Geometry of Persuasion

While the mapping is in progress, and with regard to the comments on the Back Page about map forming around us rather than recording a reality, I can’t help but reflect on emerging patterns in our map to this point.

The unmistakable winner in the affection of the contributors is the bushland on Rumbalara and Presidents Hill, followed by the Broadwater, with hot spots at Kibble Park and the Swimming Pool. The town is circled by “red dot” positive feelings, i.e. the non-built environment, with a swathe of “blue negative dots” from the western entrance to the Gosford basin, through the stadium and the Leagues Club, Baker Street and parts of Mann Street.
Interestingly this follows the course of the obliterated Gosford Creek. Is this negativity some kind of karmic revenge for disregarding the natural energies of the place, one muses?
Contributors clearly liked being in Kibble Park, at least the grassy bit. No response to the hard-surfaced area to the west of Eliza Street. Emotional anaesthesia seems to be present there and other places seldom frequented such as the dead, blank wall, streetscapes surrounding the shopping centres.
We note that some people, like Miles Buffalo, who have developed independent visions, have tried to take the ‘Gosford Creek’ as a key element in their design. Miles has also completely removed the road from the waterfront – a great improvement, and made a garden/park as the centre piece.


Driving in from Erina Centre (teeming with Easter shoppers), to an almost deserted Gosford, I wondered if it might be better to make a virtue of necessity, and market Gosford as the most peaceful and tranquil town in NSW; a place of gardens, parks, animals, outdoor entertainment etc. Some attempts have already been made in this direction.


Our emotion mapping of Gosford project, and the dominance of natural and organic flows that emerge when people follow their psychogeographic journeys, makes an interesting comparison to the Gosford “Masterplan”.


Complaints in the past about the process of laying out the town on a square grid, that did not take into account natural landforms, seemingly has resulted in the process of laying out plans based on circles – centred, and given radii, so that the intersection of the circumference lines occur where it is convenient for some determined purpose.

In addition to “lines of desire", perhaps we need to introduce an allowance for ‘polydirectional perversity.'

Mapping emotions

The "emotional" mapping of Gosford commenced at the Art inTent forum is ongoing.
Below is an image of interim results.


Instructions, which may or may not have been followed by contributers, were as follows –

Collective Virtual Dérive
Participate in an emotional mapping of Gosford

Contribute your feelings and impressions remembered from being at places, or walking, within the geographic area we call Gosford.

Place your ‘emotion’ dots on the map

Red Dots
Places that attract; have positive energy, are places where you feel comfortable, are in harmony with the natural environment and the shape and spirit of the land.

Blue Dots
Places that repel; have negative energy, which make you feel uncomfortable, uneasy, unwelcome and are discordant with the intrinsic nature of the place.

Hearts
Places of the heart; where you feel a personal resonance with the land (where you would feel most at home with your poetic nature, your ‘inner artist’).

[Each envelope of dots provided contained 4 red and 4 blue dots, and one heart.]

Ceci n'est pas Guernica

Ceci n'est pas Guernica

Word is being received at GT that the notice in the Express Advocate posted on the Back Page art blog is causing some annoyance. It seems that people who have been working hard to make improvements in the civic centre consider it too negative and that it does not acknowledge their efforts.

I am constantly being surprised and pleased to discover so many individuals passionately concerned about the current situation and wanting to do something about bringing new life to Gosford.

However, given their commitment, and the wealth of ideas they have formed, I am constantly surprised that things are still as they are. Perhaps we need to consider what is preventing the good ideas out there from being realised, as well as how the insights that citizens have can be brought into the public area without the frustration of feeling that consultation processes are a form of massaging compliance.
These same people, as well as those who have become cynical with time, have described Gosford in terms of the notice in the Express Advocate, which seems to me to be more strategically provocative than negative.

One cannot deny the validity of the state of affairs described, which is not to deny the work of those seeking to make improvements, or the positive attributes, not stated, which are the reason why many are working in their own ways to fulfill Gosford’s great potential.

Gosford’s main street is lined with Real Estate Agent’s offices. It is perhaps not surprising that the notice in the Advocate parodied the form of the property developer’s spiel.

Perhaps when Picasso painted ‘Guernica’ he should have depicted the “suitability for development” of house sites cleared by bombing.

Past vision for Gosford's future.

The following appeared in the Gosford Times on the 11th. of February, 1898, and imagines Gosford five years into the future, 1903.

One hundred and ten years later we are still arguing about the waterfront and how to link it to the town.
In the writers vision, a place had been found for a library and a centre for the arts, 110 years later we are still waiting.
The wood blocked Mann Street suggests the pedestrian precincts now in vogue in post-mall urban planning, and would be worth considering in Mann Street 2008.
The leisurely walk through the Park to the town, alas, will remain a fantasy, as the Leagues Club and the Stadium (their effect on the area and their political clout) dominate any future for Gosford’s renovation.
The electric tram to the Penang solved the transport problems still faced by Mt Penang, which is still isolated and in greater confusion about its future.


February 1903.
On a lovely moonlit night in February 1903, the Gosford Pier was crowded with promenaders. It was a Saturday. The pier was a splendid modern structure and ran out, towards the middle of the Broadwater, a distance of about 500ft. The shore end was midway between the railway line and the point which I had remembered as the Park.

