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Husband Charged in 1998 Dover Heights Murder

After 26 long years of being a cold case, an 81-year-old man has been arrested and charged with the murder of his wife in Dover Heights which occurred on March 10, 1998. Aaron Govendir was taken into custody on Thursday morning in connection with the death of his wife, Denise Govendir.

The case dates back to the early hours of that fateful day when emergency services responded to reports of a home invasion on Dover Road. Upon arrival, they discovered the body of 53-year-old Denise Govendir. At the time, Mr. Govendir, then 55, claimed that an unknown intruder had broken into their home, assaulted both him and his wife, and fled the scene in their car.

However, NSW Police now allege that Mr. Govendir fabricated the break-in to cover up his wife’s murder. Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty, NSW Police Homicide Commander, stated in a press conference that the arrest was the result of a thorough reinvestigation of the case.

“We’re actually drinking from the well that was previously drunk by others,” Superintendent Doherty explained. “The original brief of evidence was very sound and solid. Getting fresh medical evidence, fresh forensic evidence, and really building what we allege in court is a strong circumstantial case… we now have sufficient evidence today to charge this man with murder.”

The breakthrough comes after years of investigation, including a coronial inquest held between 2005 and 2008, which confirmed that Ms. Govendir died as a result of blunt force head injury intentionally inflicted by a person or persons unknown. In November 2021, NSW Police launched another investigation into the murder, and last year, a $1 million reward was announced for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Superintendent Doherty describe d Mr. Govendir as “emotionless” during his arrest, noting it as unusual. He also mentioned that family members of Ms. Govendir reacted with “mixed emotions” to the news of the arrest. The couple had two children together.

“It was a point where that family has been holding the burden of grief for some time, but they have also held a lantern of hope for the last 26 years,” Superintendent Doherty said. “Today we have been able to give them the news they have been waiting for a long time.”

Police will allege in court that the robbery was staged. “This was a woman who lost her life violently in her own home,” Superintendent Doherty emphasised.

Mr. Govendir has been refused bail and is scheduled to appear before Penrith Magistrates Court on Friday. The arrest marks a significant milestone in this long-standing cold case, potentially bringing closure to a family that has waited over a quarter of a century for answers.

Published 15-August-2024

Dover Heights Boardwalk to Proceed Despite Privacy Complaints

The Clifftop Walkway project in Dover Heights and Vaucluse will move forward as per the approved Development Application plans, despite the privacy issues raised by residents.

The walkway’s redesign caused an uproar among residents before it was built, as they were concerned that the raised boardwalk would enable visitors to look into their houses. The occupants of the Vaucluse Waters building, designed by Harry Seidler, are primarily concerned about the absence of consultation and the possible infringement of privacy.

One resident expressed frustration, stating that the community needed to be informed that the new boardwalk would provide direct views into their bedrooms. He also highlighted concerns about increased noise due to the materials used for the walkway, which remains open at night.

Before the construction, Waverley Council said it would review a secret report discussing the redesign, which includes lowering parts of the boardwalk by over a metre to address privacy issues. However, a staff have warned that this change could pose legal risks. Removing the lookout points might drive visitors to dangerous cliff edges for photo opportunities, raising safety concerns.

Construction and fabrication work for the boardwalk and lookout had been on hold while the Council thoroughly investigated residents’ concerns.

Dover Heights Boardwalk Clifftop Walkway — *Photo Credit: WaverleyCouncil*

Cost and Construction Issues

In 2019, the decision to replace the old coastal boardwalk and viewing platforms was made after determining they had “reached the end of their serviceable life.” The new elevated design aimed to prevent tourists from climbing off the path to take selfies, but the execution has led to unforeseen privacy invasions.

The project has faced several setbacks, including landslips before construction began and cost blowouts due to rising material costs and supply chain issues. Initially estimated at an additional $500,000, the cost of lowering the boardwalk has added financial strain.

Waverley Liberal councillor Will Nemesh acknowledged that while the coastal walk is one of Sydney’s most spectacular, the council must balance public access with residential privacy. He mentioned that nearly all council construction projects have been affected by external factors, causing further delays.

Despite the complications, Mr Nemesh insists that the coastal walk should be an asset for the entire community to enjoy, emphasizing the importance of getting the final design right to ensure both accessibility and privacy.

Proceed as Planned

Following independent reviews of privacy concerns raised by residents about a section of the boardwalk and lookout area, the Council determined at its meeting on 21 May 2024 that the project will continue as per the approved Development Application plans.

Contractors will now complete the final section, which should take about four months, weather permitting. The contractor has started work at Eastern Reserve to ensure progress, including emergency stormwater upgrades at George Street and Ocean View Avenue.

