Boatshed Histories

Red Box and Pickled Octopus Cafes

The photo below taken in 1938 shows four sheds, From left to right:

1. The boatshed, home and garage of Mr Aileff. The Aileffs had a service station in Goulburn and moved to the coast The big garage fronted the laneway at the top of the block with large double doors. The garage contained their drop pit toilet. To the right of these doors stood a paling fence that fronted the three other boatshed blocks.

2. To the right of Aileff's house is a shed owned by Royd.

3. The next two sheds on the right hand side were owned by Eric Baulch. Overthe following years Eric established a boat hire business however lost his boast during the war when all the hire and private boats were hidden for the war years in channels up the river where they rotted.

. Winton bought the house and then Royd's shed. he was a fisherman and sold fish and prawns he caught from a small building he constructed in the area that was the old garage. adjacent to this shop (now the cafe kitchen) he had his large freezer which is not the top outside concreted area of the Red Box Cafe.

Winton sold to Ron Valentine who owned the Tern Inn at the time. Ron used the coolroom for his milk run and had his son living in the house. After selling the Tern Inn and the milkrun Ron and Phyliss settled into the home and began preparing fish and chips from the small top building. They were the first to offer any food in the boatshed bay.

Though not officially allowed Ron continued to sell fish and chips and was one day given the "go ahead" to keep on with his business by a council building inspector. The permission had been given correctly or otherwise and from this the gates opened for others to follow.

Meanwhile the two sheds next door owned by Baulch sold to Tony and Laurel Mackenzie. The white one to the right fell over with the push of a hammer and the other remained on the double block until it was sold to Lynch in 1995.

The Lyches constructed the new two story besser and cladding building and opened it as the
Lakeview Cafe serving coffee and takeaways

Lynch built the first evolution of the building with it's small verandah overlooking the lake. The Fergusons then bought the property in 1997 and extended the upper and lower decks and closing in the verandah to make it weather proof.

1938 from the North looking at the Red Box boat shed

Red Box 2008

Pickled Octopus 2008