The Tingle Factor Box

Rover Explores A Mystery Orphan - The Orphan Rocker at Scenic World

This week, Rover decided it was time to answer a question he has heard asked quite a few times regarding a seemingly unused structure at Scenic World. The structure above runs around the site, but is a mysterious, unused structure which has caused many questions. So this week, Rover is looking to answer the question, just what is it? 

If you would like to see the structure, it is located at Scenic World in Katoomba in NSW Blue Mountains. To get there, follow the Great Western Highway to Katoomba, then make your way to Cliff Drive. Scenic World is located on the corner of Violet Street and Cliff Drive, and has plenty of free parking. Alternately, tourist services like the Blue Mountains Explorer and Trolley Tours make stops at Scenic World. 

The seemingly unused structure at Scenic World is known as ‘The Orphan Rocker’, named after the nearby rock formation, Orphan Rock. It was to be a roller coaster, but never opened to the public. Construction began on the mysterious and intriguing coaster in the early 1980s, when Harry and Philip Hammon thought up the idea of a monorail around the site. The idea quickly evolved into a roller coaster - the first to ever be designed and built in Australia. Construction on the ride began in 1982 (or possibly 1983 or 1984 depending on which report you read!), and the highlight of the ride was to be a swooping, banked turn which took people on the ride to within metres of the cliff face. 

Yet, despite the ride being seemingly almost completed, it was never opened to the public. There are many rumours as to why this is the case. According to some rumours, sandbags, or bags of rice were loaded onto the coaster during testing, but the bags never returned, being thrown hundreds of metres into the valley below. Others say the ride didn’t meet safety standards, and so was not developed. Yet, according to Anthea Hammon, daughter of Philip Hammon, and now site engineer at Scenic World, this isn’t the case. In fact, she says she has ridden the ride hundreds of times and considers it to be very safe. According to Anthea Hammon, The Orphan Rocker didn’t open because other areas of the site required more urgent redevelopment in order to cater to the high numbers of visitors to the site. Instead of opening the roller coaster, the Scenic Cableway and Skyway were focussed on. However, the roller coaster remains in place, and perhaps one day, might open to the public.

Roy Creates Prepare Ahead BLTs

This week, Roy is still on a mission. Some of his online friends requested he find something delicious to put on sandwiches, as they were finding taking their lunch a little boring. They wanted something a bit different, or something which was a little special, so Roy hit the old cookbooks, looking for luncheon sandwich recipes. Some of the recipes are a little odd, but he found a few which were perfect. So this week, in the second of a two week series, Roy Creates Prepare Ahead BLTs.

You Will Need:

• Bread of your choice
• Bacon - you can buy your bacon precut into a small dice at the deli, or else cut it up yourself. You want it finely diced
• Tomato, cut in thick slices
• Cos lettuce, shredded
• Mayonnaise
• Butter or margarine

Method:

• If you are cutting your bacon up yourself, like Roy did, cut it into a small dice
• Fry the bacon off until it is cooked through to your liking (Roy likes his a little crisp)
• Transfer the bacon to a bowl and leave it to cool a little

• Add enough mayonnaise to the bacon to make it sticky (and to your taste)
• Spread the bread slices with butter 

• Pile on some of the cold bacon and mayonnaise mix

• Add tomato and shredded lettuce
• Place the second slice of bread on top
• Enjoy!

They're Kind Of Disgusting! Porcupine Quills

Imagine you are a little girl living in the 1950s. Your father has been visiting America on business, and has just returned home. You asked him for something made by the Native Americans, and you are absolutely astounded by the necklace he brought. It is made of the most amazing thing - porcupine quills!

When I showed the children this fragment of porcupine quill necklace, they were amazed by it. The children immediately assumed that the necklace was made of beads, and assumed the quills were glass or clay. They were amazed, and a little disturbed to discover they were actually porcupine quills. 

