The Maple Syrup Refinery

"Whilst en route to Australia, the Maple Syrup contained in the ez-Hearst Oak barrel, slung under the fuselage of the "Granny" plane became habitually affected by exposure to the upper atmosphere and subtropical conditions. This resulted in a subsequent loss of quality and required further refinement... thus the building of the Maple Syrup Refining Plant.

The Pancake Parlour was fortunate to obtain, as part of the "War Reparations of 1919 Treaty of Versailles Page 112, an ex-Australian Light Horse Water Filtration Plant, last used in Beersheba in 1917.

The Filtration Plant, colourfully enough, had been captured by the German Army and was prized for its efficiency and "bush simplicity".

The Maple Syrup, direct from the barrel, passes through a series of complex filters and purifiers, each one more effective than the last, but invariably using the same technology that saw Stephenson apply steam so creatively, until the precious golden-brown liquid, as pure as it was when it was gathered from the glorious Maple trees of Vermont, arrives to provide the perfect accompaniment to the Splendid Pancake."

The Maple Syrup Refining Plant

Peter Von then went straight into building ‘The Maple Syrup Refining Plant’ for Forest Hill to accompany the Granny Plane. You see, Granny painstakingly brings the maple syrup from the US, but it’s not quite to Pancake Parlour standards so it’s further refined by this ‘phantasmagoric’ contraption.

Virtually everything on this device at some time had another use; the old brass bath heater from the 1940’s mysteriously matching a copper boiler exactly (but found in two separate scrap yards!), a rejected acrylic dome over a copper pan in which mock maple syrup quietly steams away, a ships propeller stirring all the time under which sits an upturned copper tray from an old hot water service. The two are separated by a marvellous large copper coil and another dented old copper full of coke completes the end. In the middle, to the right, the highly coloured contraption on legs, trimmed with the obligatory brass gauges ‘the syrup’ is a genuine piece of Australian history.

Apparently it is a water purifying device once used by the Australian Army in the Western dessert and taken there in WW2. Peter Von teamed it with some ancient plumbing ‘s’ bends, parts of a jet engine and some flexible copper coil, all in the name of art. With a crooked acrylic dome steaming attractively, you’d almost nearly just about think it was real, and some people actually do! (or so we are told).

Forest Hill was the likely place to try out an idea that each restaurant should have an individual set of chess chairs. Peter Von found some used aluminium scaffold tubing of a big generous size, had it rolled by the local car exhaust system shop into big circles and re-welded. Tom the upholstering genius, fresh from his success with the Granny plane, deep buttoned the mock leather seats. Peter Von polished the scrap aluminium electrical cable guide brackets mounted with signature brass gauges and mounted the gilded cast iron and matching tractor seats with car gilded springs as decoration. Easy when you know how, but time consuming!