Situated in Manly at the corner of South Steyne and Ashburner Street (an area known as Steyne Court), the Manly Chute was established in 1903 by a syndicate called the Manly Chute and Amusements Company. The site had previously operated for some three years as a place of amusement known as The Maze, before being purchased sometime around September 1903. Included in the sale was a building that had operated as a refreshment room. The new company was incorporated on November 6th 1903, and shortly afterwards, General Manager, Archibald Baird, struck a deal with previous refreshment room operator, Henry Bardolph, to buy his business.
After securing the rights to the refreshment room, demolition of the maze began. The company then set about erecting the water slides that were to be the park's main attraction. The Manly Chute's official opening, timed to coincide with the school holidays, took place on December 14th in the presence of Sir John See, members of the New South Wales Ministry and the Mayor of Manly. The first entertainment was presented by a military band under the conductorship of Mr L. De Groen. The Sydney Morning Herald indicates that the park was open at night, with illumination provided by "fairy and other lamps."
THE MANLY CHUTE.
The Manly Water Chute and Amusements Company have issued an attractive guidebook profusely illustrated, setting forth the numerous attractions at the company’s grounds at Manly. The chute, toboggan. Bijou Theatre, and the fiery dragon are all depicted, and the letterpress is well and smartly written. Trippers to Manly (the Brighton of Australia) who have not yet experienced the sensation of " chuting" on reading the brochure, will no doubt be tempted to " take the plunge." The little book is a credit alike to its author, printer, and all concerned. THE MANLY CHUTE. (1904, May 7). Watchman (Sydney, NSW : 1902 - 1926), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111920950
Water Chute, Manly, N.S.W. , postcards courtesy National Museum of Australia, Image No.: 1986.0117.0258 - from an old Postcard, and Manly Library History collection.
The Manly Shute operated during the warmer months of each year - approximately October to April. While the feature attractions were a Canadian water chute and a Toboggan ride, the management also provided other entertainments, including variety concerts and film exhibitions. The park was leased to music director/manager Lewis De Groen from October 1905 to April 1906. It remained open until the end of June that year, however, and then closed permanently. The site was sold in November 1906, around the same time that the Manly Chute and Amusements Company went into liquidation.
Manly's fascination with fun and water had not ceased though.
In 1981 Manly Waterworks opened and now named Manly Surf'n'Slide, although most people still call it Manly Waterworks and it's still opne on Saturdays and Sundays. Interestingly this site was, apparently, used in the movie BMX Bandits starring Nicole Kidman during which an escape is staged in one of the waterslides.
Moth Eggs
It's that time of year when all the insects that have been busy feeding and flitting during Summer are laying eggs. This one was flapping about in our bathroom, and we though 'oh, pretty.'.
When we went back in a few hours later we noticed it had laid some eggs on the outside of the shower screen. Pretty colour:
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This one is Gastrophora henricaria, described by A. Guenée, in 1857, also called a 'Beautiful Leaf Moth' or 'Fallen-bark Looper'.
The Caterpillars of this species are brown, with a pair of protuberances on abdominal segment three. The first three pairs of prolegs are vestigial, and there are dark triangular ventral marks under those segments. Intermediate instars have a dark chevron on the back of each segment, and an orange dorsal patch on the fourth segment.
The Larvae feed on eucalypts and Brush Box.
The male adult moths have fawn forewings, each with a dark brown transverse line, and a prominent dark brown dot near the base of the hind margin.
The female adult moths have fawn forewings, each with a broad slightly darker trapezoidal transverse band, and a faint dark brown dot near the base of the hind margin.
In its resting position, the underside of each hindwing covers the undersides of the forewings, and is pale brown with a large slightly darker patch, and a submarginal arc of black dots. The underside of each forewing is displayed when the moth is disturbed, and is a startling yellow to orange with a large black patch containing a bluish-purple blotch, connected by an orange triangle to the base.
This is quite a large moth - Body length to 35 mm, wingspan to 80 mm.