Items made from porcupine quills are known as quillwork, an art form which is unique to Native American culture of North America. Quillwork is usually a type of textile decoration, and uses the quills of porcupines, or very occasionally birds. It is also an art form which is quite rare today, but was once an important part of Native American culture. Once, before glass beads were introduced to America, porcupine quills were a major decorative feature in Native American clothing and items, ranging from shirts to boxes. Quills would be collected from the porcupine by throwing a cloth or blanket over the animal. The animal would then raise its quills, which would tangle in the blanket, become stuck, and detach from the porcupine. The quills could then be collected, cleaned, dried and oiled (which prevented the quills from cracking), then sorted into various sizes. Many quills would be used with their natural colouring, but others were carefully dyed using a variety of natural pigments (often from fruits, bark or wood).

After preparation, the quills could be used in a number of ways. Some were bent around handles  as a wrapping (usually large quills), some were used in weaving or attached to baskets and boxes, while others (usually the fine quills from near the neck) were even used in embroidery! Many quills were used to decorate clothing, or in jewellery, and the quillwork on a war shirt even told people looking at it what tribe the warrior came from and what their rank was!  When glass became available though, the use of quills began to die out as glass is much stronger and more robust. Quillwork was simply too fragile in comparison, and also much more difficult to make, so glass beads rapidly became more popular. By the 1970s, the art form had nearly died out entirely, but today there are Native America artists who are reviving the tradition. 

Rover Discovers History Goes To His Head - Balls Head Part 2

This week Rover is again heading to Balls Head, in an attempt to weave the many different historic stories of the area together. Many of Rovers friends are amazed by the sheer amount of history to be found at Balls Head, and are a little confused about how the stories fit together. Last week, Rover talked a little about the people who lived in and made use of Balls Head, but much of the history of the site is associated firmly with industry. 

If you would like to visit the historic Balls Head Reserve, Coal Loader and associated historic areas, they are all located at Balls Head in Waverton, North Sydney. To get there, turn off the Pacific Highway into Bay Road. Follow Bay Road into Balls head Road and on to Balls Head itself. There is plenty to see and do at Balls Head, with not just the coal loader to explore, but historic walks, Aboriginal heritage, a centre for sustainability and more. There is also plenty of room for kids to run around or kick a ball. To get to many of the historic sites you will need to explore on foot, but there is plenty to discover!

Some may be wondering how the area of Balls Head was transformed into a hive of industrial activity. To find the answer to this, we have to look at another historic story, that of two men, Berry, and Wollstonecraft. In the 1820s, the Balls Head area was granted to Edward Wollstonecraft, while the Berry’s Bay area was given to his business partner, Alexander Berry. Both Wollstonecraft and Berry arrived in Sydney in 1919, and in 1827, Berry married the sister of Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth. When Wollstonecraft died, the land was left to Elizabeth, making the area, essentially, a single, massive grant. After Alexander Berry died in 1889 though, things rapidly changed. The estate was divided into thirteen blocks and offered for leasehold, but not many were interested, until in 1906 an agreement was reached between the State Government and Berrys Estate. According to this agreement, the foreshore land in Sydney was given to the state in return for the government building a thirty bed hospital in Berry in the Shoalhaven. 

Of course, the State wanted to make a profit from their new land, and in 1916, plans were proposed to build a coal depot on the site. The state leased the land to the Sydney Coal Bunkering Company in 1917 and work commenced on building the coal loader. In 1918 work commenced on building a wharf to service the ships using the loader, which was then still under construction. In 1829, an electric cable railway was installed to carry coal from the loader to the wharf and onto the ships, and the site opened for business. Between the 1920s and 1970s the site was used as a transfer depot for coal, with coal being offloaded from large bulk carriers which would moor adjacent to the coal loader structure. Gantry cranes would dump the coal onto the platform of the coal loader, and chutes in the roof would allow coal to drop into skips waiting in the tunnels below. These could then be taken along the cableway and the coal loaded onto smaller, coal powered boats and ships, who were waiting at the wharf. 

