Notes

Alan – well it’s all go so they say. They’ve got leases in place, but no purchase of land. I got an email this morning from Crown saying we could proceed with our lease. I’ve been negotiating the lease at On the Pier (with the Crown) for a number of years. We’ve got our lease in place. And then all of a sudden the bridge appears. That put all of our lease negotiations on hold, and made it very difficult for us to put money back into the business while this was ongoing. We stopped where we were and just ran it as an a la carte restaurant, and it’s just been paying its way. Commercially it hasn’t been realistic. The Crown hadn’t been notified by Roads that the bridge was going ahead – we were the ones taht notified them. We couldn’t beleive it. The last thing was they said they were going to deny all access. So I went back to the Crown, and said we’re a leaseholder that employs 12 people, and we’re going to be closed for the duration. They said we could open on weekends, but that’s a ludicrous way to exist, as a business that opens twice a week. So we’ll close. And we’ll be closed for four years. So we have re-signed the leasde with an extension for the period that ti’s closed. So Brendan, Belinda and myself had to make the decision about what we were going to do as a business. The property will be repaired, because part of the lease is we have to fix the piers. We’ve negotiated with the Crwn to reduce our lease to a nominal fee while we’re closed, we’ll do these repairs and then we’ll reopen as a wedding venue – not the same business, because Brendan and Belinda can’t wait around for four years to get a job, so they’ll go. It’s been such angst for them to know – also I live above there, I moved in three years ago – so without access I have to move out and rthese guys lost their income, plus all the other people we employ. All the employment will stop. We own the lease – there’s no remuneration for us. they haven’t offered to lease the land while we’re closed for business. The first interview i went to was when they announced on the foreshore. Then the next media releas, as soon as I asked a q, a gentleman from the government came and took me to the side and said ‘I’ve been told to anser all of your questions, away from the press’. I think my questions were fairly pertinent, and they weren’t answered correctly. And I said it amazes me that you’re going to make amedia release here in front of our business, and the business hasn’t even been notified that you’ll be impacting our business to the point where you’ll be closing. The next day the gentleman in charge came down from Sydney and we met and talked about what they’d try to do to alleviate the impact on us, even though he realised the car park would be taken up, so he went back to the crown to see what could be done. the cronw said they would take us down to a nominal lease while it’s inoperable. They don’t know their tenure (Belnida, Brendan, employees) and trying to keep your employees that are there while we were still tring to operate with no advice as to what would be happening. So what we’re doing now, we’ll be set menu so by bookings you can half determine how many people you will have, and we’ll only open Friday lunch, Friday nght, Saturday lunch, Saturday night and Sunday lunch until Christmas, and then we’lle open fully through January, and close at the end of January. I’d just ask people to put themselves in the same situation – anyone would be disappointed. It’s frustrating to me, because I’ve advocated, and I wrote to Constance saying it’s a bridge to nowhere – it goes to a roundabout, and we already have congestion here in January. The Innes’ would stay there if they had a lease – he’s got no tenure, it’s been month to month for 8 years. They could solve the problem of the bridge going up and down. The number of sailaboats that go up there – big keeled ones don’t, because there’s too many sandbanks. So the info they’ve gleaned to build the new bridge is not factual. Any of the locals will tell you none of the big boats go up there … for the cost, it’s ridiculous. And if that bridge wasn’t going up and fdown the miantenance costs would be negligible. Mr Constance claimed that a bridge coming out from the power lines and joining up near the spine road would cost a billion dollars – well there’s a lot more truck movement going to happen now.100km/hour, they’re dangerous now. In 20 years, they’re going to have to build another bridge. And the tourism aspect – I sent an article to Charles Stewart, out of the SMH. in ‘81 they were going to pull down the Piermont bridge, and all the public got up in arms because it was an icon. Nowadays it’s a tourist attraction and 16,000 people a day use it for a pedestrian pathway. So there would be another icon gone. They don’t think farenough aheasd to see there’s inherent value in it commercially . nd that’s just what’s not happening. It’s one of the last in the world of that sort of bridge. The ratio they’ve