Yesterday Marine Rescue NSW Deputy Commissioner Alex Barrell attended the launch of construction on the upgrade of the Captain Cook Memorial and Lighthouse on the NSW-Queensland border, which will include the demolition and rebuild of the Marine Rescue NSW facility at Point Danger.
The $5.5 million project will go ahead following the announcement of $2,023,449 in additional funding from the NSW Government’s Cross Border Commissioner’s Infrastructure Fund.
The upgrade will rejuvenate the area and provide much-needed public toilets with safe and wheelchair-friendly access around the building and up to the viewing podium. A new café will also be built, with tabled seating both inside and outside on the public viewing lower deck.
Fingal Head indigenous artist Christine Slabb has been given a blank canvas to provide indigenous storyboards for the café gallery and interpretive artwork in the surrounding landscape.
The story of the volunteer Marine Rescue service will also be told, along with some narrative around European settlement of the area.
The Captain Cook Memorial and Lighthouse structure was originally built in 1971, with an extension to house Marine Rescue NSW built in 1990. This facility currently has numerous structural defects and concrete cancer, with the cost to maintain it as fit for occupation no longer sustainable.
Marine Rescue NSW has already relocated to its own building on Duranbah Beach to accommodate the construction works. On completion, they will return to the building. Its fundraising ventures will continue, with the new lessee of the cafe required to stock and sell the products made by its volunteers. The cafe, which will operate daily from 6 am to 8 pm, will be leased via public tender towards the end of construction.
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