Council news for this August weekend
Sue Brooks August 8th, 2010
The PCYC remains in the news and I wonder to what purpose. If the media wanted to assist the community to gain a better facility that better meets the needs of our community, I believe it would be better spending its time reporting on how we are managing to achieve this outcome. More and more I believe the media plays such a negative role that our community becomes hard pressed to ever believe that our Council really is here to try and make all our lives better not worse.
Yes the media has a role to play in exposing wrong doing and accurately informing us of what is happening within our wider community but I do wish it would spend more time on helping us do things better than just pointing the finger. Yes mistakes have more than likely occurred in the past but there are many, many hard working people now intently planning a sensible way forward and putting procedures in place to ensure that similar fire compliance related issues don’t occur in the future. I’d also like to mention that I believe at no time has anyone ever been at risk within the PCYC. The building is very fire safe and while it does require improved warning systems and extraction systems etc as per regulations for some activities it has not ever been a place where lives were at any greater risk than any other public building. Also Council was well underway to resolving the situation, (as demonstrated by Council meeting minutes of several weeks ago), so that all activities could remain at PCYC and I don’t believe the media stories have helped this process.
So to this week. We have an Ordinary Meeting this Wednesday with matters to be decided including -
Minutes from previous committee meetings including the Audit Committee. Officers reports include items pertaining to the LGAQ Conference motions. This is a long report as it lists all the motions that Regional Governments want to pursue and these motions are voted on at the conference. Also we decide on whether the issue of Councillor leave should be raised with the Local Government Renumeration Tribunal and we decide on taking National Sea Change Taskforce recommendations to the candidates for the Federal Election.
The confidential items include 3 contracts involving supply of trucks and the Yerra Bridge works and also information pertaining to the proposed Library expansion in Hervey Bay.
We have a Community and Development Meeting on Wednesday following the Ordinary Meeting with items concerning necessary drainage works that will disturb Hervey Bay foreshore vegetation. New pipes are needed to replace old and failing pipes and as much as I detest seeing trees removed to facilitate such work I see no other solution. Revegetation will occur after the works are completed.
Council will receive updates on the recent Structure Planning Projects and Local Heritage Register and we will receive information about Crediting of public park and community land infrastructure contributions as related to the Hervey Bay Planning Scheme Policy Number 4.
In confidential we will discuss Proposed Amenity and Aesthetic considerations for resiting dwellings as well as a legal matter involving a shed on vacant land. Just a reminder that any decisions made on these matters are voted on in the public open session of Council and decisions are minuted publicly.
Lastly to some non Council issues. I have my new ipad and love it. I’m still learning about all the things I can use it for and how to operate it but is is such a joy to be able to sit on my sunny verandah and update this web site for instance. The Whale Festival was held yesterday and from what I witnessed everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. Council will welcome feedback so that we can continue to improve the festival.
I sadly notice the smoke filled skies as yet again Fraser Island burns. I don’t think that Fraser Island needs anywhere near the amount of burning carried out as happens. What a sad sight to see hazy smoke filled smelly skies from the decks of our whale watch fleet!
And very lastly… PLEASE use the Council web site and Have Your Say. Currently Council wants to know what you think about several issues. Be assured that the development and business related communities will be having their say so do please take the time to voice your feelings on very important issues that will decide the future look and feel of this region. Maybe comment on things such as … Do you want/don’t want parking metres, more/less billboards, advertising on bus stops, high rise or not, more or less development alongside the coast etc, etc. All these issues are up for grabs as we develop and grow so please take the time to contribute a few sentences so that I’m confident that my decisions at Council truly reflect what you, our general resident community, desire.
- Council related issues
- Comments(7)
As to the final paragraph Sue, personally I do NOT want parking meters, more bill boards ( of which there are far too many already), advertising instead of bird pictures on bus stops, high rise, coastal development, or any of the mooted initiatives which are basically business / money oriented. It seems that we are rushing to make Hervey Bay as unpleasant a place to LIVE IN as possible in order to increase profit streams for developers, the tourist industry, and so called ‘hospitality’ industries.
For the ordinary ratepayer and particularly the elderly and pensioners in which this still pleasant place abounds it were far better if we tried to recapture some of the peace, tranquility, and , for want of a better word ‘yesteryear’ attractiveness that brought many of us here in the first place. We far outnumber the often absentee profit takers and our opnions should matter more than theirs. “Change ” and “better” are not synonymous. Profit is not everything.
Sue,
Council (councillors), have in my view a duty, this is to do the best they can for the bulk of the community. Second, to explain why they have done, what they have done. Sadly, I feel this council has failed on both counts.
We councillors who were openly opposed to amalgamation,we also have councillors who try to hold down two jobs!!! No one, I repeat, no one can do two jobs to their best abilities, especially if they have a family to look after.
Sue, I truly believe the bulk of this council is interested in only one thing, self. Sadly, isn’t it?
Sadman
So Fraser Island is burning again. Better a cool fire in August if the wind is right and there is moisture in the topsoil than a roaring furnace which destroys all when wild fires erupt in November- January.