Construction will continue to advance at both locations, with a top priority on completing stormwater works. The initial phase of the Diamond Bay project is anticipated to be accessible to the public in the spring.

Published 29-July-2024

Dramatic Arrest in Dover Heights After Police Pursuit

A police chase through the Eastern Suburbs ended with the arrest of two men in Dover Heights following reports of an armed individual seen near the home of former nightclub owner John Ibrahim.

The incident unfolded on Thursday, 25 July 2024, at approximately 8:20 a.m. Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command officers responded to a call about a man wearing a balaclava and carrying a pistol on George Street, Dover Heights.

Pursuit and Arrest

The two suspects, aged 20 and 24, fled the scene in a Cupra SUV. Police caught up with the vehicle on Old South Head Road in Bellevue Hill, where a pursuit began. The chase ended with the driver’s apprehension, while the passenger briefly escaped on foot before being arrested in a nearby backyard on Banksia Road.

During a search of the vehicle, police discovered two pistols and other items. Detective Inspector Adam Solah stated that one of the firearms was believed to be loaded. Both weapons, described as a semi-automatic and a revolver, were taken as evidence.

Charges and Court Appearance

The two men face multiple charges, including:

– Possessing loaded firearms in a public place
– Possessing unauthorised pistols
– Police pursuit offences
– Stalking/intimidation

They were refused bail and are scheduled to appear at Waverley Local Court on Friday, 26 July 2024.

The incident caused concern among local residents. Bellevue Hill Public School activated emergency procedures, with students and staff locked in classrooms as a precaution. Principal Sue Bennett assured parents that post-incident support would be available if needed.

Ongoing Investigation

Police have not yet determined why the men were in the area but confirmed they were not locals. Detectives were seen examining the street in Dover Heights and spoke with John Ibrahim, though there is no suggestion of his involvement in the incident.

Authorities are urging anyone with information about the event to contact Eastern Suburbs Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Published 29-July-2024

Dover Heights Sinkhole Reveals Extent of Storm Damage, Council Fast-Tracks Repairs

Photo Credit: NSW SES Randwick Unit

A colossal sinkhole, measuring 10 metres wide, emerged in Dover Heights following a weekend of heavy rainfall.

A combination of sudden downpours and runoff along Oceanview Avenue caused the sinkhole, which swallowed part of a road.

The dramatic incident took place on a street where a sizable landslip had previously occurred a year earlier. Although no injuries were reported, NSW SES volunteers, along with police and Fire and Rescue NSW officers, swiftly responded to secure the area and divert water away from nearby properties.

Waverley Council, which had already invested in stabilisation works near the site following the landslip, revealed plans to fast-track permanent repairs. These works, originally scheduled to commence in a few weeks, will now begin immediately, aiming to establish a retaining wall and enhanced stormwater infrastructure to address the demands of future extreme weather events.

*Photo Credit: NSW SES Waverley Woollahra Unit*

The Dover Heights sinkhole is one of many incidents requiring emergency response in Sydney following the heavy rainfall. SES crews have attended over 140 calls, mostly related to leaking roofs, fallen trees, and one flood rescue incident, where the individual managed to escape danger before help arrived.

Published Date 27-May-2024

Dover Heights: Wild Ute Incident Shocks Residents

Alarming footage has surfaced depicting occupants of an erratic ute, prominently displaying P-plates, allegedly hurling water bomb balloons at a young schoolboy, pedestrians, and other road users within the vicinity of Dover Heights.

A concerned motorist filmed the incident while the white ute travelled along Military Road in early 2 February 2024. The footage showed objects thrown from the driver and passenger windows at people walking on footpaths and a delivery driver on a bicycle waiting at an intersection. The objects splattered as they hit the ground.

A schoolboy standing on a roadside corner was hit by one of the objects, as close-up footage showed his soaked shirt. The ute was also filmed going down a one-way street in the wrong direction.

The man who filmed the incident supplied the footage to NSW Police but told the media that no action had been taken. Police, however, said they had no record of the complaint and asked for the details again.

The following day, the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command indicated that the incident was being investigated.

“’As investigations continue, anyone with information or dash-cam footage is asked to contact Eastern Suburbs Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 300 000.”

Published 21-February-2024

Warren Zines Reserve in Dover Heights Will Keep Its Name

The Warren Zines Reserve in Dover Heights will get to keep its name and a proposal to name it after Adam Goodes will not push through, contrary to reports of a planned change.

The reserve that features a lookout along Cadigal Place has been dedicated to the memory of Australian bowler Warren Zines since 1999.

