The following report was sent to members of the "Friends of Bristol Hill" group, but we thought it would be of interest to our Rotary members.
As you have probably seen, the upgrade/refurb of the tower has been completed and doesn't it look fantastic! Daryl Maffescioni and his crew have really done a great job. A gate had been installed on the opening to the stairs to the upper lookout with the intent to lock and unlock this at night and in the morning - to try and reduce vandalism, Unfortunately, some thieves removed the gate and hinges on New Year's Day. This was discovered by Daryl on Tuesday 2nd. and whilst not suggesting anything, there are apparently photos of the fireworks at the park on Monday night taken from the top landing of the tower. Daryl had a camera located at the site but unfortunately the memory card was full so nothing was captured. Fortunately, there was no graffiti, but, who knows when? Click "Read more..." for the rest of the report.
Okay back to the report, posts have been placed on the edge of the road to stop the 4 wheel drives coming up the side of the hill. They are still there, but who knows for how long. We'll wait and see.
Damian from DEECA is investigating the water supply issue, plumber Mike Polmear has advised that the water was disconnected some years ago due to burst pipes which according to Mike were the original gal pipes and rather than replace them, the Shire decided to disconnect water to the garden area at the tower. It's still connected to the APEX playground.
Daryl has told me how he had a number of visitors to the site whilst the works were happening, some of whom had connections with the tower through family etc. Some have provided information which has been passed onto the Historical Society.
There appears to be a lot of information and stories out there which need to be captured. One of those is from my mum and until recently I wasn't aware of this. She was 8 at the time and went to the opening after Sunday school. I asked her what she remembered, "There were lots of people." I guess that since it was nearly 91 years ago, one might not remember much although she did remember that her 5-year old brother, (since passed away), didn't want his hair curled to go to Sunday school, but his mum said that if he didn't get it curled, he wasn't going to the opening!