Gosford Wharf, c. 1885. (Copyright Gosford Library)

I was wondering how the amazing change had come about and was anxiously watching the faces of the people hoping to see one that I knew. I wanted to ask for the history of what had occurred, and as good luck would have it, I recognized a tall figure who was approaching me. It was the well-known manager of the bank. He was alone and noticed me as soon as I had caught his eye.
With a cordial shake of hands we greeted each other.
“I am heartily glad to see you again,” he said. “What do you think of us now?”
“I can hardly believe my own eyes,” I answered. “I am fortunate to have met you for I am full of questions. What was the start of all this wonder?”
“Deepening the Bar. Come along with me out of the crowd and I’ll tell you all about it.”
The strains of a first class band mingled with our voices and helped to make me realize that, wonderful as the story was, it was probable and not merely a dream.
“You see,” he began, “we realized that to make the place as popular as it deserved to be, we must attract the people here and must also give them something to do when we got them to come. Now water carriage is the cheapest of all – and the Bar stood in out way!”
He then went on to tell me of the trouble that the Bar had given them. But with the aid of engineering skill they conquered, and not only made a navigable Bar but dredged a wide channel, where necessary, all the way to the town. The material dredged up was utilized to fill in a sea wall from the railway bridge to the old wharf and thus a stretch of land was reclaimed which together with a portion of the flat was availed of to make a park with pavilions, and the covered in pier had been added as extra attraction. Boats of a speedy type were employed able to bring some 700 passengers at a time. Among so many who came for a breath of sea air and a pleasant outing were some who stayed longer next time.
The Railway Commissioners were awaked by all this to a welcome change of tactics. Fast through trains were put on at a reduced rate, which had proved a great success in every way.
“By the way,” asked my friend, “how did you come here?”
“I have only been here about half an hour; I was staying at Woy Woy and came here by launch.”
“Oh! well, you must come and see the town. I fancy that will surprise you more than ever!”
We walked leisurely along a trim Asphalt road which led away from the pier to the Park gates – and towards the town. I recognised the School of Arts, at least the front of it, for the building had been greatly added to at the back.
“We have a hall of our own now,” said my companion, when I asked him how ‘Rising Sun Lodge’ was getting on. “I fancy I did a prophetic thing in calling it ‘Rising Sun’ he continued.
The Masonic Hall and Club I was told was a fine building on the corner next to the library, where I knew a hotel used to stand.
Mann Street was a revelation! Wood blocked with splendid pavements all the way and lighted by electricity!
I was too amazed to say any more but listened eagerly to the account of all the improvements which had been made.
“You remember the old school church – well the site is now occupied by a new stone church, we used a good deal of the old building on the East side and the result is one of the best buildings in the Diocese.
On the way I noticed that the ‘Royal’ was a good deal improved and was doing well.
“Our old friend, Charley, is also in good fettle.” I was glad to hear this. The genial host of the ‘Fern Tree’ was sure to be doing well, I fancied, and fully merited a good sized slice of the good times.
Opposite the Railway Station I saw a large building which I heard was the ‘Gosford Metropole’ and the company that owned it was also the proprietors of the Pier.
An electric tram took passengers to the heights of the Penang – a source of a good deal of the traffic, as the climate was so splendid for convalescents.
Several furnished cottages had been built together with a Metropole on a smaller scale to the ‘Gosford’ and were at present sufficient. But the trade was growing larger and more accommodation would soon be needed.
It is needless to say that I was glad that prosperity had come to Gosford for I had always had a soft spot for the place.
I stayed a week and renewed old acquaintances. It is a pleasure to hear on every side tales of improvement and good times, and it was strange to think that it was all owing to subduing that old Bar which had seemed to us once such a stumbling block.

Bull stomps on rider.
Express Advocate 16th January, 2008.

Report of injuries to a bull rider at a Rodeo at Kanwal.



More so an everyday occurrence in Gosford in the past. Perhaps Gosford Council could keep bull riding in mind when asking for suggestions for “passive” activities for Kibble Park. Is a “passive” activity in this case an oxymoron?

Gosford Times, January, 1898
A bull said to be the property of Mr. C C Fagan, at present running loose about the town, is playing up with disastrous effects. In a fight at East Gosford this week it gored one young bull to death and seriously injured another. It is also alleged to have chased several children. Surely it is high time our civic authorities did something to protect the lives and property of the inhabitants from danger of this kind. No more convincing argument could be advanced in favour of the establishment of a pound.


Gosford Times Feb. 1998
Whilst a dead bullock was being removed from a truck at the local railway station on Wednesday night another bullock escaped and got clear of the station enclosure. The furious beast is still at large.

Disorders

A recent letter in the Express Advocate deplored the impunity with which foul language is used in public places these days. The writer might have been interested in this news in the Gosford Times, January 7th, 1898.

"At the local Court House on the 5th inst Alfred Newinson was fined 40s and 4s 10d costs, or 21 days gaol, for using obscene language at Wyong."

In Gosford, other forms of foulness were afoot.

"As typhoid had made its appearance in several outlying districts it behoves the Gosford Municipal Council to take precautions against an outbreak here by keeping the gutters clean and well disinfected. Residents should also see to the sanitary arrangements of their back-yards."

