In The Silence That Follows The Grand Race, Time To Swan Around
The Age
Tuesday March 9, 1999
Day one of the Grand Prix (clean-up, that is). You can swan around a bit the day after a big race.
Carpenter Adrian Kelly immersed himself yesterday in 1.5metres of water and pond slime to begin dismantling the pontoon bridge across Albert Park Lake.
And he was enjoying himself in his cap, shorts, boots and all - surrounded all day by black swans. The general ambience was better than a construction site, he said. ``It's actually relaxing ... it's something a bit different," Mr Kelly said.
Anyway, there was all that double time to look forward to in the next pay packet for toiling on a Labor Day holiday.
There were also unique occupational hazards on the job. ``The swan with the broken wing hissed at me," Mr Kelly said as he tackled yet another bolt, among the fish, birds - and imponderables.
At midnight last night, Albert Park again became a people's park. But Melbourne's monolithic Grand Prix City will continue to be dismantled over the next three weeks. More than 1500 people, including 200 cleaners, are involved in the clean-up. Their tasks include dismantling about 12kilometres of concrete barriers, 11kilometres of mesh fencing and 25,000square metres of marquees.
Even after the official evacuation, an expert eye will be cast over 21 playing fields, golf course and other facilities for about a month to ensure everything has been returned to pristine condition, says Mr Steve Morris, infrastructure manager for Kinhill, which is coordinating the clean-up.
Over at Lakeside Drive, in the part known on race days as corners 14 and 15, a team of landscape gardeners from Excellscapes garden designs were doing one of the most uninspiring jobs - digging up 3300 holes around the track. The holes, which had been filled with specially prepared turf for the Grand Prix, will soon be plugged by 3300 bollards (but that's someone else's job).
© 1999 The Age