The Tingle Factor Box

Rover Goes Back To Bass - Bass Point

This week, Rover decided it was time to again head to Bass Point to find out more of the amazing history of this place. Rover has visited Bass Point several times now, but each time he has focused on a specific point or place in the history of the coastal reserve. Yet there is still more to the history of this reserve and Rover wanted to take the opportunity to look back over his photos and fill in a few of the gaps.

If you would like to visit Bass Point, it is located in Shell Cove, near Shell Harbour. To get there, first find Addison Street in Shell Cove and then turn into Wentworth Street. From there, take Darley Street (heading towards the coast) and then turn into Boollwarroo Parade. Boollwarroo Parade eventually turns into Bass Point Tourist Road which leads to Bass Point itself. It is worth exploring the reserve to find all the different types of environments which are there to be discovered, from rainforest to beach to volcanic rock!

The traditional owners of Bass Point are the Elouera Aboriginal peoples, and they used the area for thousands of years before European colonisation. In fact, some of the middens found at Bass Point have actually been dated to 6000 years old. Captain Cook recorded seeing the Aboriginal people at Bass Point when he sailed past, and stories about the white swan (Cooks ship) soon became part of the local Aboriginal tradition. However, it would not be until 1803 that the Illawarra area was officially settled by the colonists. In this early people cedar cutting was an important industry in the Illawarra, but Bass Point itself was actually part of a land grant given to James Badgery for cattle running. The area was later granted to D’Arcy Wentworth and he ran his own cattle on the land which provided such rich pasture for his animals. Early relations between the colonists and Elouera people were positive, but as with so many other areas, relations deteriorated and the Elouera population was decimated.

One of the reasons why the land at Bass Point provided such fertile pasture was the volcanic soils but fertile soil was not the only sign of volcanic activity at Bass Point. Bass Point has significant areas of basalt, a volcanic rock and you can actually even see where the rock, which was once liquid, flowed down to the sea. This basalt was a valuable resource in itself and by 1880 the land, which had been sold to George Laurence Fuller, was the site of a mining venture. A quarry was set up to mine the basalt (also known as blue metal, or even sometimes blue gold), but the initial mining venture failed after just two years. Fuller was undeterred though, and by 1890 he had reopened the mine and business was thriving. He even built a jetty which was 500 feet long, and commissioned a ship called the SS Dunmore to transport the rock to Sydney for sale. The jetty has long since been replaced, but blue metal continues to be mined at Bass Point.

Roy Creates Cornflake Macaroons

This week, Roy decided he wanted to make something light and airy and absolutely delicious to enjoy for a sweet treat. He had a packet of cornflakes, and a block of chocolate which he thought might be usable, so he looked for a recipe which might combine the two. In an old recipe booklet, he stumbled across the recipe for cornflake macaroons, which looked promising and tasted great. So this week, Roy Creates Cornflake Macaroons.

You Will Need:

• An eggwhite
• ½ a cup of icing sugar
• ½ a teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 1 cup of cornflakes
• ½ a cup of coconut
• 60 grams of chocolate, finely chopped. Roy recommends chopping the chocolate instead of using choc bits, so that it spreads more through the biscuits.

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius and line baking trays with baking paper
• Beat the egg white until it reaches soft peaks
• Add the vanilla and the icing sugar. You want to beat the icing sugar in a little at a time, so you don’t knock the air out of your egg white. Keep beating until you have firm peaks

• With a wooden spoon, gently mix the coconut, cornflakes and chocolate in, stirring very gently, again to avoid knocking the air out.

• Drop tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared trays
• Bake for 10 minutes, or until cooked and golden
• Cool completely before storing in an airtight container

But They're So Cheap! Stocking Mending Thread

Imagine you are a woman living in the early 1940s. You are very fortunate, as you have several pairs of stockings which you can wear - many of the girls you know have none at all, what with the war! Of course, you would be more fortunate still, if you could find some stocking thread to mend those tiny tears which happen occasionally. You haven’t seen stocking thread for such a long time, and the thicker threads which you have in your sewing box just don’t do the same job.