But for some relief was available - advertised in the same edition:

A valuable testimony

We the undersigned, wish to state to all suffering women that their case is not hopeless – they can be cured of many and all diseases which Dr, Coonley’s Specific Remedies are recommended to cure. We have used “Orange Lily”, and pronounce it the best remedy for those diseases peculiar to our sex that we have ever tried. Very truly, Mrs. F. Waters, Mrs. Robert Crooks, Ms. D. Oberlin, Mrs. Geo. Bailey.
Our month’s treatment 10s, post free, from 26 Imperial Arcade, Sydney.

New Year Fortune Cookies

Following the Town for Sale post, and in view of the dominant Real Estate thinking and its physical presence in Gosford, here is a little reading for the holiday.


Artists are the primary producers of creative cultural capital, without artists there would be no secondary Creative Industries. It is now widely accepted that the knowledge based and creative industries will be the drivers of future economies, so it is essential to build that relationship between individual experimental art activities and Creative Enterprises into the planning of Gosford as a “living” city. Beijing’s Precinct 798 and Gaobeidian Art District, being examples of China’s astoundingly rapid embracing of the fact that it is the experimental artists that provide the social foundation and creative milieu that attracts talent, and upon which the creative industries depend. Contemporary Chinese artists are now the “hot items” in the international art market.
-ed.

[Notes on the Creative Industries and the Creative Class –US statistics.
The Creative Class. A term Richard Florida originated to define the core force of economic growth of our society. Richard Florida is Professor of Business and Creativity at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.]

“This is the most important target audience in consumer marketing today, according to the Creative Class Group. Even though the Creative Class represents only a third of the workforce, they earn more than $2.1 trillion dollars - 50% of all wages and salaries in the United States. This total represents as much as the Manufacturing and service sectors combined.
The Creative Class controls nearly 70% - almost $500 billion - of the discretionary income (buying power) in the United States. This is more than double that of the manufacturing and service sectors combined. The Creative Class is expected to add more than 10 million jobs in the next decade.”

The Rise and Fall of Beijing’s Creative Business District
by Bert de Muynck
This article was published in Commercial Real Estate #4 April/May
2007.

Intro
The creative industries, which comprise of the arts, media, and design, are among the fastest growing economic sectors globally. The global market value of the creative cluster was estimated at more than 1 trillion U.S. dollars last year. Since Richard Florida published "The Rise of the Creative Class" (2002) it became a must-implement for civic policymakers, city planners, developers, artists, arts administrators and public officials. Recently the Chinese
government decided to invest more in the Creative Industries and its effect can be felt. Besides being a concept, the creative industries need a dynamic and stimulating urban and artistic environment from and in where they can operate. While the internationally renowned art
district 798, Dazhanzi area, is being transformed from a living art community into a economy driven displaying art district, thereby giving frictions between the artists and the owners of the area, the Seven Star Group, the Boloni Group – a Chinese-Italian consortium producing kitchens and furniture and headed by well known personality Cai Ming, the CEO of China’s number one total design company, Kebao & Boloni Kitchen & Bathroom Furniture - recently presented their plans for the development of a new art area. Called Gaobeidian Art District, it is located Beijing’s central Chang’An Avenue eastward beyond the fifth ring road. Bert de Muynck gives an overview of the rise and fall of the Creative Business District 798 and gives a first row overview of the ambitions brewing in the Gaobeidian area.

798
history

Between the third and fourth ring road in northeast Beijing, on the way to the airport, sits Factory 798, China’s biggest and internationally acclaimed art district. 50 years ago, Factory 798 was set up as an electronic production site, far away from the city center, where some of the key components of China’s first atomic bomb and man-made satellite where manufactured. All this labor was roofed under grandiose East German factory architecture. 798’s total ground
surface is 360,000 sq meters. In 2004 the area’s real estate was valued at an estimate of more than RMB1 billion, but at the same time the presence of galleries and institutions related with selling art more than doubled. The current value of 798 is unknown. At the end of
the 1980s the factory faced reality; production slowed down, and at the end of the 1990s a large number of buildings were left vacant.
This situation facilitated the Central Academy of Fine Arts housing their sculpture department in some of the empty buildings; they were an inexpensive and spacious temporary option. Soon after, the sculptors were joined by a group of independent artists who moved in after failing to create an artists’ village elsewhere, because of restrictions from Communist authorities. The communist leadership finally left them alone, but in the mean time their presence turned
the area into a successful art district. This led to bitter relations between the artists and the landowners, who through a series of events (no more leasing of space to artists and no renewals of their rent contracts) managed to move out the founders and opened the door
for business-driven (both Chinese as international) galleries, foundations and corporations. Now, Hang Rui, 798’s leading artist, has teamed up with Cai Ming to develop their dream of a Chinese artist community near Beijing’s Central Business District called the Gaobeidian Art District, while plans for 798 during the last year have swung between demolition, the creation of China’s Silicon Valley and recently, with government support, to preserve it a ‘cultural zone’.