Roy Creates Delicious Honey Kisses

Today, Roy decided he wanted to make some delicious biscuits for his Grandpa, who has been helping him a lot recently with a few things. Roy’s Grandpa has a real sweet tooth, but he far prefers homemade goodies to those which come premade. Roy saw an interesting looking recipe for honey kisses in one of his cookbooks, and knowing his Grandpa’s love of honey, thought they would be perfect. The results were fabulous - so good that Grandpa ate them all before Roy even took a photo - and Roy thought he would share the recipe with his online friends. So this week, Roy Creates Delicious Honey Kisses.

You Will Need:

• 250 grams of self raising flour
• 125 grams of butter or margarine
• 125 grams of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 dessertspoon of honey
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (slightly less if you use extract)
• Lemon icing (made with icing sugar, butter, boiling water and lemon juice or lemon oil)

Method:

• Start by preparing cookie trays with baking paper and preheating the oven to 180 degrees celsius
• Cream the butter and sugar together

• Beat in the egg and honey
• Add the vanilla and salt and beat in

• Finally, add the flour and mix to a smooth dough

• Roll teaspoons of the mix into balls and place on your prepared trays.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden and cooked
• Allow to cool completely

• Sandwich two biscuits together with lemon icing and allow them to set
• Enjoy!

It Looks Pretty Serious! Electrical Switch

Imagine you are a man working in a factory in the 1960s. You have many different machines in the factory, which do many different things. One of your favourite jobs, at the end of the day, is to flip the switches to turn them off, ready for the next day. Somehow, those big switches make you feel very important, even if all you are doing is turning the machines off!

When I showed the children this old electrical switch, they were really intrigued by it. Many of the children actually didn’t recognise it as a switch, as it is very different to switches they use today. They thought it was ‘very important looking’, and not something you would ever find in a home. In fact, one child even said it looked a little like a tiny version of the switch used to create Frankenstein! The children were surprised to discover that such switches would once have been very common. 

Switches are something which are a normal part of life today, and which we don’t usually think about. We use them to turn everything from lights to popcorn makers on - they are an integral part of everyday life. In essence, a switch is very simple - an electric component which can break or connect an electrical circuit, either stopping the current, or allowing it through. If the circuit is in the ‘broken’ position, the machine or lights will not work, while if the circuit is complete (the switch is on), power is supplied and the appliance works. Yet switches can be quite complicated, ranging from switches which are directly operated by people, to those controlled by computers. How did they come to exist though?

 

The most familiar forms of switches are light switches, which most of us use on a daily basis. The first light switch, as we know it, was created in 1884 by John Henry Holmes and was what is known as a quick break switch. Switches existed before this, and they were used for all sorts of things, but there was a problem with them. Before the quick break switch, the contacts in a switch could generate an electrical arc when the circuit was opened or closed. This damaged the switch and meant it needed to be replaced more often. The quick break mechanism meant that the circuit was opened or closed too quickly for an arc to be created. Even today, this same technology is used in almost all of our light switches! In fact, the same technology is used in most switches, whatever they are turning on or off!

Rover Discovers History Goes To His Head - Balls Head

This week Rover decided he would like to head out and about in the Sydney area, and shed a little more light on one of the most fascinating places he knows - the Balls Head Reserve area. Rover has many times visited this area, and some of his friends are amazed by the amount of history which he has discovered. He has several times written about specific aspects of the history of the site, but over the next two weeks he will try to bring these stories, and places on the Peninsula, together! 

If you would like to visit the historic Balls Head Reserve, Coal Loader and associated historic areas, they are all located at Balls Head in Waverton, North Sydney. To get there, turn off the Pacific Highway into Bay Road. Follow Bay Road into Balls head Road and on to Balls Head itself. There is plenty to see and do at Balls Head, with not just the coal loader to explore, but historic walks, Aboriginal heritage, a centre for sustainability and more. There is also plenty of room for kids to run around or kick a ball. To get to many of the historic sites you will need to explore on foot, but there is plenty to discover!

