CyberBondi Craft Markets

26/7/08

NEIGHBOURHOOD NEWS

CYBERBONDI SITE NEWS

THE "STRIP" STRUTS ITS STUFF

The newly-planted line of palm trees along the centre strip of Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, have pulled together what used to be a streetscape wasteland.

Unlike the attempts to improve the look of Hall Street - which hardly looks any different to how it was before the Council's efforts at beautification began many months ago - Campbell Parade is now a handsome boulevard, befitting Australia's premier beach.

The $3.1-million upgrade of the Campbell Parade area is a joint project of Waverley Council and the Federal Government

The project includes widening footpaths, upgrading storm-water drainage, adding 350 metres of median fencing, and constructing new kerb and guttering.

Once this is done perhaps the Council might think about providing more accessible bus stops along "The Strip" Some years ago the bus-stop outside the southern end of Birrigal Reserve was removed and many people now find it inconvenient to have to walk all the way up to Notts Avenue and then cross it to reach the next bus-stop in Campbell Parade.

____________________________________________

JULY 2008:
LAUNCH OF CYBERPADDO & CYBEREASTERN SUBURBS PLUS iPHONE CONNECTION

WITH the launch of www.cyberpaddo.com.au we now cover virtually all of Sydney's Eastern Suburbs

Geographically, CyberPaddo covers the entire munipality of Woollahra, next to CyberBondi's territory of the munipality of Waverley. Together, the two sites come under the umbrella of www.cybereasternsububurbs.com.au

CyberBondi could be described as the "Beachside" Eastern Suburbs while CyberPaddo covers the Harbourside Eastern Suburbs.

Together, the two sites contain ove 9,500 local businesses and organisations with continuous updating of their details.

Each business is connected to a Google map. There are also links to its URL and email details, if they are available.

Talking avitars now tell you about each business. Business owners can ask us to customise what their avitar says. We can also arrange for their avitar to use their own voice or the voice of a staff member..

We welcome your input about the sites, and also welcome new information about businesses that are not yet included. Please email us at info@cyberbondi.com.au.

iPHONE

Our sites are particularly suited for use on iPHONES because each page is very low on kilobytes, thus saving telephone costs. You can also locate free Wireless (wi-fi) hot spots in Bondi and Paddington. Just go to SIMPLE SEARCH in the navbar at the top of this page and key in wi-fi, or simply click HERE.

TALKING AVATARS TELL YOU
WHAT EVERY BONDI BUSINESS DOES

A team of talking Avatars has joined CyberBondi to tell you about each of the 5,000-odd businesses listed in our site.

Just click on any business type in our Plaza (such as SPORT or FASHION, RESTAURANTS or DENTAL etc and choose which business you want (or go to SIMPLE SEARCH and key in the name or type of business you want).

As well as phone numbers and address, you will see a row of buttons. Click on the button marked HEAR and you will hear and see the avatar.

Message to Bondi-Waverley Businesses

At present the Avatars have either American or English accents, but any business owner can have a special, tailor-made Avatar with a 3-D photo of him or herself, set against a photo of their business - and talking with their own voice. Just contact CyberBondi at info@cyberbondi.com.au

Maps and Websites

Another button takes you to a Google map showing the location of each business in the site.

A third button takes you to the website and email address of each business.

Constant Updates

To ensure we are giving you the most up-to-date information possible about businesses and organisations in the area, CyberBondi constantly checks and updates the area.

We also welcome your input. If you know of a new business in the area, or if you know of a business that has moved or closed, please contact us. And if you are the owner or manager of a business and you want us and our Avatars to say something different about what you do, please contacts us: info@cyberbondi.com.au

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sunday 9/9/07

KITES AND KIN

SPOUSES OF APEC WORLD LEADERS VISIT BONDI

POLICE helicopters growled overhead, multi-coloured kites fluttered over the sea, the Navy hovered around offshore, as Sydney's Bondi Beach played host to two big events on Sunday.

It was the annual Festival of the Winds, and also the day the spouses of the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) world leaders came to Bondi.

Arriving in a heavily-guarded motorcade to lunch at the Icebergs Dining Room restaurant, the spouses enjoyed a gourmet three-course Mediterranean-style seafood meal, served up by Icebergs executive chef Robert Marchetti.

The APEC "spouses' day out" was the idea of Janette Howard, wife of Prime Minister, John Howard, who chose Australia's most famous beach to showcase the national surf-and-sun lifestyle.

Fortunately, her occasion coincided with the annual Festival of the Winds, which added to the spectacle her guests enjoyed from the windows of the "two hats" Icebergs restaurant above the Bondi Baths.

As the motorcade swept down Bondi Roadarrived and turned into Notts Avenue (CYBERBONDI'S own street, which had been closed off for the day), the sun obligingly came out and the rainy sky turned blue.

