Wisemans Ferry

I was up early this morning so seized the opportunity to sneak out alone.  I went for a run along Phegans Walk, which many years ago was just a bullock track connecting the bays.  A beautiful track that meanders through the bush along Brisbane Water, it was named after the founder of Phegans Bay - James Lowe Phegan (1865-1942).  He was a local identity who ran the Phegans Bay Teahouse and was quoted at the time as being "one of the most unselfish and progressive spirits in the district".

The weather was perfect for a run and the hills were tough but the views made it all worthwhile!  I arrived back before 8am to find the family still in bed.  Jack and Bruce were soon to rise but we didn't see Jarrah, Fletcher or Annie until well after 9.30am!!

 

After a pot of Annie's wonderful orange pekoe tea we bundled everyone in the car and took the picturesque drive along the Hawkesbury River to the rustic settlement of Wisemans Ferry.  The town was originally called Lower Portland Headland, but the name was eventually changed to Wisemans Ferry, named after Solomon Wiseman, a former convict who received a land grant in the area from Governor Macquarie in 1817.  

Here you see Solomon Wiseman disguised as TMNT Donatello.

 

Wiseman established a ferry service on the Hawkesbury River in 1827 for the transport of produce and provisions to the convicts building the Great North Road.  The crossing has remained in use on its current site since that time, making it the oldest ferry crossing still in operation in New South Wales, and possibly in Australia. 

 

Unlike the Daintree car ferry, this one is free of tolls (and trolls), operates on demand 24/7 with no regular maintenance closure and has two ferries operating on separate sets of cables to limit waiting times in peak periods.  Tourism & Events Queensland could learn a lot from these guys!

  

 

We enjoyed a meal at the Wisemans Inn Hotel.  Established in 1827 The Wisemans Inn Hotel still retains all the charm and heritage of its time. Now run and operated by former Australian Wallaby Bill Young, it has a great outdoor deck overlooking a pretty awesome beer garden and outdoor kids play area, complete with chooks, ducks and rabbits.

 

 

In the background here you can see glimpses of the sandstone escarpments that ring the village.  It makes the place feel very 'outbackish', yet it's merely 75kms from Sydney.  

 

By all accounts it seems that Solomon Wiseman, who built the pub, was a bit of a jerk and completely corrupt.  Hence he made a few enemies in his time, some of which still haunt the old pub. 

 

One such spirit who cannot rest is said to be the ghost of Solomon's first wife, Jane.  Apparently being married to Wiseman was no picnic and so Jane instead found love in their family home with the gardener.  They planned to elope together, but Wiseman caught wind of this and took Jane to the top verandah of the Inn and gave her a shove, right in front of the gardener.  She fell to her death.  The gardener fled, heartbroken (and probably terrified) and Jane's body was buried under the pub. 

 

Legend has it that Jane's soul, tortured by the separation from her true love, now haunts the Wisemans Ferry Inn.  Jane has been heard walking the halls of the upstairs motel, making her presence known to night time visitors by rattling objects, turning lights on and off and holding doors open or slamming them shut many times throughout the night.

 

Luckily, we were only there for lunch.  We had a family 'pillow fight' in the beer garden and mused over the unusual signage and the trailer full of sharp implements in the kids play area.

 

 

We decided to walk off lunch with a stroll along the convict built (1836-1846) Old Great North Road that once connected Sydney and Newcastle.  Apparently relics such as retaining walls, wharves, culverts, bridges and buttresses can still be seen.  However, to get to this National Treasure of World Significance you have to pass by two playgrounds, and by the time we'd finished at the playgrounds we had run out of time for the educational and historical component of the walk.

 

Happy days!

 

It was dark by the time we got home!  We threw together some leftovers for dinner so we could get down to the important part of the evening - movie and popcorn! 

 

Annie once again broadened (corrupted) our horizons with her bent on dark adventure fantasy films.  This time it was The Dark Crystal, a 1980s classic set on a distant planet 1000 years ago.

Unfortunately for us, Fletch wasn't keen to sleep in his own bed tonight, and neither was his new dinosaur Darkness. Just for the record, dinosaurs are not great bedfellows!