Baragoola Week Ending 11th September ‘11
In attendance: Geoff, Nick, Glen, Lance, Gary, Ernie, Peter H, Peter C, Chris and David Visitors: Three
Don’t forget – we have chocolates waiting to be sold! If you can help by putting a box in your workplace give me a yell and we’ll get some to you.
Don’t forget that all donations over $2 are now tax deductible – why not do what some of our donors have and set up an automatic payment once a week, fortnight or month ?
Coming up:
The BPA will be at Manly Corso on Saturday the 17th of September. We’ll be at our usual spot under the fig tree opposite the news agents – thanks to Manly Council for the venue. More items for sale have been ordered for this event.
One week after we’ll be holding another open day on board the boat; we’ve distributed the flyer to all members and have already received promises from several to put these up in local shopping centres and on community notice boards – get the message out as far and as wide as possible! We are already getting bookings for what promises to be a busy day for us. These are always good for us – from a PR perspective, new member and volunteer perspective and of course we also do well with donations – so please spread the word as far and wide as possible and help us make this one a big event.
We’re still chasing a fairly hefty fundraising target (you can see it on our main webpage) but are inching closer every week. With our tax deductible gift status there’s no reason now to hold off on donations!
Later this year we are also booked for a BBQ at Bunnings Belrose, we have a couple of our members who have volunteered to assist with this event but still need a further four – if you can assist please let us know.
Next Saturday the boat will not be open to volunteers (because we will be at Manly) – the working day will be on Sunday instead and we’re asking everyone to pitch in and scrub things up for the Open Day on the following Saturday. This week’s anniversaries:
13/09/1911 – Kubu, Kirawa, Kamiri and Kanangra were all ordered by Sydney Ferries Limited – only Kanangra is still around.
17/09/1913 – Barrenjoey (later North Head) undertook her sea trials.
North Head (ex Barrenjoey)
Barrenjoey/North Head was the longest serving Manly ferry clocking up 72 years, another sister, Bellubera, gave 63 years service and Baragoola operated for 61 years. No other Manly ferry has come even remotely close to the three sisters – the much touted foreign South Steyne only managed 36 years for example. Australian ship building at its most impressive!
Kanangra and Baragoola share the same builder – Mort’s. Kanangra was built at Woolwich, Baragoola at Balmain – the only one of the six sisters to be built there. Both are steel vessels and both are indicative of their class of ship. As well, both are the lone survivors of their class in substantially original condition – indeed with the loss of Karrabee, Kanangra is the last of the once huge fleet of ‘K’ class ferries left and Baragoola is the final Binngarra style of vessel that still looks close to original.
But on to the work this week – Saturday was cool and quite windy which drove the wind chill factor down. Somewhat overcast as well and this helped to keep people away – large drop in numbers from the last weekend.
Still, much was done and Baragoola is noticeably getting closer and closer to her correct appearance – she’s starting to look very smart indeed! We’re concentrating on getting the passenger accommodation and deck areas done at the moment, as a result a lot of work lately has been done particularly in the centre of the lower deck. This weekend was no exception with both the funnel uptake and the engine room escape being completed – both are now in the high gloss heritage colours. Nick did the bulk of this, Glen did the Red Oxide trim, I concentrated on the port entry to the Smoking Saloon. Some of the deckhead has been painted in this area and Gary plans on continuing that work this week so he can get the remainder of the cable trays up and we can keep installing the lighting to this area.
Starboard entry to Smoking Room – sister Balgowlah taking pride of place
Starboard side – when the paint is dry sister Bellubera will be hung here
The Smoking Saloon is still very much a work area, but even so a large chunk of the painting in there is done. With this whole end dry now we will be replacing some of the deckhead in there and proceeding with plans to partition the area into sections.
The Ladies Salon had its final pole reinstalled this weekend as well; thanks to Peter H for the new support material! Looks odd – still in white and needs to be painted. Outside the starboard bulwarks received much attention with Nick and I needle gunning and painting – huge bloody job!
Nick at work
Bulwarks after needle gunning – all rust cut out!
Completed section in Warm Stone
Opaline Blue going onto the external deckhead
Original seating – bases painted in Warm Stone
Work continued on the roof with Peter – he has also begun tidying the forward wheelhouse which he’s using as a work area at the moment. This will need emptying out (he’s being shifted to the aft wheelhouse) as we will be working on rebuilding the leading edge of this structure soon. Interior work has already commenced.
Captain on the bridge! This week saw the removal of a fair bit of old oil and diesel sludge – thanks to Chris for taking this off.
Work also continued downstairs with Chris removing the injectors off the No. 1 English Electric – Peter C returned these on Sunday and reinstalled them.
Chris working on Number One
Quite a bit of work has been done downstairs of late by the crew including relaying the original flooring. Ernie tidied up and painted a few more of these this weekend.
As well, the new air tank is now in place, ready to supply some heavy duty backup for our air tools! The original tanks motor will be placed on this – part of our commitment to use the original material on the vessel. The original tank was condemned, it has been sitting (rusting) for far too long and was considered unsafe.
New air tank
Original compressor motor on old tank to go on new tank Don’t forget – all donations above two dollars are now tax deductible – see our website for details on how to donate.
Also, if you have Google Talk installed you can chat to us if anyone is online and nearby the computer – add [email protected] as a friend.
That’s it for this week – don’t forget you can keep up with all the latest on our forums at http://www.savethebaragoola.com/forum/index.php and you can see our old newsletters at http://www.savethebaragoola.com/works.html
Our next scheduled working day is next Sunday; pick up from the usual points at Waverton or Greenwich. Sunday will be largely a cleaning and tidying day to get Goola ready for the open day on the following weekend – we’d appreciate as many of our regular volunteers to assist as possible. Goola will be closed next Saturday due to our attendance at the Manly Corso – as a result our boat drivers will not be around to pick people up.
If you’re coming bring your lunch – we do provide tea and coffee facilities. Also ensure that you bring safe footwear and clothes you don’t mind getting a little grubby!
Hope to see you there next weekend both at Manly and on Sunday on the boat!!
We have a few new items in our shop – several new mugs and some notebooks. More things (like pens and key rings) will be arriving soon as well. Coming in to summer we’ll be expanding the clothing range with more t-shirts, polos and caps available – watch this space.
This will also be the last time we send out the weekly report directly (and a thousand mail boxes heave a sigh of relief). We have our new site almost ready to go – somewhat similar to our current one but the work day PDF will display on the site directly – you can of course download it (or print it) directly off the site. Next week when I send the report out you’ll receive a link to the new site and a link to the newsletter.
Many thanks to Gary for rebuilding the site.
Panorama of the generator flat
Show your support!
We’re pleased to announce some additions to our range of collectable items.
All items can be ordered by sending an email to [email protected] with the following details:
Your name Postal address Size (for clothing) and quantity Your contact phone number
All items will be sent with an invoice payable within 30 days.
White T-shirt, printed with Baragoola’s build year and our web address, available in white cotton only in sizes S, M, L, XL & XXL. Price is $22 including delivery.
SS Baragoola – Baragoola as built in 1922, white coffee mug.
Price $30.80 including delivery – available now.
SS Binngarra (class vessel), white coffee mugs.
Price $30.80 including delivery – available now.
MV Baragoola – Baragoola in the early 1970’s, white coffee mug.
Price $30.80 including delivery.
MV North Head
Price $30.80 including delivery – available now – limited edition only seven available.
SS Burra Bra
Price $30.80 including delivery – available now.
SS Curl Curl
Price $30.80 including delivery – available now.
Notebooks - $17 including postage