A view of Bintulu town in 1954

Main Bazaar road in May, 2013.

Bintulu town squatters area in early 80's

View of Bintulu town from the Kemena River bank towards the Chinese temple (Tua Pek Kong), 1987

 There was a big squatters settlement in the midst of Bintulu town in the early 80's.  In 1987 a major squatters demolishment was done to cleanup the town of illegal buildings and slums.  The above picture shows some of the wooden structures built by the squatters that were in the process of being demolished by the government authorities.  The public space taken by the slums were later turned into an esplanade, car parking lots and new market buildings.

View from  Bintulu Esplanade (tiled area) towards the Chinese temple area and Main Bazaar Road - 25 December,2013.

Many festivals, public gatherings, fun fairs, shows and Ramadan markets are now held at the esplanade area.  The wooden shophouses in the 80's are replaced by permanent concrete shophouses.  The Main Bazaar road now becomes a four-lane one way street.

Main Bazaar Road in 1975

Main Bazaar Road in 1975
Note the large green space between the two-way street.  Seen are the students of BGSS (Bintulu Government Secondary School) during the Prophet Mohammad's Birthday parade around the town.
The wooden shophouses are made of belian posts, beams and roofing of belian shingles.
Overhead electric posts are gradually replaced with underground cabling.

Main Bazaar Road today, 23 December, 2013.
The road is now turned into a 3-lane one-way street.
Permanent reinforced  concrete four storey buildings replaced old wooden shophouses and ample car parking spaces are provided on the roadsides.  Parking are now charged at hourly rate of 50 sen per hour.

Just years prior to the first boom, there were very few cars in town.  Students who studied at BGSS (Bintulu  Government Secondary School) would either take the bus or ride bicycles to school.  Many Malay and Melanau kampungs dotted the areas immediately around the town.  It was customary for the  Muslim students to celebrate the Prophet Mohammad's Birthday by parading around town (as seen in the top pix). Today the Main Bazaar Road is the main thoroughfare around town.

Tanjung Batu Scenic Road in the late 1980's

The Tanjung Batu Scenic Road - under construction in the late 80's

 One of the major impacts of the first economic boom (1979 - 1983) was the growth of population in the Bintulu town and the new satellite township of Kidurong.  With increased number of temporary and permanent workforce to the town the need for recreational activities grew.  One of the projects undertaken by the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) was the construction of beach facilities and a bird's park which was later named Wildlife Park or Taman Hidupan Liar in Malay.  Upon adopting  the masterplan for the development of the Tanjung Batu recreational reserve area in 1985, works on providing improved roads infrastructure to the beach and park areas started in the late 1980's in earnest.  The above picture shows the construction of the Tg. Batu Scenic Road, showing the section going down towards the Aurora Beach Hotel.

Tanjung Batu Scenic Road as seen today....20 December, 2013.

Today the road is a one-lane dual carriageway with a small lane for bicycles and motorcycles incorporated.  The building on the right is Bintulu's first high-rise beach condominium project.  With proper facilities and amenities provided at Tg. Batu recreational reserve area, tourism activities picked up with visitors both domestic and foreign attracted to the beautiful scenery, breeze and many recreational activites at the beach like swimming, picnics,jogging, family gathering or outing, beach games,photography and sunset viewing. Entrance to the beach is free. Visitors especially school children crowd the Wildlife Park especially at weekends and school holidays to see many zoo animals, birds and botanic collections at the park, which is now popularly called "Taman Tumbina" in Malay.

Old Bintulu airport building in 1955

Old Bintulu airport building as seen in 1955
Picture credit: Ho Ah Choon, Sarawak in Pictures - 1940's -70's, Sarawak Press Bhd, Kuching.

 The airport buildings were made of timber and even the row of private individual houses fronting the airport (at the background of the picture) were also made of timber structures and roofing of "belian" shingles.  The picture shows passengers alighting from the aircraft and going to the arrival/departure building at right of the picture.

The site of the old Bintulu airport building taken on 13.12.13.
Note the  low rise nature and construction of shophouses in concrete and roofing of metallic sheets.

Bintulu is one the most interesting places to visit in the early days of its development because of the ease of arriving and departing Bintulu town.  The airport was located right in the midst of town.  According to records, the Bintulu airport was built in 1938 but construction was halted when the Japanese invaded Bintulu in 1941.  After the war was over, construction was renewed and completed in August 1955.  The first civil aircraft to land at the Bintulu airport on the morning of 26th August 1955 was "Rapide" - a twin rotor aircraft with wings made of canvas.  Later a Twin Pioneer - 16 seater plane was in operation to replace the "Rapide".  Other types of planes used in succeeding years were the Fokker Friendship and Fokker 50.  With the construction of a new airport  and its use, the old airport was abandoned and the site cleared and used for miscellaneous functions like fun fair, kite flying, and free car parking spaces.
 The old airport was officially closed on 29 March, 2003 and flights in and out of Bintulu were handled by a new airport built 23 kilometers away from the town centre, towards the south of Bintulu town.

