Au revoir Gosford

Final day of a successful visit to my old  'home town' of Gosford. The CBD has changed little since I left in 2008 as the local council seems paralysed to accept the correct development for this possible jewel of a satellite city to Sydney. At only one hour twenty minutes from the big metropolis, it attracts tens of thousands of commuters each day who work in the environs of Sydney and is situated as well on the beautiful Broken Bay with the Hawkesbury River and the Central Coast beaches being the allure of the rich an lazy. It is a one street town, and back in the day, in the 1950s, when my family moved here from the small town or Warialda in the north-west of NSW, it was a nice sleepy, picturesque town where people had holiday homes along the spectacular coast. Now although purchasing homes is beyond the pocket of all but the mega wealthy on the Central Coast, the beaches remain beautiful but the roads are congested and the shopping centres reign supreme. It is sad to see towns with no centre, nor soul, except the airconditioned precincts of these enormous consumer oriented shopping plazas which which are replicated throughout the western world. Gosford has always had such unrealised potential I sometimes wonder if it will ever fulfill the dream. Soon I will be home to witness that, as the Chinese money is seriously interested in making the CBD a high-rise centre of apartments and shopping with the teaser of a concert hall thrown in. 

The big bête noire in Gosford is the lack of public push for a much needed Arts Centre which has been the source of much infighting for as long as I can remember. But anything which is not a cash-cow is not countenanced by the historically corrupt council. It is really a great place to live and many years ago it was even a better place to be a kid, albeit without good educational facilities. We'll just see what eventuates.

Trying Gloria Jeans' coffee on Mann Street

Still smiling after a mediocre coffee

The local crossing...