Factory 798’s recent history is a struggle between the desires of the artist community and the realpolitik of the landlords, SSGC. This started in 2002 when artists and cultural organizations began to divide, rent out, and re-make the factory spaces, gradually developing them into galleries, art centers, artists' studios, design companies, restaurants, and bars. "798" became a cultural concept, influential on concepts of artists’ communities, urban culture and living space. At the same time, to make ends meet, buildings were rent of for business activities for Dior, Shell, Toyota and Omega. Bérenice Angremy, part of the team involved in developing the
Gaobeidian Area and director of Thinking Hands Co.,LTD, working for five years in 798, explains the evolution: “We can see three different phases. In the first phase, 2002-2005, we moved into a largely empty factory and organically turned it into an art district.
The first galleries entering here, had a mission; to fill the gap in Beijing’s creative society. 798 was from the start a space open to the public, realizing that one day it would be demolished. After the three year contract finished, we renewed it year by year with SSGC, our landlord. They did not recognize 798 as an art district. In the second phase, after 2005, SSGC stopped renting to foreigners and artists; this explains the big amount of second-hand rents. At that
time the international art world recognized 798, giving it fame. The third phase, summer 2006, starts when the Chaoyang District decided to preserve 798; making it into one of the ten pools of creativity for Beijing. They made a deal with Seven Stars Group off which we are not aware.” 798’s acclaimed transformation made SSGC eager to maximize the rental income paid by artists, galleries and other facilities. At the same time officials in Chaoyang District (where
798 is located) and some of Beijing's vice mayors preserved the area
as a "cultural zone" in harmony with plans for the 2008 Olympics. A nonbinding resolution to that effect was passed in the National People's Congress.

From living art community to display art community

The transformation from an experimental art community into a guided art business district, supported by foreign investment, is not necessarily bad, explains Dutch architect Neville Mars, part of the team involved in developing the Gaobeidian Area and chairman of the Dynamic City Foundation: “The 798 process is pretty standard, not only in China. Worldwide, art districts, when successful, move towards expensive rents and quick changes in tenants. The question
how that process occurs is another matter, if it becomes a vibrant essential part of the city, like SOHO in NY and London than it is positive. In 798 there is a weird contradiction between management and no-management. In the current situation the market and government try to be the guiding force to make it successful, dealing with something they have no idea about, while the people in the field feel it takes undesirable directions. When I moved into 798, we were part of a community. Today there is nobody left. There are no more art producers around, only art sellers.”

The preservation of 798 is questioned by both Neville Mars and Bérenice Angrémy on its capacity to keep the identity of the area, its raison-d’etre of being internationally acclaimed. Neville Mars expresses his doubts: “The so-called international status, which people say it already has, is being regarded differently by municipality and the Seven Stars Group whenever it convenes them, they want to push it forward as an international Olympic attraction,
not acknowledging the original qualities the foreigners came here for. It is being developed so much it looses its quality. For me, the most interesting question is, what is the program in area like this and what role does it play in the city?” Bérenice Angrémy formulates the question how to safeguard artistic quality as follows: “To have business, like cafes, is not a bad thing, we wanted this. I question the quality. If you open the door for resourceful galleries that are
not competitive in terms of quality, that is a problem, that is business for business. Now it is obvious our landlord wants to split the district in one art and one commercial section. There will be clothing stores here, but we don’t need that. If you allow the clothing market, you are dead, it is not an art district.”

The Gaobeidian Art District
With 798 under pressure, the East part of Beijing is taking the lead in becoming Beijing’s cultural hotspot, for which I propose the a new slant on the acronym CBD, this time as Creative Business District. Plans and investments are on the table to create Gaobeidian Art District, developed by Cai Ming and 798/Dashanzi figurehead Huang Rui. Cai Ming leased for 50 years a 22-hectacre site with old factories surrounded by green.

International vision for total solution design.
Cai Ming is a leading Chinese businessman in the field of high-end kitchen equipment and collaborated with Italy Boloni to found the Boloni Kitchen & Bathroom Furniture (Beijing) Co., Ltd. In 2005 Cai Ming introduced the integrated home equipment décor and design solution as a basic component of modern lifestyle. Cai Ming works with 70 designers in China, 19 in Italy and made RMB700 million in sales last year. Three years ago he bought a furniture factory in the Gaobeidian area, hoping to establish his own factory district. Soon after, the area was incorporated into the CBD (Central Business Distirct) and factory development was forbidden. This turned Cai Ming almost overnight into a developer: “At that time I had no experience
as a developer. Boloni is a life-style brand, interested in fashion, architecture, interior design,… from all over the world. We study how a luxury brand relates to life-style – in different countries and cultures. When the government changed the area’s function all this got intertwined, and I decided to develop this area for art, culture and creative industries.” Cai Ming is during the interview I conducted very clear about the potential of the location, the support from the local government (who praises him, tells he, for his international vision) and his confidence in the growth of Chinese culture: “I think our location is very important, it is not downtown, but on the fifth ring in the East. In the next years, all the real estate investment will come to this area. By cooperating with the government we can keep the price low, which is important in the art and creative industry, they can’t pay high rents. In the first 5 to 10 years we plan low-cost so to let galleries, artists and design companies enter; after this we will invest in high value commercial projects.” One third of the site is old factories, to be renovated
under the supervision of Huang Rui, two thirds will be planned from scratch, by Neville Mars. For the long term vision Cai Ming is advised by Bérenice Angremy. The first phase will turn the old factories into an artist village; the trigger to develop the other parts of the area.

The plan for GBD Art District involves six blocks on 450,000sq meters of land and includes: the Industrial Renewal Art District; the Flagship Store Street (international top brand stores); the New Scene of Qingming Shanghe Street (traditional culture); the Peach Blossom Island (bars and clubs); the Creative Land (avant garde art) and the Business District (high class hotel and conference center). This six block area is slated for completion in 2010.