The party spent two hours at the restaurant and posed for a photo opprotunity for the many TV cameras and news photographers.

To some of the older members of the Icebergs Swimming Club the event was remiscent of the visit by the Queen to Bondi back in 1954. She viewed the beach from a special plinth and did not venture down on to the sand to dip her toes in the ocean - unlike some of the Japanese APEC advisers who wandered down to the water, rolled up their trouser legs and went for a paddle.

LATE NEWS: The following day, Monday, three humpbacked whales arrived to frolick at Bondi on their migration south. Perhaps they felt the coast was now clear.

Cyberbondi's street gets ready for
the APEC motorcade

The lead cop arrives

Here they come!

Motorcade entering Icebergs

Posse of police cyclists

Off they go home!

The Bondi Icebergs Club - the APEC spouses lunched
at the top-floor Icebergs Restaurant

Icebergs Club and Pool

View from Icebergs' Dining Room
where APEC spouses lucn

The view of Bondi beach the APEC
spouses see while lunching

Kites at the Festival of the Winds

Police prepare to line up along the footpath, backs to the street, to watch for snipers as the motorcade prepares to set off back to the CBD

_________________________________________________________________________________
Local News 13/8/07

CAMPBELL PARADE UPGRADE CAUSES CONFLICT

Artist's impression of the proposed facelift

Bondi Beach's Campbell Parade is to have a $3.1 million
facelift - but not everyone is happy, reports JESSICA KEOGH

"THEY'VE put the nail in our retail coffin" said Max Siano, vice-president of the Bondi Chamber of Commerce.

Max, who owns Max's Shoes on Bondi Beach's famous "Strip", was commenting on the planned upgrade of the eastern side of Campbell Parade, jointly funded by Waverley Council and the Federal Government.

The upgrade work is due to start soon (see below).

But retailers along the Strip are less than enthusiastic about the upgrade.

Max described it as "a painful, half-hearted affair."

Speaking as spokesman for business in the area, Max said: "We haven't been consulted. If only the council had asked us, we could have helped them plan it properly. We are just as eager to upgrade as they are."

Other business-owners along the Strip shared Max's concerns. A particular worry to them is the way Westfield at Bondi Junction is attracting customers away from them.

"Westfield has 3000 or so free parking places," said one retailer. "All we have is parking metres. Westfield is sucking customers away from us."

The council recently suspended some parking meters over the weekend during the winter months, recognising the concerns of businesses along the strip.

"But the meters go back on again during the week," the retailer pointed out. "It's all very well to attract visitors over the weekend - but we operate a seven-day-a-week business. Who's going to come back once they get booked by the piranhas? Once bitten, twice shy."

"Nothing is being done to promote the beach, and no consultation between the Council and businesses like mine," said Patrick Moritz, owner of the Lamrock Café, a Strip landmark for over 20 years.

Several retailers said that the number of people visiting Bondi was dwindling. Some

shopkeepers fear that unemployment and business failure are imminent. "Business is terrible at the moment," one commented.

Some businesses are concerned about the disruption the upgrade works will cause. Already there are complaints from retailers in Hall Street about they way the new footpath works are hurting their businesses.

"The council has got carried away with its beautification," said another Campbell Parade shopkeeper, "but we have other issues. We have invested time and money in the area. But we are being left out in the cold. I get the Impression that the council is anti-business."
However, other business-owners acknowledged that recent efforts to draw the public to Bondi during the winter months had shown promise. "But there's no Bondi Boom," commented another.
___________________________________

NEIGHBOURHOOD NEWS

12/6/07

DISAPPEARING BEACH DISAPPEARS AGAIN!

Now you see it – now you don’t. The recent storm has washed away McKenzie’s Beach again.

(We hope you took our advice and visited it while it was there. See the BEFORE photo below and our earlier story about its reappearance.)

A great pity, for it was a lovely little beach.

Now we will have to wait – who knows how long? – before it reappears.

The tide giveth, the storm taketh away, blessed be the name of the southerly.

AFTER

BEFORE

McKenzie's Beach

29/5/07

OUR “DISAPPEARING” BEACH RETURNS

You may have read in the Wentworth Courier recently about the “reappearance” of McKenzie’s Beach (or, if you walk or jog round the coastal walkway, you will have no doubt seen the “new” beach which has suddenly materialised between Bondi and Tamarama).

To have a new beach on Sydney’s eastern coastline is no small thing.

And it a very nice little beach, too (as our photo shows).

Indeed, if it would only stay where it is, it would quickly become one of Sydney’s most popular beaches – a “boutique” beach if you like.

But it won’t.

For McKenzie’s Beach is a cyclical phenomenon. It waxes and wanes (and disappears) as the seasons come and go.

Experts say that it is mainly a winter beach.

However, it does not reappear every year or each winter.