As you can see, this mum has a bald spot. Moths and butterflies constantly accumulate damage on their wings and bodies over time, and they're especially prone to loosing the delicate scales that coat their exoskeleton (which is usually visible as a 'bald spot' on the top part of a moth's thorax when it's been bumping around a light for a few hours). You can even get a sense of a moth's age by seeing how worn and tattered its wings are; newly emerged individuals are usually pristine, while older ones have frayed wings and patches of missing scales.
The species is found over much of the south-eastern quarter of Australia. Information courtesy and from: http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/chro/henricaria.html - This page also has more great photos.
This photo of a male shows you how they look if they haven't been bumping around too much and thos glorious colours underneath:
Gastrophora henricaria, moth, male. Great Otway National Park, Victoria. Photographer: Frank Pierce. Source: Museums Victoria. Copyright Museums Victoria / CC BY (Licensed as Attribution 4.0 International)
Gastrophora henricaria Guenée, 1857, to MV light, Aranda, ACT, 30 November/1 December 2008. Photo: Donald Hobern via Flickr
How long do eggs take to hatch?
The eggs for this moth are usually laid on eucalyptus leaves.
The female lays the eggs individually and she can lay as many as 220 eggs over a 2 week period. The eggs usually hatch after 4 - 8 days but can take as long as 3 weeks. The hatching larvae begin feeding and spinning immediately. They produce two lengthy tubes that run onto or into the infested material. The larvae can molt over 40 times and the larval stage can take between 1 - 24 months. The larval period can vary greatly because of the ability of the larvae to undergo diapause (phase of dormancy). This period of dormancy usually lasts between 8 - 24 months. Pupating larvae spin a quiver like pupal case which is thicker than the feeding tubes and closed at both ends. Pupation usually lasts between 2 - 6 weeks and the hatching adults normally live between 2 - 4 weeks.
Australia has around 22 000 species of moths. Around half of these have been scientifically named. This one has a lovely soft coat - imagine if there was a cloth made like this that you could wear.
The moths hatching out in the bathroom reminds us of a few years back around this time of year, when we had a huntsman mumma deposit her eggs in the bathroom. Soon we had tiny tiny spiders everywhere - but they went outswide when we opened the window - off into the Great Outdoors to continue the yearly cycles of insects and spiders and all those other tiny living things we share the world with.
Curious Kids: where did the first seed come from?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages, where The Conversation asks experts to answer questions from kids. All questions are welcome: find out how to enter at the bottom of this article.
Where did the first seed come from? – Alice, age six, Beverley, UK
Hi Alice. This is a clever question. As I’m sure you know, plants use seeds to spread their young and make new plants. But plants haven’t always used seeds to do this. Seeds came together bit-by-bit over a really long time, as plants evolved.
To understand how this happened, you need to know that all living things change slowly over time, to get better at surviving in their environment – this process is called evolution.
Here’s how it works: when a living thing has a feature which works well, it will be able to live longer and have more young. These young will probably have similar features, thanks to their parents.
Plants started using seeds to spread their young somewhere between 385m and 365m years ago. Before seeds existed, plants had other ways of doing this.
Back then, most plants used spores. Some plants today, such as algae, mosses and ferns, still do. You might have spotted the tiny brownish dots on the underside of fern leaves – these are spores.
Spores are different from seeds in a few ways. A spore is made of just one part – a single cell – while a seed contains many cells, each with different jobs to do.
Another difference is that spores only have one parent plant, while seeds have two.
This means that, after a seed starts sprouting, it can grow into a plant, just like its parents.
But spores have to work a bit harder: once they’ve travelled away from their parent plant, they grow into a little green plate of cells, which scientists call a “gametophyte”. Then, two gametophytes must join together, before they can grow into a plant.
It’s easier for gametophytes to join together when its wet – and that’s why plants that use spores usually need to grow in wet places.
For example, horsetails are a very ancient type of plant, which like to grow along lakes, rivers and ponds: they have very strange spores with four “legs” which help them to move and travel further away.
