Pedestrian foothpath in Bintulu town-1980's

Keppel Road in 1980's
Note the wooden shophouses at the right of the picture and the two-way traffic flow.

Keppel Road taken on 26 Dec'13
The pedestrain footpath stays but re-tiled.
New shophouses are made of reinforced concrete floors, column and beams and wall of brickworks.

Keppel Road in 1980

Keppel Road in 1980
Credits: Pic from 'The Sarawak Tribune', dated 31 May,1980.

 In 1980 the town roads were gradually tar-sealed but the electric posts still remain at the center of the road.  The roads were mainly two-way street.  In 2013 all roads in town were mostly one way streets which seemed to solve the problem of traffic jams and improved further with traffic light junctions.

Keppel Road , 1 October, 2013.

In 1980 it was estimated that there were about 700 vehicles in Bintulu as compared with 40 in 1970.  In 1960 there was probably only 3 cars in town.  1980 was just the beginnng years of the first boom that brought much physical changes to the town especially the roads and the buildings.  Today, Bintulu is in its 4th economic boom.  The continuous boom that the town experienced since 1979 has made it the prime target of internal migration from other towns and villages in Sarawak for the promise of better paying jobs and business opportunities.

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.

Keppel Road in 1979

Keppel Road in 1979

Keppel Road in 2013
Date taken : 23 September 2013

In the early late 60's and throughout the 1970's,  Keppel Road was very well-known for the site of the only bank in town called 'Standard Chartered'.  It was also popular as the site of the old food market.  In the top picture, the low-rise building at left (only roof shown) is the old food market.  Today the site is turned into a small town park.  The old wooden shophouses have been demolished and replaced by three-storey concrete shophouses. In 1979 the centre of the road was turned into car parking area and traffic was two-way.  Today the road is a four-lane single carriageway with parking lots located on the left side as we enter the town proper.  1979 is significant for Bintulu because it marked the start of the first economic boom.

Bintulu old food market - 1970's to early 1980's

The food market is at the right of the picture (late 1970's - early 1980's)

 There was a food market at the center of Bintulu town in the 1970's.  It served well the small population with coffee shops, eating stalls, vegetables and meat all under one roof.  Both halal and non-halal food were available (see pic above).  The visible signs of modernisation set in the form of concrete shophouses which ultimately replaced all wooden shophouses around the town. Roads had to be widened to allow for more vehicular traffic.  The Keppel road became a fully paved or tar-sealed two-way street.  Today there is absolutely not a single remnant of these old type wooden shophouses in Bintulu town.

Keppel road today with the site of old market turned into a landscaped area.
Date taken : 30 August'13

The old food market was gone in the 1980's to give way for more car parking spaces.  However, the site was permanently turned into a landscaped area in the late 1980's.  Today the Keppel Road fronting the site has been turned into a one-way street.

Sky Theatre - 1950's

Date taken : circa late 1950's ( B&W photo)

As a young kid and adult growing in Bintulu I have seen the rise and the fall of the cinema entertainment business here especially those buildings purpose-built to project celluloid films on huge theatre white screens. One such institution was the Sky Theatre of which the building is seen on the right of the picture above. The space between the theatre and the wooden shophouses have been taken up by the Hoover Hotel as shown below. The wooden shophouses are gone now. The main road that is seen above is the Keppel Road and is not yet well-paved. Cars are very few indeed and there is ample green space in between the opposite row of wooden shophouses. Life seemed to remain standstill except of course the dramatic experiences shown in the theatre. I have my share of attending films ( including cheap Sunday matinees), acrobatic shows, magic shows, concerts and singing competitions organised in the theatre. The Sky Theatre was owned by a local businessman named Yek Min Ek and was opened for business in the 1950's. The theatre survived for 40 years but with the advent of television in the 1970's and video tapes in the 1980's, the cinema business suffered badly and the theatre met its natural death in the 1990's.

Date taken : 2 Dec'10 ( Digital - Sony cyber-shot)

The original site of the Sky Theatre now houses the 'City Point' building which is owned by the Hock Lee group a company started by Yek Min Ek. In the building there are cineplexes as a sign of continuity in the cinema business and still having popular audience. The wooden shophouses are replaced by permanent ones. The Keppel road now enjoys trappings of modernism like bituminous or tar-sealed road. To encourage smooth traffic flow the local authority decided to make the Kepppel Road a one-way four-lane street complete with traffic lights, pedestrain crossing, tiled street pavements, underground cables for the lamp posts and landscaping.

Bintulu town - early 1970's

Date taken : circa early 1970's ( B&W photo)

The picture above shows Keppel Road when bicycles were king of the road. In the early 1970's cars were very rarely seen around town. The Keppel Road then was a two - way street with ample green space in between. The row of concrete buildings at the far right background was one of the few permanent- type buildings seen in the 1970's. Two institutions important at that time that were housed in the block were the Standard Chartered bank and the Capitol Hotel. The Capitol Hotel occupies the corner lot of the block and still exists today but re-named as Capitol Inn. Note the wooden shophouses on both sides of the road built primarily of 'belian' posts and roofing of 'belian' shingles. The first floor of the shophouses were normally made into residences by the shop owners. The ground floor of the shophouses however were of concrete flooring. The electrical posts in the center of the road were also of 'belian' timber - the hardest wood in Sarawak.

Date taken : 2 Dec'10 ( Digital - Sony Cyber-shot)

Today, Keppel Road is a one-way 3-lane road with ample parking spaces infront of the shophouses but charges are imposed by the local authority at the rate of 20 'sen' ( cents) per first 30 minutes and gradually increases thereafter. The two-storey wooden shophouses when re-built were increased to four storeys high. The tallest building at the far right was built over a previously empty open space and now houses the 'Kintown Inn'.

Jalan Keppel - mid 70's

Jalan Keppel ( Keppel Road) seen on the left.

Date taken : circa 1976

Date taken : 20Nov'10

What was once a tiny two-way street has today become a one- way three-lane town road. The two-storey building on the right was once BDC adminstrative office turned into the BDA Library when Bintulu District Council(BDC) was merged with the BDA ( Bintulu Development Authority) upon the introduction of BDA to administer and develop Bintulu starting the early 1980's. The low building after the ex-BDA library is the Sarawak state information centre which still exists even at this point of blogging. The tall structure after the information centre is the 'Kintown Inn'- a modern touch to the townscape. The open space to the right of the top picture was a community open space that catered for a basketball court and public amenities like swing, see-saw and a resting shed. Today at the same space is allocated a green area with its focal point a public fountain- the first ever for Bintulu and running. Typical of Bintulu shophouses in the 1960's and 1970's they were principally of wooden structures. Today concrete shophouses have replaced the old wooden ones. Note the trend to replace overhead electricity cables with undeground cabling and better tiled street pavements for a modern image town.

Note our fashion during those times. Men wear bell-bottoms, sport long hair and dress smartly as teachers. On the extreme left is yours truly . Others from left to right are Zahiruddin Khan, Angela Chung, Zarina Sauni, Josmani, Wong Kee and Chong Tong Liap. We were all teachers from the Bintulu Government Secondary School (BGSS).