Task Force 72

After a few years of making presentations to council and the local community,I did another presentation to the community and councillors on Thursday the 22nd of April. I took CHURCHILL down, along with lots of photos and information about how it could be done, to our local Bowling Club where 9 plans (ideas) were presented to a large crowd. We each had 5 minutes to explain our idea along with how it might affect the local community with tourism, benefits etc. Everything from new playground equipment, educational parks, an open air amphitheatre, walking tracks and a open air observatory and constellation park.

Following the presentations people got to wander around, ask questions and sign a letter of support for the idea. These were then put on public display and online where more support signatures could be added. These were collected by one of our local councillors and he ideas presented to the council general meeting held on Tuesday the 27th of April for the 9 councillors to vote on. The council recently received a state grant of just over $2 Million for improvements to parks and areas around the Uralla Township.

It was announced late last week that several of the ideas gained full support of the council and the model boating lake is one of them.

At the moment, I'm not sure when they will start, however they have been asking for ideas and what we might like to make the model boating lake usable and suitable for sailing. It's not a huge area however with a little bit of work it could be a great fun area to sail in with a wide channel, island(s), a jetty, launching area and a boat ramp type launching area also. More tables and chairs will be built around the lake and hopefully a large covered area for setting up tables for displays, so no need for marquees. New electric BBQs will be added to the existing ones and a new toilet block in very close. We may even get a bridge over the channel to cross over to the main area. There is also a large flat area where we hope the covered area can be placed and additional marquees placed if needed. You can also drive from the side road directly into this area to unload and load straight to the waters edge.

I've attached some photos here, but you must remember that this was once a clear open area of water but has been let go over many years and is now completely covered in reeds. There is plenty of water in there and it is not very deep. Around 2m in the middle with most of it around -5 to 1m in depth. I've had a neighbour take some photos with his drone so we could mark out where we might place things.

There is still lots to plan out with the council and a bit of work with removing all the reeds and dredging out but it is all in their scope of work for this area. There are two great pubs, a large modern motel, lots of cafes (8 of them), a large modern caravan park and lots of speciality shops and a museum, all within an easy flat walk and it is right on the New England Highway.

I am so pleased that the work has paid off and we will get somewhere to sail here as the numbers of model boat enthusiasts are increasing in the area. I hope that once everything is done that we can have a small weekend regatta up here and encourage a few of you to make the trip up to this part of the world. I am hoping that all the work will be done before late spring or early summer as we are expecting a fair bit of rain up here which will top up the lake and flush it through after the dredging is done.

I'll keep everyone informed of the progress up here.

Sounds great Russ, I will come up and down in the future for a sail.

Craig

A fantastic effort there Russ and I'm sure your vessels had a lot of interest. Looking forward to your updates on this. BZ. Scott

A bit of an update on the Uralla Model Boat lake. In the last week, our local State member, Adam Marshall sent out his newsletter which contained information on the grants that had been approved, and the main one was the grant for the Uralla park lands and open spaces project. We received a grant for $2M from the state which $1.5M is going to the area known as "The Glen". This is the area in which the lake is to be built. In his newsletter he talked about the different parts of the project and one of course is the model boating lake. We had a read through the documentation from council and they are calling for consultation on the ideas. The timeline is for the consulting to be completed by around November this year with construction to start in January with completion before November next year.

So, there is a good chance that if all goes well, the model boating lake and facilities will be completed by early October and I hope we maybe able to hold an event over the long weekend in October next year. We are asking for wharves to be constructed along the edge on one side along with a small jetty low to the water level and a concrete boat ramp which will allow larger models to be slid into the water on a trolley. There will be a number of new picnic tables and BBQs installed along with shelters around the lake and a path around it which fits in with paths around the rest of the park area.

A new toilet block will be constructed just across the road (about a 100m walk from the main area of the lake) in Rotary Park which already has this but they are very old and dated so a new one will be installed. They are also looking at a sealed car parking area very near to the ramp and wharves. I'm not sure but I think this maybe the first "purpose built" model boating facility ever built in Australia which is quite remarkable for a small country town. Still a bit of planning to get done and talking to council and the design consultants over the coming months but I really hope that we can get this done with a facility that is going to be ideal for what we do. It won't be a huge lake but I think it will be big enough to have some fun in and give the locals and visitors alike a fun and pretty area to visit.