The first seed
Scientists believe that an extinct seed fern, called Elksinia polymorpha, was the first plant to use seeds.
This plant had cup-like features, called “cupules”, that would protect the developing seed. These cupules grew along the plant’s branches.
Today, plants with seeds do things a little differently. There are two main types: “angiosperms” and “gymnosperms”.
Angiosperms are flowering plants – their seeds develop inside of fruit, like apples, tomatoes or even rose hips or holly berries.
Gymnosperms, such as pine trees, grow their seeds inside a hard cone.
The upside of seeds
Seeds have evolved because they are better at helping plants to survive than spores are. For example, seeds contain a food source to help the new plant grow.
They also have a hard coat, which helps them to live longer in different conditions: this means plants with seeds can life in lots of different places, from hot, dry deserts to cool, rainy places.
Seeds are so good at helping plants to spread their young that most plant species on Earth today use seeds.
Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question – along with your name, age and town or city where you live – to curiouskids@theconversation.com. Send as many questions as you want! We won’t be able to answer every question, but we’ll do our best.
More Curious Kids articles, written by academic experts:
Why do spiders have hairy legs? - Audrey, age five, Melbourne, Australia
Why do we have different seasons at specific times of the year? – Shrey, age nine, Mumbai, India
Marjorie Lundgren, Lecturer in Environmental Physiology, Lancaster University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Curious Kids: how do birds see where they’re going?
This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children of all ages. The Conversation is asking young people to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome: find out how to enter at the bottom.
We have eyes on the front of our heads so we can see where we are going, but birds’ eyes are on the side so how do they see where they’re going? – Thomas and Luke, age six, Sussex, UK
Dear Thomas and Luke,
Thanks for your question. First of all, I should mention that not all birds have their eyes on the sides of their heads. Pigeons and parrots do, but other birds, such as owls, have large eyes placed close together at the front of their heads – a bit like ours.
Whether they have eyes at the front or on the sides of their heads, all birds can still see straight ahead. But that doesn’t mean all birds see things in the same way. In fact, where a bird’s eyes are on its head can tell us a lot about how it sees the world.
Having two eyes means animals can see a three dimensional image of what’s around them. So they can perceive the height, width and depth of an object, as well as how far away it is.
Where a bird’s eyes are on its head affects its field of vision – that’s how much it can see in front and to the side at any one time. Think about how far you can see to either side without turning your head: these are the limits of your own field of vision.
Because owls have eyes at the front of their heads, they have a smaller field of vision – around 150 degrees for a barn owl (though they can turn their heads very far to look around).
Parrots, pigeons and other birds with eyes on the sides of their heads have a much bigger field of vision, of about 300 degrees. Amazingly, this means that they can see in front and a long way to the side, at the same time.
Where the eyes are placed decides how a bird views its surroundings using different types of vision. Binocular vision means both eyes focus on the same object at the same time, and eye movement is coordinated – this is the kind of vision that predatory birds such as owls rely on most.
Monocular vision means each eye is focused on a different object at any particular moment, and this is normal for parrots and pigeons. Having different kinds of vision helps different kinds of birds survive in the wild.
For parrots and pigeons, having eyes on the sides of their heads is a huge advantage. Having a wider field of vision with only a small blind spot behind them lets these birds see where they are going, while also keeping an eye out for predators which might be trying to sneak up on them.
For predatory raptors such as barn owls, having forward-facing eyes helps them to see depth and distance much more clearly, since both eyes can focus on the same object at the same time. This is perfect for spotting and catching small prey such as field mice.
So though it might seem like birds with eyes on the side of their heads can’t see where they are going, they can see forward and sideways at the same time, and in fact can see much more than those with eyes facing forwards.
Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:
* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.com
* Tell us on Twitter by tagging @ConversationUK with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
* Message us on Facebook.
Please tell us your name, age and which town or city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
More Curious Kids articles, written by academic experts:
How does gravity pull things down to Earth? – Gabriel, age 4, Stewartby, UK
What sea creature can attack and win over a blue whale? – Drake, age seven, Sydney, Australia
Hazel Jackson, Affiliate, University of Kent
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Curious Kids: why do things look smaller when further away and bigger when closer to me?
