2010 Comboyne Plateau, Australia Trip Report

2010 Comboyne Plateau Trip Report

(above) Not for long…Today is my lengthy travel day…I fly from Tokyo to Beijing to Shanghai to Sydney, then travel by car for four hours to Comboyne where the next workshop will be…Close to thirty hours combined…

(above) On the wall in the Tokyo airport…

(above) All the flights today will be on Air China.

(above) In the seat pocket magazine…Stand-up paddling China style…Nothing new here…

(above) Leaving Japan..

(above) Four hours later, Beijing airport…Nicely polished floor…Actually everything here is nicely polished…

(above) The airport is huge, and as modern as it gets…

(above) The line to clear customs…You could hear a pin drop…

(above) Wandering around between flights I saw this…I wonder how much has been edited for the local consumption…???...

(above) Speaking of local consumption…

(above) Time for some consumption of my own while waiting for the next plane…Editing on the go…

(above) On the shuttle bus to the next plane…

(above) The ride from Beijing to Shanghai…

(above) Fast forward eleven hours to the start of the next day…

(above) Over the ocean just north of Australia…

(above) Getting close to Sydney…

(above) Sydney with the Opera House there in the middle…

(above) This was weird, the plane was dumping jet fuel before landing…I’m thinking to balance the plane from side to side…Glad I wasn’t in a boat below…

(above) I was greeted at the airport by the boys of the Turner clan, my hosts for the next two weeks…We loaded the car then drove as quick as we could out of Sydney…

(above) A surf check stop on the way to the Comboyne Plateau…

(above) Spring break holiday week here…Note the beach fashions…Hope it’s not a trend…

(above) Dope smoking devise…

(above) One of many lighthouses along the east coast…

(above) The ‘roo here are used to human proximity…

(above) What you expect to see here…

(above) Like I said, not shy of being around people…

(above) The day was very pleasant for early spring…Warm sun with a cooling breeze…

(above) after our mini tour of a few beach villages we headed up into the hills to Comboyne…Preventative grass burn…

(above) At the Turner home the younger kids without the isolating influence of TV, play games the way we as kids used to…

(above) And Rye, the older son, strums some sweet chords on his guitar…

We had a great home cooked meal, visited a while, then I walked to my cabin for some much needed sleep…

(above) After a night of hibernation, the pre-dawn calls of the local birds brought me back to life…

(above) Watercolor sky…

(above) The cabin where I will stay for the two weeks I’m here…

(above) It stays opened up during the day…

(above) The view from bed…

(above) Andrew had to go to his job-site and I tagged along…He delivered some avocado smoothie to me for breakfast…

(above) A five minute drive found us at Andrews work…The place is covered to the weather and the electrician is coming up today…

(above) Andrew’s work…

(above) He is one of three guys in Australia who built things like this…

(above) Explaining the gospel of timber frame…

(above) His passion shows…

(above) Beyond impressive…

(above) Andrew and “Sparkie”…

(above) While they talked about things current, I wandered to the fences….Your basic random heights here…

(above) Traditional pickets…

(above) …and the living, breathing fence…

Andrew need to stay at the job-site for a while and he gave me control of the van to go see a fellow who he thought might be of interest…

(above) Meet Alan…The obvious thing about Alan is that he has but one arm…A freak logging accident in his twenties left him that way…

(above) With this hand he has done more with it, than 99.5% of two armed people can…

(above) In addition to just living a full active life (including racing off-road cars) he acquires rusted out (and in) tractors and brings them back to showroom condition…

(above) Total disassembly and restoration (including engine rebuilding) with one hand…

(above) Not just a few, a lot…Maybe 50 to 75 are stored in an expansive tin shed storage compound…

(above) Each one is authentic to when it came from the factory…

(above) If something is missing he fabricates it as good a factory issue spare part…Witness this industrial grade fender…Hand made…One hand…

(above) All the tractors are covered with blankets to keep the need to dust them off low…

(above) In addition to the heavy equipment, he collects and restores vintage timber tools…here are some interesting one and two man chain saws…

(above) They all run…Why have them if they don’t…???...

(above) Alan is not a bike collector, but this one has some unusual seat stays and matching fork bracing…

(above) How about a fuel pump…???...With intact glass at the top and the original hose…

(above) A rare find, he got this beauty for $100…A collector might pay tens of thousand for this…

(above) Made in Australia….

(above) Vintage lawn mowers…

(above) …and outboard motors…

(above) When was the last time you saw a gasoline powered clothes washing machine…???...

