Wooden Boat Festival: Hunter St precinct

The Hunter St area had two tents, with some smaller things around the edge. The endmost tent, shown here, had the Shipwrights Village (displays of maritime-related crafts) and a display of Indigenous Watercraft. The first tent had the Maritime Marketplace, which was crowded because of the rain and not as interesting as I remember it.











In the Indigenous Watercraft tent, there were two different traditional canoes on display, showing the differences and similarities between the two cultures.


Tasmanian Aboriginal bark canoe, which I think is made by tying bundles of bark together. This one uses a lot of melaleuca (paperbark/tea-tree) bark.







A dugout canoe from the Tiwi Islands. This one was carved from a punkaringa (also a melaleuca), using axes and power tools.





In the Shipwrights Village tent, it was still crowded because of the rain and the light was bad.


This was a demonstration of caulking, by hammering bits of rope between the timbers.




He was making half models, which are mounted on a back board and sold for hundreds of dollars.


You can have the one in the top right for $620, and just $360 for the two below. I'm not that sure I see the attraction in them, really. I mean, they're nice and original to a degree, but they're just a bit plain.


Now that I could like. Maybe not $1800 worth though.




Bit for building a boat, in various timers. The big bit is a stem crook. I can't remember or read what the others are.

Boats, wooden or otherwise

I'm going to break my Wooden Boat Festival photos in three posts. There will probably be some duplication with photos I've already used.

On the water

Hunter St precinct

Off the water

One problem here, is the tall ships present are all ones I've done long photo posts on before. While I have new photos of some, it doesn't seem worth doing a whole new post for each. While I ponder on it, when they get mentioned, I'll link to previous posts (as below).

Before I get to the wooden boats proper, some of the water craft hanging around the edges....



Enterprise, Young Endeavour and cruise ship Asuka II





HMAS Stuart: Anzac Class Guided Missile Frigate

Midlands Military Meet

A scattering of photos from the Midlands Military Meet at Campbell Town last weekend. Being the first one, it was a small event but we hope to grow it for next time.

There was a big metal shed that doubled as the Dealer's Hall and Exhibition Hall. Outside was a large dirt arena, where the live displays (enacting?) took place, and a scattering of displays around the outside (the Army and a collection of military vehicles). A small event is probably more social and relaxed than a larger gathering, but it puts extra pressure on those exhibitors that were there. I think both the WW2 group and the Light Horse did 3 displays each of the three days (or 2 on the last day) which was quite demanding, and it's hard being a dealer when it's quiet. (It's also hard being a dealer when you have more customers can you can deal with at once, but that's the sort of hard one can live with.) It has the potential to grow though, especially now that there is material available (photos!) to promote the next one in 2010.

(And if anyone reading this is interested in taking part or knows someone who might be...)
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Uh oh, German invasion.



But the Allied forces are onto them.



Yep, definitely dead.



The problems with boots...



Barbarians should not eat blueberry icecream. It's just wrong.



The dealers' tables were very interesting in their own right.















These are what you call specialist books.





That is a colour photo.




The Light Horse re-enactors frustrated me. They were far enough away the camera couldn't pick them up well and they sun was beside them, so the darker horses came out particularly badly. Sunday morning was overcast though, so I managed to get some usable photos (which I will put in another post).



In the big, metal shed pavilion, there was a corner of displays.







Anti-aircraft gun.







BANG! Setting off the 6-pounder


It can play games with your head though. On the Saturday morning, I came out of the pavilion while everyone was setting up, and saw two medievalish characters walking past some Word War II soldiers. I'm used to one twist on reality -- whether it's an old house or a replica ship or people in period costume against a modern backdrop -- but multiple twists can be jolting at first.

One very obvious thing missing from the photos is sound. The running commentary, the bang of the big guns, the pop-pop-pop of the smaller guns. You'd be standing in the pavilion talking with a dealer and suddenly World War II erupts outside :)

Light Horse re-enactors

Interesting to see in the photos the things the eye missed.

There are three skill tests being demonstrated here: lopping the ball of the poles, skewering the ring hanging from the gallows and getting the wooden stake on the ground (tent pegging). These are done competitively in places.