This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children of all ages. The Conversation is asking young people to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome: find out how to enter at the bottom.
Why do things look smaller when further away and bigger when closer to me? – Elena, age ten, Haywards Heath, UK
The easiest way to understand this is by thinking about something called your field of view. This is how much you can see, without turning your head. When things are closer to you, they take up more of your field of view, so they seem bigger. When they’re further away, they take up less of your field of view, and so seem smaller.
One way to measure our field of view is to use an angle. An angle is a measure of how much something turns, and it’s measured in degrees. Zero degrees means there is no turn at all, while 360 degrees means a full turn.
So if you spin yourself all the way around, you have turned 360 degrees. If you spin yourself half way around, so that you’re facing the opposite direction, you’ve turned 180 degrees.
Vertically (that means up and down) our field of view is about 150 degrees. How big things appear to us has to do with how much of our field of view they take up.
If you look at a building from a long way away, you can easily see the whole building from top to bottom. So the angle between the line from your eye to the top of the building, and the line from your eye to the bottom of the building, is quite small.
The further away the object is, the smaller this angle will be. So, the subject appears small, because it takes up less of your field of view.
But as you get closer to the building, it will take up more and more of your field of view, as the angle between the line from your eye to the top of the building, and the line from your eye to the bottom of the building, grows larger.
When you get right up close to the building, you may not even be able to see the top without tipping your head backwards. The angle between the line from you to the bottom of the building, and the line from you to the top is bigger than 150 degrees. The building will take up your whole field of view – and then some!
Scientists know that things are always better with experiments, so here’s one for you to try. You’ll need a smart phone with a camera, a big empty space (like a football field) and two friends or grown ups to help you.
One person stands far away, at the other end of the field. Another person stands much closer to the photographer, and holds out their hand. Now, the photographer might have to move around a little bit and give everyone directions, but as soon as everything is in line – click!
You should have a picture that looks something like this.
Of course, one person isn’t really that much smaller than the other – you’re actually just playing a trick, using everything you’ve just learned.
The camera is very much like your eye, so you know that the person who is closer to the camera will take up more of its “field of view”, appearing bigger, while the person who is further away will take up less of its “field of view”, appearing smaller.
Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:
* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.com
* Tell us on Twitter by tagging @ConversationUK with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
* Message us on Facebook.
Please tell us your name, age and which town or city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
More Curious Kids articles, written by academic experts:
How do you know that we aren’t in virtual reality right now? – Erin, 13, Strathfield, Australia
If the universe is like a giant brain, then where’s its body? – Aine, age 12, Edinburgh, UK
David Franklin, Associate Head of Education, University of Portsmouth
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Archive of millions of Historical Children’s Books All Digitised: Free to download or Read Online
Enter the 1: Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature here, where you can browse several categories, search for subjects, authors, titles, etc, see full-screen, zoomable images of book covers, download XML versions, and read all of the 2: over 6,000 books in the collection with comfortable reader views.
Find 3: more classics in the collection, 800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices.
Ingleside Riders Group Inc. (IRG) is a not for profit incorporated association and is run solely by volunteers. It was formed in 2003 and provides a facility known as “Ingleside Equestrian Park” which is approximately 9 acres of land between Wattle St and McLean St, Ingleside. 
Profile: Pittwater Baseball Club
Profile: Avalon Soccer Club
Avalon Bilgola Amateur Swimming Club ProfileWe swim at Bilgola rock pool on Saturday mornings (8:45am till 11:30am). Our season runs between October and March
Profile Bayview Yacht Racing Association (BYRA)Mona Vale Mountain Cub Scouts
Find out more about all the fun you can have at Mona Vale Mountain Cub Scouts Profile –
our Profile pages aren’t just about those who can tell you about Pittwater before you were born, they’re also about great clubs and activities that you too can get involved in!