A BAR where you can have a relaxing drink or two and then throw an axe or two.
What could possibly go wrong? Relax, there's a safety briefing.
"Do not throw the axe anywhere except the target. Is that clear? OK, you're good to go."
Welcome to Maniax, a Nordic-inspired axe-throwing venue in King Street. I hope it goes well for the owners and I'm sure the safety briefing is taken seriously.
Investment in entertainment venues offering night-time experiences other than $15 glasses of suss wine is desperately needed in Newcastle. Walking through the city some nights and the place can feel dead.
Sheesh, the new, improved, revitalised Newcastle doesn't even offer a cinema in the city.
The city needs more entertainment venues where people can do something while having a drink and something to eat. Perhaps even have some fun and a few laughs while retaining fingers, toes, and a tad of dignity. Maniax sounds like it offers something very different to plonking your posterior on a barstool and yakking about the good ol' days. Personally, I've never been at ease swinging axes or block splitters or firing up chainsaws. The margin for error is too small for my liking.
Axes? Chainsaws? Ladders with chainsaws? I have always preferred to pay someone to cut up a fallen tree or climb a ladder to trim a branch or deliver a ute tray choc of chopped wood for the heater.
Just on chopped wood, I gave up using indoor wood-fired heaters yonks ago. A bloke near me fired his up last week on a rainy day- it wasn't even cold. They're loathsome things for people with breathing difficulties.
In winter, wood heater smoke is the single biggest air pollutant in NSW, but there appears little interest in regulatory change. Smoke from wood-fired heaters appears forever consigned to this state's too-hard basket.
But I've long enjoyed the wood-chopping at the Royal Easter Show. Passed a few hours there just last week. The Show offers what it calls the Wimbledon of Woodchopping. Male and female competitors come from around the world to throw the axe and try to win the world title. Precision and skill combine with a sharp axe and brute force. Mesmerising stuff.
Another new venue in Newcastle that will soon be fully operational and offering experiences in the night-time economy is Rippit Golf at Broadmeadow. The outdoor mini-golf adjacent to Lambton Road has already been operational for a couple of months.
But inside the former tennis administration building are state-of-the-art golf simulators where you will soon be able to play a course from around the world and whack the white pill down the fairway at courses including St Andrews and Augusta.
Rippit is designed for both serious and first-time golfers, and there's a bar and food is available.
Like Maniax, it provides participatory action where you can have a drink if you want to, but you are not compelled to do so. The option though is very welcome, as is the decision of these two new start-ups to invest in Newcastle's night-time entertainment economy.
Here's hoping the decision by Rippit Golf to locate in Broadmeadow may inspire precinct action by the state government.
It seems like Newcastle has been waiting forever for this area to be developed with manicured open spaces, apartments, sporting facilities and a contemporary entertainment centre that is something a lot more than a soulless barn. Dreadful shed. Embarrassing.
If the Newcastle light rail is ever going to be more than Constance's Folly, a huge mixed-use precinct will both trigger and justify an obvious expansion. Getting any further than that might be bit too hard, but it would be useful to see the light rail extend to the John Hunter Hospital.
We once again have a Minister for the Hunter. Questions are and will be addressed to Minister Crakanthorp about a timeframe for the Broadmeadow precinct realisation.
There's a huge wish list, but Newcastle's State Member has long said he is determined to fight for Newcastle to get its fair share.
That's difficult when in Opposition. But now there is justified community expectation about fair share actualisation. The Broadmeadow precinct must not be thrown into study loop vortex where the fast rail link promise to Sydney endlessly spins.
The bell has rung.
It's fair share o'clock.
