Park Open

The Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve is now open.  The reconstruction of the devastated park finished on Friday - and the multi-million dollar rebuilding program has delivered a fun relaxation area on the Brisbane River.
The following photo is courtesy of our friends at the Queensland Times in Ipswich.

One of the many play areas




Tradesmen's picnic - Colleges Crossing

The multi-million dollar redevelopment of the Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve is getting closer to be completed.  We are now talking in terms of days rather than weeks.  It's still very much a tradesmen's picnic area at the moment with a huge amount of work still being carried out around the park.  The fashion is hi-vis.

The cafe itself is pretty much a work in progress still.  The shade sails are up.  There's plenty of plumbing and equipment work being carried out inside.  Also a lot of suppliers waiting for the go-ahead to stock the premises up for trading.

The opening date is still in the air - we are hoping that we can put something out for Santa when he comes down the chimney.

Instead of tiles we will have concrete with designs relating to the Brisbane River etched into it.  And, the toilet blocks in the background are designed to withstand another major flood - god forbid!

Fingers crossed that the weather will be kind and not delay this huge project.  We keen to have the smell of espresso coffee wafting over the park.

Looking back

With work continuing apace at Colleges Crossing, it's worth looking back at just what the park was like after the disastrous floods of 2011.
This mind blowing photo link allows you to zoom and pan.
http://viewfromabove.com.au/panoramas/2011-01-26%20Colleges%20Crossing/Colleges%20Crossing.html

Ready for Xmas?

Di and Mary visited the resurrected cafe site today.  The redecorated cafe is still smack bang in the middle of an extremely busy construction site.  It's planned that we should be able to start making coffee about mid-December - but still a lot of work to do.



It's taken a long time - but the cafe is back!

Work is racing along in the massive reconstruction of the Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve.  The cafe is back and sitting in the middle of the park.  Counting down the weeks to the reopening.   The massive damage done by the floods in 2011 is evident in the last blog.

New month - new weather threat

While the future of Colleges by the River still hangs on the outcome of meetings within the Ipswich City Council, the clearing of the park has slowed down from the action of last week.
The extent of the damage was unbelievable - and evident from this aerial shot taken by a photographer from the Courier Mail newspaper.

The question is whether the cafe - still sitting behind a fence on the hill overlooking the park - will be returned in the near future. Colleges Crossing will take a long time to recover.
Meanwhile, the debate continues in the media whether it was a flash storm flood -or a riverine flood. How the insurance companies define what destroyed your house or business will determine whether you get financial support or not. There was an attempt by insurers in 2008 to get a proper definition by it was opposed by consumer legal groups - and knocked by by the ACCC.
The insurance council said this morning (ABC Radio) that about 70 percent of claimants will get paid.
Already insurance companies are playing it by the book - their book, and for businesses like Colleges by the River - our insurance cover will never be what it was.
Meantime - our family in Townsville is sitting in the path of a monster cyclone. The hits just keep on coming. The start of 2011 won't be forgotten for a long time in Queensland.
To get an idea of the immensity of this cyclone - click on the headline to this post - for some spectacular colour animation of what is bearing down on the North Queensland coast.

Ground Zero

Today was the first occasion since 10th January that I was able to walk through the park at Colleges Crossing.
The impact of the devastating flood is awe inspiring - the massive height of the river is evident on the hill overlooking the park and up the few trees that remain. Everything else has been smashed and levelled.

Stunned locals have flocked to the park since the Colleges Crossing bridge opened yesterday. A group from the army were also on hand today to survey the damage - as a Navy helicopter flew overhead. This is not a mop and bucket job - this is a clearance job worthy of our military.

The media were also on hand - from the press and tv - recording the devastation. Even when the cafe was taken to safety on the morning of the 10th - the river while rising through the park didn't seem to have much power behind it. What happened since then was that a relentless torrent of water has ripped and stripped the parkland. The height that the river reached is hard to imagine until you stand in the middle of the park and see metal wrapped around posts - posts bolted in concrete ripped out and twisted, wood and metal toilet blocks just washed away.

We've survived floods at the cafe - the latest 10m efforts in October and December, and after the water subsided - it was back to work, brewing the coffee.
This time, the cafe will be sitting on the side of the road on the top of the hill for sometime.
We've donated ice creams which were put into storage, to the Australia Day celebrations in Ipswich. We'll now have to wait for our own reopening celebrations - watch this space.