Integrated development of art and market

Cai Ming counters his inexperience as a developer by focusing on the uniqueness of the project and the opportunity to bring Boloni, by the end of 2008, to the stock market: “It is very difficult and nobody knows how to manage a residential, commercial, art area; there is no
experience in the world. We are the company, along with experts, that is the most suitable to do this.” In the first two year he will invest 10 million euro, predicting an overall investment of 100 million euro. The initial investment is low; due to low renovation costs, providing artists low renting costs. The return on investment will come on longer terms, when the commercial and residential project in the GDB south area kick in: “I think the profit will be very high, because the cost for the place is not high, that is very important. But if we do the normal things like others, than there will be no profit. We want to be unique in the world; the only art and culture consuming area. There will be 20 million foreign visitors in Beijing and five times more Chinese visitors; with this mind we will be the only place to show the real China, the culture; from history to future. We will show its content; from within. If we have this, our business value will grow in another five years, this is also possible because our site is big enough.”

To make this project happen, Cai Ming works together with foreign experts like Neville Mars and Bérenice Angremy who see the potentiality of the new art district by intertwining the Chinese culture climate with the development of the Creative Industries in Beijing and the eastward expansion, beyond the CBD area, of the Beijing Metropolitan Area. As such GBD can become a pivotal point in Beijing’s urban, artistic and cultural expansion. Neville Mars
explains the challenge as follows: “We are building from scratch, which is almost against the nature of the art districts, where planners have very little influence. Our plan will have a buildable footprint of 60,000 square meters and the built floor area is 6 times this, with a FAR (floor area ratio) of 2 – creating semi-high density and semi-high density.”

Bérenice was contacted for her involvement in the re-orientation of 798-area, she formulates her long-term vision as follows: “Give priority to the art district, not only displaying art, but also living with art; that comes from our experience here. 798 was completely organic. Thinking about people that are around and not only the art that is displayed. Another key thing is the green land. We can give a quality of life to Beijing, coming from the art atmosphere, but also from the services you give.” Equally important as setting up the program for the area, she sees the involvement and commitment of the Cai Ming, the developer, to move the project
forward, without loosing the understanding of the business side of it: “We are very clear which part is business and which not, in 798 we are under the pressure of only money. They just want to grab what they can grab, here we have a person that came to us, I have this idea, this is a huge land, green and beautiful. That brings Beijing a new quality of life that involves art.”

Conclusion
The rapid speed of urban development characterizing the Chinese cities lead to considerable questions about the quality of life that is being created. In a society changing its culture at rapid pace and seeing the emergence of the Creative Industries, landowners and real-estate developers are faced with the question how to provide these groups with affordable spaces, understanding its potentiality to make profit on long terms and its need to create a sustainable environment where creativity and profit are not competing, but reinforcing and supporting each other; combining the best of both worlds. These two case-studies from Beijing, 798 as a struggle between ambitions, GDB as one expressing the ambition to find a harmonious development, could be seen as a model for what could happen in other Chinese cities; whether in art districts in Shanghai, Guangzhou or Chongqing. Incorporating the programs for the Creative Industries in the larger
context of urban development, like happens in the GBD area, poses new challenges for the relation between developers, clients, market, audience and artists. Possessing a great market value, being very vocal, having the ability to draw international attention and possessing a keen eye to develop from the bottom up successful urban environments, the creative industries seem to be ready, as illustrated in the case of GBD, to invest their talent in collaborating with real estate development in order to create profitable, livable, attractive and sustainable urban environments.

24th Dec. 1897

Christmas reading from The Gosford Times, 24th. of December 1897

Gosford baths are still a thing of the future.

Gosford has again demonstrated its lack of energy and enterprise by failing to provide sports of any kind for the holidays. Yet business people wonder why Gosford is deserted on such occasions.

“It never rains but what it pours” is an old adage that has been amply verified by the copious rains of the past week. It is many years since such a wet period was experienced at this time of the year. Truly, the seasons are changing.

The local Swimming Club will hold a carnival in the creek at Narara this (Friday) afternoon. A good programme of events has been issued.

CLEMENTS TONIC, THE WORLDS GREAT RESTORATIVE HAS CURED MORE CASES OF INDIGESTION, NEURALGIA, WEAKNESS, DEBILITY, DROPSY,BRIGHT’S DISEASE, AND LIVER COMPLAINTS THAN ALL OTHER MEDICINES PUT TOGETHER.
If you are sick and value your life insist on having Clements Tonic, and no substitute or you will be disappointed.

A large number of fishing parties, tourists &c. have visited Woy Woy during the past few weeks, and it is thought that the Christmas holidays will see many more people visiting this popular resort.

We are informed that a cancerous bullock is to be seen straying about not far from Wyong. The animal is said to be in such a frightful plight from the disease in one of its eyes as to be a positive menace to stock in the neighborhood. We rust the police will enquire into the matter.

THE WEAK AND NERVOUS REQUIRE
A wholesome tonic such as Wolf’s Schnapps, to give necessary impetus to vital machinery and to render it healthfully active.

BEST WISHES FOR CHRISTMAS 2007

Town for Sale

Says it all really.
Will they never learn?
Glad to see the photo includes two of Gosford's most aesthetically disastrous past planning developments, the Brian McGowan Bridge and the Blue Tongue Stadium.

Here's looking at you.

Looking back
Mr Morris, of Ourimbah, sustained a rather heavy loss during the week by the death of his prize cow Lucky, which took first prize in the milking contest at the recent Gosford Show. Death, which occurred after a very short illness, is supposed to be due to the eating of quinces which were growing in the paddock.
Gosford Times: 4th. March, 1898.

