WTF: Rock stars left to rot, Cheeseman’s digital detox and Officeworks anonymity

They were recently rock stars, now they’ve been left in disrepair.

WTF

They’re the little – and sometimes not so little – things that can really irk us. We’ve asked the people of Geelong to point out the problems that irritate and exasperate and have us all saying, woah, that’s frustrating!

Boulevard of broken bollards

Bollards in disrepair on Western Beach, Geelong. Picture: Alison Wynd

Just a couple of years ago they were rock stars, featuring on the poster for the Geelong concert of iconic American band Foo Fighters.

But now, according to one local, the famed Geelong bollards are in a bad way.

This one has seen better days.

This gent, too.

“I regularly walk from Rippleside to Eastern Beach and am disgusted at how they have been neglected,” she said.

“It won’t be long before many of them are beyond repair.”

She said it was ironic the bollards were used in promotional material for Geelong, but had not been looked after.

The Addy’s Alison Wynd wandered down to the waterfront with her camera and the wooden structures were not looking well.

Where’s the Cheese?

MP Darren Cheeseman. Picture: Facebook

One but can’t help think that Darren Cheeseman is undertaking a long-term digital detox.

The South Barwon MP broke his silence in August – more than three months after he was booted from the Labor Party – to assure his constituents that he would fight for them on all fronts from the crossbench.

But if his online presence is anything to go by, he must be fulfilling his promise via old-school means.

The link to Darren Cheeseman's website is dead – is his political career?

There has been no activity on Mr Cheeseman’s Facebook page since April 29, while his website has long been a dead link.

Other links stemming from his Facebook page – one to a local community survey and the other a petition for an Armstrong Creek dog park – also take anyone interested to the dreaded “this site can’t be reached” black hole.

Mr Cheeseman was asked, via email, when he intended on becoming active again on social media and whether he planned on reactivating his website.

Alas, there was no response.

Might be time to employ some carrier pigeons.

A tip of the cap

This one might be better labelled Woah, That’s Fairly impressive.

Members of the public who want to tip journalists off to a big scoop will go to great lengths to protect their anonymity.

Media organisations go to great lengths to protect their sources, too.

The Addy even has a dedicated form online where tipsters can remain anonymous.

We also enjoy good old fashioned snail mail.

It’s a special type of excitement, however, when people get creative blowing the whistle.

So the Addy office was impressed this week when somebody went to the trouble of typing up their gripe with a local council candidate, printing it and then using the self-serve scanning at Officeworks to copy the document and email it through from the retailer’s generic address.

We also appreciated the anonymous tipster crediting Wikipedia as their source.

This was followed up shortly by presumably the same person ringing via a payphone.

Whoever you are, we salute you and your impressive anonymous data delivery.

Ex-ASIO perhaps?

And thanks for tip-off, too – we are looking into it.

To draw attention to something frustrating in the Geelong region, email journo@ geelongadvertiser.com.au

Originally published as WTF: Rock stars left to rot, Cheeseman’s digital detox and Officeworks anonymity