Kapital Tour Day 7. Express to Manly and in Quarantine

Kapital Tour Day 7. Express to Manly and in Quarantine

Today I was going to manly, but first I got stuck trying to find my camera that I thought I had lost. I searched through my bag and couldn’t find it and then my locker. I did eventually find the camera on the third search of my bag and had forgotten that I had put it in a pocket designed for cameras. At least it hadn’t gone walk about somewhere.  It was cold, but not overly cold like in Canberra so I wandered  to get something to eat before I left on the ferry. Some tour conductor was asking people if they were part of his tour and I was waiting for him to ask me and I was going to tell him that i will be whoever he wants me to be. The ferry I was wanting to catch the ferry and I had only a couple of minutes before it left to the city and another half hour before the next one.

The ferry was not as fast as I thought it would actually be as I thought it was meant to be a fast ferry and the boat did not seem like it was moving very fast. A passenger asked me if my hat was legitimate and I told him that it was and that i belonged to Point Danger marine rescue, although they had changed to NSW. The man explained he was with Bribie Island and a master 4 skipper. He did vanish inside the boat as we were sitting outside and I wanted to stay where I was. I went for the bus that would take me as far as the quarantine station, but once it arrived it actually went further though the driver asked me if I knew where the road up North Head went. I said I am not local and have no idea if it turns around. I had been taken to exactly where I wanted to be out front of the fortification area.

I thought the museum part would be open, but it never would for another hour and I was hoping to follow the tunnels and fortifications like in North Head in Auckland though this is Sydney and very different. I did find watch towers that were near the lookouts including Fairfax lookout that gave me a view of the harbour mouth. In another location is a signal area, but that is located somewhere on South Head or Watsons Bay. I could have it wrong though and I tend to get things like that wrong. I had been following a display that was the defence of Sydney during WWII and then covered other wars that Australia had been involved in including the Pacific war. I had turned around after looking at several gun placements though one did say authorised people only and there were tours on Sundays only so I wasn’t going to come back until another time. When the information centre was open I asked about the Quarantine cemetery and was shown where to go, but found this cemetery was the last of the Quarantine cemeteries as the others had been closed and the headstones taken away. I was given a better and updated map than what I had before.

The plan was to take a walk through the Third Quarantine cemetery and then to the Quarantine Station though it was now called the Q station. The cemetery was not that far at all and it was sign posted so you couldn’t miss it unless you wanted to miss it. The area around the headland was pretty sandy and the cemetery itself was overgrown though the sign did say not to pick the flowers. Most o the people buried there were from the city instead of the boats that were quarantined. I did find some locals from The Rocks who were buried there and including one Quarantine officer too so there was a mix of people. I don’t think I could have visited every grave. I do know it might not be the best place to visit in the summer with mozzies and sandflies along with snakes that could be hanging around.  It did have the best view of Sydney Harbour that I had ever seen and unlike many other cemeteries like Waverley. I did walk off after my short visit and the walking tracks were pretty good and there were some  metal tracks to keep you from walking along the ground and I felt like they were slippery, but they were not. Once I exited out front of the Q centre I was wondering if I could walk the entire grounds or have to pay to enter. I would know once I got down there.

I entered the building that was the start of the Q centre and found I never had to pay anything and I would get a free bus down to the bottom. I had to stop and get some refreshments before I could move off to do the museum tour. The museum was also free and there was no one at the time that could tell me about the tours. I learnt about the Quarantine station how they started off with the ships and aircraft had people sent there too. People from The Rocks were sent there along with other areas in Sydney from the Influenza, Smallpox and the plague too. WW1 Soldiers were sent there too though they did riot and walked out of the Quarantine station. They only stayed there for three weeks once they were allowed to go. It is an interesting area though the information didn’t explain about the cemeteries though I ended up talking to a lady that was part of Sydney university who was looking at the carvings that had been made by the inmates on the station. At this time I found I did not have free access outside of a guide to the whole site so restricted to a small area. She did explain that a young lady did hand her masters thesis the day before about the cemetery and that they did not really know the locations of the graves as the headstones had been taken. One stage the bodies had fouled up the freshwater supply so the residents had to sort that out. The next tour to go was at 2pm and went for 2 hours, but I wanted to leave that for another time since it got dark early this time of year.

I took a ride out to the front gates again and got a view of the accommodation where people could stay on site. What i did next was take a walk towards Manly beach though I ended up going the long way round as I browsed St. Patricks Estate that was a college and if you entered the building you needed to wear formal attire. Nice building, but I ended up walking to Cabbage Tree Aquatic Reserve where I found a beach with plenty of people. I couldn’t go any further though I wandered to Manly Beach though it was bigger than Bondi and still heaps of people enjoying the weather. The beach had volley ball nets that people were playing at and people were fishing between the surfers. Up at Queenscliff surf club I found a river that I have no idea what it is about and I had a look at the beach pool too. I hadn’t meant to walk so far, but I did and I knew I had to head back as it as getting late and dark too. Once I found the shopping precinct in Manly I knew I was within easy reach of the Wharf where I would get the ferry back though distracted by Manly Oval that had a game on, but its not a stadium I turned around and walked to the ferry. I only had 15 mins before it left and by this time it was dark and my camera was nearly dead.

On the way back to the hostel I stopped at the hotel Fortunes of War to eat dinner and headed back to the hostel. Once I was walking up the stairs to Susannah Place I was overtaken by the free The Rocks tour. They were going my way so I joined them and ended up going on the whole tour and chatted with the guide though I made a funny with Tony eating onions as they have layers. The lady was telling me that to get a job in the history field was not easy at all and mainly teaching. She was doing both Australian and Russian history with her background in theatre it was a good way to help her out and do what she loved to do. Though it was getting her through uni as one way for her to use what she learnt. What happened was the tour was free, but we paid her by how we thought the price of the tour was worth. I thought this was a great concept and she really did do a wonderful job about the history of The Rocks including The Second Fleet and the disaster that was. The guns on Observatory hill when built did not face outwards, but towards the colony it and only three of seven walls had been built. When it had a windmill the convicts stole the canvas from the windmill. One of the Butchers where the Big Dig is located was thought to have a still as he was selling illegal alcohol, but couldn’t be convicted. During a dig the still was found at the bottom of the well so the story was confirmed. The tour was interesting and I did like it too. Once it was finished I ended up back at the hostel.