been using for infrastructure development has had an interest rate applied to it from 1969. Now it would almost halve that interest rate now inf they applied the current interest rate. So if Andrew says that’s a billion dollars, if they applied the new formula, the cost would probably fit into that. I beleive this decision was made for the con – I’ve been here 32 years and it’s been stuck twice in 32 years, I mean come on. It’s no biggie. Back to one the pier. People don’t realise the beauty of this place. there’s a lot of change that’s going to happen. It’s going to split our town.Once you’ve knocked something down, you can’t rebuild it. I don’t think there’s been enough initial debate about the whole thing. It was individual debate instead of a collective debate. By the time they went to a public meeting, tenders had already been put out. It’s disappointing that there wasn’t enough dialogue. And when I applied to be on the committee – I’ve been a retailer in the town for 32 years, in the CBD. I was on the first tourism board – the two people on the advisory committee were two people who wren’t in retail, who weren’t involved in the CBD, but it fit the criteria of ‘yes, we’ve engaged with the public’.
Belinda – I started working here in 1996 as an apprentice and kitchen hand. I moved on and came back and into the business – we purchased in November 2002 and became more of a fine dining restaurant, specialising in special occasions. Just moving with the times over the years, keeping up with trends and what’s happening. We’ve been a spot for special occasions. With the bridge being built, that’s one of the things we’ve heard alot, people’s memories here as a child and now they’re coming back. So there’s been a lot of memories. I’m just devastated. We’re both passionate and we love what we do. I’m a people person – there have been times when we’ve wanted to run but have just stuck it out. We carry at least ten people during the winter and up to 30 over the summer, and some of those people come and go so we’ve always been a place – someone might start here as a weekend job, and they go to uni and come back. So all of a sudden that’s a loss, and for uss we’ll work probably harder than we’ve ever worked up until the end of January and then be jobless. So that’s pretty. It’s a loss for local growers as well, suppliers, live gigs that we do. It’s heartbreaking to think that we’ve put 16 years and it will all be gone. People say why can’t you move on or look somehwere else and – I’ve done 16 years of New Years Eve’s without my family and friends, whether there’s a newborn at home or whatever. What you’ve put on hold to do it and then for someone to come along and say ‘you can’t access that place’. What you’ve put out and missed and done, and then on the 28^th – we won’t be paid. We’ve done the hard yards in a small town with comings and goings and carrying losses and trading through winter and continually providing and serving – what did we do it for? Until they knock the building down, I won’t beleive it. I don’t believe Batemans Bay knows what’s going to hit it. It’s creating work for people who are coming in, but what’s it doing for the people who are actually here? Hopefully once it’s completed, everything can grow back. Sitting down at the end of the night and enjoying a glass of wine, just the people that you’ve met and the experiences and the people you employ an teach and watching them grow.
Brendan – I’ve been her for 16 years, since the inception. I’m predominantly the chef but I’m also one of the business owners. We started out just as a seafood restaurant and grew it into more of a function venue as well. It had grown, but still predominantly a restaurant, especially over the busy periods of Christmas and Easter. I love cooking, being able to employ people – a lot of our staff have been here for ten years and i think that’s an indication of us as employers as well, people like working here. We’ve built a good crew and seen kids come through as kitchen hands and go on to become chefs or some go to uni and come back during the holidays, and it’s been a big family really. My children have worked here and belinda’s children are starting to work here. Al’s children have worked here too. I’ts been more of a family business than just a restaurant. It’s definitely going to affect the employees we’ve got – they’re going to be out of a job ome the 27^th of January. That’s probably the biggest loss for everyone, loss of work, loss of opportunity, and loss of livelihood for us. But as one door shuts another one opens. We’re just trying to stay positive and enjoy what we’re doing, be creative still, do some interesting things with food. The impactis going to be huge as far as traffic flows and delays and things like that go. Working alongside my children would be my best memory.

Last drinks on pier?

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Zoe Cartwright

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