When I showed the children this stocking thread, they were intrigued and confused. They could not understand anybody buying a special thread specifically for stockings, and indeed they couldn’t really understand why anybody would go to the trouble to fix their stockings as “they’re pretty cheap”. They couldn’t imagine a time when stockings were not only expensive, but a luxury item which women carefully mended using the fine, silk stocking thread.

Stockings of one form or another date back hundreds of years, far further than many might expect. In addition, we may think of stockings today as something associated with women, but both men and women wore stockings for hundreds of years. Women’s were hidden under skirts, but men even wore theirs on open display. For much of human history, people covered their legs by winding strips of cloth around and around the leg, but these were not only uncomfortable, they needed to be adjusted often to stop them falling down. By the 1300s, stockings were cut from pieces of cloth and sewn together. Then, in the 1500s, knitted stockings became increasingly common – even Henry The Eighth apparently liked his knitted silk stockings which were imported from Italy. Of course, such stockings were very expensive, as they were hand knitted but in 1589, the worlds first knitting machine was created and it was designed specifically to knit stockings. For over 200 years stockings were knitted on machines as a single flat piece of material, which was then sewn up to fit a leg.

Machines eventually were altered to knit stockings as a single piece, and some women even embroidered their stockings, but it wasn’t until the 1920s that marked changes to stocking fashion began to occur. Women were increasingly allowed to show a bit of leg, and stockings reflected this by becoming increasingly decorative. In addition, stockings became increasingly popular, began to be made of cheaper materials, and could be purchased by women who were less wealthy. In the 1930s rayon was introduced and nylon followed soon after. Stockings were increasingly available for everybody, but those who could afford stockings were still very careful of them. They could be easily torn, and silk thread like I showed the children, which could be used to repair tiny holes or tears was an important part of a woman’s sewing kit. Then war hit, and the company which manufactured most nylon stockings, DuPont, switched to working for the war effort and stockings became hard to find. Women even started to mark their legs with dye in an effort to look like they had stockings! Of course, after the war, stockings became more available again, and today they are almost a disposable item.

Roaming Roy Goes To Hospital - Gladesville Hospital

 

This week, Roy decided he wanted to revisit somewhere which he has visited in the past, but felt there was more to find out about, Gladesville Hospital. The former asylum is an enormous complex, and Roy spent quite some time wandering the area, admiring the amazing buildings and contemplating the people who once lived here. Roy decided it was time to share a little more of the story with his online friends. 

 

 

If you would like to visit the old Gladesville Hospital, it is located on Victoria Road, Gladesville. You can enter the ground from this road, and find somewhere to park. Alternately, you can enter from Campbell Drive, and walk up from near the river front and through the hospital grounds. There is plenty to see in the area, with beautiful historic buildings, fascinating history, open grassed areas and there is even an oval near the Campbell Drive entrance for running around or flying a kite! 

 

 

When the colony of New South Wales was established, part of the duties of the Governor was to care for ‘idiots and lunatics’. At first, people who had been found to be lunatics were kept in the Town Hall at Parramatta, but in 1811 Governor Macquarie founded the first purpose built mental asylum, which was at Castle Hill. One asylum couldn’t possibly care for all those who were seen to be insane in the colony though and soon the asylum was overcrowded. It was clear that another, larger asylum would be needed and in the 1830s a surveyor, H. F. White, was sent to survey the area where Gladesville Hospital now stands. At the time, the area was known as Bedlam Point, and it was the point where a creek, Tarban Creek, enters the Parramatta River. This is where the hospital, whose buildings were designed by Mortimer Lewis, was constructed, between 1836 and 1838. At the time, the hospital was known as Tarban Creek Asylum.

 

 

The first supervisor of the hospital was a John Thomas Digby, whose wife worked as matron. He was replaced by Frederick Norton Manning in the 1860s. Both Digby and Manning were very interested in improving the treatment and condition of those who were mentally ill. It was Manning though who is best known for his tireless work to improve the plight of his patients. In fact, before Manning agreed to take on the role of superintendent he travelled overseas and studied other asylums and systems of care! When Manning took over, he improved the diet of the patients, created new facilities to allow the patients to be ‘gainfully employed’ (including gardens) and minimised the use of restraint. Under his care the Asylum even changed names, becoming the Hospital for the Insane at Gladesville (usually known as Gladesville Hospital). The hospital continued to care for those with mental illnesses well into the 20th century, with inpatient services finally moving the Macquarie, North Ride site in 1997. 

