Tag: The Build

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.

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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.


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.

The Build 8, 7 Dec 24

There’s been work on the escape route into Banchory Court. This will be a one lane access road that cuts through the middle of the site. The asphalt and parked car in the background of the photo below are in fact in Banchory Court.

While Surbiton Court is mostly one level and floodable along most of its length, Banchory rises quite quickly to higher ground, even useful for workers on the site, given we’ve now had two flood events in the past month.

This machine was a surprise giant in the elbow of the little road where it exts the site at the base of Parkland building. Working in the distance, flattening once more the piles of ‘fill’ dug from the lower part of the site, it looks much more proportional.

And speaking of flattening piles of dirt, JW and I standing chatting, were seeing that in action. That was a couple of days ago. And here, on Saturday (20 December 2024) there’s more flattening happening …

Looks like overtime but could be the schedule is running behind … too many days lost to rain.

The Build 7: Nov 22, 2024

I see it’s been over a month since my previous post about the build. On the 28th of October there was a day of excitement as topsoil from the Banchory-Court-side of the site was piled onto the Carindale-Street-side of the site. One of the large old excavators in charge of the spreading and piling, while the two dump trucks took turns dumping their loads, while perhaps the other old excavator worked the loading.

In that time the majority of the work was done in the section nearest the gate into Surbiton Court. Pipes of several sizes put into the ground … huge concrete pipes in the pic below

And much smaller diameter, some kind of plastic. These often used as guttering drainpipes, in my experience, but here with the red coloring I assume are to house communication and electrical ducting.

Every time it rained work had to stop every second day unless there was a storm as well. The back lot–the parts that I can see from my balcony–filled with puddles and finally a pond-like sheet of water. The pic below is a couple of days later, with grass now growing well.

Birds are starting to congregate though I think it’s more likely that they are snacking on worms rising up and drowning, than fish miraculously appearing in the ankle-deep water and mud. I saw an ibis arrive this morning as well as a stone curlew. The plovers never went away. The approximately forty strong murder of Torresian crows that live in the trees alongside Carindale Street don’t seem to care who visits their grounds, I guess they get enough food across the road. (Carindale Shopping Mall)

 And finally, a mystery object pulled out of the ground?

Well, I know what it is. It surprised me to see one so near to a city center … Cattle grid? I wonder whether when the first village was built back in the 1980s, cattle roamed along the creek?

The Build 6, Monday 13 Oc

The past two weeks were dedicated to ripping up concrete house pads and the asphalt drive-ways. An almighty storm about halfway through with a couple of days of rain.

And an ailing steel beast might’ve slowed progress a bit but today everyone is in fine form.

The orange plastic and metal parts are being loaded for taking away …

This photo from inside, through glass. I love that moment of ‘thought’ as the operator lines up its mouthful with the waiting truck.

Then the load needs patting down so the truck’s dust cover can be drawn over.

Never seen this kind of scoop before, have you? Then you know what’s coming!

Make sure you have the sound on so you can imagine how a rock is sieved out from the soil.