Hervey Bay Gossip

The next knock you hear on your front door just might be your census forms arriving. Census collectors are out and about delivering forms for Census Night. This year that’s August 8.

Around 100 soldiers from Brisbane’s 2/14 Light Horse Regiment (LHR) Queensland Mounted Infantry (QMI) as well as soldiers from Sydney based 3rd Battalion The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) and 1st Military Police Battalion (1 MP Bn) are preparing for three weeks of training in the lead-up to deployment as the tenth Security Detachment (SECDET 10), Baghdad, Iraq.

The troops will participate in a Live Fire Exercise (LFX) at the Wide Bay Training Area from 27 July to 8 August that will include infantry and Australian Light Armoured Vehicle (ASLAV) fire and movement activities.

SECDET 10’s training will culminate with an essential urban training phase around Brisbane and the Gold Coast from 9-15 August with a departure date yet to be announced. Military vehicle movements will increase around Brisbane, Wide Bay area and Gold Coast during the training

An Australian Light Armoured Vehicle on aa Street in Baghdad.
Photo courtesy of the Department of Defence

So if you see these guys in your travels over the coming weeks be sure to give them the thumbs up - they need all the support and encouragement we can give them as the prepare for a very dangerous deployment.

Over the last few months we have had contact with an English family who intended moving from the UK to Hervey Bay. They were coming because they wanted a better life for their three children.

After some incredible trials and tribulations they finally arrived in Hervey Bay last Tuesday and since then have been fighting to get their furniture off the docks in Brisbane.

We thought that after all the hassles they had faced in getting to Hervey Bay and then the added problems with their furniture they might have felt let down by what they had found. So yesterday, standing in the car park outside Viva Italia I asked them what they now thought of Hervey Bay.

“It’s even better than we expected!” was the unanimous response.

The release of the new Holden VE Commodre is not far away and already it has aroused a lot of interest.

Visit Aussie Motoring to find out more about it and get a link to a site that is running some movies of the new VE Commodore in action.

Every Hervey Bay resident who uses Boat Harbour Drive to get from Urangan to Pialba will be pleased to learn that the road is now open in both directions.

The last section of one-way traffic at the Bideford Street end has now been opened fully and the traffic lights on the detour have been removed.

A trip out to Dundowran yesterday to inspect an award-winning home that we had to write about was certainly an eye-opener.

We have been up and down the road to Burrum Heads many times but haven’t taken the time to go down to Dundowran Beach since Easter 2004. This time we did take a drive down to the beach and the amount of development that has gone ahead since we were down that way last was amazing.

There are now some very interesting homes down towards the beach and up along Hennessy Drive.

If you haven’t been out that way for a while you should take the time to have a look.

A new exhibition has just gone on display at the Bundaberg Arts Centre.

The exhibition, on in Bundaberg from now to 3 September, will travel to five other regional venues in 2006 and 2007 before returning for display at the Gallery of Modern Art.

Queensland Art Gallery Director Doug Hall said the exhibition featured artists Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell, Gordon Bennett, Eugene Carchesio, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Tracey Moffatt, Scott Redford, Luke Roberts, Anne Wallace, Judy Watson and Judith Wright.

Mr Hall said key works by each artist provided insight into current art practice in Queensland, and reflected aspects of contemporary life and experience.

“The exhibition provides a snapshot of the excellence, diversity and achievement in the visual arts in Queensland today,” he said.

The works encompass a range of materials and methods from painting, printmaking, photography and ceramics to installation, film and the latest digital technologies.

The artists range in age from their 30s to their 70s, come from vastly different backgrounds, and have studied and exhibited nationally and internationally.

If you’re looking for somewhere different to dine out this weekend why not go Italian?

We can certainly recommend Angelo’s on the Esplanade at Shelly Beach for some great Italian food. Even if you only want take-away, with 23 different pizzas on the menu Angelo’s has something for every taste.

But don’t phone up and ask for a Meat Lovers or a BBQ pizza - Angelo’s is a specialty Italian restaurant and they don’t supply cardboard pizzas.

If you’re going to dine in then be warned, bookings are ESSENTIAL. Angelo’s is a very popular little place.

But then, if you live in Hervey Bay you already knew that

Even in the middle of winter the beach is the place to be even if all you want to do is read the newspaper.

The Queensland Government has released the proposed timeline for the Traveston Dam.

The proposed dam project timeframe is as follows:

·Commence detailed environmental studies by August 2006

·Project of significance declaration by end 2006

·Draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) Terms of Reference prepared by late 2006

·Commonwealth (Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) referral by end 2006

·More detailed dam design is ongoing

·More detailed affected infrastructure design is ongoing

·EIS research, monitoring, reporting to be conducted during 2007

·EIS available for comment by early 2008

·State and Commonwealth assessment by mid 2008

·Tendering for construction by early 2009

·Construction commences by mid 2009

·Construction complete by end 2011

Of course the dam has to ‘pass’ the environmental studies but you do have to wonder whether that’s just a foregone conclusion when the Premier declares that the ‘the dam WILL be built”.