Dear Usain Bolt

Good luck with the Mariners, mate. We'd love to have you as a local and Gosford is a lovely town to live in. Whatever happens, best wishes :)

Harbour View in West Gosford

Both Harbour View (left) & the Batley Street tower are nearly finished, 1st September 2018

Harbour View on the left, part of the Batley Street tower on the right side, between them, part of their water views.

The back side of Harbour View, 1st September 2018

Half of Harbour View is still covered in the blue mesh but the other half is so close to being finished we can see landscaping in this photo, little bushes in the external window gardens.

Behind Harbour View is the fenced off area, between two houses, where the workers have been storing materials and other construction things. It will be interesting to see what is constructed on that site, if anything, when Harbour View is all done and dusted.

Men at work up in the westside penthouse, 1st September 2018

Workers hard at it, installing either big picture windows or big sliding doors out onto that nice big balcony. From there, the view will be north-north-west along Peats Ridge Road and on towards the Mangrove Creek Dam and Bucketty, west over the Kariong Ridge and the Glenworth Valley and towards Wisemans Ferry and south down the western side of the Brisbane Water and over the Woy Woy Peninsula and, I think I remember rightly, to the hypnotic nightly flashing of the lighthouse on Barrenjoey Head above Palm Beach. Not too shabby.

Materials lift slowly rising to the penthouses, 1st September 2018

We can see here the blue and white box, behind a tree branch, that it the materials lift slowly rising up its track on the Batley Street side of the site, delivering building and finishing materials as it goes. Behind it, to its right, we can see the steel staircase the workers use. Very good for the legs.

Two helmeted workers hard at it near the materials lift, 1st September 2018

There was no sign of winding up for the day when I left at midday. Perhaps this site works all day on Saturdays. That's hard yakka bit I imagine it's par for the course in building boom times.

The front of Harbour View on Wilhelmina Street, 1st September 2018

There's still lots of blue mesh on the front of the building but, looking up at the top corners, we can see they are rounded and the front of the whole building has a gentle curve to it. We can also see part of the penthouse roof in the centre of the top of the building.

And I've just realised there's no crane on this site any more, so I'll have to do another Crane Count very soon.


 Extra

Gosford from Yattalunga, August 2018

Afternoon sun sparkling on the water off Yattalunga, on the eastern side of the Brisbane Water.

Gosford can be seen between the two yacht masts on the right. And, with none of the cranes visble at this distance, Gosford looks much as it looked before this current building boom started in April 2017.

Donnison Street in West Gosford

Scaff, crane load & gum trees, 1st September 2018

From front to back, scaffolding puter-upperers putting up the next level up at the top of the site, crane load of materials sailing across the middle of the site, and immediately behind the site, gum trees on Presidents Hill.

Residents in this building will get, as well as those lovely trees out of their back windows, views over West Gosford to Brisbane Water. And it's only 10 minutes walk to Gosford Station.

Railings & their wrangler, 1st September 2018

I assume these are balcony railings being wrangled at the bottom of the site. If I'm wrong, gentlemen please let me know in the comments section at the bottom of this post. I like to get things right when I can.

Packing up for the day, 1st September 2018

Packing up for the day, on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The front fence is being put back into place at the bottom of the site, the scaff erectors are still hard at work at the top of the site and the plumber's ute parked at the curb suggests there's a plumber still hard at work too, somewhere on site. No rest for the wicked.


 Extra

Studebaker Silver Hawk at Ocean Beach, Lion Island top left corner, 30th August 2018

The Studebaker Silver Hawk was made from 1957 to 1959. There were also other Hawks: Flight Hawk, Power Hawk, Sky Hawk and Golden Hawk.

I think this model might be the 1959 because the "Silver Hawk" script is on the fin instead of on the boot and "Studebaker" is across the back of the boot in capitals.

The Australian TV series Jack Irish, set in Melbourne, has a Hawk in it, driven by Jack Irish himself.

Lovely red interior & impatient dog, 30th August 2018

This sweet little dog was very keen for his owners to come out of the restaurant and bring him some of their lunch.

