Hervey Bay Gossip

The over weight and under active scribbler who spends way too much time at the keyboard writing this and several other journals of low repute was recently given a bike by his long-suffering partner and left with the clear impression that it was exercise or else.

Amazingly I found an incredible amount of freedom pounding the pedals around the back streets of Kawungan just after sunrise each day. I’ve also had several scary moments thanks to the guy who delivers a certain free newspaper every Friday morning.

At the same time I’ve also been known to enjoy a leisurely stroll along the shared pathbeside The Esplanade and sometimes found that to be a little scary too when riders fail to remember that the pedestrians actually have the right of way.

So with all that in mind I was rather interested to read the Council’s full page infomercial in yesterday’s edition of The Observer. Among other things the Council was warning residents - and bike riders - that they were planning on carrying out a Bike Blitz (Shock! Horror!).

To illustrate the infomercial several photos were used of a couple on the shared pathway and a group of kids and adults riding on the Link Mobility Corridor. I’m sure both photos were presented as depicting people doing the right thing … but they weren’t.

You see, further into the infomercial the Council gave some tips for riding safely and one of those tips was to be heard. It was then pointed out that by law ever bike must be fitted with a bell.

That’s fair enough but there was no sign of a bell on any of the bikes in the infomercial. Not only that but I can tell you from first hand experience that it’s very hard to fit an effective bell to a modern bike. In fact they don’t come fitted and I wonder if that is akin to selling a new car without seatbelts?

To support my claim that it’s hard to fit an effective bell to a modern bike allow me to offer Exhibit A - a photo of the handlebars of this scribbler’s own bike.

Sure there is room on the handlebars to fit a bell but actually operating it is probably more dangerous than not having one. On my bike it would mean taking one hand off the handlebars and groping for the bell while the bike was under less than total control.

I guess that even if you didn’t find the bell in time to warn approaching pedestrians your cries of alarm and anguish could still be heard and warn peoople as you crashed off the shared path and disappeared into the undergrowth.

Everybody loves a garage sale. Just think of all those great bargains just waiting to be snapped up!

And now there’s the mother of all garage sales and it’s happening right here in Hervey Bay.

The Hervey Bay Cityh Rotary Club and the Hervey Bay Lions Club are running the monster garage sale at the Police-Citizens Youth Club in O’Rourke Street from 7am tomorrow (23rd) and there’ll be bargains galore!

As if it isn’t hard enough to sell an established house in Hervey Bay at the moment. The market is down and buyers are staying away in droves and now the Council has been stirring flexing its muscles as well.

It seems that for some years there have been ongoing discussions over the size of the signs used by agents. The Council wanted smaller signs that complied with Council rules while the agents, understandably wanted things to remain as they were. Up until Wednesday the local agents thought they had prevailed in the discussion and it was signage as usual but the Council had other ideas.

A Council employee began removing offending signs from a number of properties and it took the intervention of the Mayor before this rampant silliness was stopped and the signs were returned.

Ever since the days of the villages, strung out along the beach, what has now become The Esplanade has belonged to the people who live here. The Esplanade was the core of each village (perhaps with the exception of Pialba).

As the villages grew into what we have now the importance of The Esplanade grew until today it is the heart of the city. We go there to relax, to celebrate, to have fun, to show our family and friends from other places just how beautiful this place is and now we are giving it away.

The character of The Esplanade is disappearing behind a facade of ugly glass fronted Lego building blocks. The beauty of the beach is being overshadowed by the greed of others and it’s all being given away to people who don’t even live here.

Who gave permission for this to happen? Where we even asked if we wanted to give away our treasures?

We elect people to council to protect us from this and they rubber stamp one development after another. Why are they not listening to us? Why are they giving The Esplanade away to others when we don’t want that to happen?

What will this place be when the beauty and the character of The Esplanade is no more?

Ted will you be proud to stand there and say “I led the council who did this?”

It’s not too late to start listening to what we - the residents of this beautiful town - are saying. Stop the rot! Save The Esplanade and be a true leader and hero of the people.

Ted do you really want to be remembered as the person who turned Hervey Bay into a blight on the coast of Australia?

How much worse can it get when one of the finest houses on The Esplanade

is now up for sale as a development property?

Can you believe it?

Well it must be true because the US business magazine Forbes has named it as one of the world’s sexiest islands. By doing that it has put Fraser Island in the same league as Capri and Corsica.

One of the criteria that Forbes used to give Fraser Island that accolade was the ‘enormous sand dunes’ that ‘provide plenty of space and privacy for frolicking on the beach’

Hmmmm … I think we might take our holidays on Fraser Island this year dear. It looks as though clothing might be optional.

I wish

If you haven’t noticed the election posters already then let me warn you that there’s a by-election coming up for Hervey Bay.

It has been brought about by the resignation of Jenny Clark who is quoted in the Courier Mail of August 31 as saying that she could not “in good conscience” continue to be part of a council she no longer supported.

She is quoted as saying that she had been “uncomfortable with the manner this council has been handling many issues, not the least being those concerning development”.

She is also quoted as saying “It was with sadness and a sense of loss that I resigned but I could not and would not support a council without changes that addressed and corrected practices which I found personally compromising and unacceptable.”

A courageous stand and one that more councillors would do well to have.

It seems to some that this council is giving away the town to everyone but the people who live here.

While there are suggestions that the demand for new houses in Hervey Bay continues to boom the demand for older homes continues to look a little weak.

A drive around town will show that there are plenty of houses on the market but there are not many that are displaying that magic ‘Sold’ sign and those that are appear to be at the lower end of the market. Open house inspections last Saturday seemed to be poorly attended and the initial flurry of interest that seemed to happen at the beginning of September appears to have waned.

Despite falling prices, as shown by this display last weekend, no one really seems interested in buying.

Watching television can definitely be a health hazard regardless of how fit you might be.

Last Wednesday night (15th) a Hervey Bay man found that out when a car crashed into the lounge room as he sat watching television. Fortunately the resident was not hurt and the condition of the driver is unknown because he chose to run away before police arrived.

Sunday (17th) saw the first Jetstar Airbus A320 fly into Hervey Bay. The Airbus A320 has an extra 52 seats compared to the Boeing 717s that were used on the route before.

That extra capacity translates into an additional 416 seats per week on flights into Hervey Bay.

More people coming in means more money and more jobs and not more crime as the local paper tried to suggest recently.

If you noticed a lot of smoke around over the weekend and wondered where it was coming from that is still a little unclear. For most of us it was just nuisance value but yesterday it became hazardous for some.

By early yesterday morning a lot of smoke had settled down on the Maryborough Road just east of the Bundaberg turn-off and from all reports it was so thick that visibility was restricted to just a few metres. Of course the inevitable happened and the ensuing multiple car and truck pile up resulted in the road being closed and traffic from Maryborough be routed north to the Torbanlea turn-off and then across to the coast at Burrum Heads.

Now I wonder who was ultimately responsible for that mess and who was silly enough to start burning off on Saturday - a day when there were high winds up and down the coast. I think we were lucky that the resultant smoke was the only problem.