Government agencies are responsible for more carbon and other gasses polluting the atmosphere than any other single source. But Victoria showed us what can happen when the greens stop the burnoff of waste fuel.
I had to shake my head when I read the question “do we want/don’t want parking metres”. How out of touch with the community our council must be if they actually have to ask that question. (and no, I’m not referring to the spelling of “metre”). Wouldn’t that be a fantastic idea to encourage tourists to detour off the main highway to visit our lovely area? Didn’t Gympie council do this years ago and it ended up costing them tens of thousands of dollars in tourism dollars before they realised their mistake and promptly removed them again.
In reference to your comment about the fires on Fraser, firstly I cannot comment on the DERM or QPWS and their prescribed burning plans, although I have worked with both agencies over the past four years as a volunteer rural fire fighter, but I am conversant with their practise of ‘mosaic burning’, a practice well used by the indigenous Australians for thousands of years to regenerate forests, and flush out game. I am also aware of the huge amount of EIS paperwork and studies that are completed prior to anyone dropping a match.
As E G Turner stated, the careful selection of areas to burn during the dry cooler months of July/August results in a more predictable fire (if one could describe it that way) that burns cooler, and enables the vegetation healthy regrowth. Hot fires in the peak of a fire season with no following rain, results in the total annihilation of the vegetation, possible soil erosion, and possible permanent loss of habitat.
In prescribed, or mosaic, burning, it allows for the fauna to escape the fire, and move to neighbouring areas. Yes you may get a few animals trapped, but burrowing animals who can stay as little as a few inches under the surface will survive even the hottest fires passing through.
Since the Black Saturday Fires, there has been an immeasurable amount of information collected through royal commissions, the CSIRO, and the CRC. 99% of this information points to one thing. Burning off DOES NOT save lives or homes, physical fire breaks and structure protection, such as fixed sprinklers, bunkers, etc. do. There was example after example of people surviving and homes still standing by taking a few measures in the construction of their homes and most worked.
Burning off saves the environment. By means described above. The Australian bush, in particular the scherophyll type forrests in our open country of the region, and the wallum scrub, endemic to the wetter, low lying areas, are both prone to parasite infestation. Fire is the only way to allow these trees to survive. Most seeds in natives will only germinate after a fire has passed. One of our most well known trees, The Pandanus, from what I have been told, will only ever release its seeds after a fire has passed. The regeneration of these areas through select burning allows new growth to become feed for the fauna and if you need to look after the tourist dollar, more picturesque.
The burning is then commenced in another area, adjacent, to regenerate it, then the next, then the next. After about 3-25 years (the number of years depends on the species endemic to the location as most species that require fire over a certain time span tend to,through natural selection, ‘clump’ together in a particular area.) The original area then is burnt to regenerate it, and so the cycle continues.
I invite you, Cr Brooks, to talk to DERM and QPWS about their prescribed burning plans for the next 10-20 years (yes they do plan that far ahead) to see what work and man hours goes into protecting the flora and fauna of not only Fraser Island, but some of the beautiful forests we have around the region. I am sure that you will be quite amazed at the lengths these good people go to to ensure the sustainability of our forests and habitats.
The bad old days of wholesale burning is pretty much dead and buried in Queensland. The priorities of the Fire service are changing. Consideration of the environment is paramount, so that we still have these wonderful national parks for our children to enjoy, and tourists to pay big money to see.
Yes where there is smoke, there’s fire, but in this case there is more to dropping the match than the flick of a wrist.
Matt Murphy
Dpty Group Officer (retired)
Hervey Bay Group of Rural Fire Brigades
Well said Matt. I could not agree more!
As someone employed in the forestry industry, it scares me to think what could and would happen if DERM and Forestry Plantations QLD stopped their controlled burn programs.
As we saw earlier this year, it only takes a dropped cigarette from a passing car or a ‘controlled burn’ by a well meaning farmer on a nearby paddock to get out of control and reach the pine forests surrounding our region and we can end up with major bush fires resulting in significant financial losses to the forestry industry and others.
Re the fires. I am very well acquianted with the DERM Fires Strategy for Fraser Island and I simply disagree with it. Mosaic burning while it sounds good is difficult to implement well as it is very difficult to control properly. But the big question is why burn at all. Most fires on FI are human caused and I believe most recent fires are ‘escaped’ planned burning off related activities.
Yes carry out some programmed burns around some towns etc but let nature have its way on the rest of this so called wild island. Why do we think we know better than nature does? Why are we so determined to ‘mange’ nature? Yes wild fires are destructive but they are far and few between and after all that is natures way. Maybe nature is designed to cope better with a rare hot wild fire than unnatural controlled slow ‘cool’ burns.
I don’t believe trying to replicate the aboriginal burning practices is desirable either as the aboriginal people burned the country to suit their purposes and probably greatly altered the Australian landscape by doing so.
Ben I am not suggesting we stop burning in areas adjacent roads and residential development etc but primarily in National Parks.