The bulldozer returneth. The local rag reports that bulldozing of the dune vegetation at Ettalong is going ahead after all. The vegetation is right in front of The Excrescence and when it's gone it will push up the price on those rooms they're always trying to flog on their middle floors. (The Excresence is the over-sized white building below).
I am bloody annoyed about the dunes being menaced. However, the bulldozer may do its worst on this fugly block of seventies toilets at the end of the dunes. They are used by no-one by the drunk and the desperate.
Locals, the loos are at the end of Picnic Parade, down beside the pub and barely 5 yards from this lovely bungalow.
The vegetation causing all the angst.
The white blob on the right behind the dunes is The Excrescence. Its view is partly obscured by the vegetation. The red brick building is in fact the purple and orange motel on The Esplanade. Its view is almost entirely blocked by the vegetation.
Native plants holding the sand down and stopping it from being blown into the streets and buildings behind.
The clump of trees on the left are tea trees. I love tea trees. They're twisty and they've got beautiful rough silvery bark and tiny waxy flowers and can take a shitload of wind and salt air.
The Excrescence as seen from Ettalong Beach.
The top half of the bastard has water views, the cafe, bar, etc doesn't. Hence the desire to rip out the dune vegetation and build "viewing platforms". The vegetation growing on the dunes prevents the beach sand from constantly being blown up into Ettalong's main streets (just behind the Excrescence), the "viewing platforms" most likely will not.
The desired view.
Wagstaffe coming in from the left in the middle distance, to its right is a distance cliff, which I'm assured is Manly. To the right of Manly is Barrenjoey Head, then Pittwater to its right then Lion Island.
It was low tide and the sand was pitted with tiny crab holes. The sea gulls were lined up along the edge of the water (right edge of photo). Don't know what they were waiting for. Don't know much about seagulls, except they shit on everything and steal your chips. Other than that, they're orright.
15 comments:
Ah, progress.
A damn shame.
What a heap that building is.
What you really need to offer the tourists is this:
http://dinnerinthesky.com/
Best loo I've ever experienced was in NZ - complete with auto door, piped music, auto flushing, auto soaping and auto rinsing of hands... worst loo was in an Annecy park (a stand/squat arrangement that flushes automatically around your feet as you balance on footpads,and I didn't know it... Shocked, I leapt out into the park, my smart pants around my ankles). Oh, and that loo at the end of the dunes? Please don't forget the taxi drivers use it too.
a nonny mouse
I remember when Ettalong beach didnt have all those trees and shit along there
Hiya. That headland just to the left of Barrenjoey that can be seen in that pic is in fact Whale Beach, not Manly. But that's not a problem :)
I spent a year on the coast (Gosford and Wyong). lovely scenery, but too crowded and busy for my liking thesedays. I'm very happy up here in Bathurst.
Thanks heaps for your blog tho. Looks like you really enjoy using this to express yourself and the picturesque scenery of the lower C.Coast. Thanks!
Cyalayta
Mal :)
Those bloody viewing platforms do buggerall! If you want sandunes to stay put, you need vegetation to bind it, using it's root system, and pushing the wind up and over it's cover! Bloody developers and landowners, along with a selectively blind shire or council - the world over - are constantly making this friggin mistake, and they're allowed to - gawd it shits me!
Oh... how rude of me! Gudday Spike... it would appear I needed a good rant lol ;-) Nice of you to give me a space to do it - what a true gent you are!
Hope all's well bloke, it's been a while since I dropped in - so rude of me lol... my shout next right?! ;-)
In the original plans for the development the whole foreshore was going to be concreted ala bondi beach complete with sun lounges and brollies , I think a sensible managed foreshore will do wonders - I hope they do something with the stormwater drain in the corner as well , there'll be sand aplenty when they re dredge the Box Head channel , I've seen it piled 20 ft high in the middle of the beach in the 70's
The desired view is beautiful.
Surely, the people who stay in The Excrescence would benefit from the short walk down to the beach to see the view first hand, rather than from their windows.
The dolts.
*nods in agreement with Suzanne*
Ron, ta for the fun link. I wonder if they send out a put-yer-undies-on announcement on the radio before it comes over? Would be a bit disconcerting to imagine oneself alone in the privacy of one's own apartment and look up to find a dinner party staring down at one.
A.N. Mouse, like the one at Hyde Park in Sydney? Nice and roomy inside that one but anyone outside can hear if you happen to have a gentleman companion in there with you.
That squat/stand arrangement sounds rather traumatic!
Michael, did it have native ground-hugging plants? I vaguely remember a couple of old photos now you mention it.
Mal, ta re Whale Beach. That bugger has long bamboozled me.
Thank yer re the blog.
Belongum, rant away. Bloody silly, as you say, to not cover the dunes in some sort of natural veg. I'm clinging tenaciously to the small hope they won't stuff it up completely.
Haven't been over your blog for a bit. How's the tum now?
Steve, thank Christ they didn't do that original bizzo. Would've been ghastly. As much as a fast ferry would be cool and make popping down to Sydney fun, all the associated concreting gives me the heebies.
Device dear, dead right they would. Fat lazy buggers!
I cant remember if it had native plants there or not but I do know those trees werent there, this was the 70s I was talking about
I was actually down there last sunday - stupid me started to walk out into the water and forgot I had my mobile still in my pocket and now it doesnt work
Buggrit. Coulda swore I saw a photo of the Ettalong Beach vegetation on Gosford & District in Pictures but there's nowt but a wee bit of grass and those 3 pines near the storm drain in 1972.
Yer silly bugger! Go out on the sandbar next time.
now that you mention it I saw a photo too but it was from the 1950s taken from the beach looking over to where the ettalong hotel was at the time and it had trees there
I also have personal photos taken on ettalong beach when i was a baby and they clearly show no vegetation or trees there
Well, if they put back the veg that's supposed to be there I'll stop squawking. But all this talk of "viewing platforms" makes me nervous. Could end up rather tacky.
TOILET UPDATE!!!: Toilets have now been demolished and the vegetation nearby has been cleared only some trees are left - now some lovely views across the water
Will have to pop down on the weekend. I only saw the loos gone last weekend from the ferry and the bulldozer perched triumphant on the rubble.
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