Category Archives: Photography

Restoration Project One

This winter’s restoration projects are under way, at last. First up is a an old wind-up gramophone circa 1934. It was made by the Gramophone Company of Hayes, notable for the fact that dad worked there as a cabinet maker. This one probably pre-dates his time there by a few years.

Here are a few shots of the beast before undertaking any restoration. Some utter tool has painted it with a variety of white gloss and emulsion paints right over the beautiful polished mahogany case.

Gramophone restoration project

Gramophone restoration project

Gramophone restoration project

Gramophone restoration project

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Queensland dredging

Tourist info board at Cairns

Tourist info board at Cairns

I’ve transcribed the text of the tourism information board below for mobile device users:

Three years later in 1922 a visiting writer recorded on his arrival at the Strand Hotel that,

The white beach invited our attention first and we strolled along it. It stretched like a band of pearl and saffron along the blue water’s rim, dotted with palm trees, giant fig trees, and flame trees just bursting into flower .

However, 14 years later in 1936 – after the dredge had been operating for 23 years – the editor of the Bendigo Advertiser observed at the foreshore at Cairns, “at low tide…the receding water leaves a rather unsightly mudflat…”

And Cairns’ “band of pearl and saffron” today looks like this:

cairns beach mudflats

Cairns’ “band of pearl and saffron”