Roy Creates Sublimely Quick And Easy Apricot And Walnut Slice

This week, Roy noticed his Grandpa’s biscuit and slice tins were both empty. Roy has promised to keep his Grandpa in delicious, sweet treats, so he knew he would need to find something appropriately delicious to fill the containers. The problem was that he didn’t have a lot of time available as Roy has been very busy lately. He flipped through one of his old cookbook pamphlets of quick and easy recipes, hoping inspiration would strike and found just the thing he was after, a simple apricot and walnut slice. Grandpa was very pleased with the results, so Roy thought he should share the recipe. So this week, Roy Creates Sublimely Quick And Easy Apricot And Walnut Slice

You Will Need:

• 90 grams of margaine
• ¼ of a cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 and ¼ cups of plain flour
• ¼ of a cup of self raising flour
• ½ a cup plus ¼ of a cup of crushed walnuts
• 3 tablespoons of apricot jam

Method:

• Prepare a square cake tin with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Cream the margarine and sugar
• Add the egg and beat in

• Add the flours and thoroughly mix into a smooth dough

• Divide the dough in half and press one half into the bottom of the tin

• Combine ½ a cup of the walnuts with the apricot jam and spread over the dough
• Press the rest of the dough over the apricot and nut mixture. Roy found it easiest to flatten pieces of dough between his hands and then lay this on top of the mix

• Sprinkle the remaining nuts over the slice and gently press down to ensure they are attached
• Bake the slice for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through
• Cool the slice in the tin
• Cut into squares and store in an airtight container.

Why Would You Keep It? Train Ticket

Imagine you are a young mother, taking your children for a day out in the beautiful bush. It will be a very exciting trip for your son, as you will be catching the train. He is fascinated by trains and loves to take train journeys. It doesn’t seem to matter to him whether the journey is long or just a few stations away, he simply adores trains. He even insists on keeping all of the tickets, tucked away in a box under his bed.

When I showed the children this train ticket, they had no idea what it was. Today, children are most familiar with electronic tickets, and even when they do see a paper ticket, they are large and made of quite thin paper. This small, thick cardboard ticket was unlike any ticket they had seen before. The thing which amazed them most though was the fact that the ticket still exists. To the children, train tickets are something which are thrown away, and they could not imagine why anybody would want to keep one!

The ticket which I showed the children is an example of an Edmondson railway ticket. This type of ticket is named after Thomas Edmondson who invented the ticketing system in the 1840s. Edmondson was actually a trained cabinet maker, but he worked as a Station Master. His first posting was on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in England, but in 1839, when the Manchester and Leeds railway opened, he became the main booking clerk at Manchester. Edmondson recognised that a more efficient system of ticketing was desperately needed. At this time, the ticket clerk had to handwrite each and every ticket, for every passenger which was a very laborious process and led to long queues. In addition, because of the system of handwriting tickets, some clerks were able to pocket some of the money people spent on fares, as it was easy to hide how many tickets had been written.

Edmondson’s ticketing system solved all of these problems. He created a machine which printed tickets, which saved the need to laboriously handwrite the ticketing information on them. What’s more, the tickets were printed in batches and each had a serial number, which allowed the company to match up the amount of money the ticket clerks had made with the number of tickets which had been sold (which was worked out by the serial numbers of the remaining tickets). The tickets were printed with more than just a serial number though. They were also printed with different destinations and different fares, and the differing colours and patterns on the tickets allowed the ticket clerk to recognise which was which. The tickets were kept in a lockable cabinet, with individual spaces for the different tickets and when a ticket was sold, another machine was used to stamp the date on the ticket, to prevent it being reused. Soon enough the Edmondson ticketing system was being used not just in England, but in many other places in the world, including Australia and the basic system continued to be used for many, many decades. Of course today, with electronic tickets available, Edmondson tickets have been relegated to historic items, though they are still used on some heritage railways. In most areas of the world they had gone out of use by the late 1980s.