If this is your car and I have any of the details wrong, please let me know in the comments at the end of this article.

Aqua in West Gosford

Retaining walls still climbing at Aqua, 1st September 2018

Foundation work needs to be done right so it often seems to go quite slowly. This site, on the corner of St George Street and Wilhelmina West Gosford, is sloping and was full of sandstone so it's a bit of a tricky one.

(But, for big tricky sandstone holes, Harbour View on Wilhelmina Street continues to take the biscuit.)

Super scooper at Aqua, 1st September 2018

Big boys' toy, at rest on a sunny Saturday afternoon.


 Extra

New site in Frederick Street Point Frederick, August 2018

A new site has popped up in Frederick Street in Point Frederick, right on the border with East Gosford.

The new site's views, August 2018

The Frederick Street site has nice views over the northernmost part of the Brisbane Water, over Fagans Bay (the upper strip of water) and across to the trees of Kariong Ridge. How tall this tower is when it's finished will tell us if its residents will be able to see over Kariong Ridge and over the lovely Glenworth Valley.

Singo's tower AKA Bonython Tower



On 16th July 2018, the penthouse was not yet visible

On 16th July 2018, the penthouse was not yet visible but the kids enjoying the ice rink in Kibble Park didn't care.

Look at the size of it now, 18th August 2018

Look at the size of it compared to the little old shops of quiet old Gosford. (British readers should note that by 'old' I mean Gosford was founded by white people in the 1830's. So it's not really very old.)

This has to be the penthouse appearing, 18th August 2018

This narrower part at the top of the residential part of Bonython Tower must be the penthouse and its nice big terrace veranda. What else could it be, right up there? It's too big to be the elevator super-structure. Gentlemen, I'll come and get the answer from you some time over the next week, when my current blizzard of work allows me the leisure.

Penthouse not visible from Paul Lane, 18th August 2018

No, the penthouse is not visible from the William Street end of Paul Lane.

Work goes on inside despite the gusty wind's we've had recently, 18th August 2018



The wind's work & an interior worker just visible, 18th August 2018



I used to be able to get such lovely images of the workers at this site, back when the tower was low enough that I could photograph from the roof carpark of the Imperial Centre. Now I have to stand further and further away and hope I don't get too much camera shake when I zoom right in.

The good news for those who visit this site just to see Gosford grow is that I can still get lovely clear photos of workers on some of the other sites and new sites will be breaking ground for a few years yet.

 Extra

7 cranes visible from the West Gosford lights, 18th August 2018

As I waited at the West Gosford lights, taken on the 18th of August 2018, I could see 7 of Gosford's 14 cranes. 2 of the cranes are only partly visible so finding them all will give you a warm glow of satisfaction. (If the photo won't enlarge on your mobile, you'll be able to see the partial cranes on a home computer.)

From left to right, the cranes are at: Fielder Street (red & white) Kendall Street, Batley Street (red & white) Donnison Street West, Mann Street (Singo's tower) uncertain location and Wilhelmina Street (Harbour View).

I'm going to have to track down that uncertain location on foot on the weekend. I'll put the location in the comments below.

More sites soon.

Topped Out - Part 2

 Batley Street

Batley Street topped out & nearly move-in ready, 27th July 2018

Those sticking out balconies on the right of the building would give you a view of the lovely gums and wattles and casuarinas on Presidents Hill, as well as those great water views too.

Looking west at the Bately Street site, 27th July 2018

Fagans Bay (not Phegans Bay) visible at the left bottom edge of this photo and the crane at the Fielder Street site on the right edge, with the tree-covered Kariong Ridge beyond that.




Batley Street penthouse, 27th July 2018


Batley Street's penthouse has 360 degree views of the water, over the southern part of Gosford and, from its back windows, of the nice restful trees on Presidents Hill.

 Harbour View in Wilhelmina Street

Sunny winter's day at the corner of Wilhelmina & Batley Streets, 27th July 2018

It all looks quiet on a sunny winter's day.




