History lost

On our morning walk today we trundled off around Manning Park which is the site of a nice little lake (now drizabone!) and a museum of sorts named Azelia Ley Homestead. Azelia had that house built for her by one of W.A.'s early wealthy families, the Mannings. The Mr Manning who built the house for his daughter had previously built, in around the 1850s, what was a magnificent homestead for himself nearby.

About twenty years ago I took some photographs of what was left of the original Manning homestead. There were lots of rooms, some with the walls still showing hand painted friezes, a well, stables and servants' quarters. A long stone wall parallel to the coast featured embrasures (gun slits), surely the only real examples left in any building in W.A. Returning about a year later to take some more photos of the old building I found it completely demolished by the local council bulldozer because 'It was deemed to be unsafe.' On our travels we have seen many similar ruins which still stand and tell a story about pioneers. Vandals!

As we collected rubbish left by other vandals we found a bong with a mouthpiece of half-inch hosepipe. So if you get up one morning and find your front yard hose cut, be assured that some youth has cut a piece from the middle of your hose to construct his/her bong.