How the island looked before Thesen Islands - 1998

Click on image to enlarge. This picture was taken by my brother, Gray, in 1998.  It is actually two pictures joined together. We had a large print on the wall in the Sale Centre and it was used in early marketing material and adverts.

The only areas of the island that were redeveloped where those areas that were inside the original sea wall built over many years. The sea wall turned the wetlands into dry areas.  The sea wall appeared that it was built in bits and pieces and had not been maintained for many years. See A and the red line which shows the old sea wall.  See B: Here the old sea wall had been breached and the lagoon had reclaimed the area inside the wall, turning it back into wetland. Therefore no development took place here. No development took place on wetlands.

When the Sales Center on the South side of the Boat Shed first opened in December 1998, we were not allowed onto the island. The factory, of course, was still functioning as it did for a a few more years. We were not welcomed with open arms by the upper management of Thesen and Co. This was understandable as we meant the end of their working life. After a number of months, we were reluctantly allowed onto the island but with strict instructions to stay clear of the working areas. This was not a problem as the first phase that we were selling was at the eastern end, Hammock, Jubilee Island, Ferry Island and the eastern side of Plantation Island.

We would drive out prospects in our cars which was an adventure as there were no roads, aside from a track here and there. At that stage there was no markers as to where this stands we were selling were but we had a good idea. I remember driving through waist high grass and telling perspective buyers, worried they we were about to end in a ditch, that we were now in the waterway heading out to the Ashmead channel. The grass bending past the side of the car gave the feeling of being in a very low boat with water at shoulder height.

This area of the island was not used by Thesen and Co, of course. But like a farmer with unlimited land, they use this area to dump various unwanted machinery, building rubble and anything that they did not know what to do with. The only trees were Wattle and it seemed absent of bird life aside from the gray herons in the southern part of what is now the bird reserve.   

The early buyers took a leap of faith by signing a contract depositing 20% of the purchase price into the attorney’s escrow account, although the sale agreement did state that if their stand was not transferred by certain date they were entitled to ask that their deposit and interest be refunded.

These buyers were critical to the redevelopment as Investec had set a requirement for a certain number of sales before they would commit to the funding of the project.