A Rockin' good time on Sunday

MD told me to "get yourself tarted up and I'll take you out"  ... lol, just love it when he talks smarty ;D)

Anyway, off we toodled back down to Lakes Entrance - yes, Lakes again!!  We love the place, there's always something happening.

This time it was the Seafarers' Multicultural Festival and 'Such Fun' (thanks Vicki)  it was.

Just some of the highlights were, beer food and wine tastings, reminiscences from old sailors and lots of memorabilia,  a huge market, Koori art exhibition, photographic exhibition and even a replica of a 15th century Portugese Wooden Sailing Ship.

We went over to check it out.  A small jetty, so a bit hard to take the shots I wanted.

Oh yes, it was "old" all right, see, even cobwebs on the little windows/portholes!

Loved the lines of the ship, so kept on snapping

All of a sudden, we heard music - getting closer by the minute.  Good, solid rock n roll too.
This is where it came from..... Bernie's Floating Shed.

Wow, we were thrilled.  We knew it came to life at various festivals around the area but this was the first time we'd experienced The Shed,,, and only a couple of metres away!

The Shed put-putted around the sailing ship and found a spot to moor - then the rockin' fun began.
Oh, all the classics.... 

I took lots of videos and photos.  Note the tomato sauce bottle which doubled for maraccas!

These guys were great and gave a fabulous show.

There was literally dancing in the street... 

Had to take this shot too.  This little doggie wasn't the slightest bit interested... had his eye on the fish and chips picnic a bit further along on the grass!

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Thought I'd include a bit of info as to how Bernie's Floating Shed came into being.  It's quite interesting, have a read when you've the time.  Cheers!

[Photo Source: Destination Gippsland]

 Bernie Ryan didn’t want his new shed to be like the conventional one in his backyard, filled with all the usual stuff. What was needed, he decided, was something totally different, something that might cheer up his fellow citizens in Paynesville who had been enduring floods, blue-green algae and other natural disasters. “The floods gave me the idea,” Bernie recalls. “Some of the streets were under water – how about a shed that could go up and down them and put on a show?”

And so, back in 2007, the floating shed Mk I was born. But it had only just gone through the launch ceremony when authority, in the guise of the local water police, advised him to smarten up his act and get the thing registered. “After that I set to and built a better one – one with a real purpose in life. And it’s perfectly legal.”

The shed is usually moored on McMillans Strait, directly opposite the waterfront home of Bernie and Ruth Ryan, itself a highly unusual four-level structure built by retired civil engineer Bernie with help from some of his mates. “He’s a man who thinks outside the square,” confides Ruth.  “When other people might ask why, he asks why not?  Things get done, and we get a lot of fun that way.”

The shed has some cunning features such as a veranda, lawn, steering wheel and the rear end of a DeSoto car sticking out of one side. The shed even boasts a secondary structure – a dinkum dunny floating astern which with a bit of encouragement can be persuaded to explode in a cloud of smoke, courtesy of Bernie’s smoke machine, with sound effects provided through the agency of his bird-scare gun. Australia Day 2009 introduced the rustic vessel, cobbled together from scrap materials, to a crowd of gobsmacked onlookers. The shed is also a floating bandstand, usually manned by the Ryans’ favourite group, The Nudgels, and is a familiar sight at events such as the Paynesville hot road show and the local music festival.

Weighing in at an impressive three tonnes, the rustic shed is cleverly designed to come to bits and fold flat on a trailer. Towed behind Bernie’s 4WD, it becomes one the world’s few amphibious sheds. “We caused a bit of a stir at last year’s Hobart Wooden Boat Festival,” says Ruth.  “The people down there didn’t know what to make of us when we rolled the trailer off and started putting the tin shed together.  But they must have liked us – we’ve been invited back next year.” 

 [Story Source:  Paul Edwards, Featured in Royal Auto Magazine Dec 2012/Jan 2013 edition ]