Yesterday Elias and I were on location at the Australian National Maritime Museum to document some of the rare and amazing objects in their collection. 

Most notably we were treated to a trip on the Commonwealth Light Ship 4 (CLS 4) aka The Carpentaria. This bright red light ship was designed by a Scotsman and brother of Robert Louis Stevenson (author of Treasure Island); commissioned in 1917 along with 3 others just like it; constructed at Cockatoo Island and then made its way up to the Gulf of Carpentaria where it served as a warning beacon in the high seas for many years. The light ships were completely unmanned and served in areas where there was no suitable ground to build a light house. 

The Carpentaria has a mini light house on board and an incredible warning bell that is activated by 4 hammers as the ship rolled with the tide. Now docked at the Museum, the hammers are usually tied up as the neighbours in the harbour are not fond of the all the noise. However, we were lucy enough to capture some audio of tolling bell yesterday, which we will share with you in our finished video later this year. It is a very haunting sound, almost like a death knoll … I could only imagine the panic it might induce in a crew travelling in stormy waters.

The Carpentaria was decommissioned in the 80s and made its way to the Maritime Museum wharf to be part of their collection. Its counterpart CLS 2 was also decommissioned around the same time and found a home at the Queensland Maritime Museum, where it lived in the dry dock. Unfortunately it met with some trouble during the devastating Queensland floods and was sunk. 

Speaking with the fleet manager at the ANMM, I was interested to know what had replaced the light ships in the gulf, and was informed that with the developments of satellite navigation and GPS technology the light ships and light houses have become unnecessary. There are a few well documented cases where sat nav has failed, both here in Australia and overseas , so I remain a touch skeptical and bemoan the loss a good lighthouse walk.

The Carpentaria is off to the dry dock for repairs as of this Friday, so we said our good byes for now. The ship will be losing its bell for reconstruction, but it will be gaining a new coat of paint and some TLC. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

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I left my house at 6.50am this morning, and arrived at Casula train station at 8.40am. It takes a while by train to get from Marrickville to Casula, but I was not blessed with great connecting trains and I also gave myself an unexpected detour to Glendfield by not paying attention to the indicator board while on my mobile. You live and learn… 

Anyway – thought I would share some Disposable Hipsta prints from my journey to give you an idea of the new whereabouts of the Curious folk. 

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And so it is, we have only have one office day left in Randle now, and I am still fighting off feelings of nostalgia with the realities of this God forsaken building and the fact that I still haven’t packed anything beyond one book shelf.

I still have one grant application to get out before the end of the day, so need to get that finished by lunch so I can pack up my desk in the afternoon.

Something that I am very happy to be leaving behind is the frustratingly deceptive uneven floor in the office space. When I first arrived at CuriousWorks just over 2 years ago, I was all like “Whoa, you guys don’t have ergonomic chairs …” and Shakthi and Elias where all like “Whoa, what the hell does that even mean.” So I went and did what seemed like endless research to get some 3 leaver typist chairs (on wheels) and they made sitting at my desk out in the main studio a pleasure. Then we moved into the smaller office … which made my ergonomic chair purchase a bit of a dud, as the wonderful free movement on the even floor in the main room gave way to the daily struggle of keeping my chair (and myself) at my desk. Sometimes when I get up from my desk, my chair will just roll out from under me and launch a stealth attack on Vaike or Elias from behind. While moderately comedic, I am looking forward to finding new ways to keep myself entertained at my new desk.

What I am truly sad to be leaving behind is the incredible view from our studio. You could stand at the window for hours just looking outside and watching the bussle of Central station. Sometimes we have been lucky enough to have cockatoos, rosellas and kookaburras pay us a visit by perching on the roof of the building opposite. I will miss it all greatly, but am looking forward to the new surroundings and wildlife in by the river at Casula.

See you later Surry!

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WARNING: All videos linked to in this post are full of LOLs.

The Zyzz of Cooking is a comedy cooking show made by Khaled Mariam from Western Sydney. CuriousWorks has worked with Khaled on several projects over the last few years, so its fantastic to see him making his own hilarious films and posting them! Check out the video on Youtube! and subscribe! Looking forward to more!!

Khaled was previously part of the reFILL project which ran at Miller Technology High and CuriousWorks facilitated from 2008-2009. You can see Khaled’s work in short film Attack of the Bullies or featured in the reFILL Sketch Comedy Videos . In 2010 he also played the main role in a short film for the Digitalogic program, Art Class Anti-Stimulus .

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Keeping to a blogline is hard, so apologies for being late, as I know you were all just dying to hear my next installment of love and hate … last week’s hate karma has caught up with me and conspired to make my life hell yet again. The lift of terror has broken down again and postponed crucial demolition work at Randle … but i guess thems the breaks when you reside in a cool old warehouse that leaks like sieve …

Hate – this stupid way in which this warehouse leaks even though we are not on the top floor …

Love – Ding Dong Dangs … because its a beacon of awesome and always open for Curious late night after parties when you just have to bust out a Britney or Madona tune in the comfort of a private suite and impress/embarras out of town visitors.

The lift is now working again, so please channel all your happy thoughts to keeping to working at least until Monday 30th!

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