Kalamunda fair

On a drive up into the mountains (okay one hill but it's a big hill!) of Perth's hinterland, we past through Kalamunda on our way to the History Village when we came apon a town fair. So after parking the commodore we had a gander at Kalamunda's Fair. Here's little chook with a little chook! I tell you what my kiddies are great chock catchers, there was no little 'Oh don't hurt them' or 'Be careful with the little things', as the poor little unsuspecting chook ran by then suddenly 'Bang' in a sec it was grabbed slung around and picked up all in a second.



Now you might have a gander at this photo and say 'Oh what a brave little boy' but fairdinkum he was shitting himself, the little fella just hates these animals! He's starting to get use to the goats but he hates CHICKENS!









Hairy little thing and it loves to eat fairdinkum it never stopped eating out our hands, and by the way the goat seemed to eat heaps too!













Then we walked down to the end of the fair and had heaps of goes on the bouncy castle, thats the thing when you have a tight ass dad. If you pay for a little go then you better get every bump out of that castle, but when it's free... well then you can just jump to your hearts content.








They had little kiddies doing the Christmas thing up on stage, you know all that Jesus is born.... three wise men and manger stuff.








And if you have Christmas stuff going on all over the place, then you know the fat bloke in the red suit isn't far away. And guess what the nevilles found him and so off we go on another photo opportunity, 'Ho Ho yeah we know it's bloody Christmas time again' yeah yeah....







And to finish it off we had an icecream a nice cold drink and then it was back to the car, so i'll tell ya about the History Village next post. Because between you and me i'm all POSTED OUT!
So see ya latter and oh yeah 'Marry Christmas'... strewth is it that time of year AGAIN!!! (Bar-humbug)

Perth Railway Museum day out

Well it's been a few years since we had been back to the Perth Railway Museum, which is located in down town Bassendean. When we use to live in Bassendean we would cross over the railway bridge as Ashfield, and walk to the museum with either Jacko or Sarah... as kiddies under four get in for free! So it's been a fair few years since we set foot inside the gates, but fairdinkum it's still a real ripper place to let the kiddies roam around.


As you might know back in the old days Midland had it's own Railway workshops based in well Midland of-cause! and they made there own steam trains! how cool hay, but sadly the workshops finally shut down and the trains were lost to history. But some of the steam trains are still working well and here at the museum, you can cast your eyes on a few different ones. Like the mighty Ashburton which was made in the workshops in Midland in 1898, and worked it's freckle off until it was retired in 1970 Strewth I would of been 2 when it was retired... crikey i'm not that old am I? (Don't answer that Jodi)








And here is the mighty Ashburton Class Pr 521 Builder: WAGR Midland Workshops, total weight: 102t 10c, a total of only 18 were ever made but what a little beauty hay. The Pr class was predominantly allocated to passenger workings on the Eastern Goldfields line, and lasted until the end of the steam era on the WAGR.





The marking of the Midland Workshops.




Here are the kiddies inside one of the train carriages from the Trans-Australian Railway Train, as you can see back then it would of been the 'Bees Knees' of Train carriages mate.












Here are Harrison n' Sarah having a lay back on one of the old train carriages, back when Trains were fairdinkum workers... not like the sheilah trains that we get around in these days.









Talking about real trains then you can't go past the most fair dinkum train in the world, you got it good old Thomas the tank Engine! Oscar was so wrapped when he found little Thomas here.







Then we come to a real work horse of steam trains here which came from Manchester, The V Class Steam Locomotive 1220 introduced in 1956 but withdrawn in 1972. The V class locomotives were part of the post war plan for the WAGR, intended for the heavy coal traffic between the Collie coal fields and Perth city. There were only twenty four ever made with one still working in Pemberton (V 1213), the V 1215 is at Collie and the V 1209 was sold to the Mexicans from Geelong Steam Society in Victoria. This train was one of yours truly's favorites as it looks like a real beaut hard piece of machinery, from the days when men were men and things were built to last!

A wonder from the steam era the 1220 Locomotive

The 1220 was built in 1955 a year older then my brother Phil (old bugger hay)





Talking about old fellas here is a E class 308 which was built in 1903, and worked the railways for 60 years until it was replaced in 1963. This E .308 entered service on 23 February, 1903 and was superheated on 23 May, 1925. Ten years later it was rebuilt with a new frame and was one of the last of the class in service. It was withdrawn from use on 7 October, 1963 after running 1¼ million miles (2 million km) crikey.








The kiddies on the V class 1220



















Driver Jack!












