map north of Sydney called Brisbane Water National Park piqued Jean’s interest some time ago. Hunting around on the Wild Walks website she discovered track notes for a hike from Wondabyne train station through the park to the town of Woy Woy. 

Wondabyne is a peculiar station. First, it's located in the very heart of the National Park on the edge of a tributary of the Hawkesbury River. Second, there's no road access to the station. Catching a train here involves either walking in or getting a boat. There's no regular service stopping at the station. One must flag down a train. The third and most important fact is that you have to notify the conductor if you want to alight at Wondabyne. The platform is only half a carriage length long so you have to disembark from the last door of the last car.

Jean managed to find the conductor but we missed the bit about the platform. As the Wondabyne platform rolled by and the train slowed to a stop Jean and I made a frenzied dash rearward. Reaching the end of the third of four carriages, the train lurched to a start. Bursting into the fourth car the conductor saw us and hit the emergency break. The rear passenger door had already cleared the platform but the conductor directed us through the door in his compartment. We stepped off into the sunshine and breathed a sigh of relief.
Arrival at Wondabyne Station. So long train!
      

Comments

sly said…
What cool places you visit! I think your land shark looks like a stingray! Gorgeous red flowers.
5 November 2012 at 07:52
M and D said…
Are you sure you are not in Texas? The rocks reminded us of our visit to Enchanted rock!
5 November 2012 at 11:54
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Soldier Fly Larva Harvester

By -
Image
Black soldier fly larva are voracious decomposers. Here's a video  of a some larva completely devouring a hamburger over the course of five hours. And here's a video of some chickens completely devouring some black soldier fly larva. Black soldier flies have some curious qualities that make them particularly well suiting for cultivating their larva as fodder for your feathered friends: As stated before black soldier fly larva are voracious. They will eat fish and meat scraps that you would not typically put in your compost pile for fear of attracting larger vermin. They break down organic material into usable compost extremely rapidly. As an added bonus black soldier fly larva eat the eggs of other fly species who foolishly lay their eggs in rotting organic material. This severely diminishes your population of house flies and fruit flies. I had a compost pile that was beset with fruit flies until the black soldier fly larva moved in. When a black soldier fly larva is re...
Read more

Roundwood Building Workshop

By -
Image
I went to a Roundwood Building Workshop this weekend. Roundwood is timber that is left as logs rather than being cut into planks. We constructed a shelter for a cob pizza oven (yet to be constructed). The timer is a mix of red cedar and ash juniper. Before doing anything with it we had to take the bark off it to prevent insect infestation down the road. The night before the project leaders charred the end of the posts that would be put in the ground. The charring is another insect infestation prevention measure. Getting the cut ends charred is of particular importance. The post holes were dug to a depth of 2-3'. We also half buried a couple of dozen roofing nails in the charred end of each post for additional stabilization. The cool thing about roundwood is that you can use features of the tree(like this limb) to add beauty and support. This limb will provide support for a girder. After we got the posts in position we back-filled the holes with decomposed g...
Read more

T-Brick Shed: Rubble Trench French Drain Installation

By -
Image
The last thing Jean told me before she left for the UK was that I had better finish the shed project before she gets back or else. The trench was a little soggy still but I decided to press on with the french drain installation for fear what that else may be (Although, I'm hoping the "else" will be make me a delicious sandwich). I dug out the high section blocking  the drain outlet and and cleaned up a some edges before putting down landscape fabric and a layer of gravel. Putting down the landscape fabric in the trench. Landscape fabric is water permeable but significantly less sediment permeable. This will help prevent the gravel and french drain from becoming blocked up with silt. Here's my work crew. The tamp/rake tango Release the hose! Uncoiling the perforated tubing. First objective was to fill in the tripping hazard that is the drain outlet. Note how we form a sort of gravel/perforated hose burrito with the landscape fabric. We...
Read more