Looking forward

This illustration by Grant E. Hamilton ran in the February 16, 1895 issue of Judge magazine and can be found in the book Out of Time by Norman Brosterman. It is a postcard image of what the future would be like in the year 2000

Looking sideways
‘Wombat’ for night.
A man, 63, of Dunedoo, who was visiting his daughter at East Gosford, spent the night in a wombat hole at Rumbalara reserve last week. Police say the man went outside for a cigarette about 9.10pm and wasn’t seen again. A search involving police dogs and Polair eventually found the man at 11am the next day.
Express Advocate: 31st October, 2007.

Lying in a wombat hole or Mr. Morris’ paddock, who is looking at the stars?

(insert image of Gosford in the year 2100)

Pollywaffle

Speaking of old pollys at this time of elections, you might recall an earlier post about geriatric parrots at Eric Worrells earlier on the Gosford Times. We are not alone.

A work by Rachel Berwick is worth a visit – you can also hear the birds on her website which is the source of the following text.
In 1799, the German naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt, embarked on a journey through Venezuela to trace the _Orinoco River to its source. During his travels Von Humboldt was said to have acquired a parrot from a Carib Indian tribe which, some days before his arrival, had attacked and eliminated a neighboring tribe, the Maypure’. During the attack, the Carib tribe had taken parrots which the Maypure’ people had kept as pets. Von Humboldt noted that the parrots were speaking words, not in the language of the tribe he was visiting, but in the language of the recently destroyed Maypure’: thus the parrots were the only living ‘speakers’ of the Maypure’ language. They were, in fact the sole conduit through which an entire tribe’s existence could be traced. Von Humboldt phonetically recorded the bird’s vocabulary; these notes constitute the only trace of the lost tribe...
For this installation I trained two Amazon parrots to speak Maypure’. The parrots live within a sculptural aviary and are only seen in shadow through its translucent walls. The birds chatter at will, incorporating the language with a multitude of sounds generated by them and their environment.



There is a full account at Parrot Chronicles.

Lets face it

The faces of Gosford.
How things change in two months.

From Bad To Worse
(Gosford City Sun, May 17, 2007)

Photo: Phillip Hearne

"Homelessness has escalated from bad to worse" Mr Maher (the Mayor) said.
"..the failure of governments to provide money for housing has led to the homelessness blowout...with low-income earners unable to afford housing locally, the effects on their livelihoods will be brutal.

Mayor: chamber worth every cent of $519,000
(Express Advocate 13 July, 2007)

Photo: Troy Snook

"When I look at it now, we can actually hold events such as the citizenship ceremony with some level of dignity and decorum. It is now much brighter and more befitting of a city the stature of Gosford"

[I am rather sorry I missed the earlier undignified ceremonies conducted without decorum]

Who're you lookin' at!

Gosford - 8th July, 2007

The curtain opens on a new era for public space in Gosford.

As it is with most cases where CCTV has been installed in Australian cities, the driving force has been the Chamber of Commerce in a quest to revitalise the CBD and enhance retail life. It is also an attempt to counter the results of previous planning decisions which have drained life from the town centre by encouraging Mall development elsewhere. In this regard Gosford finds itself in a predicament similar to many cities around the world.

Like other cities Gosford seems to be trying to compete by becoming more like the shopping Malls (which are becoming more like small cities), albeit outdoor, but with the same range of customer services, franchises and entertainments presented in a neat, controlled, designed, brand-identity ambience. Malls are private space, but now our Councils want to make our public space in the image of the private Mall.

Clearly an occasion for joy and celebration (perhaps Mayor Laurie Maher and Council General Manager Peter Wilson are dreaming of their trip to Japan and Slovenia in August)

Projects of beautification and tidiness are being applied to street-scapes and people alike. Recently in Gosford (16th of June) it was very difficult to find the Book Fair because the Rangers had removed all the signs.

Every night and every day
The awfulisers work away
Awfulising public places,
Favourite things and little graces
Awfulising lovely treasures
Common joys and simple pleasures
Awfulising far and near
The parts of life we held so dear
Democratic, clean and lawful
Awful, awful, awful, awful.
(Michael Leunig. 1997)

I am reminded of a story which told how Roll Royce took an early version of the automatic gearbox developed by a US auto maker and improved it by re-engineering the rough edges to a smooth precise finish, only to find that it no longer worked. They discovered that apparent imperfection, a little abrasion, is necessary. Perhaps the same is true of urban life.

It is interesting to note that a recent court ruling in the US upheld the rights of a group being prosecuted for holding its political protest in a shopping mall, on the grounds that society has reached a point where the ‘private property’ space of a mall is understood as public.

Private security guard surveys the opening crowd.


Now our village greens, our traditionally known public spaces, are becoming privatised and the personally private nature of experience in public space is disappearing.

But do people care? Most people seem to be happy in the thought that CCTV surveillance makes the streets safer. There seems to be little hard evidence that this is the case, so perhaps it is merely the perception that counts. However if you are counting dollars ($320,000), it is reasonable to ask whether resources could not be better allocated to addressing the causes of crime and assisting both the community, and potential offenders, through community policing.




It was announced on Friday that Gosford street cleaners have been trained in "multi-tasking" and are part of the security team.

