With A Hiss And A Roar

The steam-powered Shearer may not have been the first Australian-made car but it is the only one from the 19th century still running.

Spit Bridge

The Spit presents the same vexing challenge as Wisemans Ferry. It seems that when a bridge engineer is confronted with low-lying land on one side of a watery expanse and steep, sometimes sheer, cliffs on the other, there are only two alternatives: put it in the "too hard" basket (hence Wiseman's Ferry) or build a very low-lying bridge and drive everyone mad by opening it regularly to let sailing boats with tall masts pass through.

Head To Echuca To Beat The Winter Blues

I don't know whether to blame El Nino or La Nina or the Wicked Witch of the West but the current cold snap has Gig Guide hankering for a cosy pub to warm his tired limbs and some music to warm his weary soul.

A City Built On Steam

Maitland is a city whose foundations were built on steam, Greg Ray discovers. And thanks to steam, the district was able to become one of the main drivers of economic growth in the young colony of NSW.

Whittley Makes Splash

IF you've got it, flaunt it, must be the new motto of Australia's Whittley Cruisers after it released a new range of trailable family boats from its American offshoot.

Boats Flock From Near And Far For Reborn Festival

TORONTO Wharf has been rebuilt and that means Lake Macquarie Heritage Afloat is back after a four-year absence.

Place In Time Parramatta Road

The Flying Pieman wasn't just about fast food, writes Peter FitzSimons. His bizarre feats of endurance captured the imagination of 19th-century Sydney and earned him a place in the hearts of the people.

Savour Authentic Flavours

If you thought Wollongong had no more room for another Vietnamese restaurant, think again. Twins has a fresh new edge, writes JESSICA HOUGH.

Monumental Race Just A Pit Stop For V60s On Way To Bigger Things

For most Australian yachties, the Sydney to Hobart is the big one for the year, a personal Everest. If you make it to the finish, the reward is the welcoming sight of Hobart's docks and then the quiet little drink that goes on for days as relieved sailors let off a bit of steam. For most, this ye

City Goes Full Steam Ahead

NEWCASTLE will get a vote of confidence in its boat-building future this morning with the announcement of a major contract to build a State Government survey vessel. Public Works and Services Minister Morris Iemma will visit Newcastle this morning to announce the new contract to a Hunter-based b

Harbour At Full Steam

I MAGINE Newcastle Harbour with a sandbank close to where Queen's Wharf is today, a sandbank where boatmen would moor to clean their boats. In the 1870s and early 1880s that's what happened. At the same time the area of the harbour today known as The Basin was nothing but mud and sand flats at l

Old Century Ships A Goldmine For New

The Sydney Maritime Museum is renting two 100-year-old steam vessels to the highest bidder to usher in 2000 from Sydney Harbour. Spurred by industry rumours of $2,000-a-head dinner parties, museum chief executive Mr John Smith said he had been inundated with offers after advertising the steam tu

Full Steam Ahead For Lake Festival

LAKE Macquarie will play host to one of the State's largest gatherings of traditional boats this weekend. Heritage Afloat will be held at the Toronto foreshore today and tomorrow. A spokesman for Toronto Chamber of Commerce, Mr Peter Clough, said this year's program was the most exciting stage

Brooman Valley Site For Auction

Clyde Bank is nestled below Pigeon House Mountain and the Budawang Ranges at Brooman on the South Coast between Batemans Bay and Ulladulla and 100 km due east of Canberra. This 457.3 hectare freehold coastal property fronts the Clyde River and has the Clyde State Forest on three sides. The land i

If It's Moving, Don't Drink It

The late Geraldine Pascall, a pioneering wine writer known for her outspoken views, used to say, "Never eat or drink on anything that moves." She included aeroplanes, trains, revolving restaurants, buses, trams and boats. But there once was a time when you could get on a plane and even

Full Steam Ahead With Hotels

OW CHIO KIAT has never been one to stop and smell the roses. The Singaporean shipping and hotel magnate, who at 16 inherited his father's modest tug and barge operation and expanded it into a listed diversified group with net assets of $S360 million ($406 million), has quietly become a force in the

The Land That Roars

Nicci Gerrard ventures into Iceland, where water explodes, mud boils and land erupts out of the sea. THE SMELL of sulphur hangs in the breeze, a rainbow stands like a chimney on the horizon, steam drifts upwards from blasted craters, thick grey mud bubbles in a pothole - glob, glob under grassles

Lady Hopetoun, Darling Of The Harbour

A VOYAGE on the Edwardian steam yacht Lady Hopetoun is once again the most elegant way to see Sydney harbour. Named after the wife of Australia's first GovernorGeneral and launched in 1902, the yacht has been restored right down to the comfortable bamboo chairs on deck. The Lady Hopetoun's c

A Love For Boats May Have Proved To Be Fatal

The asbestos-related mesothelioma which killed Nick Masterman in January took 25 years to show itself, but when it did its effect was swift and brutal The former Green Independent councillor on Leichhardt Council was 45 when doctors diagnosed the tumour on the outer lining of his lungs as

It's Full Steam Ahead For The Folk Of Frankston

The past decade has been good to Frankston and, if the council has its way, the next decade will be even better. JEANNE-MARIE CILENTO reports on the booming suburb that began as a fishing village. DESPITE one of the highest unemployment rates in Victoria, the bayside city of Frankston is enjoying