Lakeside from the sky, November 20 2010

It's getting there. It's taken Nearmap longer than usual to get this update up - one would hazard to guess that there's a fair bit of progress been made since. But in this photo, you can't see that they haven't started the Athletics Victoria building yet behind our stand. Still cleaning out the 1926 stand - a week after this photo was taken, during the AGM, workers were taking off some sort of paneling from the side of the roof - someone said it was asbestos, but I'm not sure about that. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Lakeside from the sky, October 20th 2010

A rather quick update from Nearmap from their previous flyover, and therefore not massive changes visible. The new stand is the most noticeable difference, with works continuing at a solid pace to my untrained eye. You can also see the outline of where the the track will be, with the soccer field in the middle of it. Behind the goals won't be the best spot for viewing the game.

Lakeside redevelopment, October 1st 2010, photo by Nearmap

Took a while to be uploaded by the folks at Nearmap, and its not quite a substitute for photos from within the construction site, but what the hell.

Farewell to the terraces of my youth

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While the performance of the team this season has caused severe angst amongst the Hellas faithful - and rightly so - equally, people have become concerned with the progress of the Lakeside redevelopment. I know that many South fans are both anxious and excited about the redevelopment to our ground - and it's certainly a feeling that seems to exist especially strongly amongst those who live far from the venue, and have no reason to head down that way any longer while there are no games on. At Laverton Market, one of the traders there asked me what was happening, and I've been asked by fellow travellers while watching the reserves at Altona East PAOK. In addition, at the recent game against Altona Magic, I was being asked by readers of this blog as to what the situation was, and I was unable to give a definitive answer beyond what I had been told at the time, in that they hadn't started works yet.

A week has passed since I posted an aerial photograph of Lakeside taken in late June of this year. Within the same day, I was politely informed by a reader's email that they were now woefully out of date - I invited the reader to submit to the comments section, but they've gone one step better and provided a half dozen photos, of which I've selected what I believe are the three best to illustrate what's happened. They're from yesterday as well, so these are very fresh. As you can see, the terraces are indeed gone, as are Waverley Park's wooden seats, finally dead after all these years. The light towers are still there, but the scoreboard and the sponsor banner poles are gone. The toilet block on the outer side is still there though, but the rickety old media tower is gone, and it's about time too.

I thank our reader for their photographs, which while instilling a sense of sadness - both South related and existential - also provide a level of reassurance that things have started happening on this front at last, that we've reached the real point of no turning back now. I will still use the aerial Nearmap photographs when they become available, as I have a fondness for aerial/top down photography, and enjoy the neat, linear effect that the Nearmap service provides. Of course, this operation won't solve our immediate on field problems - that's usually beyond a government that's non-totalitarian - but it does offer a little piece of perspective, perhaps. Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge them.

Lakeside from the sky, June 2010 update

Last time we were able to check up on Lakeside from the sky, courtesy of the Nearmap service, the photo was from April 16th 2010, and nothing had started yet. Nearmap has finally got an updated photo, from June 21st 2010, showing well, not much progress to be honest. Anyway, the goals are gone and there are no lines, as you'd bloody well hope by now. The light towers are all still there. Apart from that, nothing else has changed. The wooden seats are still in, the grass is still green, our beloved scoreboard is still there along with the poles which held up the sponsor banners, Our magnificent occupational health and safety taunting media box is still there. The 1926 stand seems different from the previous photo, but probably mostly because of the effect that being bathed in sunlight instead of shadow has on it. Might have to make a visit in person one of these days to see what's actually going on there. Also, thanks to all the people yesterday at the Altona game who asked about my health and wellbeing after the operation to remove my appendix, it was much appreciated.

The view from the sky, 16th April 2010

A few weeks ago, some friends, Romans and countrymen (but not your correspondent, who was not invited) stood on the supposedly hallowed turf of Lakeside Stadium, as the end of one era was ushered out the door with the subtlety of a bulldozer, to herald the oncoming of a new era in squeezing multiple sport and athletic entities that aren't Australian rules or cricket clubs into as small a space as possible. It guarantees our future somewhat, after the mess that some people who want all the glory but none of the stick got us into, but more on that another time. So it was perhaps, but in reality probably not worthwhile as we start this amazing journey which already started before this photo but ceremony is a complex thing, with a reminder of what we will lose - remembering the old place as it was - well, not old because there was something and someone there before us, and before them even, and while our tenure has thus far been relatively short, the promise is that we will be here for a lot longer - provided we make the required sacrifices. First photo courtesy of Cuddles. Second photo from the Nearmap service, with updates as they come to hand. Nearmap is a terrific alternative to Google Maps when it comes to Australian cities, the detail is often quite remarkable, and the feature which allows you to look back through previous editions is a terrific tool as well.