Morning Bay Pittwater - History

15/08/2021

The Cottage at Cove Lee after it was renovated and extended. An extra bedroom and bathroom 🙂 were added on the southern side. We still cooked on the fuel stove however we enjoyed electric lighting and tank water! I do recall my mother bravely preparing Christmas Dinner one year including plum pudding on the fuel stove.

15/08/2021

Early days at Cove Lee and my parents, Morea and Alan Grosvenor, enjoying tea on the verandah of the Cottage.

15/08/2021

My mother Morea Grosvenor standing on the verandah of the Cottage for the first time.

15/08/2021

This photo was taken the day we first inspected the property in 1962. My parents Alan and Morea Grosvenor are to the rear and my grandmother Doris Willis is in the foreground. You couldn't see me as the sword grass was taller than I was at the time! Originally the fibro and iron Cottage had two bedrooms, a living room and dining room and a side veranda with an old dinghy leaning against the veranda post. The kitchen was a lean-to at the rear where there was a small fuel stove and a copper for heating water for an old tin bath. The one and only water tank had been vandalised. There was no electricity, and lighting was via kerosene lamps. There was a kerosene fridge in the dining room. I recall lots of Austrian chairs. It was a great adventure from start to finish!

15/08/2021

This was the view from the cottage at Cove Lee around 1962 before the jetty was built. The moored boat is Morea Louise, Alan Grosvenor's Diamond Class Yacht.

15/08/2021

15/08/2021

This was my childhood cubby house at Towler Bay in the 1960's.

07/03/2021

Towler Bay (Morning Bay) shortly after the bushfire in November 1965. The Western Shores of Pittwater was black with smoke all day as I looked out the classroom window from Loquat Valley School. We were building the house at the time and had a team of Dutch carpenters working on the roof trusses. They saw the fire, were terrified, and hid in the boatshed for the day. My father (Alan Grosvenor) was left to water the new house and the old house by himself. The fire swept through in less than 30 minutes taking everything in its path. Wallabies were jumping into the water and drowning. It was terrible. I clearly recall coming home from school in my uniform. Jumping into the water up to my waist and grabbing a bucket to save our neighbour's house (the Hannen's) as the fire licked at the side of it.