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Lose a hangar - find a picture theatre !



Over the years there were rumors of old aircraft hangars in Alma Avenue , leftover from WW2. I decided to go have a closer look at the oldest building in the street to see if I could recognise any features that would make it a Bellman type hangar - a popular style building of that era.
The current building is being used as a workshop for a smash repair business and I met a fella by the name of Warren Todd who set me straight on the old sheds' real origins - it's not an old hangar but in fact it's the old Ocean Beach Rd picture theatre. It was bought by his family in the 60's and relocated to the current site , Warren also told me of a large radial engine being dug up out of a backyard adjacent to the rear lane of the workshop , he reckons it looked like an aircraft engine saying it had 12 - 14 rotary cylinders and was " massive " in size.
The Grumman bombers that were supposed to be at Woy Woy had 14 cylinder engines , this could be the best proof so far that actual planes were housed nearby.
Warren also put me onto his grandfather who was born here in the 30's , Bruce was a friendly old bloke who took a few minutes of his own time out to answer my questions
( you can't help but love this town with folk like this living here ).
Bruce used to deliver the mail on horseback back in the early days and told of the airstrip being constructed by using the sandstone base from the quarry at the base of Mt Ettalong , the famous red gravel topping came from a quarry at Peats Ridge.
He also told me about an airplane that crashed on the Peninsula in the early 50's in which the aircraft hit a house in Nelson St Umina !
Air Force records show an RAAF Tiger Moth trainer crashing at Woy Woy in 1950 , in fact I'm starting to compile a list of local military aircraft crashes / forced landing and military sites in general here.
Bruce then showed me some beautiful old panorama photos of Ocean Beach and Pearl Beach from the 1900's , the Pearl Beach photo showed no houses whatsoever - all bush
Hopefully he will be able to find some photos and more info for my next visit - until then thanks Warren and Bruce for your time.