Clifton Hill Dojo Floor Renovations
After many months of planning including formal negotiations with the church we were ready to commence the work parties to renovate the floor at CHD.
The main back breaking structural work utilized around 230 hours of volunteer labour. The total effort of students was around 320 hours to complete the entire project. We had 35 students who came over the 2 weekends to contribute to such a major piece of work. Whilst small in number they have made an enormous contribution to the future of Aikido Victoria. It was hard back breaking work, undertaken by the not so young & rather senior ranks of the state. Many of whom did multiple days. The work was led by Robert Botterill sensei and Chris Brain (building works supervisor accompanied by Dusty the dog). Had we used professionals to complete this work it would have cost in the order of $10K.
The first Saturday was very warm indeed. By the end of the day we almost thought that we had lost Ray Oldman sensei as he fell down a post hole, Brendan Pascoe could almost fit down the post hole and Simon De Foe was almost lost under floor. Archeologists could have been interested in the findings under the floor. I am sure that Andrew Chambers’s hands can attest to the interesting foundations that he and others manually broke up with crow bars. David Bell also experienced an interesting view of the floor has he broke through the old floorboards whilst carrying a large bearer out to the skip.
Whilst the work day did not commence until 9am (the tradies were heard to comment about the late start) the work was completed on schedule. CHD was out of action for two weeks only. Many students also participated in the huge clean up to remove the dirt and dust after the main works were completed. As a result the dojo is looking spectacular. See below for the list of students who contributed to this enormous undertaking.
Prime Slaves |
Dojo |
Helpers |
Dojo |
| Robert Botterill Shihan | GWD | Kate Stankovich | GWD |
| Chris Brain & Dusty | GWD | Mark Matcott Sensei | GWD |
| Beverley Webster | GWD | Chris Matcott | GWD |
| Linda Godfrey Sensei | GWD | Julie Anne Boorer | GWD |
| Andrew Chambers | GWD | Katherine Boorer | GWD |
| Brendan Pascoe | GWD | Bill O'Connor | Bruns |
| John Claxton | GWD | Shravan Bhurtun | RMIT |
| Tony Naughton | Bruns | Jack Kopizowski | Caul |
| Simon Pearce | Bruns | Bora Radonjic | Caul |
| Len Taylor | Bruns | Gwen Oldman | CHD |
| Simon De Foe | RMIT | Julian Brown | CHD |
| Dylan Thomas | RMIT | Jose Sicurella | CHD |
| Michael Nagle Sensei | Monash | Vincent Sicurella | CHD |
| David Bell | Caul | Made Mustika | CHD |
| Adrainne Cleaver | CHD | Leon Metzeling Sensei | Latrobe |
| John Refaushage | CHD | Zoran Kuzmanoski | CHD |
| Sonny Peng | CHD | ||
| Hugo Lewis | CHD | ||
| Justin Bree | CHD | ||
| Mark Turner | CHD | ||
| Ray Oldman Sensei | CHD | ||
| Jason Maling | CHD | ||
| Joe Giovanazzo | CHD |
The First Weekend
The Second Weekend
