Hervey Bay Gossip

The long-awaited Ramada development at Urangan got underway last Friday with the delivery of three truckloads of steel. Yesterday the on-site sales office was delivered too so we can expect to see the building begin to take shape over the coming weeks.

 

There’s another big weekend on here in Hervey Bay and of course the highlight will be the Sea Food Festival down at Urangan on Sunday. It’s always very popular so be sure to come early.

If the thought of having to park a long way from the venue and then walking puts you off going then this year there’s a solution that will make life easy for you. Urangan Point Primary School is offering paid parking in the school grounds and a courtesy bus to take you down to the venue.

And if the weekend stays fine then there are plenty of places around Hervey Bay to do a little exercise out in the fresh air. Last weekend we walked Urangan Pier on both days and it was beautiful out there.

The tide was in so the Pier was a popular place to be but this weekend you can expect fewer people on the Pier of a morning because the tides will be quite low.

The detail of the latest Queensland budget has now been released and the major impact for Hervey Bay will in road widening projects, the installation of new traffic lights, more contracts awarded to EDI Rail in Maryborough and an upgrade of the Buccaneer Pontoon at Urangan.

Boat Harbour Drive will be upgraded to 4 lanes between Hunter and McNally Streets and new traffic lights will be installed at the intersections with Taylor Street and Banksia Park Drive.

You will find a map here that plots those changes.

The Maryborough to Hervey Bay Road will also be upgraded with the sections between the Torbanlea turn-off and the Dundowran Road turn-off, and between the Dundowran turn-off and the Pialba to Burrum Heads turn off, widened to four lanes.

 

The Deputy Premier has just announced that two major development companies have been short-listed to submit bids for the redevelopment of the Urangan Boat Harbour, Acting Premier Infrastructure Minister Anna Bligh announced today.

Ms Bligh said Meridien Marinas and the Seymour/Watpac group would compete for the chance to redevelop the boat harbour, one of the most significant tourism developments on the Queensland coastline.

“This exciting development will provide a year-round tourist magnet for the entire Wide Bay region,” Ms Bligh said. “It will complement Hervey Bay’s world-famous whale watching industry and be the new gateway to the Great Sandy Straits.

“And it will generate hundreds of jobs during the two-year construction phase.”

Member for Hervey Bay Andrew McNamara said: “The development will bring great benefits to Hervey Bay and put Urangan on the map for international tourists.”

Binding bid documentation will be forwarded to the short-listed companies early next week. Construction could start as early as 2009 and be completed by 2011.

The Deputy Premier and the local member for Hervey Bay with the plans for the new marina.

The Meridien Group has undertaken a range of residential subdivisions, apartments and retail developments. Between them, the Seymour/ Watpac consortium has undertaken the full range of residential, tourism, commercial and Government developments.

Ms Bligh said the redevelopment would include:

• An expansion of the harbour to the south of the breakwater to incorporate a 200-berth marina.

• A major upgrade of Miller St to create a boulevard entrance to Urangan Boat Harbour.

• A tourism development opportunity utilising existing car park and caravan park lots.

• Significantly enhanced public car parking.

• Creation of a green corridor with walking/cycle tracks along Charlton Esplanade that will connect the harbour with the foreshores and Urangan pier.

• A boardwalk around the inner boat harbour, connecting the new development with existing facilities, including the Hervey Bay Boat Club, boat ramps and car trailer parks.

Back in December 2005 we asked what’s happening at the Anchorage?. At the time there was speculation that the park had been sold and now it seems that it has.

Not only has the park been sold but now it’s been cleared of vans and cabins.

Backhoe cuts a gas pipeline near Peppers on The Esplanade at Hervey Bay

At lunch time today shopkeepers and residents along the Esplanade at Urangan were warned to stay inside until a break in a gas pipeline near Peppers could be repaired. Emergency services attended the scene and authorities went door to door warning people to stay inside until the break had been repaired.

 

Sunday October 1 is the day for this year’s Pier Festival down at Urangan Pier.

Activities get under way from 6am when the fishing competition starts. Food stalls should be open by 7am and there will be further activities and things to see throughout the day. There will also be craft stalls, a flea market and even a licensed bar running through till about 2pm.

The first Pier Festival was held in 1986 to help raise funds to save Urangan Pier but proceeds from this weekend’s event will go to the Fraser Coast Lions Club and local charities.

Urangan Pier was originally built to a length of 1107 metres in 1917 but is now only 720 metres in length. Urangan Pier was originally built to facilitate the export of coal and sugar from the local area and the last vessel to use the pier departed in 1985.

Work finally began yesterday on removing the crane at the Peppers resort. The crane has dominated the Urangan and Hervey Bay skyline for quite some time and the removal has aroused considerable interest.

Even before the sun was fully up this morning residents were down at the site watching – and even filming – the work.

Removal of the crane has meant that The Esplanade is completely closed to traffic from Elizabeth Street down to the Urangan shops.

The Minister for Education and the Arts has announced that the asbestos roof on one building at Urangan Point Public School will be replaced in the next round of roof replacements.

This roof will be one of 177 scheduled to be replaced at Queensland state schools between June and the end of November this year and is part of the Asbestos Roof Replacement Program that was begun less than 12 months ago.

The work will be carried out during school holidays and at weekends.

As you may be aware when it’s low tide at Urangan there is a quite a long sandbar exposed to the “north” of the Urangan Pier. That sandbar becomes a magnet for people who are out for a pleasant stroll. Late afternoon and early evening is a particularly attractive time for a stroll along that bar when the tide is out.

Last night your scribe and his wife spent a very pleasant hour or so sitting on the deck at Viva Italia watching one couple who thought a stroll along that bar would be nice.

They, like plenty of others, were fooled by seemingly attractiveness of the spot because it’s hard to believe that the bar could be covered so quickly when the tide starts to rise. While we watched the tide begin to turn the couple kept walking out along the bar.

By the time they realised that they were in some bother they were over a kilometre from the Urangan Pier and that was a long way for them to run.

Fortunately they made it in time but others may not be so lucky. Don’t be fooled by that sandbar – it really is not a very safe place to walk. The tide comes in quickly and covers it completely and it is so easy to get into trouble a long way from help.