Dozens Of Professions In Demand

ENGINEERING is just one of dozens of professions and trades on the Department of Immigration's in-demand list, ranging from accountants and anaesthetists to wall tilers and welders.

Mural Mystery Solved

When Marie Donovan read of the search for the ``Italian tilers" who installed murals in an Albion Park church 30 years ago, she did a double-take.

Lidcombe Heritage Risk After Games Hordes Depart

Reprieve for a threatened Seidler house ... a quirky look at Sydney ... moves to save a pub facade, and ... WHEN the hundreds of demountables housing Olympic media disappear from the Lidcombe Hospital site at the end of the Games, another 750 permanent townhouses are to be built there. In use

Renovating Sydney

Look north, south, east and west ... this city is in the midst of a pre-GST frenzy. But if you think you've missed out, relax. The experts say building work will be cheaper after July. Scratch the surface of the Sydney housing scene at the moment and you'll find not so much a rash of additions,

A Building Bust Is Fast Approaching

THERE can be no doubt that the success of Sydney's bid to stage the Year 2000 Olympics has been good news for the building industry. It has created an insatiable demand for skilled and unskilled construction industry workers. Who can blame the workers for making the biggest bales of hay possib

Cbd's Cranes Taking Flight

IN THE past few months the Sydney skyline has undergone a significant change as the number of cranes dotting the tops of buildings have gradually disappeared. Since the peak of the construction boom in April last year, there were 34 cranes across the Sydney CBD. That number is now 22 and property

Skills Costs Hit The Roof, Due For A Fall

Sydney's shortage of trades people - and the prices some are charging - is a classic symptom of an economy that's running at a furious pace and due for a dose of corrective medicine. One-off events - the Olympics, the hail storm in the eastern suburbs and early home building and renovations to b

Sydney Hail Puts Dent In Coast Roofs

Last month's Sydney hail storm has struck the Illawarra building industry a blow. Building contractors and new home owners are being frustrated by increased costs and time delays as roof-tiling contractors head to Sydney where they can earn $700 to $800 a day. Beechwood Homes general manager G

Phil Storms Up Front But Hori's Still Boss

The director-general of the State Emergency Service, Major-General Hori Howard, is still in charge of Sydney's hailstorm operation, according to the State Government, despite not being sighted publicly for two weeks. General Howard is said to have been spending his time at SES headquarters in Ban

Flat Out In Crisis

HUNTER businesses are working flat out in the wake of Sydney's hailstorm crisis, with an influx of emergency repairs. Panel beaters, roof tilers, glaziers, electricians and other tradesmen have reported a boom in business. Workers are having to commute to Sydney every day and others have set u

Hail, Redfern

Ice is nice in a glass of gin, but its welcome in Sydney has worn very thin. MASHED roofs, broken windows, shattered skylights, soaking carpets - last Wednesday night's hail storm wreaked havoc across inner-city Redfern. The repair operation is mammoth. For the past week, State Emergency Serv

Olympics Work A Winner For Jobs

JOB opportunities at the Olympic village project in Sydney's Homebush have been hailed as good news for building industry sub-contractors in the Hunter. But Newcastle Master Builders Association executive director Mr Robert Fuller said the work would not suit everyone. `The project has strin

Sydney's Design Precinct

Stretching from Woolloomooloo to Waterloo, the Bourke and Crown street strip is Sydney designer home heaven, with all the latest looks to be found in one concentrated shopping district. HELEN GREENWOOD, GUY ALLENBY and MELISSA WALKER SMITH compiled this guide. THE raw material is

$80m Bill As Storm Clean-up Starts

Eighty-million dollars' damage, thousands of families without power still, sturdy old houses left smashed like plywood, cars flattened - this was suburban Sydney last night, more than 24 hours after the worst storm for years. Although a massive clean-up began yesterday in areas from Turram

The Day The Heavens Gave Out Hell

At 10.30am on Sunday, March 18, the weather bureau issued a routine forecast for Sydney, predicting "a shower or two and a slight chance of a thunderstorm". Sometime after noon, as Sydney continued to enjoy the warm weekend, a storm cell began forming in the skies 40 kilometres s

Home, Sweet Home Again For Cassie

It was the haunting melody of a musical greeting card that almost pushed Cassie Kilby over the edge. On Sunday, March 18, as the hailstorm was sweeping towards Sydney from the south-west, Mrs Kilby, 70, was relaxing with her daughter-in-law at the Lidcombe Catholic Club. "When

Simple Job Became A Long Tale Of Woe

MID-April marked the 11th month of an estimated six-week alteration job to my terrace house in North Sydney. When I mentioned this at a dinner party on Saturday night, people fell about laughing - then clamoured for the right to tell their own particular horror story about the competence o

Site Accidents: Nobody Accepts Blame

SAFETY standards in the building industry were questioned this week after a concrete pour collapsed on a Darling Harbour building site last Saturday, injuring nine workers, two of them seriously. On Tuesday, another accident: two roof tilers working on Sydney's 100-year-old Town Hall plummeted