Anyhoos, forgetting all that, a genuine attempt to utilise and make usable that site would have been zero earthworks other than some topsoil, with some gently rolling swales and meandering paths, water features, etc, not 100% flat grass...and also maximum cover utilising current buildings...pretty much the opposite of everything they've done thus far...(ya' know, they shoulda'/coulda'/could still maybe move the replica Lady Nelson from Jubilee Hwy to this wonderful new naturally flooding water feature Council has created...at least part of the year it'll have parked itself in the middle of a Council created swamp-Ed)...sorry, there's nuthin' funny about any of that...
I re-iterate what everyone is sayin', that the Rail Lands site had flooding issues numbering zero, nada, zilch, nought but naught, that is, 1) there were no flooding issues with that site until Mt Gambier City Council commissioned $millions of needless groundworks, and 2) whoever carried out and/or is responsible for those groundworks has done such a farcically incompetent job that they've collectively created multiple flooding issues...(and that's before ya' even get started on the $700,000 Death Pit of Stupidity up the Western end-Ed)...indeed, the ludicrously dangerous Drainage Pond as featured below...
But first, here again are the 3 photos I took on June 28th 2014 for a comparative reminder...(and a reminiscent comparison as well-Ed)...thankyou...this pooling/flooding was after several heavy showers across a couple of days, say on the 25th-26th, so about 2 days after the heavy falls, but in the middle of Winter sort of...photo 1) is from the Bay Rd footpath, South-East corner (the day before it was one large pool), then 2) on the platform edge looking back to near position 1), and then 3) looking to the right from possie 2)...
Above: in 3) it shows where the pool ends, just there at the right, and that's right where the 'gap' has been cut through the platform (as covered below)....the shot just below was taken just yesterday, Tuesday 13th January 2014, standing on the Bike Path/Easement with Possie 1) to the left of shot...took this around 0800ish and skies were clearingish after some localised thunderstorms...impossible to know exactly what amount rained down exactly here, but the result is obvious...note water actually 'streaming' toward clinker bed, through that, across the path next to me (out of shot), briefly pooling again on the lawn behind me before pouring out onto Railway Tce...
After taking several shots of all this, I was just leaving when a Council worker drove past, but I reckon it was sortta' coincidence in that I think he was also looking at the flooding...went and took the other photos (below) and came back round this way (1/2 hour later?) to see a different Council worker standing with a small water pump immediately to the right of that orange bunting stuff, and a hose running out to the bike path...chose to not take a photo of someone just doin' their job...
Above: is me, also yesterday morning, standing in 3 inches of mud on the corner of Railway Tce and Eleanor St, looking South, at the torrent of water streaming through the gap Council has cut into the Old Platform, then out across the footpath, along the street and down the drain in the foreground...the wash of mud immediately below and also to the right (but out) of this shot indicates that the drain was at some point overwhelmed by the volume and was pooling and dumping sludge right around that corner area...
I've mentioned this 'platform gap' before, but I can't remember if I wrote down the joke/prediction/theorising I've done several times verbally re the idea that this 'gap' had been done to address the flooding/pooling witnessed in the photos above (possie 2) and 3))...the building behind the Stobie (power) pole is the Old Signal Box in which Council is putting the new toilets, which makes the gap even stranger, because the platform and Old Station are all to the left of the gap...toilets to the right, everything else to the left, why? why any gap at all?...
This gap isn't even where people would access the Rail Lands, an access that has been further compromised by the ridiculous stretch of new platform built away up to the Eastern end (left in photo, beyond Old Station), and the unbroken stretch of rail clinker stone (photo 4 above) that runs the full length of the site on the Southern side of the Bike Lane, effectively cutting off areas beyond, eg, Margaret St, to anyone with any sort of mobility issues...(it's a bloody joke mate-Ed)...
Below: is standing with my back to that Stobie pole with the Old Rail Station to the far left of shot...mid-frame is some of the ludicrously superfluous extra ramping and balustrading...at what cost to Ratepayers these frivolous whimsys?...I maintain that many if not all of these 'frivolities' are part of the deliberate broader program of diverting Ratepayers money to Councilors and/or their mates via highly expensive nuances and tweakings and add-ons...(billable hours champ, billable hours-Ed)...
The Gap is just left of shot, but ya' can clearly see the water streaming through it, down and across into the street...and this is a day after the showers...the extent/extreme of the wash-off through this gap is evidenced by the volumes of muddy sludge carried onto and along the street, volume enough to overwhelm that drain and pool across the road...the flow in these photos, obvious as it is, is merely a trickle to what must have been pouring through there at it's peak...(holy crap, you're right, I know squat about Hydrology butcha' can clearly see there's been heaps of water flowing through there with quite some power-Ed)...
Above: is basically just the reverse angle, and the following 2, more of the same...is this going to happen every time there's a half-decent shower of rain?...has that ridiculous gap and associated very expensive formwork for steps, ramps, etc, all been about addressing the huge flooding problem evidenced in photos/possies 2) and 3)?...
Below: again yesterday, shows The Death Pit of Stupidity full to overflowing through the parapetty bit on the far side there, spilling into the Rock Pool drainage pit thingy...note the depth marker to the right showing just on 1.8m, so that's over my head, the Wehl St run-off coming in in the foreground, and the low fence along that open carpark, and no fence at all along the Rail Lands themselves...(yay-Ed)...
Not A Photo Of A Lie: and thank gourd because words escape me...just gettin' back in the car after photo above (through fence) and noticed this to the right...immediately notified adjacent shop to ask and they rang Council and I rang Council again when I got home...(didn't fix it? normally you'd fix something like that-Ed)...no, sorry, call me paranoid but I'm not touchin' it, not these days...(that's very sad but very understandable-Ed)...did go back past there and it was fixed by the arvo...
Looks very much like the work of Idiotus Pissedasa given the careful shoving aside of a relatively flimsy fence, particularly given that there's a low fence (4 foot, just to the right of shot) along the bakery carpark that could easily be climbed over...any sober person, kid, etc, ain't gunna bother with shoving and pushing when just climbing over is just right there...educated guess, this is a drunkard staggerin' home on one of the hot nights recently whom in their intoxicated inspiration decided that a dip was the thing to be done...
Thankyou for joining me for this photographic expose of the floaty way things are gunna' run off the Rail Lands...have tried to make the photos as arty as possible given the need to capture entire areas without any real artistic editorial discretion...I also maintain that everything that Council has done on this site is in service of the Rail Lands Retail Agenda...(all hail the RLRA-Ed)...itself a text-book study in the Nepotistic Corruption, Insider Trading, rank selfishness of it's constituent members and their Vested Interests mates, etc, that defines the conduct of Mt Gambier City Council...
Tomorrow: More Me Words Come Back To Me
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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