Rover Finds A Seedy Place - Australian PlantBank

This week, Rover decided he wanted to return to the amazing Australian Botanic Gardens at Mount Annan to investigate the extraordinary seed bank. Rover visited the plant bank a couple of weeks ago, and was blown away by the amazing building, and the extra special work which is going on there. Such a beautiful building, with such an important job to do and such wonderful tour guides is certainly worth a closer look, so this week, Rover is heading to the Mount Annan Plant Bank to find out more.

If you would like to visit the Australian Botanic Garden, it is at Mount Annan, not far from Camden. To get there, take the M5, and exit onto Narellan Road and then follow the signs to the ‘Australian Botanic Garden’. The gardens are enormous and it would be very difficult to walk the whole area, but there are plenty of places to stop the car and go for a walk. There is also a wonderful restaurant which serves up great lunches, or absolutely tons of room for a picnic. Entry to the gardens is free, the plant bank is well worth exploring (open Monday to Friday, and for tours on some weekends).

The Australian Plant Bank at Mount Annan is an amazing science and research facility, housing the seedbank and laboritories of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust. The plant bank is dedicated to researching horticulture and conservation, and focuses specifically on Australian native plants, particularly from New South Wales. The plant bank grew out of the original NSW seedbank which began collecting and conserving seeds in 2003 as part of a world wide effort to look after the world’s natural diversity. Of course, the collecting of seeds goes back hundreds, even thousands of years, and some of the seeds in the plant bank do date back to before the 2000s, coming to the facility from other collections.

So what exactly is the difference between the original seed bank and the new plant bank? In 2013, the new facility known as the Australian PlantBank opened. It didn’t just store seeds though, recognising that some plants could not be conserved using seeds alone. The plant bank therefore uses multiple methods to save our plants for the future, including collecting tissue cultures. An example of the important work the plant bank is involved in is the quest to save the amazing Wollemi Pine. The plant bank is growing a living collection of the extremely rare living fossil from cuttings and these are the plants which are sent to gardens all over the world and saving the few wild plants which remain. There are still many thousands of seeds at the facility though. In fact 100,000,000 seeds are stored in the seed vault, a specially built, fireproof vault housed at the facility. To find out more, Rover recommends going on a guided tour of the facility.

Roy Creates Quick And Delicious Preserved Lemons

This week, Roy had been given an enormous bag of lemons by a friend of his. He didn’t have a clue how he would manage to use so many lemons in a short time, so decided to look through his recipe books for inspiration. He noticied a number of recipes which called for preserved lemons, and he really enjoys these lemons, so he wondered if he might be able to make them himself. After a little trial and error, he successfully combined several recipes to make delicious lemons. So this week, Roy Creates Quick And Delicious Preserved Lemons

You Will Need:

• 11 lemons
• Lots and lots of cooking salt
• Spices and herbs. Roy used a few cardamom pods, some bay leaves and chilli.
• Boiling water
• A little olive oil

Method:

• Three to four days before you want to pack your lemons, put 10 of the lemons into a big bowl and cover with water.
• Change the water in the lemons each day – you will notice them sink a little. This is the gasses in the lemons dispersing
• Drain the lemons and cut them (almost) into quarters. Do not cut all the way to the bottom though – you want your lemons to still be in one piece!

• Pack the inside of the lemons with salt, holding them over a bowl to catch the salt which falls out and any juice.

• Squash the lemons closed and put them into a big jar (Roy ended up using a big pasta storage jar. Whatever jar you decide on, needs to have a wide neck)

• Put all the salt packed lemons into the jar (or jars if you use more than one) and add the spices and herbs. Roy split the chilli to let all the flavour out.
• Squeeze the last lemon and add the juice to the jar
• Top the jar up with boiling water
• Allow the jar to sit open for a few minutes to let the air bubbles disappear
• Cover the top of the jar with a thin layer of oil, like when you make pesto.
• Store in the fridge for one month before using the lemons.

That's Kind Of Cool - Badges

 

Imagine you are living in the late 1900s and you are an avid collector. Some people collect figurines, or cards or even stamps, but you are fascinated with something else entirely –badges. There are so many badges to be had, and so many different designs. Some are new, and some are really old, some have political or charity messages while others are just attractive. You are constantly amazed by how many different badges there are out there!