Mr Zines tragically died in Tel Aviv in 1997 due to the collapse of the Maccabiah pedestrian bridge. Some 60 members of the Australian-Jewish delegate were in the Israeli city for the Maccabiah Games.

For over two decades, the naming of the Warren Zines Reserve, which was part of the Dover Heights Bowling Club, had not been a problem with locals. The site was chosen as Mr Zines and his family were avid bowlers and members of the club. The Zines also ran a local pharmacy.

However, Sam Collins, a resident from Bondi discovered an oversight in the naming process as Waverley Council still needs to register Warren Zines Reserve with the Geographical Names Board (GNB). Mr Collins filed an application with the GNB to replace the reserve’s name with the Adam Goodes Lookout, after the Indigenous AFL legend.

In a radio interview, Mr Zines widow, Lynette Zines, said that she was heartbroken about the plan to rename the park in honour of her departed husband.

“I have no problem with a park being named after Adam Goodes,” the widow said. “But don’t take away the name of another park.

However, the Gujaga Foundation, which conducts audits on naming and referencing Aboriginal cultural locations, does not support the renaming as Cadigal Place does not “possess a high level of significance to the local Aboriginal community.”

Meanwhile, Waverley Council has since made moves to correct the oversight and GNB sought a public consultation to retain the name, “Warren Zines Reserve.”

“The Board acknowledges the reserve has been unofficially called Warren Zines Reserve for more than 20 years and the changing of long-established names can cause confusion and disruption,” Chair of the Geographical Names Board Narelle Underwood said in a statement.

The public consultation will run until 9th December 2022.

Sydney Water Demolition Works at Dover Heights Partly Complete

Photo Credit: Google Maps

Sydney Water’s scheduled demolition works along Lancaster Rd in Dover Heights have been partially completed as part of the water services improvements in the Eastern Suburbs.

The properties along 33 and 33A Lancaster Rd, owned by Sydney Water, will be redeveloped into an office space and laydown area with onsite parking, which will then be used for the upcoming operational and maintenance activities of workers. The plan is part of the Refresh Vaucluse and Diamond Bay Project that will be undertaken for the next two years.

However, prior to the construction of the new facilities, activities like asbestos removal, soil investigation, vegetation removal, and installation of new fences and gates will be undertaken until October 2022 to secure the property whilst the design and layout of the new facilities are being properly planned with a landscape architect.

According to Sydney Water, “the community will be informed and seek feedback on the proposed design when available.”

Dover Heights — Photo Credit: Sydney Water

New pipeline, new pump station for Eastern Suburbs

Sydney Water is planning to build a new pipeline at the Diamond Bay Reserve in Vaucluse, some 850 meters away from Lancaster Rd. These pipelines will be connected to the planned new pump station at the Eastern Reserve between Vaucluse and Dover Heights.

The project has been years in planning and has received some opposition from the locals who believe that the new pumping station will be detrimental to the green space. They launched a petition to oppose the facility, which has gained 277 signatures as of press time.

“This will drastically change the Reserve, transforming the open area at the end of our street, which our homes look out to, and the area that we frequent for recreation, play and family time, into concrete, metal vents, metal boxes, bollards, a vehicle turning circle and an 18m steel sewage odour vent,” Residents of Eastern Ave Dover Heights stated.

“The project would require significant digging into the cliff structure, which could hasten erosion and degradation, even putting nearby properties and the cliff face at risk. No amount of geotechnical reporting can guarantee cliff stability related to significant depth digging.”

What is the Refresh Vaucluse and Diamond Bay Project?

The new pipeline and pump station are needed to ensure that sewage water will go to the Bondi wastewater treatment plant and not the ocean. Over 30 years ago, deep ocean outfalls were built in Bondi, Malabar and North Head to process sewage water. However, raw sewage from some of Sydney’s wealthiest homes in Dover Heights, Vaucluse, Rose Bay and Watsons Bay, still flows directly into the ocean.

Thus, Sydney Water devised the Refresh Vaucluse and Diamond Bay project to connect these networks to the Bondi deep ocean outfall. The project required additional pumping stations and wastewater pipelines, as well as some infrastructure upgrades.

Residents, however, want to be assured that these new facilities will mitigate the impact of pollution following reports that the water quality of the beaches in Bondi, as well as Tamarama and Bronte, are consistently polluted.

Sydney Water’s commitment

Sydney Water, however, said that the design and location of the structures will be properly assessed. Ultimately, the goal is to “improve visual amenity” as well as remove any odour.

“We will continue to work with Waverley Council and the local community to minimise the visual impact of this design and will look for opportunities to further refine the pumping station’s footprint and engage a landscape architect to advise on the sensitive placement of aboveground infrastructure.”