(above) The scythe in the center, started out as wide as the one on the right…

(above) Specialty spanners preserved in fish oil…It hardens and has shiny finish…No smell once it cures…

(above) A few old school soldering irons…

(above) That hook got that way by rope running through it…Think about that…

(above) Jacks…Everything is sorted and organized…No way a junk yard…

(above) Alan know the story of everything he has…

(above) This place is not a museum, but one mans collection…A keeper and preserver of history…

(above) In the details are the stories…This place has tens of thousands of them…

(above) 1936 Harley Davidson…

(above) Tractor badge…..

(above) Is what it says…

(above) There are detail sheets there too…

(above) Classic…

(above) Stories of why these are here too…

(above) The tool of choice for a one handed man who sees no limitations…

(above) He got this last week for $100…

(above) I spent close to two hours with Alan and felt honored to be the first Yank he gave the show and tell to…

(above) Oh yeah, the garden is OK too…

(above) It was back to Andrews place for lunch…

(above) The Turner home…Hand built timber frame…Still a work in-progress…

(above) There are sweeping views all around…That patch of pink in the valley are paulwonia trees in bloom…We are using local paulwonia as the primary wood for the deck and bottom of our boards…

(above) Lunch today are home grown avocado sandwich…

(above) During lunch we noticed a swarm of bees protecting the queen as she cruised around…

(above) The kids here are timeless…

(above) Good clean fun…

(above) The life here is far removed from the frantic pace that seems to be the way for most of western civilization…

(above) Some3times all you need is a rope swing to enjoy an afternoon…

(above) More paulwonia in bloom…

(above) It’s spring time here…

(above) I went for a bike ride to the main road…

(above) Australia or Ireland…???...

(above) There is huge paulwonia plantation here…

(above) The light here in this picture does not do justice to the color…I’ll try to shoot it again with a blue sky…

(above) Standing at the crossroads…

(above) Rode back to the Turner place…

(above) …just in time for dinner…

(above) Today was going to be a full one…Our plan is to find some surf then get some wood for the boards…5:00 AM is roll out time…

(above) There was a chill in the air this early…

(above) Breakfast on the move…

(above) Just a still quiet morning…

(above) Springtime morning in New South Wales…

(above) We hit a bigger road and went right…

(above) Solar illuminated signage…Call SMS “HARD”…

(above) Our first stop is here…

(above) Small and clean…

(above) A set like this came through every fifteen minutes…

(above) Not bad, but not enough…

(above) Looking further…A typical beach around here…

(above) Saw this place and thought of a friend…

(above) Andrew scans the scene for anything worth paddling out to…

(above) “You shoulda brought some of that Japan swell with ya, is what is”…

(above) Another headland, this one with a boat ramp…Again some very small waves on a brilliant day…

(above) Beyond the maintained dirt road, it turns to this…You hope as you roll through the dips that the water isn’t deeper than the height of the wheels…We were lucky…

(above) By now the wind was really picking up…So we headed back to Crescent for another look...

(above) Another one of the better waves every fifteen minutes…

(above) On a swell it’s a different story…

(above) So we postponed getting wet and went for a pie and coffee then headed inland to get some wood…

(above) Up in the hill is Malcolm’s place…

(above) Malcolm and son specialize in the good stuff…

(above) These camphol slices were getting planed then are destined to become large, expensive tables…

(above) Pulling one out of the super wide planer…

(above) The smell of camphor exceeds the beauty of the slab…

(above) The stationary tools have history with much more to come…

(above) The piece of wood on the left of the saw is a 4x4…Serious cutting capacity…

(above) Below the grey is gold…

(above) As nice a day as you might want…

(above) Heaps of precut burl with heaps more waiting to be cut…Mercedes Benz gets a lot of it’s wood for dashes here…

(above) Another plank getting ready to be shipped…

(above) How big do want one…???...

(above) We told Malcolm what we were looking for and then started going through the stacks…

(above) Nice, but way more than we need…

(above) Choices, choices…

(above) This place is dreamland to woodworkers…

(above) Maybe what we want is out there…???...

(above) Will that fit in my carry-on bag…???...

(above) “I know what I want and I know it’s here”…

(above) Needs to be longer than that…

(above) …and shorter than that…

(above) Too wide…

(above) My mind was spinning with the possibilities…

(above) Beneath the fuzzy exterior is wood as beautiful as you’ll ever see…

(above) There is so much big beautiful wood here…

(above) Here is what we came for…A minute later everyone got serious because a snake moved through the grass…The ones up here are seriously venomous, fatal even…Yesterday they shotgunned two of ‘em…That serious…What I couldn’t understand was the brown snake we just saw went under that stack and the guys kept pulling wood out of the pile…

