The enclosure north of the golf course celebrated its 4th birthday last week: 4 years of relative safety for over 300 households with closed off streets, guarded entrances and a 24-hour armed patrol car in the area.
"We are happy to say we are going into our 5th year, as a few months ago it was not certain if we were going to continue, due to lack of funds. A concerted effort of a number of residents, supported by the Observatory website, got in the necessary support and financially we are above board again," says Rob Calmer of the Observatory Residents Forum (ORF), the body responsible for the security of the boomed area.
"During these exciting months the ORF saw the need to name the enclosure - partly because we should distinguish ourselves from the 3 other enclosures in Observatory: Urania Village, the Frances Street enclosure and Frederick Street enclosure. All these enclosed communities are represented in the Observatory Sector Crime Forum and it was a mouthful to say that one represents 'the big enclosure north of the golf course'."
Secondly and maybe more importantly, the ORF felt that residents in the “big Obs enclosure” have reason to be proud of their own achievement and can express that pride in naming our enclosed community: an achievement of erecting fences, gates and booms, of managing the security company, of maintaining the booms, all from our own contributions and with the support of good willing residents and a few sponsors, like estate agent Chas Everitt.
The Observatory website was once more very helpful and asked residents for suggestions: 140 residents in the enclosure were approached and asked to vote for 6 names. Seventy residents cast their votes as follows:
Observatory Estate 33 votes
Observatory Golf Estate 10 votes
Centauri Village 7 votes
Observatory On The Hill 6 votes
Golfview 4 votes
Southern Cross 2 votes
Objections 8 votes
During its 14 March 2006 meeting, the ORF decided the number of responses of the residents who were directly approached via email, as well as the website forum discussion, was sufficiently representative and an indication of what the residents want . It decided to use the name Observatory Estate for the enclosure from now on.
"The ORF also feels that the name Observatory Estate does justice to the two reasons for naming the
enclosure: to distinguish it from other enclosures in the area and to give pride to residents for our achievement. And distinguishing not to look inside the enclosure, but to work together with all communities in our suburb, so that we can continue to say: Observatory, a safer suburb for all!," says Calmer.
Posted 27 March 2006
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