Dover Heights Home Values Rising to Match Upwardly Mobile Income of Locals

Did you know that the median house price in Dover Heights grew by $1.26 million in the last 12 months until June 2021? Dover Heights is also among the top ten suburbs where residents bring home the most cash, based on data from the Australian Taxation Office.

New data from Domain.com.au shows that whilst 55 percent of NSW suburbs have progressively increased their home values, outpacing the median household income, Dover Heights and Bronte in the Eastern Suburbs have emerged as the top two locations with the largest gap.

The fact that their houses earned more, despite border closures and rolling lockdowns in Sydney, might be good news for Dover Heights or Bronte homeowners. However, it’s disappointing news for investors, first-home buyers, and upsizers eyeing a property in these suburbs as home values continue to rise.

Here’s how the Top 10 Sydney suburbs performed in the market:

Suburb	Annual change in median property price	Annual household income	How much the house earned
Dover Heights	$1,265,000	$174,491	$1,090,509
Bronte	$1,220,000	$153,767	$1,066,233
Northbridge	$1,050,000	$192,510	$857,490
Seaforth	$925,000	$194,813	$730,187
Mosman	$875,000	$145,189	$729,811
Bellevue Hill	$850,000	$166,489	$683,511
Manly	$786,000	$140,986	$645,014
Palm Beach	$762,500	$121,528	$640,972
Gordon	$600,000	$133,157	$466,843
Killara	$612,500	$145,880	$466,620
			Data Source: Domain.com.Au

Nicola Powell, Domain’s chief analyst said that unless buyers work in tech startup companies or are fortunate to have “intergenerational wealth,” they won’t likely be able to keep up with the house price growths in these areas.

The analyst also noted that investors with good income, including those from the Eastern Suburbs, are looking to buy properties in the Northern Beaches, which is also driving up the prices in those areas.

Dover Heights Locals Among Highest Paid Earners In Australia

View from Military Rd, Dover Heights (Photo credit: Oswaldo González/ Google Maps)

Dover Heights is among the top ten suburbs where residents bring home the most cash, based on data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Read: Take A Look At These Award-Winning Houses In Dover Heights

Suburbs from Sydney dominated the list for the 2018-19 financial year, with Double Bay coming on top. Darling Point and Point Piper both ranked third whilst Dover Heights, with taxpayer’s earnings averaging at $197,886, shared the fourth spot with Vaucluse.

Although we are in times when health care is more uncertain than ever, jobs from this sector dominate this year’s list – surgeons turned out to be the highest paid workers with an average earning of $400,000 annually, followed by internal medical specialists who make $300,000 a year on average.

Others in the highest paying jobs include financial dealers, legal professions, CEOs, and managing directors. The Australian Bureau of Statistics notes that these numbers are twice Australia’s average full-time salary of $89,000, or about $1712 a week.

Here are the suburbs of the top 10 of highest-paid earners for 2018-2019:

The A List: MyCareSpace Creators’ New Project for People With Autism

Nicole Gamerov (right), a Dover-based entrepreneur, and Bianca Shapiro (left), the duo behind MyCareSpace, will soon open ‘The A List,’ an online hub for young autistic people that will provide them with options to connect socially.

MyCareSpace came about after Nicole witnessed her mother losing her eyesight due to macular degeneration.

Realising the gravity of how disabilities can rob people of their independence, the duo created a service that could connect thousands of people living with disabilities and their families with support services. These services ranged from speech pathology to people capable of modifying their homes to better accommodate the disabilities of their residents.

Bianca had commented in the past that true equality in health care was still still quite far away, and that women in rural areas living with disabilities face discrimination that get in the way of their ability to access health services. Because of this, MyCareSpace intends to provide all people with disabilities the essential support and services they require.

The COVID-19 pandemic in particular led to a spike in MyCareSpace activity, with a 144 per cent increase in requests for connections between the months of April and August in 2020. The number of phone calls the platform received on its support line had also doubled.

However, Nicole and Bianca realised that there was still more they could do. After receiving $1 million in funds from the federal government, the two have begun to collaborate on another venture: The A List.

The A List, currently in the works, is to become an online hub for young people with autism and their caretakers, created to connect them with social options. The project came about due to the numerous calls they’ve received requesting help with this specific issue. It is expected to launch sometime in September 2021.

The duo intends to reach a grand total of one million people with disabilities by 2025 with their two platforms — a huge leap from their humble beginnings as a start up along the eastern suburbs.

To learn more about MyCareSpace, visit their website here. Follow their social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates and announcements.