DO THE MATH FIRST

The City of Greater Geelong’s swank headquarters was always an expensive outlay from day one. One hundred million bucks is big bickies in anyone’s book. We were told centralising the city’s staff was a way of streamlining the business and saving time and money.

Today two Geelong councillors want the city to reconsider its ownership of the flashy HQ and redirect any funds to community projects.

But shouldn’t this discussion have been dealt with before the building stage? It was always a lot of money that could have been redirected better elsewhere, even before a pandemic.

One thing is for sure, council should never have built the HQ without having a tenant signed up for the remaining space. That has come back to bite during a pandemic. If they couldn’t lock in a tenant, the building should have been downsized.

Now council is potentially landlord to a white elephant.

What is the building going to be worth on completion? How hard would it be to sell in the current environment? Council would be a quality tenant, no doubt, and a lengthy one at that, but what is the cost of renting for the life of the HQ compared to owning and maintaining the building? Is there short-term gain, but long-term pain in renting? Council needs to do the maths and present the figures to the rate-paying public for scrutiny.

1842

At the end of an attempted retreat from Kabul, a British force of 9000 men is massacred in the Khyber Pass.

1896

A heatwave in far western NSW causes 47 deaths in Bourke, where temperatures soared above 45C for 13 consecutive days, still a record. The average maximum for the town that month is a record 43.4C.

1915

About 30,000 people are killed when an earthquake shakes southern Italy.

1923

Boy Charlton breaks the 880 yards freestyle swimming record, clocking 11:05.2 at the NSW championships in Sydney. He takes 19 seconds off the world record.

1939

Bushfires ravage almost the entire mountain country of Victoria. More than 70 people are killed and 1500 left homeless by the disaster, dubbed Black Friday.

Irish author James Joyce dies aged 59. Kayakers James Castrission, 25, and Justin Jones, 24, arrive in New Zealand, 62 days after leaving Australia to cross the Tasman. The luxury liner Costa Concordia hits a reef before sinking off the Italian island of Giglio (pictured).

1941 2008 2010