A GRATEFUL public descended on the Bogey Hole in droves on Wednesday after the state government reopened the popular Newcastle swimming hole.
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Despite the presence of the Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter, Scot MacDonald, and a contingent of contractors, public servants and media cameras, a number of swimmers were all too ready to ignore the fencing and were preparing to jump from the cliff top.
Mr MacDonald, resplendent in dress trousers and a pair of Christmas-themed thongs, said the government had made good on its promise to have the Bogey Hole open by December 25.
The Bogey Hole has been closed since November last year and Mr MacDonald and the state Member for Newcastle, Labor’s Tim Crakanthorp, have been engaged ever since in a war of words over the time taken for the repair work.
Mr Crakanthorp was not invited to Wednesday morning’s announcement.
But he posted his own video on Tuesday evening, standing on the steps leading down to the Bogey Hole and thanking the “nearly 6000” people who had signed his petition calling for the swimming hole to be reopened.
Mr MacDonald said the government had put $490,000 towards the stabilising work on the cliffs above the Bogey Hole, and the first stage, costing $285,000, had been finished.
He said Newcastle firm Ground Stabilisation Systems (GSS) had won the contract, which involved drilling 15 long high-tensile steel bolts into the rock cliff face, and installing a shock-absorbing “rock catch fence” to stop material falling into the pool below.
GSS managing director Peter Dark said that as well as installing the bolts and the fence, his team had “scaled” the cliff clean by removing any material that might be easily dislodged.
Mr Dark said the 15 bolts were each seven metres long, and drilled into the cliff face at an angle of 15 degrees below horizontal.
They were tightened to a pressure of 40 tonnes, and would need to be re-tensioned every four years to counteract any impacts from erosion.
Mr MacDonald said the next stage of work would be further back from the edge of the cliff.
Mr MacDonald said the Bogey Hole was safe to reopen before that work was finished.