Thousands to flock to the waterfront

Geelong’s waterfront is expected to welcome between 5000 to 10,000 people for the Labour Day long weekend.

Hot weather on Saturday will kick off the long weekend and the free Wooden Boat Festival at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club will see escalated service levels from the City.

Council is providing extra staff who will clean toilets and park areas more frequently, increased Community Safety and Regulation patrols, an expanded lifeguard roster and more bins. Seasonal additional toilets continue to be located at Eastern Beach and are available for all.

Staff will be live monitoring CCTV, while traffic management crews will manage the Eastern Beach car park at Ritchie Boulevard.

Mayor Trent Sullivan said it was set to be a bumper Labour Day long weekend at the Waterfront and Eastern Beach.

“Because we’re expecting thousands of visitors to descend on this picturesque location, it will be all hands on deck for the City’s cleaning, lifeguard, Community Safety and Regulation and waste crews,” Mayor Sullivan said.

“A friendly reminder for community members to respect each other and the infrastructure, and take advantage of the facilities provided instead of using illegal coal fired barbecues or open fires.

“There will be increased demand for the Ritchie Boulevard carpark near Eastern Beach so we ask drivers to be kind to the traffic management crews who will only be allowing access when parks become available.”

Stony Pier Lane will be closed from Friday March 8 to Tuesday March 12 for the Wooden Boat Festival. Emergency access will be available.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a hot top temperature of 39 degrees for Saturday before cooling off slightly to 31 on Sunday and 32 for the public holiday on Monday.