NEWS DESK
The signs they are a-changing THE signs are everywhere. Honour boards and plaques are on sports clubrooms’ walls, in hospitals and on school walls. Chances are Seaford engraver Barry Rea had a hand in a sign’s upkeep. The 47-year-old craftsman has been engraving, making and etching signs for nine years at his Superior Etchworx business. “I’ve been doing handcrafts all my working life,” he said. “I started with a leather goods manufacturing business and people always have something they want to challenge you with … I really love the challenges.” Challenges range “from ridiculously small to ridiculously large”. “I’ve etched the back of a watch which was an etching the size of a five cent piece,” Mr Rea said. “For a company called Fast Times I’ve etched a panel that’s about 2 metres by about 2.5 metres.” Mr Rea said he has a go at just about any project. He has etched whisky barrels, customises car and motorcycle parts and has built Edwardian-style cast iron clad postboxes at clients’ request. “I collect hand skills like some people collect stamps.” So-called “failed” projects linger long in Mr Rea’s memory. “We had one thing where the Prime Minister [Tony Abbott] was supposed to open up the PARC [swimming] centre for the council and I’d made a beautiful glass plaque for that which had to be changed.” Another time he built an 18-metre “inflatable hill” for rolling Zorb balls
Cabin park deal ‘close’ despite reservations Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au
The handyman can: Seaford engraver Barry Rea enjoys the challenge of any handcraft project. Picture: Gary Sissons
with people down it. “It was sewn together but I misjudged the amount of stress of the material and the thing exploded, basically”. Fortunately the ‘explosion’ occurred during testing. His biggest challenge was “a Christmas setting for Santa Claus put up at Stud Park Shopping Centre [in Rowville] about 12 years ago. I made a model of a house that was virtually life-size.” Mr Rea said it took more than 300 hours to complete and at one point – perhaps taking the spirit of Christmas too literally – he accidentally “nailed
myself to it during the process”. “I literally put blood, sweat and tears into that job.” The successes over the years have vastly outnumbered the disappointments. Mr Rea is keen to try his hand at any project a client asks for. “I like looking at something and thinking ‘Wow! How can I do that?’,” he said. See Superior Etchworx website at etchworx.webs.com for examples of Mr Rea’s handiwork and call 9773 6250 to discuss commissioning a project. Neil Walker
A DEAL to ensure the future residency of disadvantaged families and individuals at Seaford Beach Cabin Park could soon be sealed. Frankston councillors voted behind closed doors after last month’s public council meeting to offer cabin park owner Michael Hibbert a new five-year lease term with a further five-year option to be considered in 2020. A long-mooted land swap deal – with a Crown land portion of the site, 860 square metres of land facing Kananook Creek, being exchanged with council receiving 675sqm of freehold land facing Nepean Hwy – has been dropped. Mr Hibbert said he is working through the terms of the ten-year lease with his lawyer and there is still some “toing and froing” with council but he is confident most issues have been resolved despite having some reservations about the lease terms. “They [council] doubled the rent on me. It’s gone from $40,000 a year to close to $80,000 a year,” he said. “They reckon they wanted to value it on a commercial basis … at the end of the day we’re pretty much dictated to.” The cabin park owner said he had agreed to make improvements to the cabin park. “I’ve made an offer to spend up to nearly $300,000.” The lease was supposed to end in July last year but council extended it on an ad hoc basis until differences between Mr Hibbert and council could be resolved.
Park life: Marginalised residents at Seaford Beach Cabin Park look set to stay. Picture: Gary Sissons
“They [council] want a $50,000 bond and they want me to pay double the rent, I don’t think they’ve made it exactly easy for me to continue on there but we will,” Mr Hibbert said. Cr Glenn Aitken said it is clear Mr Hibbert is running a commercial operation and makes a profit from renting cabins to marginalised people at the Seaford cabin park. Mr Hibbert has his own theory on why council may be “[making] it as difficult as they can for me”. “My opinion is that they [council] dislike a cabin park. It’s regarded as a bit of slur on the economy of Frankston. They would really like it gone … [but] I have made a commitment to the people and there’s no reason why I would go back on my commitment.” The cabin park owner said he had no intention of developing the site. Council rejected a planning application to build 51 units on the site two years ago.
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OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Frankston Times
6 April 2015
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