This morning, we were off to Colleen McCollough's Home for a tour with Baunti Tours. We were escorted through her very interesting home by a former (and current) housemaid. The building is completely "stuffed" with priceless artefacts gathered by Colleen in her worldly travels. She was obviously a very interesting, eccentric individual as well as a great author. Decadent is a word that comes to mind when describing the the contents of the home.
Colleen made her home on Norfolk Island in 1979, married an Islander, Ric in 1984 and remained here until her death in 2015.
Her home is a two-storey building (we only got to see downstairs), but the ceilings are quite low and the rooms too small for all the 'grand' stuff. On the tour, you get a glimpse of her extensive research library as well as where she worked. A nice little message beside her desk "My mind just doesn't wander. Sometimes it fucks off altogether". Good to note she had that problem too. She hated technology and belted out between 15,000 and 30,000 words a day on a heavy electric typewriter, usually at night.
The entry hall features huge paintings of Colleen and Ric and elsewhere there is artwork by well known artists including Norman Lindsay and James Gleeson. And there's no wau you can miss the metallic wallpapers by Florence Broadhurst.
There was an imposing wall of glasses in a backlit cabinet, endless rows from Milan, Napoleon Bonaparte glasses and Roman glass from 4 A.D. We marched past carefully passing the display in single file. No wonder we had to leave all bags at the door.
Underneath a chandelier (gold-plated no less) sat a heavy Waterford Crystal globe of the world. This was on a glass dining table and even that sheet of glass was mounted on glass dolphins.
There were strikingly modern stained-glass windows, created by Cherry Phillips, who also worked on the designs for Parliament House. She needed to spend a few months living at McCullough's to create this masterpiece.
The kitchen holds industrial stoves and was a hub for the 17 staff who ran the house and 10-hectare property. Even here, you could see Colleen's stamp as everything was methodically labelled.
Off this larger hub was McCullough's personal kitchen. As she stood at 5ft 9, she had granite benches installed to the height of those she had used in laboratories.
We entered the conservatory, another room used for entertaining guests. 'Col refused to let anyone cut back the fronds, and they trailed downwards almost to table height. Here we even got to sit down for a while on the psychedelic-swirled upholstered chairs, and our housekeeper fielded questions about McCullough's life.
All in all a fascinating look into the life of one of our well-known authors. Probably wouldn't include it on the "must do" list but interesting all the same.
Once back in town we set out for the wharf at Cascade, as last night we had been told that the islanders would be off fishing today, and when they return to shore, they clean the fish before landing, to the appreciation of lots of sharks. No cleaning when we arrived, but we were fascinated that the boats are winched out of the water by a crane and placed on the boat trailers. No such thing as a boat ramp in Norfolk Island.
While on this part of the island, we had a look at Cockpit Waterfall. Not very big but interesting all the same.
Back to town to The Helm cafe, and we finally found a cafe in Norfolk Island that could make a flat white coffee. And the shared BLAT was pretty good too.
After lunch, we thought we should explore the north of the island, so we headed off to Point Howe and Anson Bay. Lots of spectacular scenery and the Black Noddy's at Point Howe were very entertaining.
At 3 o'clock we were at the World of Norfolk Exhibit, a photographic exhitition of the island and its life. Amazing photos!
When we were at the Baunti Tour office earlier in the day, we discovered that the Commandant's Dinner and Show that we were booked in for tomorrow had to be cancelled as some of the actors had influenza. (Bought to the island by some of the recent Pro-Am golfers, we were told.) We were offered a Night on the Bounty show at the golf club instead. The only problem was, it was for tonight. We had thought that we would do the Fish Fry tonight. Oh well, another time!
The Night on the Bounty was pretty low-key. Pretty amateurish, really, or as Jill said, unfasticated. It was a fun night all the same.
