FOUR new seats have been installed on Stewart Street, running parallel to Town Beach, by the Rotary Club of Port Macquarie Sunrise as one of their community projects.
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“It was a project that came about at the same time Rotary Sunrise was involved with the improvements to the Historic Cemetery,” project coordinator, Malcolm McNeil said.
“Our initial meeting with council to propose the idea meant we were welcomed with open arms and so we got the project off to a start by applying for a placemaking grant of $5000 from Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.”
The grant was supplemented with the sale of memorial seats expanding the project to include new concrete pathways and landscaping on the eastern side of the Gaol Point car park. These finishing touches supplemented the great work undertaken at Gaol Point by Port Macquarie and Tacking Point Lions Club.
More than 20 Rotary Sunrise members have assisted in some way to see this project reach its current stage with their participation in various working bees installing the seats, digging out the pathways, concreting and landscaping the surrounding environment.
Local businesses have been instrumental in supporting the project with materials or expertise.
The students of Newman College, with a special thanks to teacher Lindsay Dobell, fashioned the donated metal with lots of drilling, cutting and welding to create the seats before they were sent to Hexham for hot dip galvanising.
The partnership of Sunrise Rotary with Port Macquarie-Hastings Council’s landscape architect, Rebecca Doblo and parks and recreation projects officer, Mike Olzmer, has seen contributions of soil, turf, mulch and plants to augment the vision of both parties for a community asset which is durable and vandal-proof.
“The seats are made with only three basic materials - a heavy-duty hot dip galvanised frame, slats made from recycled plastic fixed together with stainless steel bolts and screws,” Mr McNeil said.
“Under the severe conditions experienced on the headland, a periodic wash down with rain should be all that is required for a long and low maintenance life.”
The next stage of the project will see the continuation of a path from Gaol Point down the hill to the Town Beach car park.