This year it is particularly large, with a broad sweep of sand that is perhaps 80 or more metres across, and 20 or so metres deep.

It is named after the bay it appears in – McKenzie Bay (just round from the southern “head” of Bondi – McKenzie’s Point).

McKenzie, apparently, owned a farm on the point, and this gave the name to both the head and the bay (our resident Bondi historian, John Ruffels, believes that children used to chase McKenzie’s cows over the cliff).

But do visit this lovely little beach, and if possible have a paddle there.

It may be gone tomorrow or the next day or week or month.

And it may not return for many years.

Enjoy it while it’s here.

___________________________________

Campbell Parade empty footpath

Max Siano said: "Upgrade all you like. Sure, it will look great on a postcard - but if the council doesn't try to fix things here, many of the shops will soon be empty."

WORK STARTS ON UPGRADE

Preliminary work has already begun on the $3.1 million upgrade of the eastern side of Campbell Parade.

The upgrade is a joint project of Waverley Council and the Federal Government, and was launched a few weeks ago by the Mayor of Waverley, Councillor George Newhouse, and the local MP and Federal Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

The project includes widening footpaths, upgrading storm-water drainage, adding 350 metres of median fencing, and constructing new kerb and guttering.

A particular feature will be the planting of new Norfolk Island pines and the protection and preservation of ones already planted. Other plants will be bedded in between Lamrock Avenue and Beach Road.

The work is being managed by a Melbourne company experienced in beach-upgrades, City Wide Service Solutions.

"The upgrade will enhance Bondi as an international tourist destination," said Paul Gilmore, of City Wide. "Local heritage will be emphasised and the aim is to attract people to Bondi all year long.

"It will also help traffic management in the area. The works will be of a very high standard."

The upgrade was due to begin on July 1 but will soon be fully underway.

Watch this space.

Photos: Jessica Keogh
__________________________________________________

CYBERBONDI SITE NEWS

10/6/07

ACCURACY OF OUR LISTINGS

Cyberbondi is very proud of the accuracy of our listings. We strive to keep the information in our – very extensive – database up-to-date.

It is our strong belief that what will keep us the most-reliable and most-used database covering our Bondi-Waverley-Bronte Internet Community Network area is the relevance of our listings – the accuracy and reality of the “picture” we provide of our district.

We derive our information from many sources. However, the major one is what we call “block sweeps”.

As the database is maintained by people who live in the area, we have the opportunity to check on an almost daily basis – by driving and walking around the area - the who, what and where of the local community.

But many local businesses and other entities do not have “shop-fronts”, or obvious “presences”. So it is more difficult to monitor their existence and activity.

We regularly update all the office blocks in our area by physically checking the “foyer” directories of each of them.

Yet many businesses operate out of anonymous private premises, or similar hard-to-monitor places.

The best records of these, clearly, are maintained by Telstra via their telephone listings.

Although this is “public information”, we acknowledge that if our information comes from this important source, we say so openly in our description of the relevant listing (eg, “YP or WP 6/07”).

Only entities that have a local presence are listed in Cyberbondi – though we encourage advertisements from “outside” businesses that also serve our area.

Yet our main advertising base is businesses & other entities who are physically located within the boundaries of Bondi-Waverley, and who want to market their goods & services to the local community.

Of course, we welcome any correcting or amending of our listings, and so encourage people in the area to tell us if there are new entries, or entries that should be deleted, or – most importantly – entries that need further updating and upgrading.

Indeed, we have created what is called a Cyberbondi “Content Management System (CMS)” that people can use to control and manage their own listing.

This can be accessed on our PLAZA “home” page.

And we are only too pleased to help people use this facility, which gives them the ability to change, add to, or otherwise update/upgrade their entries in Cyberbondi.

However, we realise that many are unfamiliar with the technology involved, and we are happy to receive new information from anyone at any time, by phone 9319 6851, letter (box 100 Millers Point 2000), fax (9319 6850), or email (go to info@cyberbondi.com.au).

Do please help us to keep “Virtually Everything” in Cyberbondi as up-to-the-minute as possible.

___________________________________

28/5/07

CHANGES IN OUR “FASHION” CATEGORY

As foreshadowed in our last CyberBondi news item (14/5), we have changed the FASHION BOUTIQUE LOBBY in the CyberBondi FASHION COURT to “STREETWEAR”.

We decided that FASHION BOUTIQUE was too wide a category, and lumped a range of fashion outlets into the one, rather meaningless, category.

So now STREETWEAR, which is a term many shops and their customers are using currently, will describe fashions for the younger age-group. In fact, many (if not most) of what we formerly described as FASHION BOUTIQUE or just BOUTIQUE are now in the STREETWEAR LOBBY.

We have also changed the category “WOMEN’S CLOTHING” to “WOMEN’S WEAR” (as in Women’s Wear Daily – the NY-based “Bible” of the fashion industry). This is meant to be a more up-market term indicating quality fashion short of couture and our DESIGNER FASHION category.