Lots going on inside at Wilhelmina Street, 27th July 2018

But I could hear them going at it hammer and tongs all over the site, behind that mysterious blue mesh.

 Extra


Old "roach back" fire truck at Kibble Park, 14th July 2018

An old "roach back" fire truck at Kibble Park, during the winter festival last month. The adults loved it as much as the kids did.




Gear storage lockers along the outside, 14th July 2018

Lockers down the sides where they used to keep the hoses and other fire-fighting gear.

The back of the roach back shows you why it's called a roach back, 14th July 2018

Why it's called a "roach back". It looks remarkably like a cockroach from this angle.


More building sites and extras very soon.

Crane Count (August 2018)

Crane Count - 13th August 2018

14 cranes counted on the 13th of August 2018. Last count was 15 on the 14th of April 2018.

 
GREEN DOT - site is 100% finished
BLUE DOT - site is not yet finished, some in blue are topped out
RED CIRCLE - site not previously included on Crane Count maps

Look at the map on your computer at home to read the street names and building names attached to the big blue (and one green) dots.

 
From top to bottom & left to right:
 
Tiny houses - small green dot & its line to left, corner Showground & Racecourse Roads, topped out & inhabitants moved in end of June/early July, never had a crane but included as a sharp contrast to all the towers going up

Range Road & Ormond Street - 2 small blue dots, top right corner, finished sizes as yet unknown, fishing pole style cranes (if there's another name for those cranes I'd love to know in the comments section below)

'Golf Heights' at Racecourse Road - small blue dot below green dotted golf club, back of the hospital, 10 mins walk from station, a few still unsold, as yet no crane

Beane Street West - biggest dot & smaller dot below, a hospital site, going gangbusters now that massive grading & foundation laying work is over, one big red & white crane
 
Corner of Beane St East & Hills Street - to right of hospital dots, grey crane, some trouble with powerlines too close a few months ago but work seems to have resumed (will get back there to you soon, gentlemen)

Faunce Street West & Hargraves Street - to left of black dot, yellow crane at Faunce West & 2 cranes now on Hargraves St site, both sites sloping with Hargraves Street being one of the steepest sites in Gosford & Faunce St West now having its 1st pour down

Fielder Street - red circle & red & white & blue crane, Fielder Street is hidden away opposite the Settlers' tavern on Hely Street West Gosford, the workers on Bately Street & 'Harbour View' can see it from their sites by looking west from upper floors, ground was broken on this site about 2 months ago & pouring started while I had the flu, going gangbusters there gentlemen

Batley Street - below Presidents Hill, on left, upper dot, red & white & blue crane & site now topped out with interior work continuing

'Harbour View' - below Presidents Hill, on left, lower dot, Wilhelmina Street, yellow crane & topped out with exterior & interior work continuing

'Acqua' - red circle to the right of & below 'Harbour View', on the corner of Wilhelmina & St George Streets, another hill site, broke ground only about a month ago & foundation work going gangbusters, good work gentlemen, as yet no crane
 
Donnison Street West - on the edge of Presidents Hill, to the right, yellow crane, an extra few storeys being added to get those lovely views down the length of the Brisbane Water to Woy Woy & Pittwater

'Bonython Tower' AKA Singo's tower - right of Presidents Hill & vertical black line, big yellow crane, the most significant site in Gosford to date as it towers over the main street (the vertical black line) I think I've missed you topping out gentlemen, though I saw the big white pouring arm in action just last week, I'll make time to come & ask this week, congratulations if I missed top out

32 Mann Street AKA the finance building - below 'Bonython Tower' & beside the vertical black line, yellow crane & now topped out (congratulations gentlemen) with exterior & interior work continuing & a super-structure on the road still being worked on Monday 13th August 2018

'Pinnacle' - red circle opposite 32 Mann Street & behind the old Telstra & Post Office buildings, viewable from Henry Parry drive, as yet no crane