When I showed the children these badges, their reactions were quite intriguing. Many of the children recognised that a similar type of thing is now used in making hair clips and jewellery, by covering a similar type of construction with material, but they were not particularly familiar with the badges themselves. Where once such badges were common place, there seem to be far fewer made today, and many of the children thought this was a shame. As one child put it ‘I’d quite like to wear a badge to show I thought something was worth doing, or worth keeping’.

Badges like the ones shown to the children have a surprising and extending history, dating back at least 150 years. Originally these badges were made by button factories, who covered buttons with cloth to match the clothing being worn. These early buttons had a loop on the back to allow them to be sewn onto clothes, but soon enough people realised that buttons could be covered with something else, like leather or early plastic called celluloid. Badges at the time were expensive, made of cast metal and enamel, so a cheaper alternative was very attractive. The factories altered the backs so that a safety pin could be attached and the button badge, as it was known, was born. By the time of Queen Victoria, messages were being printed and displayed on badges, and one of the earliest known examples actually celebrated Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee.

Soon after political parties and charity causes began to print their own badges and in America, huge political rallies were filled with audiences proudly bearing the badge of their party. As printing techniques improved, photographs and images as well as written messages were added to the pins and during the First World War they were commonly used to raise money for the war effort and associated charities. Badges had been established as a legitimate way of getting message across and not only that, they were increasingly used as fashion accessories, with people proudly showing their support for causes on their collar. The 1960s ushered in a new age for badges and many badges with famous slogans like ‘make love not war’ and famous images, such as the smiley face, were printed and worn. By the 1970s and the start of the punk scene, people began to cram as many badges as possible onto their clothing and badges became the must have fashion accessory and the more you wore, the better. Advertisers soon caught on, and badges began to bear logo’s for companies and products, not just moral slogans, charity and political campaigns. Today, badges may not be a must have fashion accessory, but they are still produced in their millions, by charities, political parties and campaigns, social movements and even small groups like schools.

Rover Goes Gardening - Australian Botanic Garden

This week Rover decided he would like to visit a place which he had heard a huge amount about, but not yet had a chance to visit. Rover loves nature and gardens, and Botanic Gardens in particular fascinate him – full of so much variety and so many things to discover. Rover is quite familiar with the Sydney and Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens, but he had heard wonderful things about Mount Annan, and decided it was time to visit.

If you would like to visit the Australian Botanic Garden, it is at Mount Annan, not far from Camden. To get there, take the M5, and exit onto Narellan Road and then follow the signs to the ‘Australian Botanic Garden’. The gardens are enormous and it would be very difficult to walk the whole area, but there are plenty of places to stop the car and go for a walk. There is also a wonderful restaurant which serves up great lunches, or absolutely tons of room for a picnic. Entry to the gardens is free, and there is even a seed bank to explore (open Monday to Friday, and for tours on some weekends).

Before Europeans colonised Australia, the land where the Australian Botanic Gardens now stands was part of the traditional lands of the Dharawal Aboriginal people. In 1818 though Magistrate William Howe was granted 3000 acres of land to the east of the Nepean River and Glenlee estate was established with the historic house being completed in 1824. The Mount Annan area was purchased and added to the estate in the 1820s. In the 1850s the entire Glenlee estate was passed to James Fitzpatrick and his family ran a dairy farm in the area right up until 1978. After the dairy farm ceased operating a riding school moved into the area, but in 1984 the NSW government allocated 400 hectares of the land as a native botanic garden. This was the very start of Mount Annan as a Botanic Garden.

From the very beginning of the project to transform Mount Annan into the Australian Botanic Garden, a plan which was part of the Bicentennial celebrations, the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust was in charge of administering the site. In 1985 planning got underway and a major expedition went to Western Australia to collect plants for the gardens. In 1986 and 87 massive amounts of construction and planting was done and in 1988, despite a major storm causing damage to several areas, the garden was officially opened to the public. This wasn’t the end of construction though and since then the garden has continued to grow and thrive, showcasing not only beautiful garden design, but also the amazing plants which make the Australian bush such a special place. Today the Australian PlantBank is also a fascinating part of the gardens, safeguarding our previous plant species for the future. Rover will return next week to share more about this amazing research facility.