A photo shared by Lost Newcastle member Libby Maskey fired up guests’ imaginations at the recent Lost Newcastle film night.
Obviously, the two children in the photo pictured fishing at Newcastle in 1956 are ridiculously gorgeous, and the photo is a beautiful document of a day on the dock captured by the Newcastle Morning Herald. However, there’s more that caught the eye of Losties.
In the background is a large egg-shaped object, actually a harbour buoy.
‘Brother and sister fishing | Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW | Newcastle Morning Herald Archives – 12 April 1956.
The conversation then turned to the fact that someone HAS one of these on their property, in the garden and Lostie Elva shared this photo of a buoy in it’s current resting place.
Saved from Balcombs’ scrap metal in 1982… 6′ high, riveted ship’s buoy. Now resting on a farm at Brunkerville.
elva easson
And because in Lost Newcastle one thing leads to another, Lostie Bob Odgers piped up that during his apprenticeship at BHP in the 1970s, they learned how to do a ‘riveted plate exercise’. Joe Parsons added that he had done the same exercise as an apprentice in 1964.
That is a beautiful thing, when I did my apprenticeship in the late 70’s at the BHP we did the “riveted plate exercise “. Riveting was never going to be used again but they made us learn it anyway. There is a section on that buoy where the three plates overlap that we had to manufacture to be watertight.
Bob odgers
And this is why Lost Newcastle is a joy. Every day, we learn new things, make new friends and find old ones, and learn about weird stuff in paddocks in Brunkerville.
How and why did it get there?
We’d love to hear more about the buoy or if you have any other stories to share, get in touch!
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