A cut-out eagle once kept watch over the ocean-side greens at Scarborough-Wombarra Bowling Club.
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But with redevelopment poised to transform the site, no one thought to replace the avian sentry when it disappeared a while ago.
We’ve had nothing official, but we’ve been told ‘at least 2019’.
- Ian Harrison
In the fake bird’s absence, living, breathing cockatoos launched their raids on the open squares of grass, most recently tearing up holes in dozens of places last week.
But if it was the club’s imminent demise the birds were sensing when they swooped, they were wrong.
While the fate of the development is unknown, the site is expected to stay as it is until at least 2019, according to club manager Ian Harrison.
“We’re not being fed a lot of information from [health care provider and developer] Estia," Mr Harrison told the Mercury.
“We’ve had nothing official, but we’ve been told ‘at least 2019’.”
The clubhouse and its two bowls greens are to be replaced with a 108-bed aged care home under plans put forward by Estia Health last year.
Overburdened by repairs and maintenance costs, club directors sold the 7044-square metre Lawrence Hargrave Drive site to Kenna Investments Pty Ltd – part of the Kennedy Health Care Group – for $1.87 million in September 2012.
In 2015 Kennedy Health Care was acquired by Estia Health, which discussed preliminary plans for a redeveloped aged care home with Wollongong council.
The plans were published in Estia’s half-yearly report.
They included a smaller bowling green and ground floor-level club, but sparked objection among some residents, who raised concerns the development would dominate the “small village” landscape, increase traffic and rob residents of a favoured and longstanding meeting spot.
No development application has since been put on public display and the Mercury’s calls to Estia were not returned on Friday.
And so, at the club, there are plans to reinstate the eagle cutout, and to play on.
“They’re nature’s pruners, cockies," Mr Harrison told the Mercury.
“The greenkeepers have gone all over and filled in [the holes] as best they can.
“We’ve rolled it and tried to make it as flat as we can again.
“It does a lot of damage on the day, but after a couple of days it starts to come good.”