WTF: Slow play at Balyang, ‘friendly’ snake, Newtown traffic woes, late laneway
In this week’s WTF column, we take a look at a golf course redevelopment that is unfolding at glacial pace, an odd sign warning of a “friendly” guest, and a Newtown street where traffic chaos has become the norm.
If the much-needed modernisation of the Balyang par three course in Newtown was an actual round of golf, those in the pro shop would’ve warned of slow play long ago.
In August last year – almost two years after council voted to cease managing the 32-year-old facility – City Hall put the call out to the public for “innovative solutions” prior to commencing a formal lease process.
Then in May, council voted to launch a “request for proposal” process that, bemusingly, bound interested parties to maintain a par three course of at least nine holes despite the operation losing $280,000 in the 2023/24 financial year.
Surely, even the most ardent supporter of the current set up would concede the site as it stands is in desperate need of some love.
One WTF spy noted that despite Saturday’s glorious sunshine, the car park had fewer than 10 cars in it at a time when you could safely assume the car parks of other clubs across the region would have been full to the brim.
Yet change, it seems, is still a long way off.
Council told us recently that the “final preparations are underway on the Balyang request for proposal process which will open in the coming months”.
“Once submissions are received and the process closes, the proposed ideas and solutions will be assessed before a decision is made, likely next year,” a spokeswoman said.
FANGING IT
While we here at WTF HQ don’t want to cause any hiss-teria, we do think it’s time to highlight a rather odd sign.
Someone has placed a laminated A4 printout above a garden bed at a big-box retail site in Belmont, apparently alerting passers-by to the presence of a snake.
The handmade notice, sticky-taped to a sign in the carpark outside the Settlement Rd hub that hosts Spotlight, Clark Rubber and – interestingly – Anaconda, reads: “A ‘friendly’ brown snake lives in these bushes!”
The words are accompanied by a happy-looking cartoon snake.
Whether the quote marks around “friendly” are to reinforce just how amicable the creature is, or are there to suggest something more sinister, isn’t exactly clear.
In fact, the whole sssituation ssstrikes us as sssomewhat ssstrange.
If a reader can shed some light on this small-scale mystery, they’ll have our heartfelt fangs … sorry, we mean thanks.
TRAFFIC WOES
Construction of the four-storey, 77-apartment social housing development on the corner of Marshall St and Latrobe Tce continues to frustrate many local residents.
As work at the 3800sq m site ramps up, road closures have become increasingly common as heavy machinery comes and goes.
A closure last week diverted traffic travelling east on the clogged strip down Westcott St, which is best described as an alleyway unaccustomed to regular traffic.
The closures come after a firebombing at the site in May that police linked to a series of arson attacks targeting construction industry contractors.
The almost $50m Marshall St project, which will have just 49 car parks once completed, is managed by Unison Housing and funded by both the federal and state governments.
On its website, the organisation says construction will be completed by early 2027 – more than 12 months later than initially expected.
LATE LANEWAY
Sticking to this week’s theme of slowly moving projects, progress on the $2.3m Ryrie St laneway that will create a pedestrian link between Union and Market streets is, well, moving slowly.
June 2024 was originally flagged as the completion date, but “a revised project schedule” later pushed it back to the end of this year.
The project formed part of the state government’s 2018 Laneways Action Plan and was listed as a key action in the 2023 Central Geelong Framework Plan.
Current works are focused on the brickwork for the seating and retaining walls, preparing the walkway and garden bed areas.
In a move that will please plenty, it appears, at least for now, that the vintage Las Vegas games arcade signage will remain.
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Originally published as WTF: Slow play at Balyang, ‘friendly’ snake, Newtown traffic woes, late laneway
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