Today's pages

In no particular order:

Ocean View Road (with a map & a beach photo too)

Kendall Street (another fast moving building site)

Singo's Bonython Tower (speedy)


If you're in New South Wales, have a good long weekend. If you're elsewhere, have a good weekend. If you're in North Korea or the Whitehouse, good luck. If you're in Bali, I hope it hurries up and erupts so everyone can get on with the clean-up and get back to normal as quickly as possible.

See you next week with more changes to this lovely little town we call Gosford.

Bonython Tower AKA Singo’s tower

September 2017

There are now boards of some sort on top of the timber beams on top of the scaffolding at the Mann Street end of the site. The first and second floors are to be offices and the third floor is to be a carpark for residents of the apartments above.

(American readers, what you call the “first floor” we call the ground floor so when this website refers to the first floor, you should read that as the “second floor”. Many of the lifts (elevators) installed in Australia were made in America and have the American floor names and so no ground floor so we have to do the conversion often.)

Elsewhere on the site, we can see three green bins, one half hidden under the scaffolding, and one white bin and one big black one in the foreground, plus more than a dozen neat stacks of building components.

Concreting complete, September 2017

And on the ground floor (“first floor”) we can see that the concreting is complete. Complete everywhere except the loading dock at the bottom of the photo, which is the back of the site, where the access lane is and the trucks come to deliver more materials to the site.

Loading dock wall complete, September 2017

We can see the loading dock wall stretching from one side of the site to the other now. Last week photos (click here) showed that little dog-leg section of the loading dock wall had not been built. That was due to the earthmoving machines still being at work where the concreting is now.

I don’t think the loading dock will be completed for quite some time. As we can see, it’s currently in use as a sort of storage area for the big black bin, the yellow lifting cage, the big white bin, the three groups of white weight bags, a green shipping container (bottom right corner of photo) and various other bits and pieces.

It won’t be needed as a loading dock until the ground floor restaurant is open for business or the office suites or apartments need furnishings delivered. Though, if this building site keeps up the cracking pace it’s set so far, that won’t be too long at all.

After knock-off, September 2017

A lone supervisor wandering the site, after the day has ended, checking and inspecting ahead of the next day’s work.


 Extra

View of Gosford on a recent hazy day, September 2017

 The cranes of the Kendall Street and the Singo site on Mann Street are just visible through the haze of a recent day in September. The weather this month has made capturing views of the cranes quite tricky.


Come back next week for more changes in this lovely little town I live in. Or sign up for email updates in the sidebar --->

Kendall Street

Breaking up a sandstone wall, September 2017

Breaking up the sandstone wall along the north side of the site.

 

Breaking up a sandstone wall, September 2017

Broken up sandstone falling to the base of the wall in small boulders. Are there more poured concrete stabilising pillars behind the sandstone being broken up?

Poured & set concrete, September 2017

Some of the concrete for the carpark has been poured and has set. The apartments will be built on top of the carpark.

Carpark under construction, September 2017

Here we can see that the level of the set concrete is below the level of the front of the building site itself. On this upward sloping site, that must not have taken too much digging out to achieve.

The hill rising up behind (and through) this site is Presidents Hill, on the west side of the town of Gosford. The trees on it are mostly gum trees.

Behind the bottom part of the yellow crane on the left of this photo, we can see small houses of the same type and age that were demolished to clear this site for its apartment tower.


Come back next week for more changes in this lovely little town I live in. Or sign up for email updates in the sidebar --->

Ocean View Road

A view through a gap in the hoardings, September 2017

A view of the site’s progress through a small gap in the hoardings around the site. We can see a poured and set concrete floor, at street level, and scaffolding and timber beams supporting the first floor, however far along the first floor is.

Other than the hoardings and the towering crane lifting fresh materials into the site, there’s nothing to be seen of what’s going on on this building site. It will have to rise up to the level of its second floor before we can see it. This is a real mystery site.

Ocean View Road site from afar, September 2017

From The Esplanade, all that’s visible of the Ocean View Road site is its crane and how high over Ettalong that crane towers. The hill in the background is Blackwall Mountain.

The big white building is, at the moment, the biggest and tallest building in Ettalong. The red roofed building to the right of the crane is the second biggest and tallest building in Ettalong, at the moment.

Where is Ettalong in relation to Gosford? September 2017

Ettalong is 20 – 25 minutes drive from Gosford. It’s on the shores of Brisbane Water, as is Gosford.

That blue dot just below the word Ettalong is the building site.

Ettalong is on the shores of Brisbane Water and not far from Gosford itself. It's within the old Gosford City Council area and a short ferry ride from Palm Beach and Barrenjoey Head. Palm Beach and Barrenjoey Head are on the northern beaches of Sydney and the Barrenjoey Head lighthouse shines at night. You can see it shining and turning from the beach carpark at the southern end, the Sydney end, of Trafalgar Avenue.

When this building site is finished, it will be 4 or 5 storeys tall and will have views straight down south, across the water, from Ettalong Beach to Lion Island and Pittwater. Palm Beach and Barrenjoey Head are at the northern end of Pittwater.


 Extra

Dusk at Ettalong 2017

On the horizon, on the left, we can see Box Head, after which the Box Head surf company was named. On the right, we can see Barrenjoey Head and, very faintly, the lighthouse on it. The fainter bit of land, to the left of Barrenjoey Head, looks to me like Bangalley Head in the Sydney suburb of Avalon Beach.


Come back next week for more more changes in Gosford and its lovely surrounds. Or pop your email address into the updates form in the sidebar --->