Facile, Free and Future Friendly

 Tonight I am speaking with members of The Society for Australian Genealogists One Place Focus Group about the CareyBay2283 study. I was going to prepare a Powerpoint presentation but, on reflection, decided to record my thoughts in a blog post.

Once I made the decision to go ahead with a study I needed to make decisions about the tools I would use to Collect, Discover, Record, Organise, Share and Preserve my findings. As is my usual practice I used the Research Process (kindly drawn up for me by ChatGPT) to seek out appropriate tools.

I wanted a platform that was :

Facile - easily accomplished

Free – accessible to all interested parties

Future Friendly  – likely to outlast the author

I decided on four core tools:

Blogger           website and blogging

FindaGrave    virtual cemetery

RootsMagic    working database of people and places 

WikiTree        verified  open access  database

To support my goals I use several other tools :

ACDSee                        file management

Bluesky                        communication and promotion

ChatGPT                     clerical tasks, editing, image creation

Excel/Google Sheets   organisation, tracking, data manipulation

Facebook                    communication and promotion

Internet Archive         preservation

Resource Folder         file repository

During the session I will further explain how the tools above work together and separately in each stage of the research process.

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Other studies using Blogging Platforms as a home for their studies:

Aldbourne, Wiltshire                          aldbournearchive.wordpress.com/

Murphys Creek, Queensland              http://cassmob.wordpress.com/

Pately Bridge, Yorkshire                    https://pateleybridgeops.wordpress.com/

The Rank, North Bradley, Wiltshire  https://theranknorthbradley.com/

Sorrell, Tasmania                               https://sorell200.edublogs.org/

Stockton, NSW                                  https://stocktonnsw.blogspot.com/

 

Carey Bay in 2021 – Where We Lived

As an addendum to my post Dealing with Dwellings I am adding a report from the 2021 Census of Australia. Having recently completed the 2026 Census for our household I decided to delve further into the 2021 Census. I look forward to comparing those results when they become available. 

From the page at  https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/SAL10811 I was able to download a report that contained a list of spreadsheets that related to the various questions in the Census. 

I opened G36 which detailed the results relating to DWELLING STRUCTURE in 2021. A screenshot of that report can be found at the end of this post.

As I am presently dabbling with AI I asked ChatGPT to "From the attached spreadsheet would you please write a summary of the data in friendly but correct language for a blog post on the CareyBay2283 blog that is endeavouring to preserve the history of the local people and places. Please only use the data in the attached which comes from 2021 census of Australia. https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/SAL10811."

It's a bit wordy but here is what ChatGPT delivered:

Carey Bay in 2021 – Where We Lived

The 2021 Census gives us an interesting little snapshot of the homes and households of Carey Bay.

The Census recorded 387 occupied private dwellings, with 819 people living in them. There were also 31 unoccupied private dwellings, giving a total of 425 private dwellings recorded in the table.

By far the most common type of home was the separate house. There were 266 separate houses, accommodating 634 people. That's almost 69% of all occupied dwellings and tells us that the traditional standalone house was very much the dominant form of housing in Carey Bay in 2021.

There were also 62 semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses and similar dwellings. Of these, 29 were one-storey and 35 had two or more storeys. Together, these homes accommodated 110 people.

Apartments and flats were less common. The Census recorded 39 flats or apartments, all in one- or two-storey blocks. These were home to 51 people. There were no flats recorded in three-storey, four-to-eight-storey or nine-or-more-storey blocks, and none were recorded as being attached to a house.

Then there were the homes that don't fit quite so neatly into the usual categories. The Census recorded 26 "other dwellings", including 5 caravans and 17 cabins or houseboats. A further 4 people lived in houses or flats attached to a shop, office or similar premises. No improvised homes, tents or sleepers-out were recorded.

So, what does this tell us about Carey Bay?

In 2021, Carey Bay was predominantly a community of traditional separate houses, but there was also a small and interesting mix of other types of homes – including cabins, houseboats and caravans. Those figures give us a glimpse not only of the people who lived here, but of the different ways Carey Bay's residents made their homes in this lakeside community.

Statistics can sometimes seem rather dry, but behind every number is a home – and behind every home are people, families and stories. This is a small snapshot of Carey Bay as it was in 2021, providing another piece of the local history we can preserve for the future.

Source: 2021 Australian Census, Carey Bay (SAL10811), G36 Dwelling Structure. The figures above are taken from the supplied Census extract. Australian Bureau of Statistics – 2021 Carey Bay Census Community Profile

Spring is just around the corner

Today was a glorious sunny winter Sunday morning in Carey Bay. Spring is only two hours away.

From my balcony I could spy crafts of all shapes and sizes enjoying the mild conditions. There were 

early morning kayakers and people getting ready for a spot of fishing. to the competitive afternoon sailors. 

The afternoon brought out competitive sailors with their support boat keeping a watchful eye on proceedings.

Late of Carey Bay

Feeling the love for volunteers at The Ryerson Index today. Recently members of Lake Macquarie Family History Group Inc. scanned death and funeral notices from the Newcastle Morning Herald, and other volunteers indexed them.

My earlier searches of Ryerson for Carey Bay had returned a few results from out of area newspapers. With the addition entries from a local newspaper, the Newcastle Morning Herald, to the database I was hoping for better results from a new search.

My expectations were exceeded. Yesterday I revisited the Index and found 1248 entries that included "Late of Carey Bay" or something similar. I noted that there are an additional 40 entries for the alternate spelling of Cary Bay.

Numbers from my initial "Carey Bay" search

I started by checking the 310 entries up to the year 2000. Around half of these are newly identified residents for my One Place Study that I hadn't found in other records. This is probably due to the fact that Carey Bay also known earlier as Cary Bay,  was previously a locality in Toronto until it was gazetted as "Carey Bay" on 31 May 1991 when the boundaries were determined. Electoral Rolls and several other records show these people as living in Toronto.

A selection of entries from the Ryerson Index giving sources for the information

I have plenty to keep me busy as I further explore these individuals and follow up on the 900+ entries I have yet to examine.

New Resource

Following on a post from Tim Sherratt on BlueSky I visited his GLAM Workbench that I had not consulted for this CareyBay2283 study. 

Searching his interface to the NSW Post Office Directories for both Cary Bay and Carey Bay was a simple task that painlessly rewarded me with a list of reference to Carey Bay people. From there I was able to follow some link to see the original directory pages that are digitised on Trove. 

Wise's New South Wales post office directory 1938
Listed on Page 788 are several Carey Bay residents

The GLAM Workbench is a most valuable resource for anyone pursuing a One-Place or One-Name study in Australia

Education

There being no schools in Carey Bay local children need to travel to adjacent suburbs or beyond for primary and secondary education.

Preschool children are catered for at two preschools, Carey Bay Preschool, and Crocodile Kids.

Coal Point Public School "Coal Point Public School is a Kindergarten to Year 6, Comprehensive, Coed Primary School in Coal Point." The school has just celebrated its 70th Anniversary.

St Joseph's Primary School, Kilaben Bay, is "a unique school community catering for students from Kindergarten to 6 in the Toronto district and surrounding suburbs." The school moved to Kilaben Bay in 1984.

The next closest Primary Schools are Toronto Adventist School and Toronto Public School.

Public secondary education is available at Toronto High School. Close by are St Paul's Catholic College at Booragul and  Charlton Christian College (K-12) at Fassifern which are fee-paying religious schools. 

Several students travel further afield to attend a range of private or selctive schools in the Lake Macquarie and Newcastle areas.

Serenity on Sunday

26 April 2026