Roof Stowaway Set For Flood Of Auction Interest

Newcastle Herald

Friday June 8, 2007

By IAN KIRKWOOD

AUCTIONEER and antique specialist Sid Brown has seen a lot of garages and back sheds in his time.

Lots of them are full of rubbish, but the occasional bits of gold in the middle of all that accumulated junk keep dealers like him on the eternal lookout.

Like the clinker-built red cedar "flood boat" retrieved from the rafters of a garage of an old house in Mayfield.

"It's museum quality, this one," Mr Brown said.

"I'd call it a Maitland flood boat, and it was up so high in the roof that we had to take the gable off the front of the garage to get it out.

"I'd say it's quite possibly the best of its kind to ever come onto the market."

The boat is lot 550 of more than 600 lots in an annual colonial antique auction run by Mr Brown's firm Swan Murray and Hain at Tocal Agricultural College.

The Tocal sale is one of the key dates on the Australian antiques calendar and a glance at the catalogue shows that the boat is not the only unpolished gem Mr Brown has uncovered in his recent travels.

Lot 566, a large cast-iron veranda post, is reputed to come from Duckenfield Park House, a 45-room mansion built in 1852 by powerful land owner, John Eales.

All but one wing of the house was demolished about the time the Newcastle steelworks were built, and much of the stone was shipped downriver to build the BHP pattern store and three Mayfield cottages.

Lot 490 is a rare half-canopy rickshaw with sulky wheels, in original condition.

Viewing is from 11am to 6.30pm tomorrow, with the auction to start at 9.30am on Sunday.

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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