Men at Work

This exhibition, from 2½ years of photo documentation, acknowledges the men and women doing the heavy, dusty, manual work, and the processes they used, to create Albany Lakes Civic Park. This innovative park combines recreational use with an artist designed bridge and environmentally integrated storm water management. For safety reasons industrial sites are not usually accessible to the general public and many of us barely give them a second glance. It has been my privilege to have access to a number of industrial sites over the last years. I have found them endlessly fascinating and enjoyed the cheerful friendliness and tolerance of those who work on them. It is these workers, whose contribution remains largely unseen I wish to honour with this exhibition. Please feel free to use the comments tab (at bottom left) to make your own comments or to add to or enlarge on my comments, add missing names, and if you have any stories to tell about the project all the better. If you have any photos of the project you want to add please let me know - I will create a guest gallery for them. You can contact me on Email Diana.

Earthworks in the early days, showing some of the early laid sandbags and the colourful earth /clay revealed by the excavation.
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Mack, a digger driver doing some maintenance.
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Mack tending to his digger.
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Human guidance system...
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Some early drilling.
Albany Lakes public works North Shore City Urban Park Urban lakes Stormwater Lakes landscape artist bridge Caroline Robinson design bridge weir NS4 20Dec06 1cr
One of the digger drivers shares a friendly smile as he goes about his business.
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Earthworks in process
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The sandbag production line. The cement mix is poured from the truck into the red/brown dispenser from where the sacks are filled. The sandbags were placed in walls lining the lakes. As I understand it these were a reference to the trenches in the world wars.
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Threading the "sewing machine" which was used, when working, to sew the tops of the sandbags.
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Another round of sandbags saw the sacks filled straight from the cement mix truck.
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They then hand sewed the top of the sand bags - the only "sewing machines" were the human variety!
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Chris and Barney preparing rods for the boxing for the concrete water outlet for the lakes.
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Preparing the boxing for the concrete water outlet for the lakes.
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Barney and Chris working on the boxing for the outlet chamber.
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Pouring the concrete to form the water outlet and overflow for the lakes. The concrete is coming from the concrete truck back left.
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Around the water outlet on the day of the concrete pour.
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Chris in the lakes outlet pipe which runs out of the outlet and overflow chamber.
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An intermediate stage in the interior of the lake outlet and overflow chamber.
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The interior of the outlet chamber under construction.
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James Inside the outlet and overflow chamber when it was more or less complete - a good place to shelter when raining outside, though somewhat muddy climbing in - and always assuming the rain wasn't causing flooding....!
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Theo compressing the area behind a sandbag wall - by the outlet and overflow chamber at the bottom of the lower lake
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Theo with a remote controlled vehicle, part of the extensive preparation of the land behind the high sandbagged retaining wall near the bridge on the lower lake.
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Roger checking the fence!
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Discussing progress.
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Charlotte clearing up after a job on the bridge area.
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Alo in the early stages of the bridge construction. The bridge and related features were designed by the artist Caroline Robinson. Caroline evolved the bridge design from the cultural, geological and social history of the area. She was closely involved throughout the building process.
Albany Lakes public works North Shore City Urban Park Urban lakes Stormwater Lakes landscape crane NS4 22FEb08 096 1crRsiWeb
Working on the bridge support.
The bridge and related features were designed by the artist Caroline Robinson. Caroline evolved the bridge design from the cultural, geological and social history of the area. She was closely involved throughout the building process
Albany Lakes public works North Shore City Urban Park Urban lakes Stormwater Lakes landscape crane NS4 22FEb08 148 1crRsiWeb
Vai and Va a working on the bridge support before the boxing gets underway.
The bridge and related features were designed by the artist Caroline Robinson. Caroline evolved the bridge design from the cultural, geological and social history of the area. She was closely involved throughout the building process
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Thomas carrying pipes for the bridge boxing.
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Somewhere over the rainbow .... work goes on.... here it's early morning on the bridge boxing. Behind is the concrete overflow /outlet.
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View of the central bund with the bridge boxing in progress. The stones and the boulders lining into the lake are part of Caroline's design.
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All the bridge concrete was poured in one long session in May 08. It began at 1 am and finished sometime around 8 am.
Albany Lakes public works North Shore City Urban Park Urban lakes Stormwater Lakes landscape artist bridge Caroline Robinson design bridge weir NS4 8May08 017 1Exh
Working the concrete as it is poured onto bridge.
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Pouring the concrete
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Smoko and donuts around 6.30 am....in shifts... the concrete stops for no man....
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Smoothing the concrete! If you know what its really called - let me know!
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Va a and Alo dismantling the bridge boxing under the circular centre of the bridge.
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Dave setting the stones around the bridge supports - after the completion of the railing.
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Junior and the bridge in early days of making the railings. The railings on one side of the bridge are shaped like grass waving in the breeze. The railings on the other is a series of closely spaced granite posts.
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Sweeping up
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Nigel and the nearly complete bridge - its mostly tiled and the railings are up. The circular centre tiling is still to be done - in the depression behind him. He asked for this as a memory photo.
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Penil dismantling the fence.
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A break in the earth works.
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The east and west side of the centre of the bridge is flanked by two posts which reference the heritage of the area. This is the eastern post in preparation to be swung into position by the crane.
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Guiding the post onto the foundation plate - the crane behind.
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Getting closer to touchdown - the man in front is talking to the crane controller who is lowering the post. It has to fit precisely for safety reasons - such attention to fine detail required on such a large scale...
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Checking the fit and tightening the screws.
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The completed bridge with east and west posts, the middle lake, the top of a sandbag wall and wetland. Storm water flows into the lakes through large inlet pipes. Rain water from the roads is collected in rain gardens or flows across the grass into pits in which trees are planted. These tree pits are filled with a special soil mix which filters out contaminants before the excess water is removed by pipe into the storm water system. This helps the lakes water quality.
Albany Lakes public works North Shore City Urban Park Urban lakes Storm water Lakes landscape artist bridge Caroline Robinson design bridge weir NS4 17Jun09 015 1crRsiWeb

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Men at Work