The excavators have begun scraping the rich topsoil off the lower green, the hedgerows have been removed and the former Blayney Bowling Club building is being stripped bare.
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Work on a 98 room motel facility has commenced at the bowling club site and Bruce Johnston, Project Manager for the Kensington Building Group said that if all goes to plan the site will be ready to accept its first guests in March or April of 2023.
"The first part of the project will be to prepare the greens for the arrival of the accommodation units," he said. "At the same time as that is happening we'll be addressing the former club house building."
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Lawn lovers will appreciate just how excellently the topsoil and underlying infrastructure work together to form a perfect bowling green. That rich perfectly fertilised soil is now being scraped up and the lengths of drainage pipes and boreholes are being removed or repurposed.
Mr Johnston said that it will be at least seven months before the first unit will be able to be fitted.
"This is an extensive job," he said. "We have to complete a lot of civil and plumbing work on site. There's all new plumbing and electrical infrastructure for 98 rooms to go in, two metre deep pylons to sink as foundations for the units and also connecting the stormwater from each unit to the old water tank."
That stormwater will be used to service the toilets in each unit as part of the reticulation process.
For those that have a long and abiding affection for the former club house, its current state will break their hearts. When the club closed the doors they left behind many items, some of them, including bags of bowls, were emptied and used as missiles through the windows.
Vandalism at the site has been rife and some of the holes in the windows are the exact diameter of a bowling jack.
Those windows though will all be replaced and the exterior of the building will unrecognisable, Mr Johnston said.
"We're taking it right back to its shell," he said. "Cemintel Barestone panels will be installed on the exterior of the building and new glazing will replace all the windows."
The lower part of the building will house the reception area and have other utilitarian purposes before the upper expanse, which will be gutted completely, is approached.
The final stage of the redevelopment will be the construction a 20 room permanent motel on the Osman Street frontage.
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