The Build, 10

Wednesday 20 May 2026: Rain has stopped though clouds are gathering again. All the work today has been on the cabins. This morning from about 6.30 am a generator was busy for three or so hours. I get that there were leaking roof edges, three or four people on scaffolding fixing them.

On the 11th of May this crane appeared on site that had us (residents overlooking) all wondering.

We weren’t left in suspense very long as a truck with a cabin/shed/donga on top followed …

Next was placing the cabin in the right place … a bit of to-ing and fro-ing …

Puzzling them together onto a small site, leaving adequate passages … the next day came the concreter spurting the product between the sheds.

Here with the cement mixer truck …

And finally the finishing touches … this was before the rain.

After the rain, a whole lot more of the above.

The Build, 9

There are no workers on site. The site being water-logged due to the rain we had here over the last couple of days. At least 45 mm, probably a lot more. A good time to catch up with what’s has been done so far.

I
The site was cleared of rubbish and recyclable resources: old fencing and tangled shrubbery probably going to landfill. Top soil, a humongous pile, should be worth gold. A small pile of steel handrails. Landscaping boulders.

Tearing down the old wooden fence at the front of the site … man with ute outside it to police the public I assume to stop people falling in

Sumitomo Number 2 ripping into the shrubbery beside where the road will be. Crows and ibises have lived there for some years so there will be a bit of displacement.

Sumitomo Number One loading vegetation and fencing into a truck

Same machine loading some of the humongous pile of topsoil into a dump truck trailer.

…?

Well, I guess these are going to be a series of short posts. WP has other ideas than I have, which is not unusual.


Meld, 5

Naturally, this floating jetty at Broome from the Countryman Newspaper, West Australia, is not what I was thinking of for a jetty in Meld. But it’s so amazing! Look at the cattle trucks in the picture. Like a pair of miniatures. This set up is a far cry from the jetty in Broome back in the 1980s when I was there.

Cattle exported from Broome’s floating jetty for the first time
5. Rita de Heer, MeldDownload

Knitting

Finding a series of interesting podcasts about prehistory to listen to, I finally finished converting this vest which I knitted ten to fifteen years ago into a throw rug. Time hasn’t stood still. In its day it was an elegant garment that I wore over black pants and a black skivvy–that photo lost in the mists of time. Shown instead on the old Coorparoo carpet, 4 years ago.

I must have had the vest out thinking to do something with it for I just never wore it in Brisbane. Too warm indoors. Too formal for day wear. Dangerously flappy for outdoors with grandkids, barbecue fires etc etc.

Finally got it out a few weeks ago. Took off the yoke and used it to knit a long strip to finish off and bind the top edge. The bottom edge will be left jagged and uneven.

All these strips were knitted on the diagonal, starting with three stitches, increasing until a desired width, then increasing at the beginning of the purl row and decreasing at the beginning of the plain row. I remember the fun I had inventing new textures.

While sewing the newly knitted strip along the top, I discovered how worn the knitted fabric actually was. It’s probably closer to fifteen years old than to ten. I fixed the half a dozen new holes by pursing the edges together and knotting the threads.

After a little study, decided to leave the bull’s eye repair, ugly though it is. What possessed me to fix it like that? Ripping that off I’d probably be making things worse.

The Build, 8

Late March to Early May, 2026

After a fifteen months interruption, construction at Aveo Parkside Carindale has resumed. Building 4 was to have been begun in April 2026, but Hutchinsons (the builders) started getting ready in March 2026 by taking down an additional two of the remaining Carinya home units.

I missed most of the beginning as well as the Development Update Meeting for the residents held in April, due to being in hospital for a few nights, and before and after being busy with medical concerns. So this is a catch-up.

When watching from my balcony or my bedroom windows on level two of Vista, some of what’s being done out there on the site, is often a mystery.

The first, what on earth is that pocket hankerchief of land for, where the two little houses were taken away? Adjacent to the single lane emergency road tracking through the whole property, it didn’t seem big enough for anything. One resident told me they thought it’d be a parking area. It seemed a reasonable idea. (Outlined in blue below) Thank you for the photo PV)

The second was the news that there’d be access from Carindale Street (the western boundary) and an exit onto Banchory Court (in the east) a temporary road that would be constructed for the very many truck movements expected.

Where that road would go was of consuming interest until we worked out that the narrow single lane emergency track wasn’t it.

Retaining wall being constructed beside some of Carinya’s remaining buildings along the internal emergency lane.

The first weeks in April seemed to be mainly concerned in collecting the resources that would need to be trucked away.

An almighty pile of topsoil, gathered from everywhere on the site with the displaced crows making themselves at home over the weekend. I was pretty jealous to see it all go, and hope some of it can be brought back for Building Four’s podium garden.

One of the smallest ‘work machines’ (in the words of my granddaughter) ripping down the old fence and piling that up for another truckload. One of the yellow machines made short work of the hedge. White ute in the background and a person stopping the public from falling into the site, I presume.