Bart Bear's Blog

Even though Fighter World has steps near lots of the exhibits so that you can see into the cockpit, these steps are built for people. That is a bit of a problem for small bears. As you can see in the top photo, I just couldn't get high enough to show Blu and Milkshake what the inside of the Sabre looked like. Fortunately, Dad and I have several Sabres in our model collection and I could teach the others about the aircraft using one of these when we got home. The Sabre at Fighter World is a CAC Sabre, built right here in Australia in the 1950s. Although Australian Sabres look like the North American F-86 Sabre, they are much more powerful. They use a Rolls-Royce Avon engine and, to fit this engine in, the fuselage had to be redesigned. It is wider and the air intake is 25% bigger than on the F-86. The Avon Sabre also has two 30mm cannon instead of the machine guns of the American version. Sabres are superb in the air. I see the one at Temora Aviation Museum sometimes and it is almost as beautiful as the Spitfire. Our model is pretty good too, don't you think?

Labels: aircraft, models, New South Wales, Newcastle, Temora

At Williamtown, between Port Stevens and Newcastle, is a fantastic museum called Fighter World. It is just outside the boundary fence at the end of the main runway of RAAF base Williamtown, where the Australian Strike Fighter force is based. On the other side of the airfield is Newcastle airport. So when you visit Fighter World you not only have a museum with examples of most of the RAAF fighters to look at, but also lots of military and commercial aircraft taking off or landing right in front of you. We spent hours there on our way home from our Gold Coast trip. I really liked the exhibits, because you can get right up to the aeroplanes. There are even ladders for you to climb up for a look inside the cockpit. There is also a viewing deck where you can see what's happening all over the airfield. The thing that I loved most of all was sitting in the outdoor cafe watching the activity on the base. Milkshake, Blu and I were able to sit in the shade and see Hawks, Hornets, PC-9s and airliners taking off only a couple of hundred metres away. The FA-18 Hornets in this picture went straight overhead. Us small critters loved the noise, even if some kids at another table didn't. Where was Scruffy? Well, Scruff doesn't like aircraft much so he was catching up on sleep back in the car.

Labels: aircraft, New South Wales, Newcastle

Boats are wonderful things. I like them all, but this sort is really special. These are some of the harbour fire-boats at Newcastle. They may be small as far as ships go, but they sure are tough. They are powerful enough to get to burning ships really fast and squirt tons of water onto them and put the fire out. I spent a lot of time at a harbourside cafe (I still can't spell restaurant) watching them while the Oldies were busy talking to friends there. I was hoping that a big ship would come in with problems and I could see the fire-boats in action, but it must have been a quiet day as far as shipping accidents go. I could sit watching harbours for hours and hours, there is always something happening, even if fire-boats aren't needed.

Labels: boats, New South Wales, Newcastle

In this photo you can see two things that have guarded Newcastle harbour almost since it began. On the top of the hill is Fort Scratchley. Construction of this fort started with the first guns being installed in 1878, before the walls were built. The only time the guns were used in anger was when a Japanese midget submarine shelled the BHP works on June 8, 1942. The army finally left the fort in 1972. In 1978 it became part of the National Estate and lots of reconstruction has happened since. It is well worth a visit if you are ever in Newcastle.
At the bottom of the hill is the Pilot Station. The yellow boats are the pilot boats which go out to meet ships coming into harbour and transfer a pilot to them. The pilot knows all the tricks of getting into harbour safely. I think I would make a great pilot.

Labels: boats, New South Wales, Newcastle

This is the perfect place for me to travel while the Oldies haul me around. They think it is the case for their new camera, but I know better. It is just the right size for me sit comfortably and securely, and it even has a flap that acts as a windscreen. Whoever designed this "camera case" obviously had small bears in mind. After all, the camera has a neck strap so the bag is not all that necessary, is it?

Labels: family, New South Wales, Newcastle, trips

Dad says this is a Cessna Turbo-Caravan. It doesn't look like any sort of caravan I've seen before. How would you tow this behind a car? Still, Dad sometimes knows what he's talking about. Whatever it is, this is the seaplane that carries passengers between Sydney harbour and Newcastle harbour several times a day. Actually, it is an amphibian. It has wheels as well as floats and can land on water or land. It came into Newcastle while we were having breakfast at a cafe near the harbour and I went down to see it. I couldn't get any closer than this because Mum goes ballistic if I get too close to the edge of the gangplank. She thinks I might fall in and get wet (and I would if I could get away with it). The big buildings over the other side of the harbour are wheat silos. They have big conveyor belts attached so that they can squirt wheat straight into the holds of ships. There weren't any ships loading while we were there, a pity because I think it would be fun watching it happen.