Old Bintulu food market and 'Tua Pek Kong' in 1972

Bintulu old food market (middle of picture) and 'Tua Pek Kong' (small building at top let of the picture)
Date of picture : 1972
Note the timber structure of all the shophouses and market buildings with roofing of belian shingles.
The river in the background is the Kemena river, flowing out to sea towards the right of the picture.

Picture shows the above same location taken on 27 September,2013.

There is a considerably big plot of land somewhere in the middle of Bintulu town which housed two structures in 1972.  At the top picture is shown the old food market and the 'Tua Pek Kong' - which is a small shrine housing a Chinese deity.  Today the plot of land has retained the 'Tua Pek Kong' which has been re-built in stages over the years .  In the picture above it is partly shown as the green tiled roofing structure on the former shrine site.  The old food market area has been turned into a small town garden.  Today all shophouses are of concrete structures and more permanent buildings are built around the town like the Main Market ( 'Pasar Utama' ) partly seen as a cone -shaped blue roofing structure above.

Roundabout Two in mid 1980's

The above roundabout was called Roundabout Two in the 1980's
It was well-landscaped and turfed. The stretch of roadside trees  are Angsana (Pterocarpus indicus)

 In the above picture the white building at the top left corner is the "Dewan Suarah"or civic centre.  The Dewan Suarah was built at the cost of RM 7 million and was opened on 5 July, 1988.

Date taken : 27 September,2013.
In place of the Roundabout Two, the local authority (BDA) introduced the traffic lights junction and was fully operational in early 2012.

When the local authority introduced a traffic lights junction to replace the roundabout, a new dual carriageway was built as alternative route to the Bintulu town ( as seen at the bottom left of the picture).

Law Gek Soon Road in the mid 1980's

Law Gek Soon Road, mid 1980's

 The above pic shows the Law Gek Soon Road in the mid 1980's when Bintulu faced its first economic boom.  Compared to the present day (1 October, 2013) there are very stark differences in terms of the buildings structure(e.g. wooden shophouses), movement of traffic (  2-way versus 1 - way streets) and newer buildings that cropped up to make Bintulu town's image  on par with other major towns of Sarawak.  The blue cone-shaped building in the center background in the picture below  is the Main Market building or "Pasar Utama".  The tall pole in the center has a surveillance  camera attached as a crime preventive measure.  Today there is not a single remnant of wooden shophouses in Bintulu town.

Law Gek Soon Road, taken on 1 October, 2013

Law Gek Soon
First Government Chief Clerk of Bintulu.

Mr Law Gek Soon was born and bred in Bintulu. He was the first Government Chief Clerk of Bintulu.  He died during his service in 1918 at the age of 45.  The Law Gek Soon Road is named after him.

Keppel Road and Food market in the 1960's

Keppel Road with turfing in the centre, in the 1960's.  The food market is the building at left.
The road is still largely sandy dirt road with some stoning done.
All shophouses are wooden type with concrete ground floor and roofing made of Belian wood shingles.
Note the river bank across the town....there are no buildings built across river.

 

 

 

 Over the years the food market that was located in the center of the town was fondly referred to as the 'Old Market'.  In the 1960's the old market was a meeting place for almost everybody in town to buy wet food like fish, meat and vegetables,  and to eat and drink provided by many Chinese and Malay stalls inside the building.  The Keppel Road that lined it on the inland side was a sandy dirt road and only towards the early 70's were the roads around the shophouses began to be stoned.  There were a handful of cars about town in the 1960's and bicycles were a highly regarded possession.  I could remember well how I had to fork out 20 cents to learn how to ride a bicycle within one hour of rental time, bearing in mind that in the sixties 20 cents was a lot of money.

Keppel Road taken on 27 September, 2013.
The former space of the 'old market' is turned into a mini- town park.
The Keppel Road is made into a one way four-lane single carriageway and tar-sealed.
All shophouses are re-built as concrete structures.
Note the view across river...What was previously an empty riverbank is now occupied with many buildings  belonging to the Customs and Marine Department.

Today the Keppel Road and the old market area is totally transformed.  The old market area has been developed into a mini-town park with maximum tree planting for much needed urban greenery and meeting place.  It is remarkable to see the physical changes happening to this part of the Bintulu town over a period of slightly more than three decades as shown by the two before and after pictures above.