Fyansford

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There seems to be an obsession with bridges at present - late this afternoon Peceli and i needed some fresh air so drove to Fyansford just out of Geelong to walk in the Common not far from the two bridges. We sketched and I took photos - of the hill where the Cement Works once were, the Fyansford hotel, the bridges. We're been there a few times and I've posted about Fyansford a couple or more times.

Colouring inside the lines

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Without a computer and the easy way of exploring colour and texture using computer graphic programs, I just had to use real coloured pens and paper for a few days. So I found some unfinished pages, fiddled with one already half-done and started one new one. One I just got tired and didn't complete! Anyway here they are - photographed because they were near to A3 in size and the scanner is A4. Fyansford and Barwon Edge grounds and Van Loon's Nursery still figure.

Fyansford with colour

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I added colour using some feltpens and coloured pencil to the picture I made of the view from the lookout at Fyansford. Because the picture is A3 in size I had to put two pictures together and there's a slight discrepancy in meeting at the middle!

It's been a muddled day - the hot water service went out yesterday because the pilot light kept going off immediately after lighting it. Four men couldn't get it going so it's a plumber's job tomorrow it seems. Meanwhile we bath down at the bottom of the backyard using one of the showers there. We have these extra showers which came from a friend's caravan park and they're useful when we have many visitors. The hot water though is from a bas bottle so can be used up quickly. Today also was time for a decent tidy up in the house as we have invited people for Saturday morning tea, and in the afternoon kava and an evening together. It's a family memorial day - ten years since we lost our second son in an accident in Fiji. I'll post a few pictures of his life on Saturday.

A neighbour has just called in with a piece of fresh fish. He'd caught a 60 kilogram tuna he said. Wow! Then he added, you should have seen the other one. It was 120 kilograms! We have good neighbours indeed.

(added - Friday morning) The plumber came at 8 a.m. for five minutes work, replacing one part. Cost @120. Young men and women ought to take up the trades, not the liberal arts at uni! Some more pics here, one blobby. Now I see that the bridge is strange, has no supporting arch or legs to stand on!
(Later - Friday evening) During dinner at the Barwon Valley Golf club, we were talking with one of Peceli's golf friends and he was telling us about being the son of a school teacher, including the time at the Fyansford Primary School during the 50s. So I asked him about the 90 plus wooden steps. He said they were for the school kids who lived down below the hill or even across the Moorabool River near Buckley's Falls. Instead of the road with the quarry trucks the short cut to the school was up and down the steps to the field near the old stone school. So it's not for tourists after all! And the building I thought was a church was actually a primary school.

A kind of Brigadoon near Geelong

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Yesterday Peceli and I drove along the new Ring Road skirting Geelong then turned left back towards Geelong and we decided to stop at the tiny town of Fyansford, to take photos, sketch, have some coffee or lunch and wander near the Moorabool River. There was plenty to discover but there wasn't any lunch on Mondays at the hotel!
Then a google search this morning came up with historical photos, but also something about 'Fyansford Green', mis-named, as it's a plan to change the whole nature of this charming place. There’s goes the neighbourhood!

Considered a heritage village, Fyansford’s old-world charm has been challenged by the developers. In the Geelong Advertiser last December the Council agreed to let the developers go ahead transforming the hillside around the Cement Works (now no longer working but the buildings are still there) into little boxes on the hillside. Meanwhle the little village with a population of about 150 is like Brigadoon, out of time, out of place in the 21st century. Not that I am complaining as it is fascinating. Once thriving with three hotels, three schools, two churches, the ford crossing was the place where the seekers of gold crossed the river heading for the gold fields of Ballarat and Bendigo.

This is the spin. ‘Three adjoining development sites on the outskirts of Geelong, Victoria, are being revitalised to facilitate a major residential based redevelopment comprising in excess of 1950 residential lots. The combined sites consist of the former Geelong Cement Works, a former bluestone quarry and non-viable rural land. When combined, the three sites will form a new residential community covering more than 200ha and located just 4km from the City of Geelong's CBD.’

Yesterday Peceli and I discovered the 1900 Monier Bridge, now only for bikes and walking. I had been confused earlier by the two bridges when I was sketching there. We’ve been to Fyansford mainly for wedding receptions at the Truffle Duck (originally the Balmoral hotel) or to Geelong Writers’ gigs in the other Fyansford Hotel or General Store. The Moorabool River had no water recently but at last they’ve let a million or more litres down. Nearby the small Moorabool river joins the larger Barwon River – in the area of Queens Park and the Amateurs Football field.

We discovered a strange set of greenish wooden steps leading up a steep hillside, no notices, but they were inviting so we climbed up 91 steps to find a field of grass, probably belonging to a farmer with a house that looks like a church. Maybe an old church now redundant. Will they need another one for the new development on the nearby hillside? Thousands of new people coming in?

Anyway, we did sketches of the view looking down over Fyansford, the hillside of the defunct Cement Works and the winding road that leads back to Newtown - Geelong.


I still don't know the story behind those 91 steps. Perhaps it's a look-out for tourists with energy. Lucky there isn't a bull in the paddock at the top or is it a short cut for the people living in the old church.

Playing with the mouse and photo-edit

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I'm tired of sorting junk and chucking out so have taken a 20 minute break to lay with the computer mouse and muck about with some of my drawings using photo-edit. Okay, okay, calm down, some of you don't like this at all! The original pics were drawings in the Youyangs, Fyansford, an shells, the latter part of a turtle story.