Research indicates that CCTV surveillance does not in itself reduce crime, but is likely to move it from the town centre to the suburbs, although it can be of use in investigating misdemeanors after the event, but psychopaths and chemically unstable individuals are not likely to be rationally considering apprehension before they act, and calculating criminals will have planned to avoid the cameras.

Who’re you lookin’ at!

All the worlds a stage, and you are “on”. So now is your chance to let the inner exhibitionist out. But consider your appearance and behaviour carefully – you are being scrutinised. Do you know how that funny habit you have, when you think you are alone, will be interpreted? And what do you know about the person who can zoom in on any part of your body without you knowing?
We live in a State of Emergency which, as we know, “justifies” any measures.

How to be not “seen”
Don’t be an attractive female.
Do not deviate from preconceived norms of Gosford appearance and behaviour. Do not wear a hoodie.
Do not be ‘ethnic’, coloured, or make extravagant bodily gestures and/or laugh too loudly.

But lets not be negative. This is your chance to star!

We thought it best to join in the applause.

Urban Eyeball

The following contribution was received from Sophy Webb. Serendipitous, considering that Gosford's newly installed CCTV surveillance system will be officially launched this Friday afternoon in William Plaza.
The nature of public space in Gosford will have been fundamentally changed.
See you in the Plaza!

From Sophy:


Rain Causes Eyeball Delay

Rain has again delayed the planned installation of 54 Closed Circuit Television Cameras in the Gosford CBD.

The cameras were to be operational by 16 June but torrential rain and strong winds caused the installation to be postponed. After yet another delay, spokesperson for the agency charged with the development and installation of the CCT System, Eyeball on Gosford (EBOG), expressed considerable frustration stating that important information was being lost with each passing day.

When asked to explain the purpose of the EBOG system, the spokesperson animatedly described a system would track and report the habits of Gosford CBD pedestrians “much like the way in which Australian Shoppers’ habits are tracked by Fly Buys.”

He reported that the commissioning of the system was prompted by the report of unusual behaviour in February this year in the Gosford City CBD. Eyewitnesses reported, along with other strange occurrences, a western-style shootout and the disturbing gagging of a young woman in the main street.

He was not able to explain, however, the eventual usefulness of the data, appearing confused at the purpose of the question.

A Central Coast resident and Gosford CBD frequenter discounts the credibility of the system stating, “EBOG are providing paper-thin explanations for the purpose of this system. They have assured the public that these are not security cameras so this leads me to wonder what the use of these cameras are and what the data will be used for.”

EBOG spokesperson has ascertained that the placement of the cameras will not be in high pedestrian areas such as the Railway Station, Cafes, Shopping Complexes, Retail Outlets or Banks and Real Estates, but will be situated in far less populated locations such as Waterfall Arcade.

Burns Park, once a vibrant meeting place for travellers but now mostly deserted, will host three EBOG cameras



“What is the point of that?” asks a Gosford Worker. “If the aim is to monitor and track the habits of the Gosford Pedestrian Public, then the placement is all wrong. Burns Park and in particular the Rotary Fountain, designed and built by the Lewers Family as a Memorial to Peace, has long been ignored and neglected”.

One wonders if the purpose of the system is a futile one?

When pressed for details of the timeframe for the finalisation of the camera placement, the spokesperson replied, “The cameras will be installed in predetermined locations one sunny day soon…”.

City Limits

If you go down to the woods today…..

Well actually if you go up, to Rumbalara Reserve, you will see that the recent wind almost gave Charles Sturt a big surprise. A large Eucalypt, under which the statue of Charles Sturt sits, crashed down narrowly missing him.


Why he was there in the first place is a bit of a mystery to me, having not noticed in history lessons a connection between the explorer and Gosford.

In fact he was commissioned by SaraLee Kitchens and the State Bicentennial Commission along with Charles Kingsford Smith, Edward Eyre and Matthew Flinders, and sculpted by Joan Relk and Carl Merten.



But he does look a bit lost sitting there with his bronze map and a view of the bushes across the track.
Gosford has not treated him well. Not only does he appear to have had his pocket picked, but his hands have been cut off as well.



Perhaps an overdetermined reading of this vandalism would interpret the practice of mapping and surveying an act of theft; a rendering of wilderness, the “other”, the unalienated world, to property and private ownership. Property is theft, as Marx said, and in some places the punishment for theft is to have the hands cut off.

Mapping and surveying were critical to the appropriation of the land in Australia and to controlling a rapidly expanding society. In 1826 Governor Hunter proclaimed the “limits of location”, the surveyed line defining an area comprising the 19 counties beyond which settlement was not permitted. One story has it that the line passed through the Black Stump Run at that time near Coolah, and hence we have the term “beyond the black stump”. Needless to say no one took much notice and they took to the bush.









The “limit of location” in Gosford is sharply defined where the town and Rumbalara meet. But now Charles Sturt has his own Black Stump to sit beside as he regards the property speculations below in the location of limits.

What we need is

Last Monday it was so crowded at Erina Fair, and difficult to park, that I went to Gosford.
Parking was no problem, there was little going on at all in the shadows of Gosford Castle for the holiday weekend.

Gosford Castle, Gosford.

Has it always been thus?

“Gosford has again demonstrated its lack of energy and enterprise by failing to provide sports of any kind for the holidays. Yet business people wonder why Gosford is deserted on such occasions.”
(Gosford Times, 24th December, 1897)

Mann Street, Monday,11th June 2007.