Labels: aircraft, New South Wales, Newcastle

Wherever we travel the Oldies find their favourite sorts of shops. No problem for Mum, there are loads of jewellery and craft shops in just about any town on the planet. It is a bit tougher for Dad because he looks for hobby shops. Not just any old hobby shop, but one that is big enough to have the latest, the rarest and the "old classics" aircraft kits in stock. And they have to be 1/72 scale too. As luck would have it, there is just such a hobby shop in Newcastle. It is called Frontline Hobbies and it's in the old part of Newcastle in the main street. Actually, there is not much left in the main street, Hunter St, as Newcastle has had some tough times with a big earthquake and then the main industry (the BHP steelworks) closing down so the old part of Newcastle is a bit like a ghost town. Anyhow, Frontline Hobbies is stacked up with just about any type of modelling stuff you can think of. Dad and I were after aircraft kits. There was just one in the whole place that we haven't either built or have waiting to be built. We grabbed it. Then we saw this boat kit. It is of a lifeboat like the ones that the Oldies saw on their UK trip, so we grabbed that too. I will keep the pressure on Dad to make sure that we build these fairly quickly and will post the results soon.

Labels: aircraft, boats, models, New South Wales, Newcastle

In Newcastle there is a special part of my family history. The big building on the hill is Christ Church Cathedral, and tucked away in a corner of it is a special memorial display to a real soldier hero who came from Newcastle. He was Captain Clarence Smith Jeffries, my Great-great-grandma's cousin, and he won the Victoria Cross during the Battle of Passchendaele on the 12th of October 1917, a fortnight before his 23rd birthday. On that day he led his company in an attack on several German pillboxes (machine gun posts). When his force was pinned down he took a small group of fourteen soldiers, made his way around behind the enemy positions and captured four of the machine guns and thirty-five prisoners. Later in the day he was killed trying to neutralize another pillbox. He is buried in Tyne Cot war cemetry, near where he fell. His VC is part of the display in the Cathedral, one of the few VC's not kept in the Australian War Memorial. There is a special commemorative chair there as well, but Dad won't let me sit in it when we visit. I hate the stupidity and waste that is war, but I also feel proud that this small bear has one of the bravest of soldiers in his family tree.

By the way, that thing that looks like a flying saucer on a pole is a lookout tower where you can climb up and see what is happening in the harbour. Well worth doing if you don't mind lots of stairs.

Labels: family, heroes, New South Wales, Newcastle

I love lighthouses. They are always in the most interesting spots, on headlands or clifftops. The best ones are the ones where you can see them best from harbour ferries or cruise boats. Newcastle has a beaut, called Nobbys. It is on what was once a rocky island (Nobbys Head) just off the south side of the mouth of the Hunter river. A lighthouse was built here way back in 1818 because Newcastle was, and still is, a very important coal port. The island has changed since then. Lots of it have been blasted away to make the harbour better and it has been joined to the mainland by a causeway. You can walk right up to the lighthouse and there are great views from there. The causeway has let sand pile up on the seaward side and created a good surfing beach. Actually, the lighthouse is a bit hard to see from a distance. The most obvious buildings on Nobbys Head are the Signal Station and Port Control. The lighthouse is the smaller building with the pointy roof, to the left of the tower in the picture. The second picture shows the mouth of the river,and there is something in it that makes it obvious why Mum won't let me go on small boats by myself. I took this picture from a ferry and Mum had a tight grip on me at the time, even though we hadn't left the wharf yet.

Labels: lighthouse, New South Wales, Newcastle

Last weekend we went up to Newcastle for a very special event, the wedding of my cousin Amanda and her special guy, Keith. Both of them are nearly finished their engineering degrees, so they should have an interesting life together. Mandy is the younger daughter of Dad's sister, Aunty Margie. The wedding was in a church, the Baptist one, right in the centre of Newcastle. We usually have a hard time finding our way around Newcastle, but we managed to find the church OK. I had a hard time keeping still during the service but I could wriggle around and make some noise during the singing; Dad's croaky, off-key singing hides any noise I make. After the ceremony we had afternoon tea in a park across the road. The oldies went off to the reception later that evening but the meanies left me behind.
You may remember reading about the wedding of Amanda's big sister, Heather, in one of my posts last year (check it out in the March 2008 archive).

Labels: family, New South Wales, Newcastle