Lo, it is The Mountain.

Described by some as "a large dinosaur shit" and used for navigational purposes by boats at sea, the real purpose of the Mountain is to give Japanese tourists something weird to photograph and to house a number of water slides, arcade games, dodgem cars, bumper boats, a mini-golf course and a carousel.

What visionary could possibly have come up with this idea? I have no idea, but The Mountain does indeed hold a fond place in the hearts of many locals. For me, it brings back some memories and I truly like the idea of it being so, erm.. bold. There is no way - repeat - no way that anyone would ever let this kind of thing be built again. Not in the fast-becoming-more-and-more-backwards country I live in. And for this alone I think The Mountain deserves heritage listing with the National Trust. It should be protected, nourished and encouraged, nurtured and loved for what it is. If someone knows what it is, please let me know.

Or should I say 'what it was'? Here come the developers..

Lovely it isn't. These apartments are built on the site of the former Glenelg ferris wheel. There used to be laughing clowns, more arcade games, those target gun things - the usual arcade stuff. The car park used to almost reach the beach. Park the bike, helmet off, walk a couple of metres and you're on the beach. What was formerly community property is now a slew of apartment blocks that simply don't integrate with the area at all.

The Mountain is now consigned to its death - the papers have been processed and soon more development will help us to better utilise the site for the whole of the community. </sarcasm>

I'm sure many beach lovers have fond memories of walking along the beach, getting sand between the toes and running away from the waves. This mental image is one of the common ones used to sell holidays, and I'm sure that almost every beachfront apartment purchaser thinks this thought or something similar at least once.

Here's walking along the beach, apartment style. Why bother getting your feet wet, all that mucking about in the sand- it just ruins a good beach. I wish they'd put in a Starbucks.

Ironic, methinks, that some of the reasons people like an area is destroyed when people decide to live in it.

Here's a picture of one of the apartments with a small bull dozer in front. I was going to make some sort of comment to tie the two together, but can't think of anything right now. Ho Hum. Hmm... one of the shops in the background is called "Jurlique Wellness Sanctuary". Am I the only one that thinks this is odd? WordNet defines a sanctuary as "a shelter from danger or hardship". So isn't a Wellness Sanctuary offering shelter from Wellness?

And here's another picture of The Mountain. This is the side ships see when they are navigating.