As every man and his dog knows, Queen Street has been in the doldrums these past five years. For Lease signs are everywhere and the worse thing so far, apart from council neglect, has been that anyone with respiratory problems must dread walking the two sections from Cordeuax Street in the north to Allman Street in the south.
As if its appearance is not bad enough, Queen Street now looks like it has become the last refuge of anyone who is silly enough to still smoke in this day and age.
Well, there’s worse things than breathing in second hand smoke when it comes to main streets.
Now we’ve been tipped that for some reason some of the barbers of Queen Street are at war with each other.
One of our spies told us that last week there was a physical altercation between two of them, along with baseballs, apparently.
Well at least it wasn’t sharpened razors…
Seriously though, if this is true it’s a damn shame, because despite the decline there are real gems in Queen Street, which will definitely return to its former glory one day.
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Congratulations to our Indigenous friends, who are now the proud owners of the old Camden police station in John Street.
In 2016 an Aboriginal land claim was lodged with the Aboriginal Land Rights Registrar by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council for land that falls within the Tharawal Local Aboriginal land council area: the police station and the Camden Court House next door.
The claim was successful in relation to the police station, but rejected for the court site, which stays in state government ownership.
As a result, ownership of Camden police station was transferred in freehold title to the Tharawal Local Aboriginal Land Council on June 20 of this year.
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Talking about land, there’s more than 100 hectares of it at Camden Lakeside, which is owned and operated by Wests Group Macarthur.
Wests recently invested around $4 million in a makeover of the facilities, including the wedding function room and a brand new dining area.
But good sources inside Wests tells us that this is the tip of the iceberg, with advanced plans for a brand new licensed club as well as a six storey hotel with a rooftop garden and swanky bar.
And with 100 hectares at their disposal, obviously having enough land will not be a problem, with work expected to start within 12 months.
Lakeside is located right in the middle of a massive residential explosion that includes Emerald Hills across the road, Gledswood Hills and Gregory Hills in the south and Oran Park in the west.
Which pretty much explains all the building activity at Camden Lakeside and elsewhere.
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We get some interesting things land in our email inbox, and this one with a theory on why the State Government won’t gazette the M9 outer Sydney corridor is right up there.
“The reason I keep hearing why the government will not gazette the corridor is they have no money and are scared an avalanche of property owners will want to access the hardship clause in the Land Compulsory Acquisition Act, that will require the government to purchase the properties at market value now,’’ writes this reader of the South West Voice in Macarthur, who’s also got links with the Liberal Party.
“I wrote to the Premier on-line to no avail; she must have been too busy with her boyfriend, who has been helping the developers out,’’ they write in the email.
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Talking about Voice readers, none are more loyal than Frank Ward, the former real estate agent and Campbelltown councillor who lives up on the north coast these days but is still keen to know what’s doing back home.
Frank was back in town yesterday (Thursday) for the funeral service in St Paul’s Catholic Church, Camden of his “dear old friend’’ Ivan Old.
“Ivan was my foreman and manager of my building company and Stuart Homes and we built some hundreds of homes in Campbelltown and Camden including a home in Bringelly for Tony Perich’s father,’’ Frank wrote in the email.
“Ivan was a traditional old time builder and we built home in all price ranges from the $6,000 house and land packages in East Campbelltown to shops at Waminda Avenue and in Appin.’’
Gee, Frank, $6,000 for house and land, can we bring that back?
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We’re winning I tell you! For years this online local paper has bemoaned the fact ratepayers money is spent on an art prize that always goes to someone who is not a resident of Campbelltown.
But a briefing to councillors about this year’s Fisher’s Ghost Art Award notes that out of 327 works across the open, contemporary, traditional, and photography categories, 195 were from artists in the Macarthur region.
Now all we need is to have one of the 195 take out the award next Friday and collect the $25,000 loot on offer.
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Let’s finish with the story of a mystery 000 call: A police officer drives to a house in Kentlyn and tells the owner that they are responding to a 000 call for a woman called Beverly. Nobody here by that name, the police are told, who without checking an ID, drive away. What would that be about?
