Plans for the Gungahlin oval

Thanks folks but enough already. Won’t get my head through the door. 🙂

Chop was blunt, but right. Perils of bashing off a comment too quickly between a busy lunch and too many media calls.

For anyone interested in the history of the wetlands park, it started here: http://www.gcc.asn.au/News/Territory-Services/off-road-cycling-facility-in-gungahlin.html

I recalled the great “Learnscape” setup they have at Wirraminna at Burrumbuttock ( http://www.wirraminna.org ), which was near the area covered by the Landcare group I used to manage, and thought that sort of thing would go great on this site – right between two big schools. As an environmental science person, I’m keen for kids to consider it as a career path, and I thought this could be a catalyst. Bonus being there are good science courses at our local unis, so it could mean more of our kids doing their uni here rather than having to move away, and then having to work to pay rent instead of focusing on the study. Etc.

Anyway, that oval’s looking sweet, eh? And with the aquatic centre filling the other gap, and the new library and CIT to open in a couple of weeks, what an amazing collection of facilities right in the heart of our town centre. Surely that makes it one hell of an attractive place to work? Any SES out there looking to make property decisions soon – we’re keen to show you around.

+2 on Al’s work. we disagree on public transport but that’s probably just because I have 4 kids and public transport will never work for me.

A big thanks from us though Al, I doubt we would have that 50 metre pool and this oval without your efforts

puggy said :

I’ll be another to commend Alan’s work.

And a question for Ed. Why is this article tagged “twats”?!

More for the Twitter based announcement.

puggy said :

I’ll be another to commend Alan’s work.

And a question for Ed. Why is this article tagged “twats”?!

Because it’s got Andrew Barr in it?!

I’ll be another to commend Alan’s work.

And a question for Ed. Why is this article tagged “twats”?!

EvanJames said :

Chop71 said :

More than a little self serving Al.

Would you like the district renamed GungahALAN to go with your title as the self proclaimed Mayor

You’re kidding right? What this bloke does, for free, is amazing. Shame he’s not the mayor. I know a few adjoining shires that would love to have a mayor like that.

What do you do for the community, Chop71, other than tear down people who are doing good things?

+1

Was going to same the exact same thing. We need more people like Al.

The tragic thing re: Gungahlin is that the Govt so badly botched the responsibilty division between private developer and Govt in providing infrastructure and services. Looking at Gungahlin, you can almost picture the Govt saying to developers afterwards: “Oh, I though you were going to provide decent roads, cycleways and community facilities?? Oh wait, were we supposed to do that? Better lay low and pretend it never happened…..”
If only the NCDC had been around a little longer, local ‘councils’ (Al et al.) would not have to spend all their free time fighting and begging for even the most basic of services and facilities that should be provided to any new area as a given.
I think all the shortfalls in infrastructure and facilites that have only now been added (or are now ‘planned’ to be added) due to complaints and council lobbying should be well documented. That way people could see how much worse it would have been if people had just waited for the Govt to fix the mess out of kindness (Ha!). If these things aren’t highlighted, similar botch ups are likely in the new Molonglo area as the Govt will say: “It all seemed to work out OK in the end…..” without realising the incompetence and pain involved!

Chop71 said :

More than a little self serving Al.

Would you like the district renamed GungahALAN to go with your title as the self proclaimed Mayor

You’re kidding right? What this bloke does, for free, is amazing. Shame he’s not the mayor. I know a few adjoining shires that would love to have a mayor like that.

What do you do for the community, Chop71, other than tear down people who are doing good things?

Chop71 said :

Gungahlin Al said :

my wetlands pet project too – the “Valley Ponds” in the figure. 2007 I first put that idea out there so a long time coming…

More than a little self serving Al.

Would you like the district renamed GungahALAN to go with your title as the self proclaimed Mayor

My apologies. I didn’t intend that. It has been a pet project and I’m keen to see it happen. That’s all.

Gungahlin Al said :

my wetlands pet project too – the “Valley Ponds” in the figure. 2007 I first put that idea out there so a long time coming…

More than a little self serving Al.

Would you like the district renamed GungahALAN to go with your title as the self proclaimed Mayor