Golden cage - red circle, a large site between Henry Parry Drive & John Whiteway Drive near Broadway Avenue, cleared around 10 years ago & the cage of poured concrete pillars put in to prevent the golden sandstone hillside from falling into the site then nothing happened & now, just a month ago, it suddenly became active again & is going ahead well

Topped out tower - red circle, no crane now, another tricky site to photograph as Henry Parry Drive is both a busy road & a road that's all blind corners & so a clear & present danger to photographers trying to cross the road for a closer view, topped out (congratulations gentlemen) while I had the flu, with only interior & landscaping left to do

Lynn Avenue - small blue dot near the bottom of the map, to the right of Gosford Yacht Club, yellow crane, congratulations to you too gentlemen as you too are topped out, with exterior & interior work continuing


Okay, that's it for this Crane Count. If I've left anything out, or you have anything to add or to ask, click on the comments thingy below.

More photos very soon.

Excuses excuses

Dear reader, a nasty data loss and paid work are currently inferring with the fun of taking and uploading photos and words to this website.

I'll be back in a week or two. Hopefully a week.

Meanwhile, congratulations to those other sites who have topped out but whose photos are not yet on this website.

Topped out

 32 Mann Street

32 Mann Street site, 18th July 2018

The finance building at 32 Mann Street has topped out. Congratulations, gentlemen!

The site sits on part of the old primary school site, which we can more of here, and the materials and equipment are still stacked up there as finishing work goes on at the site.

Just for pretty. The goods lift silhouetted against the sky on a cold winter Wednesday.


 Lynne Avenue

Lynn Avenue's second site, the Central Real one, has topped out. Congratulations, gentlemen!

There is another Central Real site immediately behind this one and another immediately behind that one, on the corner of Albany Street and Duke Street Point Frederick. So there's plenty more work for all concerned.
 

 In this photo we can see the top floors at Lynn Avenue will have bigger balconies than those below. But all will be just 30 seconds strolling distance to the yacht club and the Gosford foreshore and a nice bit of exercise, 20 minutes' walk, to Gosford main street.


 Tiny houses

This is Bluey is the front-most of the tiny houses, on the 21st of July 2018.

The tiny houses topped out about a month ago and their residents moved in before the really freezing overnight temperatures came.

Congratulations, students, and congratulations, residents of these delightful tiny houses! These are Gosford's first tiny houses and it will be interesting to see if they are the last or if more are to come.

Mellow Yellow here is another of the 4 tiny houses. The other 2 are Lovely Lilac and Dove Grey. The 5th building on the site is the communal laundry. See here for clearer photos than the nice paling fence now allows.


 Extra

From what I can make out, this old railway water tank at Gosford station dates back to the days of steam. The steam trains started coming through Gosford, doing the Sydney to Newcastle run, in 1887 and steam is made from water, hence the need for water tanks so trains could refill at various points along the line.

According to Wikipedia "the water crane...is used occasionally by passing steam locomotives". Now they mention it, I recently saw the steam locomotive 3801 chuffing up the line towards Gosford.

Train spotters and railway workers, feel free to chime in in the comments box if I've got something wrong or you'd like to add some nice Sydney-Newcastle line info.

The same applies to all building site owners, managers, workers, apartment buyers and tiny house residents.

Hopefully next week's post will be on the day I say it will be but don't put your shirt on it!

Singo's tower AKA Bonython Tower

Towering over the Winter In The Park festival, 16th July 2018

It's cold enough for Kibble Park, in the green heart of Gosford, to host an ice rink and cold enough that our local building sites workers have to scrape ice off their windscreens to drive to work. And that's why I come late with my camera in winter!

Bonython Tower from Gosford railway station, 3rd July 2018

From the railway station, on the 3rd of July 2018, we can see the Bonython Tower is higher than the ridge behind it, Rumbalara Reserve. What a difference all these towers will make to our little valley town!

Singo's tower towering over Mann Street, 16th July 2018

As you walk along Mann Street, the main street of Gosford, you need to dodge the people just stopped staring up at the tower and speculating about when it will be finished and the scaffolding off, who's going to live there, how many more towers there will be and so on. Locals wonder, Sydneysiders up for a holiday wonder, foreign and interstate tourists wonder.

