$12.6 Million Dollar Upgrades Kick Off At South Newcastle Beach

BY ISABEL EVERETT

Construction of a $12.6 million extension of the landmark Bathers Way Coastal Pathway has begun at Newcastle Beach.

The project will take around two years to complete and aims to re-activate South Newcastle Beach with a kiosk, new public amenities, accessible skate bowl, landscaping, shade and seating, exercise equipment and viewing areas.

“Completed sections of the Bathers Way have seen usage increase by more than 50 per cent, with Merewether one of the busiest due to its additional facilities, and we expect to see a similar lift from this project," Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said.

“Increased foot and cycling traffic will increase activation and provide a welcome boost for local businesses in Newcastle East.”

The project has been guided by the Bathers Way Community Reference Group.

Community feedback in 2018 on the original concept plan prompted modifications to move the skate bowl within the existing promenade footprint, garnering majority support in further community engagement last year.

The NSW Government has contributed $5 million through its Restart NSW program, specifically under its Resources for Regions Fund.

The Bathers Way is a seven-stage capital works program spanning six kilometres of coastline that began at Merewether in 2012.

It was followed by the completion of the Bar Beach, Dixon Park and Nobbys to Newcastle sections.

Newcastle Beach, King Edward Park and Memorial Drive are the final legs.

$750k for Dixon Park SLSC

BY MATT JOHNSTON

A partnership between the New South Wales government, Newcastle City Council, and the Dixon Park Surf Life Saving Club (DPSLSC) will see a raft of improvements for the club and its amenities on the Bathers Way walk.

Scot MacDonald, Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter, announced the $350,000 grant this morning alongside Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes, who added $250,000 from council. The remaining $150,000 will come from funds raised by the DPSLSC itself.

DPSLSC President Paul Murray said the club has seen a growth in membership and popularity as a venue since the opening of the Bathers Way coastal path. However, the renewed use of the site highlighted the 40-year-old amenities that are on offer.

Updates at the site are limited to the ground floor, where the changerooms and bathrooms will be upgraded and made more accessible for those with disabilities. A kitchen will be installed the increase the range of activities available at the venue.

Council will also be using this as an opportunity to create new storage areas for equipment.

Both Paul Murray and Scot MacDonald were pride to be to revitalising "iconic" elements of Newcastle's coastline. Modernising the facilities is key, given that a women's changeroom was overlooked in the original building plans 40 years ago.

Nuatali Nelmes she's happy to be contributing to new facilities which make sport more accessible and attractive to women.

Picture: Newcastle City Council

Row Over Shepherds Hill Cottage

BY MATT JOHNSTON

"Never have volunteers been treated so badly," shouted by Marine Rescue Newcastle Commander Ron Calman to Newcastle's Lord Mayor and Interim Council CEO on top of Shepherds Hill.

Cr Nuatali Nelmes and CEO Jeremy Bath were announcing the ramping up of the cottage's restoration, following the damage it received from the superstorm in April 2015. Marine Rescue had been using it as their base up until strong winds tore the roof off the structure.

Photo credit: Newcastle Herald

Since then, "Newcastle's best real-estate" and the "missing link" in the Bathers Way coastal path has been sitting on top of the hill, disused and sustaining further damage according to Jeremy Bath. Marine Rescue was forced to relocate from their seaside vantage point to Warabrook.

It's taken years for the restoration work to be signed off by heritage bodies and the state government, but the green light has finally been given for work to kick off in the New Year. At that point, council will also be open to expressions of interest to lease the land upon its completion - a move which has angered the volunteers at Marine Rescue Newcastle.

"The position is now that we'll have nowhere to go once our tenure is up with Newcastle City Council at Warabrook, and then we'll be looking for premises at Newcastle or... I really can't [tell you]", said Ron Calman. According to him, it should be easy for Marine Rescue to return to the site, given that their radio tower is still located on the property.

