Up and away in Wandana
Building starts on highest estate
THE first houses are emerging on Geelong’s highest housing estate as a new developer launches sales at a new Armstrong Creek project this weekend.
Tradies have moved on to the first blocks at Villawood Properties’ Wandana estate, which occupies land surrounding the Drewan Park lookout over Geelong.
Groundwork and early frames mark the next stage of the development where views stretch to the Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast.
Local buyers have largely snapped up blocks in the 194lot project off Barrabool Rd.
Meanwhile, homebuyers can pick the first blocks at the latest Armstrong Creek project tomorrow.
Jinding Developments, in partnership with Yolk Property Group, will open its sales office at the 94ha project opposite the Village Warralily Shopping Centre. The first stage has 15 lots, priced from $213,000.
Jinding Developments managing director Liz Ronson said the project was awaiting final sign-off from Geelong’s council for the 659-lot estate, catering for about 1800 residents, but expected construction to start in mid-2020, with titles expected a year after that.
“We’re across from the established Warralily project and we’re lucky Warralily has made a quality headstart on Barwon Heads Rd, which has direct access through to Geelong proper and the coast,” Ms Ronson said.
“When we go to market on Saturday, it will be on a first-in, best-dressed basis. We think we’ll have a good amount of people as we have pretty strong interest in stage 1A.”
Halcyon’s 1.9ha of passive open space and parks in addition to waterways, conservation areas and walking trails, includes a linear park through the centre of the project.
Ms Ronson said the council had helped developers’ realignment of that park after Alcoa demolished its high-tension powerline between Anglesea and Point Henry.
Ms Ronson said she believed the project was priced competitively for young homebuyers. “I think the Geelong market is still a lot more affordable than other growth areas, making it a good prospect,” she said.
She said the emergence of medium density projects also helped affordability for pricesensitive buyers.
MANY years ago, a small group of enthusiasts in Geelong undertook the banding of birds quite seriously.
We would set up mistnets to catch all sorts, put a numbered metal ring on one leg, then let them go with the vague hope that one day someone else would catch the same birds.
The bird-banding program was managed by the CSIRO, and our records of captures were lodged there.
One bird we weren’t too keen to catch was the pretty crested shrike-tit — it had a very sharp beak, and would easily nip a piece out of a finger or hand, given the chance.
Shrike-tits are pretty birds, smaller than a starling, olive green on the back, the breast golden and the head with its little crest, black and white.
Its powerful black beak is used to tear open dry bark, insect cocoons, leaf-galls and other places most birds can’t reach, in search of spiders, insects and the like.
On occasions it is the sound made by the birds as they crush the dry bark that reveals their presence.
Widely distributed across the Geelong region, it was this species that Karyn and Troy saw at Rice Reserve near Torquay last weekend.
Shrike-tits build a deep, cup-shaped nest usually between a three-pronged fork high in a tall tree.
Beautifully constructed from finely shredded bark, woven and bound with cobwebs, and lined with soft barkfibres and grass, it is difficult to see from the ground below.
The bird in the photograph is a female — note the green tinge to the throat — that had a nest somewhere in one of the red gums near Princes Bridge several years ago.
Once it was considered that we had three shrike-tit species for there are distinct populations in Victoria-NSW, southeast WA, and in the top of the Northern Territory.
But research has shown them to be just the one species with only minor colour variations.
Wildlife observations and questions can be sent to ppescott@gmail.com