The area will be nearly a "Y" shape with one arm (the left) which I have called the North Basin, approximately 60m in length with the base of the "Y" also around 60m. The other arm of the Y would be close to 100m in length and I have called this the East Basin, just for the ease of talking to everyone. Once some of the reeds have been removed and the area dredged out a bit, I think it will give us a good enough area to sail in.

I'll do up a little map of it so you can all see what it hopefully will look like by November 22. I hope many of you will join me for a sail in the near future.

Sounds good mate! I'd come up for that!!

Cheers Bruce B2

This is a basic idea plan that is being submitted to council and their consultants for construction costs. I hope we can talk them into getting everything done as they have a good sized budget for it, but you know how things get "absorbed" with consultants and councils. I'll keep on top of it and hopefully if all goes well we'll be sailing there by October 2022.

Sounds great Russ, looking forward to sailing regularly at the lake.

Great project,

Craig

An odd request, could the wharf be lower by at least an inch. Just looked at some plans and Type 12s, most WW2 destroyers bows and quite a few others would go under that. Flower class definitely able to decapitate itself.

Memories of your model going under the Wenty Wharf come to min. Did you ever talk to the driver again?

MichaelB wrote:An odd request, could the wharf be lower by at least an inch. Just looked at some plans and Type 12s, most WW2 destroyers bows and quite a few others would go under that. Flower class definitely able to decapitate itself.

Memories of your model going under the Wenty Wharf come to min. Did you ever talk to the driver again?

The height should be ok as long as they have an edge strip down to or below waterlevel (and a rubber strip)

B2

Hi Michael, yes the plan is that it will have a facia board down to the water level covered in a rubber material to act as a fender. The water level may vary on the season but I am asking them to be able to close off the overflow which runs under the access road. There are three piped running under it which I hope to ba able to close off partially to allow the water level to come up. Some of the lake is spring fed as even in the drought the water was always in there. When it rains heavily it pours through the pipes. Don't want to close it off totally as it would then flood over the road way.

Remember at MMC how we solved that problem with the wharves? Used second hand strips of conveyor belt material.

I'm hoping we won't have to worry too much about stuff like that as we aren't having to fund it. They have $1.5M to spend on just the park area there so I hope they can splurge on a some good rubber strip and build a couple of decent wharves and jetty. I'm hoping that they will edge some of it also and they have also said they will dump in several large trucks of river pebbles around the shallower parts, after it's dredged out, to form an area we can wade into as an anchorage. Probably along the edge where the roadway is as it's not very deep.

I look forward to sailing at it one day Russ, it would be great to have a purpose built facility

Robert

An update on the Uralla Model Boating Lake and park area. We attended a presentation from CIVILLE last night who are the landscape architects asked to do the design work. I've had a couple of ZOOM meetings with them last year and got to meet them face to face last night. As I've mentioned before, they are familiar with TF72 as they are also the guys who have been hired to do all the design work at Wentworth Falls Lake.

Anyway, it is all going ahead. They are just working out finances and final design changes after the public consultation period. No one has said anything against the model boating lake so that is great. They are just tweeking the design for the walkways and bridges etc around the rest of the park area at the moment to see how far the money goes. We'll be meeting again following their final presentation of design in February at which they will announce who will be doing the various work packages for the different park areas.

There is now a large sign at the entrance to The Glen Parklands area which shows visitors what the proposals are for the area. They will hopefully begin on the work in March first on dredging the lake out to remove the reeds so we can see what the area is like and if it needs to be enlarged or changed. All works have to be completed by the end of December 2022 so they have about 8 months to get it all done. Not sure if we will have it ready for the October long weekend however even if the rest of the park isn't ready at that time, we may still be able to have a sail there with a test event. Watch this space.

Looking forward to sailing there Russ, thank you for the effort to make it a reality, this is not something that happens every day or easily.

Robert

That's awesome and well worth a big drive.
Thanks Russ.
J