Hervey Bay Gossip

If you drive down The Esplanade at Torquay you may notice the Hervey Bay Council doing some work in the park directly opposite the Bideford Street intersection.

It’s not exactly clear what they are doing there and the Council makes no mention of it on their website but they certainly do have some earthmoving equipment in there amongst the trees. They’re also doing something down on the beach and whatever it is stretches out beyond the waterline.

This is a photo taken yesterday morning as the great pile of sand that the Council had stored on the beach was slowly washed away by the high tide.

On several occasions this week and last week warning signs have been posted along The Esplanade by traffic controllers advising drivers that road works were in progress and the speed limit was 50.

Ummm I thought that the speed limit along The Esplanade was always 50 … or didn’t I get the memo?

When is a flat white not a flat white?

When it’s been prepared by an artist and there are some very talented artists preparing coffee in cafes across the country.

It’s not just a case of pouring the hot milk into the cup and whacking on a dollop of froth - it is a highly skilled art form and one that requires very fast work. No one wants to wait for the first coffee of the day while someone fiddles around trying to draw pretty pictures on the top.

But that just goes to make coffee art even more appealing - it’s done on the fly with tools that no other artist would ever think of using and the result is an eye-catching design that tops off a perfect cup of coffee.

Hervey Bay is fortunate to have two budding coffee artists and you will find them both at the Bayaroma on The Esplanade at Torquay. Here is the artwork that Terry served up to your scribes on Saturday.

Did I tell you that the Bayaroma is just about the only place we go for coffee these days?

You don’t need to spend too long sitting at one of the open air cafes along The Esplanade at Torquay or Scarness before you begin to notice some of the exotic cars that seem to inhabit Hervey Bay.

I’m not talking about the boom boxes on wheels driven by the younger generation and nor am I talking about the 4 wheel drive wagons that have never seen a dirt road in their life. I’m talking about the occasional Ferrari, the odd Lamborghini and even the very elegant Maserati that occasionally cruise down the road here in Hervey Bay.

But now you can go one better and be the first on the block to have a real man’s car and when those boom box babies get in your way you can run right over the top of them. Now you too can own your very own high mobility luxury armoured vehicle.

Powered by an 8.1 litre V8 that produces a mere 340 bhp this mean street machine comes equiped with leather seating, woodgrain accents, machine gun rack (just so you have something to play with while you’re being delayed by those pesky traffic controllers), double layer chassis with ceramic armouring, electrict windows and you can even have anti-tank armour as an option.

To arrange a test drive log into the website at http://www.armoringgroup.com

Here in Hervey Bay even the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that the real estate boom was becoming more of a whimper. Houses are clearly staying on the market longer, open houses have been seeing very few visitors regardless of the state of the weather and rental properties are remaining vacant too.

Currently a real estate agent with one of the biggest rental books in town has two properties along The Esplanade for rent and both have been available for several weeks. In other parts of town ‘For Rent’ signs are beginning to appear and that was something you rarely saw as recently as six months ago.

Several months ago one agent told your scribes that the market was very flat and rental properties were not being let for anything like the amount that owners had first been told would be a reasonable rental. Even back then the agent we were told that the number of foreclosures was increasing and even tenants were being affected when their landlord was unable to met the house repayments.

And now things are likely to get worse. The Courier Mail today is running several stories on the real estate market in their business section.

In one story the man behind Aussie Homeloans frankly tells people that it is time to get out of the real estate market. He suggests that it is far better to try and sell now than to wait because in the months to come the price of real estate will only decrease.

He also suggests that it will only take a significant global event for prices on beach front real estate to fall by as much as 25%.

In another story several major Queensland real estate principals talk frankly about the collapsing housing market in south east Queensland as more and more work comes to them from receivers.

Unfortunately it’s not something that anyone seems even vaguely optimistic about just at the moment.

Work on the reconstruction of the walkway and surround areas is continuing down at Urangan,

It certainly is still messy around the Elizabeth Street end but enough work has been done down towards the pier to give you a good idea of how it will look.

We took a wander along there on Monday and it certainly is looking good. The path has been widened considerably and there are new seating and picnic areas along the path.

When it’s finished it will be a vast improvement on how it looked before and we can only hope that the widening of the path is carried on beyond Elizabeth Street.

If you don’t get down that way very often then let me show you the changing face of Urangan. The image of a sleepy little fishing village known mostly for it’s pier is changing as these photos will show.

The change may not be to everyone’s liking but it certainly is happening.

Here is a photo taken from the pier in May this year.

and a similar view taken today

Hervey Bay City Council is seeking community comment on two planning papers that the Council is currently considering. Those papers are:

The Gatakers Bay and Parweena Park Draft Foreshore Enhancement Plan and

The Review of the Hervey Bay Foreshore Management Plan Discussion Paper

If you wish to peruse the papers you will find them on the Council website at http://www.herveybay.qld.gov.au or at the libraries or Council Offices.

The closing dates for written submissionsare November 4 for the Gatakers Bay Plan and November 25 for the foreshore discussion paper.

We often forget just what a wonderful place Hervey Bay is to live. The climate is wonderful and we’re surrounded by some of the most colourful and amazing birds. And you don’t have to go any further than your own backyard to see and hear the birds.

That was brought home to me during the past week when I was chatting with one of our clients in the United States. I was telling him about some of the wildlife that we get to see right here in Hervey Bay and he was amazed.

At the time I couldn’t find this photo that I grabbed down on The Esplanade, just across from the Bayaroma Cafe in the middle of the day.

At the time I was chatting to him I couldn’t find this photo in my collection but now I have it so Jim, and anyone else from other parts of the world who happen to wander by, here is a sample of the birds you can see right in the centre of Hervey Bay.

These two were part of a bigger group that were wandering around the gardens just near the Torquay Sailing Club and that’s an area that is always quite busy through the day.

The Hervey Bay City Council has begun work on Stage 1 of the upgrading of the Urangan Pier Precinct. The Council describes it as a major project that will include:

Upgrading the walk and cycle path

Traffic calming

Streetscaping including the provision of underground power so that overhead wires can be removed

Upgradeing of the blay area, BBQ facilities and toilet in Pier Park

Provision of accessible observation decks

And other work as well

Now that is a very worthwhile project but why can’t they describe it in normal language that the man in the street might understand?

What is traffic calming?

If they want to keep the traffic calm all they would have to do is remove those traffic controllers who are there for the building projects and then the traffic would be very calm.

If you missed it here is a little story from two weeks ago about two traffic controllers down there who were caught totally unprepared.