Balls Head and the coal loader site are a fascinating place and one which is really very special, because many different historic stories intersect here. The earliest layers of history are associated with the Aboriginal people, the Cammeraygal, who called the area Yerroulbine. The Cammeraygal used overhangs as shelters, fished, gathered food and made tools in the area and even used the area for burials. At least one Aboriginal person was buried at Balls Head. Today, the Aboriginal heritage of the site is celebrated in an Aboriginal native foods garden, which is not far from a spectacular rock engraving.

Aboriginal people continued to frequent the area right up until 1916, when the usage of the land changed significantly. Yet Aboriginals were not the only ones to use the area. In 1912 the Australian Army claimed a large section of land, and they established a Quarantine Depot here. This depot serviced boats moving between the depot (which was in Berry’s Bay which is actually part of Ball’s Head) and the Quarantine Station in North Head. Others used the site as a recreational area, and much of the headland was made public parkland in 1926. Others still lived on the site, particularly during the Great Depression, when squatters lived in the overhangs, and cleared much of the vegetation, using the wood as a resource for making objects to sell (or as firewood). Yet, for much of the time when Balls Head was publicly accessible as a recreational parkland, it was also a vital industrial site. Come back next week to find out more!

Roy Creates Deliciously Simple Traditional Gingerbread Cake

 

This week, Roy decided that he would like to try out a recipe which he had seen some time ago in one of his cookbooks. Roy often makes gingerbread cookies, but traditional gingerbread is quite different and more like a dense cake. Roy was really intrigued to try out a recipe for this sort of gingerbread, but he needed a ginger lover to share it with. Luckily, he hosted a morning tea for a couple of friends who love ginger, and thought the gingerbread was wonderful. So this week, Roy Creates Deliciously Simple Traditional Gingerbread Cake. 

You Will Need:

• 125 grams of butter
• 1/4 of a cup of golden syrup
• 3/4 of a cup of treacle
• 1/2 a cup of milk
• 2 50 gram eggs
• 2 cups of plain flour
• 1/4 of a cup of sugar
• 1 level teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1 level teaspoon of mixed spice
• 1 level teaspoon of bicarb soda
• 1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger (the fresher and greener the better)
• Lemon icing (made with icing sugar, butter, boiling water and lemon juice or lemon oil)

Method:

• Like a 23 centimetre slice tin with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius

• Melt together the butter, golden syrup, treacle and milk (Roy did this in a saucepan)
• Beat the eggs and drizzle the syrup mix in, beating all the while to stop the eggs from scrambling. 

• Into a clean, large bowl, sift together the flour, ginger, spice, bicarb soda. Add the sugar and mix

• Add the grated ginger to the egg and syrup mix

• Pour the syrup mix into the dry ingredients and beat until everything is well combined and the flour is all incorporated
• Pour the mix into the tin and bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
• Allow the cake to cool completely
• Ice with lemon icing and, if desired, sprinkle chopped preserved ginger over the cake. 

That Thing Doesn't Look Like A Bottle! Baby's Feeding Bottle

Imagine you are a mother living in the late 1800s. You have newborn baby, and you want to make sure everything is done right so he will grow up strong and healthy. You thought long and hard about whether to feed him by bottle, but have decided to go ahead. After all, everybody seems to think it best!

When I showed the children this baby bottle, they had no idea what it was. They quickly worked out that it was some sort of bottle, but couldn’t understand why it had holes at each end - ‘it wouldn’t hold anything’ as one child said. They were surprised to discover, upon closer inspection and reading of the inscription on the bottle itself, that it was a baby bottle. They couldn’t believe how different it was to those they see today. They were also surprised to discover that feeding children from bottles was not as modern as they had thought. 