We got what we came for and headed back to civilization or some food…

(above) Local culinary magic…

(above) Turns a normal person into this…Just say “no” more than you say “yes”…

(above) Another look at another spot…Maybe tomorrow…

(above) We went back into the hills to pick up some wood at the sawmill…

(above) On the road a truck just went by…

(above) After two gates and an electric fence, we were almost there…

(above) Voila, a small scale N.S.W. sawmill…

(above) Powered by Buick…

(above) This smaller saw is built right off the axle of an old Dodge…

(above) A million miles on the odometer with hundreds of thousands still to go…

(above) We picked up what was waiting for us and headed back to Comboyne for a quiet evening…

(above) Almost there…Another paulwonia orchard in bloom…

(above) After another night of absolute dead quiet sleep, the morning at the cabin was falling into a pattern…

(above) Pre-breakfast ritual…Water from the flask into a cup…Immersion heater has water boiling in two minutes…Bagged instant coffee is ok…Making do with available resources…Oh yeah, the Sheaf Stout longneck is from the night before…

(above) This is the other window in the cabin…

(above) Today we start to deal with the raw wood…Cutting and planning planks is the plan for today and tomorrow…

(above) Wes one of the locals is building a hollow longboard of his own design…

(above) Tools for fine tuning the solid wood ribs…

(above) Back at the main house for lunch, the twins, Gemma and Elle doing a sisterly thing…Getting ready to braid…

Rye and I worked together through the afternoon getting wood prepped…

(above) Once more at the main house for dinner…Organic chicken, pasta and organic salad…Delicious…

(above) Next day sunrise…

(above) I gave Andrew one of my stickers and he immediately got around to putting it on the van…

(above) Then he took dictation from me…

(above) He promised to keep this one small area of the van perpetually clean…

(above) We took Andrew to work…Yesterday’s progress…All handmade lap siding…

(above) Rye and I went to pick up some wood that was kiln dried for us…

(above) Moving some of the bigger stuff off to get at our wood…

(above) Loaded and almost ready to roll…

(above) Time for brekky…The oh-so-good meat pies…Third row down, in the middle…Cheese and bacon….

(above) And one of those on the second shelf up…

(above) I have another love in my life..

(above) In some ways, the towns here are as they used to be in the States forty years ago…

(above) Can you say “quality”…???...

(above) Heading back to the Plateau…More paulwonia trees in bloom…

(above) Gypsy Rye Bear feeds some cedar through the planer…

(above) And the neighbor boy, Inigo help put wood bundles together…

(above) Home schooled eighteen and ten years olds here are capable and confident in what they do…Can’t say the same for a lot of youth back home…

(above) Finished with work for the day, we were having pizza for dinner…After that I did the now familiar 400 meter walk back to cabin…Another day done…

(above) Another morning arrives with another day of rain…Rye splits some kindling for the rocket stove which keeps the house nice and toasty…

(above) Ginny just squeezed some fresh from the trees grapefruit juice…I asked if she added sugar because it tasted that way…She laughed “no”…

(above) After e-mail and Skype I walked back to the shed to finish the wood prep for the class…

(above) The turner gents sorted the wood for the thirteen individual boards that will be built…

(above) All day it rained moderately, occasionally it was firehosing…

(above) On this rainy day, I found time to go through some of Andrew’s sailing books and found this photo of the beach in Portugal where I surfed and held a workshop a few years ago …

(above) Rye gets the final strips together for the board he will build…Guess who has the nicest wood…???....

(above) Ginny stops by and admires the wood…90% of it came from trees that grew here and they harvested and milled...

(above) With the work done for the day it was time for a night out on the town…Down to the restaurant & tavern…

(above) Plenty to choose from…

(above) Waiting for the food, I wandered around the place as I tend to do, and snapped a few photos…

(above) Patriotic they are…

(above) A headline from a long time past…

(above) The darkest beer at “The Club”…

(above) Sisters and brother…

(above) “look serious”…

(above) “Grin like fools”…

(above) A good time to check out the next posting…

(above) A few of Comboyne’s finest are ready to order…

(above) Scotch fillet with pepper sauce, chips and salad…Tasty…

(above) After dinner we did a 50 meter walk over to the Village hall…They were having a Thank You gathering for those who helped with the Village Fair…

(above) Andrew kept putting these in front of me…Locally made sausage, sweet grilled onions on white bread…

(above) Hip décor…We had a lot of laughs while contributing suggestions to make future fairs better…I threw out some ideas I’ve seen in the States and they considered a lot of them viable…”How about get a car that doesn’t run and offer a few swings of a sledge hammer for a buck”…???...”Comboyne Idol”…???...”Mud wrestling”…???..”Dwarf tossing”…???...Two of those weren’t my idea, you figure it out…

(above) The next morning the results of a Spring Cleaning were obvious at the Turner Mansion…We had breakfast, did the e-mail thing, and then headed to the village…