 "Power struggles- that's all [council] is about with the young ones... They don't care about us, they don't care about the membership or our training, they don't care about anything at all with Marine Rescue."

But while Ron says the views over the water aided Marine Rescue's safety operations, Jeremy Bath says they can monitor the radio waves from anywhere, just like Warabrook where they've been operating for the past 2 years.

He says the opening of the site to expressions of interest is a more transparent way of letting the community vote on the site's future, rather than previous agreements he said were done "behind closed doors".

"Unfortunately, in the past that is how Newcastle City Council did the tenancy agreement with Marine Rescue. What matters is that the public are given an opportunity to participate in the expression of interest for the future tenancy of the Shepherds Hill cottage."

"I have privately written, as well as met with Marine Rescue, and encouraged them to participate in the EOI process, and that way the public can have absolute confidence that there are no favours being done to anyone, that ultimately the future tenancy agreement is one that is above board and ticks all the criteria that the community and council require for what is undoubtedly the most valuable piece of land anywhere in Newcastle."

So far, there are proposals of a stop for walkers on the Bathers Way path to refresh themselves and take in the views from the top of the city.

Bathers Way on its way

BY JESSICA ROUSE

The next stage of the much anticipated Bathers Way Project is underway in Newcastle.

Now, the shared pathway is being extended from Strzeleckie Lookout to King Edward Park along with an upgrade of the Memorial Drive/Cliff Street intersection.

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes says it is the missing link between the inner city beaches and the Bar Beach/Mereweather strip. She's very pleased it's all coming together.

"Piece by piece, step by step, we are chipping away at the biggest coastal revitalisation project seen here in Newcastle. Its really exciting to see the vision coming together along the coastline and in the coming years we will focus on king Edward park and South Newcastle precinct and the link down to memorial drive and Bar Beach."

This stage of the works will take around six months to complete.

The funding is coming from council's Bathers Way project for this financial year and then into the next financial year the budget goes back up to council for adoption at the end of June.

Amongst the plans is lighting, landscaping and drainage which will be upgraded before new trees are planted including two advanced Norfolk Island pines.

Existing sandstone pillars will be removed and installed in their original location at King Edward Parks's lower entrance in the near future.

Lots of construction could mean lots of disruption

BY JESSICA ROUSE

The next six months will prove pivotal in Newcastle's infrastructure works with construction not only starting on the race track for the Newcastle 500 on Wharf Road, but work on Bathers Way is still ongoing.

The main focus of construction on Wharf Road from today is work on what will be the pits. For the next six months the major works will be disruptive to residents, but after this year it will take only a few weeks to set up the event instead of months of preparation for the track this year.

Major construction work is still underway on the Shortland Esplanade as part of the Bathers Way project in a bid to revitalise the section of coastline, and will see more pedestrian access, the installation of new street lighting, reconstruction fo the retaining wall on the corner of Watt and Church Street, and two-way traffic returned to the section between Watt and Ocean Streets.

Lord Mayor of Newcastle Nuatali Nelmes says the works will be completed by November just when thousands of visitors descend on the city for the race.

"It is a big undertaking in the next six months and there will be disruptions and at the same time we're also still delivering really important components of the Bathers Way that actually doesn't have anything to do with Supercars but it's the time that we're delivering."

With two major projects underway at the same time, there is sure to be some form of disruption, and council say residents have all been given a significant amount of notification and also detailed maps of the changes in and around their streets for both supercars work and council's work in the city.

"Supercars are starting their works projects six months out and it's a pretty tight time frame to deliver not only the work they need to do for Supercars, but we've been quite opportunistic and making sure we're delivering a lot of renewal projects and upgrades to other services and infrastructure in the city at the same time so it is a big undertaking into the next six months and there will be disruptions," said Nuatali Nelmes. 

"Every other year, once this work is done there, will be much shorter few weeks of bump in and bump out for the event. So the disruption, and I've said this since we announced that we were bringing supercars to Newcastle, the majority of the disruption will be this year."