Alfresco Dining for Queanbeyan

We sailed on with Happy Hearts

The Harbor wind’s played on in our hearts
As we bobbed in our baby dinghy in the blue bay.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Sporadic clouds peeled shadows off dockhand carts:
We thrilled in trills of gulls and terns above the bay.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

Cool breezes blew our dinghy to coves across the charts;
We sifted winded sails, sipped wine all winsome day.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

The sun tumbled: we tacked for clubs past marts
And feasted on mariners’ tales of a bygone day.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

We reveled in rhythmic peals of mast slapping halyards
And lapping ripples mooring mirrored lights in the bay.
All misted moon long we sailed on with happy hearts.

We were skippers of our dinghy, sporting our parts.
Tack port! No, starboard! Buoy, port side bow! Oy vey!
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts;
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Richard Deets
Dark Land of Light

Andalucia, land of lucid light
Painters dream you
See in your rugged scapes
Al-Andaluz’s moonwashed cities rising from the plains
guarded by keyhole studded fierce yellow walls
Bastions of that glorious heathen past

Dali’s bonebleached deserts

Picasso’s motherland.
We sailed on with Happy Hearts

The Harbor wind’s played on in our hearts
As we bobbed in our baby dinghy in the blue bay.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Sporadic clouds peeled shadows off dockhand carts:
We thrilled in trills of gulls and terns above the bay.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

Cool breezes blew our dinghy to coves across the charts;
We sifted winded sails, sipped wine all winsome day.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

The sun tumbled: we tacked for clubs past marts
And feasted on mariners’ tales of a bygone day.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

We reveled in rhythmic peals of mast slapping halyards
And lapping ripples mooring mirrored lights in the bay.
All misted moon long we sailed on with happy hearts.

We were skippers of our dinghy, sporting our parts.
Tack port! No, starboard! Buoy, port side bow! Oy vey!
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts;
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Richard Deets
Dark Land of Light

Andalucia, land of lucid light
Painters dream you
See in your rugged scapes
Al-Andaluz’s moonwashed cities rising from the plains
guarded by keyhole studded fierce yellow walls
Bastions of that glorious heathen past

Dali’s bonebleached deserts

Picasso’s motherland.
We sailed on with Happy Hearts

The Harbor wind’s played on in our hearts
As we bobbed in our baby dinghy in the blue bay.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Sporadic clouds peeled shadows off dockhand carts:
We thrilled in trills of gulls and terns above the bay.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

Cool breezes blew our dinghy to coves across the charts;
We sifted winded sails, sipped wine all winsome day.
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

The sun tumbled: we tacked for clubs past marts
And feasted on mariners’ tales of a bygone day.
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts.

We reveled in rhythmic peals of mast slapping halyards
And lapping ripples mooring mirrored lights in the bay.
All misted moon long we sailed on with happy hearts.

We were skippers of our dinghy, sporting our parts.
Tack port! No, starboard! Buoy, port side bow! Oy vey!
The harbor wind’s song played on in our hearts;
All sea sun long we sailed on with happy hearts.

Richard Deets
Dark Land of Light

Andalucia, land of lucid light
Painters dream you
See in your rugged scapes
Al-Andaluz’s moonwashed cities rising from the plains
guarded by keyhole studded fierce yellow walls
Bastions of that glorious heathen past

Dali’s bonebleached deserts

Picasso’s motherland.

In the hot velvet night
when sleep is hounded by heat
thick enough to cut
your bittersweet song
drifts from the hill like perfume on the breeze

Echoes of Moorish yesteryears float in flamencos’ mournful wails
Mingle the mullah’s call to prayer
with the sound of tragedy and love
Dark gypsies staccato heels chase rhythms of steel guitars

Brave bulls fight lusty men
whose flaming capes
mock and madden
Till — on their knees —
they take the final cut.
Bloodroses weep in the dust

Your duende seduces
Lovers of death
Drawn to your bloody history
riddled with bullets of freedom
Cold priests extortions
Inquisitors pitiless tools

Yet still you survive
The pains of broken brotherhood
soothed by the scent of or

Kathleen Roberts

Hey Garry your work colleague couldnt take over CC quick enough… I live in Queanbeyan and have refused to eat there for a long time, the food isnt always the best and yes the service is woeful, well woeful is certainly putting it nicely… it certainly could do with more variety and specials board.

There has been a proposal for a bypass for a number of years. Yass Rd essentially continues south (from the intersection of Yass Rd/Kings Hwy), curves around to the east, crosses the river, travels south of Cook’s Estate and connects with Edwin Land Drv in Jerrabomberra, which connects with Lanyon drive and the Monaro Hwy. Unsure what the RTA funding situation on this is though.
http://www.qcc.nsw.gov.au/Documents/FPUMQYABREL.pdf

Well I have been speaking with a work colleague of mine and he is currently negotiating with the owner to buy Central Café, and if everything goes well he plans to be in there by April. He was telling me he plans to give the place a (much needed) facelift and improve the service which in his own words is ‘woeful’. He is even talking about getting permission to put tables and chairs outside (which council would now approve given the article we are talking about) and putting on a daily specials board. He spoke about making the meals more quality while keeping the large servings that CC is famous for. Sounds like an improvement to me.

I think the first step would be to close of the main street and divert traffic through somewhere else (not a lot of alternatives though). No-one wants to be gormandising al fresco with logging trucks roaring past.

As for Queanbeyans image, it seems to suffer the same fate as my previous place of dwelling, Ipswich in QLD. Great advances were made when much of the public housing was sold off to private buyers and many of the rugged and buggered moved to Logan. It still struggles as a working class town, but now fits more into aspirational class as opposed to being the home of the “unemployed and the mongoliod” it used to be.

I have heard on the grapevine there is talk of a side street, off the main street (monaro) being partially blocked off (like pitt st in Sydney) to allow such dining and cafes, but it is only a rumour, I have no hard proof of this.

Well if businesses are prepared to give it a go, councils backing and community support it could very well be acheived and look forward to seeing the outcomes of it all!

I suspect that the heavy traffic down Queanbeyans main street would be a big hand-brake on the development of a streetside cafe culture. Volume of traffic is not the issue (think Lygon Street in Melboure) but the trucks and semis and the like are,but I guess that would need a bypass with all the problems associated with such an approach.

I grew up in Queanbo, and I think that the place has come a long way from what it was in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It still has its undesirables, but it doesn’t have the same level of pretentiousness than a lot of Canberra does. Queanbeyan is very much what you see is what you get – a large country town with attitudes to match. It doesn’t have the highs of Canberra’s best, but neither does it plumb the same depths and Canberra’s worst.

I don’t live in the main part of Queanbo anymore, but I do visit it regularly. It won’t be a classy alfresco type place for a while yet, but it has come a long way in the last 15 years. During the same time, I would say Canberra has probably not improved. Basically, Queanbo has struggled to shed it (well deserved) reputation of being a shithole during the recession 15 years ago.

hmm good point dusty…
but the main street could certainly do with some sort of makeover, its long over due 🙁