Although many seem to assume that babies throughout history have been fed by breastfeeding, until the 20th century, this is simply not the case. In fact, there is actually evidence from ancient Egyptian papyrus and Babylonian texts that baby bottles were used in the ancient world! These were undoubtedly used by those who could not produce milk themselves and could not afford a wet nurse (a woman who could feed the child themselves), but they certainly existed. Most ancient baby bottles were very similar to one another, made of terracotta or clay, and shaped like a small beaker with a handle and spout. These early bottles were the perfect size to hold in the hand. Cheaper bottles were simply made of a horn, with a hole in the tapered end and piece of fabric over the hole. Glass bottles were introduced in the 1st century AD, and usually had a very fine spout which allowed milk to drip out, a single drop at a time. Many of these very early glass feeding bottles have been found in the tombs of babies. 

 

It wasn’t until the 16th century though that feeding bottles actually began to be shaped something like a bottle. Due to the high death rates of abandoned children and children left with wet nurses, doctors turned attention to developing ways to feed babies with animal milk. The bottles could be made of wood, pewter or glass, but they were always tall, looked a little like a bottle and had a nipple shaped tip. These bottles did not necessarily help to stop infant deaths though. In fact the ones made of pewter could actually turn the milk toxic, and none of them were cleaned sufficiently. Then, in the 18th century, new bottles of blown glass were created. One of these was the famous ‘banana’ bottle, like I showed the children. The mother could feed her baby even when the baby was in a lying position, and controlled the flow of milk by holding her finger over the second hole. Again though, cleaning was a problem. In fact it would not be until the creation of moulded glass, straight sided heat resistant Pyrex bottles of 1924 that bottles were able to be perfectly cleaned, removing the harmful bacteria which had contributed to some many infant deaths.

Rover Explores A Land Of Wet - Pioneer Dairy Wetlands

This week, with the holidays approaching and many of Rover’s friends searching for something unique to do, not too far from Sydney, Rover thought it was a perfect time to suggest a spot of birdwatching. Rover loves birds, and one of his favourite places to visit to watch the native birdlife is a hidden gem on the Central Coast - The Pioneer Dairy Wetlands. 

If you would like to visit Pioneer Dairy Wetlands (also known as the Central Coast Wetlands and the Central Coast Wetlands Pioneer Dairy), it is located near Wyong and Tuggerah on NSW Central Coast. The street address is 1897 South Tacoma Road and to get there, follow the Pacific Highway until you see the turnoff for South Tacoma Road. Follow the road and the Pioneer Dairy will soon appear on the right. The wetlands are only open to visitors on weekends from 10am until 4pm, or arrangement at other times, but they are well worth a visit. It is a perfect spot for a picnic, and in Rover’s experience, you may well find yourself alone with the birds, which is really quite magical!

Wetlands are very important parts of our natural environment, and depending on where they are, they can protect surrounding lands from flood, absorb pollutants, and improve water quality. One of the most important roles of wetlands though is to provide a habitat for native flora and fauna. They often contain a huge diversity of plants and animals, and can even be home to species which are found nowhere else. There are a huge variety of wetlands too, from wetlands which are always partially submerged in water, to swamps, to wetlands which are seasonal, and are dry for part of the year. 

The Pioneer Dairy Wetlands are an important area of wetland on the Central Coast, and over the last 12 years a huge community effort has been put in to restore the wetlands. In fact over one hundred thousand trees and shrubs have been planted! There are two areas of wetland within the reserve, with a seasonal freshwater swamp area, as well as a deeper, permanent area of water. What makes this wetland so special though is the variety of wildlife to be found, particularly birds. The wetland is a habitat for bats and birds, and many threatened species of waterbirds have been recorded in the reserve, including threatened migratory birds like Latham’s Snipe and Whiskered Terns. It’s not just birds who are provided with a habitat though, but the endangered Eastern Long-necked Turtle and Green and Golden Bell Frog. There are conservation plans in place at the Dairy for these two endangered species, which will give this wetland an important role in preserving these special Australian animals!