Perhaps we should ask, if not sport, what can a town like Gosford offer that cannot be found at Shopping Malls? If we are to resuscitate the town it could be useful to look at what it is that successful cities have that gives them life and a distinct identity.

In every example I can think of it is cultural activities and educational institutions. I.e. reference libraries, museums, contemporary art, music and film centres; an enlivened public domain. Gosford has none of these.

At one time Gosford was at the cutting edge of technology – at least in terms of access to cinema, now there are no cinemas in the town. Movies were shown in Gosford in July 1897.

“On Monday evening last Captain Pierce and Harrison’s Company gave a variety performance in the local School of Arts to a fair audience. A first-class programme was gone through comprising magical and ventriloquial feats by Professors Harrison, Barker and Benson; also a series of living colored pictures reproduced by the wonderful invention styled the cinematographe. The company also performed at Ourimbah and Wyong to fair houses.”
(Gosford Times 7th July, 1897)

No bad considering that the cinematographe was patented by the Lumière brothers in 1895, although other moving picture devices were in existence earlier. In 1892 the young engineer Léon Bouly designed a successful 'Cinématographe'. In 1893 he was granted a patent on an improved version, the 'Cinématographe Bouly'. Bouly couldn't come up with the yearly patent fees, and Antoine Lumière, picked up the expired patent and obtained one on the Cinématographe Lumière in the name of his sons Auguste and Louis.
The first time that projected motion pictures were shown to a paying audience in Australia was on Saturday 22nd August 1896 at the Melbourne Opera House, where Carl Hertz demonstrated his amazing 'Cinematographe' machine (R.W. Paul's Theatrograph) In 1896-97 James MacMahon opened the Salon Cinématographe in Pitt Street, Sydney. A Cinématographe Lumière was used to film the Melbourne Cup in 1896.

Still from Lumière Bros. 1895 movie.

I do not know which films were shown in Gosford, as many had been made by that time, but we were there at the leading edge of art and technology 110 years ago. (Of course the telephone line from Sydney only arrived in Gosford the same year.)

I cannot see how Gosford can revive itself other than by investing in the means to nurture contemporary art, knowledge and technology. "Creative Industries" might be a "buzz word" concept, but it is one in tune with the post-industrial economy of high-speed communications that we inhabit.

Switching on the light bulb.

When will the light bulb go on?

Gosford Council has been judged the nation’s poorest recycler of effluent. This follows 5 consecutive years of it being recognised as the worst council in NSW, as measured by public complaints.

While local papers are full of pictures of Councilors as champions of the people, and council spin about its achievements, it is assumed that, unlike the rest of nature, Central Coast residents do not need to fully recycle. Such hubris comes at a price.

We are exhorted to change our light bulbs while the World Bank spends millions promoting oil exploration and the carbon market is booming.

But perhaps an example from the past can show how to integrate energy savings while alleviating social need.

From the Gosford Times, 19th November, 1897.
“An experiment of providing boiling water heated by the ordinary street lamps is to be tried in London. A halfpenny dropped in the slot will secure a gallon. Side by side with the same will be placed automatic machines for the delivery of halfpenny and penny packets of tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar and meat extract, enabling people any hour of the night to obtain a stimulating beverage, a chained cup for the purpose being provided.”

Why this measure was not adopted in Gosford might be surmised by a piece in the Times three weeks later.


10th December, 1897.
“No cabs, no lights; what a funny little place Gosford is,” exclaimed a lady visitor who trudged through the mud and darkness from the railway station the other night. This is surely a significant reflection on the town lamp. Which alderman’s turn is it to find the oil?

Gobsmacked

Speaking of balloons -

A deflating juxtaposition of images (adjoining pages) in the Gosford City SUN last week.

(Photo credits: Left, Phillip Hearne, Right, Benoit Doppagne)

A year in the Clouds

The Backpage this week has a post using the balloon as a metaphor to talk about strategies with limited sustainability for boosting art development, and to discuss "drift" and "spectacle"

A more concrete balloon story, is from the Gosford Times, 20th August, 1897.

"A pigeon has been shot by the captain of a sealing vessel in the Arctic Ocean, bearing the message, signed by Herr Andree, the aeronaut, who recently started his balloon for the North Pole. Herr Andree’s message, the date of which was illegible, stated that he had passed 82 degrees north at a good speed, and was still going northward."

A LAST GLIMPSE OF THE BALLOON AS IT SAILED AWAY FOR A YEAR IN THE CLOUDS

Must be Something in the Water

The nexus between frogs and Coca Cola Amatil is not new, (check the Frog’s Head in in Diet Coke story) It highlights a fundamental conflict between the profit imperatives of a global corporation and local realities; social and ecological. This was most clearly seen in the well-publicised catastrophe in India.


For Gosford residents, the issue is given greater sharpness with the generous arrangements offered to Coca Cola Amatil to take water from the Mangrove Mountain aquifer at this time of water shortage and global warming.
With growing obesity, dental decay in children, etc., perhaps we need to take an inside look at the consequences of consuming beverages of this kind.
Today the Howard government refused the advice from health organizations to restrict TV junk food advertising screened in children’s viewing time. Why do they think these companies advertise if not to increase sales of junk food?
Of course at this time when water trading is being touted as a solution to government over-allocation of water licenses and over-consumption by Gosford and Wyong Councils, the fundamental question of how water became “privatised” is overlooked.