The next area we will be looking at is our ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE COURT. We have already changed this to WELLBEING & ALTERNATIVE HEALTH. But we are still unhappy with some of the sub-categories or LOBBIES.

We will keep you informed.

(We are also looking at ways to bring you more “newsy” news items, and tomorrow we will have a rather interesting one.)

___________________________________

14/5/07 : CHANGES IN OUR “CAFÉ/CASUAL EATING” CATEGORY

We at CYBERBONDI are continually refining our PLAZA categories – which we call COURTS (our site is designed as a permanent Expo of “Virtually Everything” in Bondi-Waverley) – to better reflect the reality/actuality of the local business environment and community lifestyle.

In revising and updating our PLAZAs - “LIVING”, “SHOPPING”, etc - we have decided that our former sub-category “CAFÉ” is too broad and general. (We call these sub-categories LOBBIES.)

“What exactly is a “café”? Is it a place that merely serves coffee? Or dispenses coffee plus other things?

We think the term is almost meaningless in a contemporary context, and indiscriminate in the context of an Internet Community Network (which is what CYBERBONDI is).

So from today we are changing our “CAFÉ” sub-category/LOBBY into “CASUAL EATING/CAFÉ” (for the term “café” still means something to most people).

And we will progressively convert those coffee-dispensing businesses that we formerly described as “CAFEs” into the sort of café that they actually are.

Many of these former “CAFEs” will now be called “STREET CAFÉ” to indicate they are local, street-situated cafes, often open-fronted or with outside tables.

If, however, they have some special characteristic or feature, we will indicate this – with such new and existing LOBBIES as “CAFÉ-DELI”, “BAKERY CAFÉ”, “ETHNIC CAFÉ”, “VEGETARIAN CAFÉ”, “BREAKFAST CAFÉ”, “COFFEE LOUNGE”, “MALL CAFÉ”, and so on (see on the PLAZA page our new COURT, “CASUAL EATING/CAFÉ”).

We have also brought in two new LOBBIES, “NATURAL JUICE OUTLET” from our “ORGANIC” COURT and “INTERNET CAFÉ” from our “INTERNET” COURT.

Perhaps most importantly, we have refined two major categories, to make them more useful and functional.

We have added a new LOBBY category “TAKE-AWAY EAT-IN” to the “CASUAL EATING/CAFÉ” COURT, removing a similar LOBBY from the “TAKE-AWAY/TO-GO” COURT. This enables us to better indicate which take-away establishments have eat-in facilities, too. (We will progressively revise all take-aways in coming weeks.)

And we have eliminated the previous sub-category/LOBBY “RESTAURANT/CAFÉ” from the “RESTAURANT” COURT, replacing it with “CAFÉ-RESTAURANT” in the “CASUAL EATING/CAFÉ” COURT. Thus any restaurant that has casual “café” facilities, or any café that also serves meals, will be listed in this “CASUAL EATING/CAFÉ” COURT as “CAFÉ-RESTAURANT”.

In the coming months we will revise and update other sections of our CYBERBONDI Internet Community Network. (The next “cab on the rank” is the “BOUTIQUE” category/LOBBY in our “FASHION” COURT – we believe that it is also too wide and general, and needs more meaningful sub-categories.)

___________________________________

17/4/07
WELCOME TO CYBERBONDI NEWS

Today, April 17, we launch a new, and important, section in CYBERBONDI.

It’s called CYBERBONDI NEWS.

The CYBERBONDI site has been around – active – since 1997, when we started what turned out to be our first Internet Community Network – CYBERBONDI.

Our philosophy – our rationale and driving impetus – was that the Internet was going to supplant, or at least augment, existing Media outlets (newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, etc, etc).

We launched CYBERBODNI as our first “model” of what we saw – far too early, as it turned out – the future of information and community communication…the shape of things to come.

Yet we have waited a long time for those “things” “to come”. But we now think we are, to use a Bondi analogy, on the edge of the surf, watching the waves, on the horizon, beginning to well up.

So we are currently in the process of substantially upgrading CYBERBONDI (preparatory to expanding to the rest of Sydney – Cyber Paddington-Woollahra will be next, hopefully later this year)

One of our first steps towards the future – the digital, online future – is to launch this CYBERBONDI NEWS section to our website.

Our aim is to present each day something of interest to those accessing our site.

We hope that ordinary news – what is happening daily in Bondi-Woollahra – will be part of this new and regular service.

But we will also report matters concerning our CYBERBONDI site – fresh categories, changes in format and content, new initiatives and trends, and so on.

Click on this each week and see what is making news in CYBERBONDI.

©2000 CyberSydney Pty Ltd
All Rights Reserved

_____________________________________

_____________________________________________