And driver Osk 'All aboard the Oscar express' the 308 was mostly used in service on passenger duties on the Perth to Kalgoorlie passenger service, as well as being allocated to the Kalgoorlie to Leonora line until they were replaced with the Pr class locomotive.




And as you can see there are a fair few old steam trains in the museum which the kiddies can have a little climb on, but all good things come to and end and I know the little ones had a ripper day out. And the best thing is I didn't lose a kid, Hay wait a minute.... wheres Oscar
BUGGER!

Aviation Heritage Museum of Western Australia

G'day from the cattle truck as were driving along the Leach Highway, so this is what it's like if you came along with us on one of our day outs. As you can see i've got the talkative one next to me, cos that way when i'm totally stuffed by the end of the day I can get rid of her 'to the back' on the return trip home. And where were the mob off too this week I here you ask.... well it was time to visit the Aviation Heritage Museum of Western Australia (or airplane museum for short). And what a rippsnorter of a day the old fella upstairs put on for us, and here are the kiddies under an old spitfire Mark LF-XVI E which started service with RAAF 451 squadron on the 3rd February 1945. Strewth that makes this plane younger then my old man (POP Paul), it served with RAF 451, 164, 577 and 288 squadrons before being retired.







Inside the huge shed the first plane we came to was an old favourite of my Dad's it was a Catalina, The Catalina performed a significant role in Australia's defense in World War II and Rathmines Park was then the world’s biggest flying boat base.








Then it was time to have a little play on a plane for the kiddies, and the Gardan Sud Horizon GY80-180 was it. This plane was built in France and was flown to Australia in 1968 by Dr Dicks, husband of Robin Miller, the famous flying nurse known to aborigines as "The Sugar Bird Lady" from her distribution of polio vaccine on thousands of sugar cubes.




'Hello lady's and gentleman this is your Captain Osk speaking, today we will be flying over Perth and Whitemans Park if we can only get this thing of the ground!' God help us...






Then we came to my favourite fighting plane the Vickers Armstrong built Spitfire, It's maiden flight 5th March, 1936 and fought till 1952. Spitfires last saw combat during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when, in a strange twist, Israeli Air Force Spitfires fought against Egyptian and Royal Air Force Spitfires. With the advent of the RAF's new jet fighters, the Spitfire (even in its final 450 mph Mark 24 form) became obsolete after building a total of 20,351. It's sat's were THE MARK24 Wingspan: 36 ft 11 in (11.25 m) Rolls-Royce 61 2,375 HP at 1,250ft, Performance: 450mpa (724km/h) Range: 580miles (930kms) Armament:4, 20 mm Hispano cannons.








Then we came to the Avro Lancaster boomer which is just a friggin' ripper plane, The 'Lanc' or 'Lankie' as it became affectionately known became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, reputedly "delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties". They were used for daylight precision bombing raids using the large "Tallboy"(11,000 pound) and

"Grand Slam" (22,000 pound) bombs... crikey!

Here is Jacko and Sarah with a CA-5 Wirraway. Wirraways were mainly operated as advanced trainers during World War II, but in the early stages of the Pacific war, some saw action against Japanese fighters and bombers - with only a little success, and many losses. The RAAF continued to use the Wirraway as a trainer after the war, the last not being retired until 1959.


This is the Macchi MB-326H which was based at Pearce air-base just out of Perth, with No. 25 Squadron. The aircraft set some class records after its introduction, initially an altitude record of 15,489 m in August 1961, followed by other altitude and speed records in

1966. Maximum speed: 806 km/h, Maiden Flight 1957 and was just retired in from the RAAF in 2001.

The next big plane was the Douglas c47 Dakota which had it's maiden flight in 1933 and was retired from the RAAF in 1999, the Dakota on display in the Museum is a C-47B and was the last Dakota received by the RAAF. Commencing in 1945, since then it has served in Papua New Guinea, Korea, Malaysia and Australia - including a 5 year stint patrolling the North West Coast of WA. The Dakota served in all theatres of World War II, notably flying supplies from India to China over the mountains, known as "The Hump", and ferrying paratroops to Europe as part of the 1944 D-day landings.

Well their was heaps more planes that we had a gander at but of cause we can't pop every one in here, like a few tiger moths, a Vampire, Percival Proctor and many more. It was a ripper day and the kiddies had heaps of fun having a squizz at them, and by the way an old fella working their who flow some of these planes told us that this is the biggest collection of artefacts and planes in the southern hemisphere... Strewth!