Botany Road – Will it ever be open?

Over the last couple of months we have covered the saga of the heritage-listed Yiu Ming Temple in Alexandria, which seems to have been affected by the massive development next door. About 4.20am on Thursday March 6, a major water main ruptured beneath Botany Road, Alexandria, approximately 20 metres south of McEvoy Street and adjacent to a construction site.

Then a Recovery Committee, chaired by the NSW Police Force, with Sydney Water and the RTA was set up. The committee is advising members of the public about ongoing road closures affecting Botany Road, Alexandria. Police media reports: “Following advice from engineers, who undertook an examination of the structural integrity of a retaining wall, an area of Botany Road was sealed off. This was due to public safety issues relating to the retaining wall on the Eastern side of the excavated construction site.”

Ongoing traffic diversions around the affected section of Botany Road, between McEvoy Street and Bourke Road, have remained in place with special event clearways and other traffic management initiatives implemented to assist with the flow of traffic around the site. The water that flowed into the excavated pit of the construction site has now been pumped out and an operation is underway to transfer existing soil from the site to a position alongside the retaining wall to assist in stabilising it. The next phase of the recovery and repair operation involves further stabilisation of the affected retaining wall with large amounts of sand.

Sydney Water says that it is investigating the cause of the burst main. On its website it is claimed that “the ground around the temple has problems of subsidence. The water main appears to have been sound and its fracture may have been related to subsidence in the soil. There is a major construction site nearby”.

We asked Sydney Water what it thought was the cause of the burst water main. The response was: “You wouldn’t have to be a genius to work that out.” We contacted the developers to ask what they say has caused the burst water main as well as the subsidence around the area of the temple and there was no response. They are not commenting.

As we go to print, Botany Road is still closed at Alexandria. Who will pay for the damage has yet to be decided. When will things be back to normal? We will keep you informed.

Wisdom from the Cross

Rev. Graham Long from Wayside was on the ABC TV news as well as ABC radio.

Rev. Long explained in his weekly email to Wayside supporters: “I was trying to point out that our policy of prohibition of heroin was simply not working. In spite of all the money we spend on prohibition, there is plenty of heroin around. It is my view that the government could take control of this market and starve a criminal class to death in one fell swoop. If the government decided to treat all addicts as people with a medical problem, whether heroin or alcohol or whatever, we would be taking a step toward not only a more humane policy but one that would be more effective and considerably cheaper to run.” He then went on to ask the million-dollar question: “Why it is so hard to get a rational discussion going on this issue is a mystery to me. Why does a truly great Australian hero like Dr Alex Wodak have his voice of reason, compassion and wisdom rendered to a voice in the wilderness?”

I hope, as does Rev. Long, that “Maybe one day public discussion on this matter will be more influenced by Dr Wodak who played a pivotal role in saving this country from an AIDS epidemic than by our plethora of shock jocks who are more interested in ratings than in any concept of the truth or the common good.”

The Herald isn’t on your door step before you go to work

Peter Beattie, when he was Premier, made apology an art form and it always seemed to work. After all, he never lost an election. His motto seemed to be: “If you stuff up, call a press conference, smile and offer apologies.”

John Fairfax, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Fin Review seems to be doing a Peter Beattie. Last month the publisher apologised to a senior journalist, Gerard Noonan, after accusing him of leaking photos of a decorating error to News Limited. Then last month it wrote to every newsagent across the state apologising for the continual lateness of its papers.

The lateness has been causing real problems for newsagents. Many customers seemed to blame the poor old newsagents who copped a flogging from their irate customers every time the paper wasn’t on their door step before they went to work. So, next time your Herald is not on your doorstep before you go to work, spare a thought for the overworked newsagent.

Finally coming down – the incinerator at Waterloo

Standing at a bus stop on Botany Road a few weeks ago I was pleased to see that work on demolition of the Waterloo incinerator has started. I, for one, am pleased. I was working as a street sweeper in the Redfern Waterloo area in the early 90s and my health was affected – my asthma became a problem. I always thought what cheek two Eastern Suburbs Councils – Woolhara and Waverly Council – had in burning their rubbish in Redfern Waterloo and not in their own back yards. I mean, why not take it to the North Shore, maybe somewhere like Lindfield, and build an incinerator? No, they chose South Sydney. I’m sure I speak for many people when I say that it should have been torn down years ago.