And I wonder how many or how few years it will be before there are no more of the little old 2-storey shopfronts along Mann Street and in the other dozen streets that make up downtown Gosford. Because Gosford is so physiclly small a town, squashed into the narrow mouth of the Narara Valley, the change in the look and feel of it will be enormous.

Exterior finishes in Paul Lane, 16th July 2018

Down in Paul Lane, at the back of the site, exterior work is finished on the residents' carpark level while it still goes on inside the loading bay on the office level and workers are still hard at it on the ground floor's restaurant level, in the cold afternoon shade.

Close to topping out, 16th July 2018

One whole worker and another worker's head, just visible through the blue safety mesh, right up at the top of the site on a cold breezy winter's afternoon. Topping out is very close now. I hope I'm there with my camera when it happens.

More sites coming later this week.


 Extra

Donnison Street overpass upgraded, taken 3rd July 2018

And it's not just new buildings towering over us. With the increase in population and the massive increase in building site trucks on Gosford's roads, there's been a lot of road upgrading going on too.

This particular upgrade and its workers were rained on almost non-stop and in winter too. Brrr.

From what I can make out, this overpass hadn't been upgraded since the 1970's. It was starting to show its age, as all things do, and the upgrade widened the pavement to take more traffic, added the railing to keep pedestrians safer and upgraded the road. Road workers, if I've left any upgrades etc. out, feel free to add them to the comments box. I always welcome more and better info.

On a purely personal note, I always appreciate road workers out there doing there job in all weathers and in the face of abuse from some members of the public. I know how well our roads in Australia are maintained compared to some parts of the work. There are some places in this world where the main streets of towns the size and busyness of Gosford are dust in summer and mud in winter.

So thank you, road workers and bridge builders. And thank you all workers who keep our streets and houses and businesses lit and supplied with electricity, thank you all workers who keep clean water flowing into our homes and businesses, thank you to all workers who keep our toilets and gutters functioning and, last but hardly least, thank you to those streeet sweepers I see on Gosford's streets sweeping up the discarded and windblown lolly wrappers and cigarette butts and worse things in our gutters and on our footpaths.

If I've left out any group of workers who daily keep Gosford's and the rest of Australia's streets and buildings functioning, forgive me and feel free to mention your group in the comments box at the end of this post.

Atlantis & the silent site

 Atlantis

Atlantis site in Ettalong, 12th July 2018

The Atlantis resort at Ettalong, looking south at Sydney's Barrenjoey Head lighthouse and right opposite the beach on Ocean View Road.

This site was begun last year and now looks the right height that topping out will come very soon.

Atlantis site in Ettalong, 12th July 2018

Atlantis basking in a winter afternoon's sun. Work was going great guns. The access to this site is the old laneway running from the back corner of the site (left in photo) through to near the fresh fish kiosk beside the roundabout (traffic circle).


 Silent site

Beane Street East site silent again, 12th July 2018

I got to Gosford's Beane Street East site just after three yesterday and it was as silent as the grave again. True, it's higher than it was last time I snapped it (April 2018) but three on a sunny winter afternoon is a time when a site is usually busy so I'm not sure what's going on now.

Beane Street East site on a dark 3rd July 2018

As we can see, the same site was crawling with busy workers on the 3rd of July 2018, a dark damp winter's day.

Beane Street East site silent again, 12th July 2018

Yesterday (12th July 2018) the crane was still, the site was silent and the gate was shut.

Powerlines vanished, 12th July 2018

As for the problem in April of the powerlines being close enough to the site to light up the workers, that's clearly been solved by simply taking the powerlines away.


 Extra

Morris ute on Blackwall Road Woy Woy, 12th July 2018

Lovely old Morris ute, seen opposite Woy Woy police station on the 12th of July 2018. The front is old Morrie but the ute back, and that little modern window, look like a recent modification.

Singo workers, I'll be back to your site very soon and, Lynne Avenue, to you too. You're both either topping out now or I've just missed your topping out.