Hervey Bay Gossip

The fall of the paper newspaper

I was reading on another search engine marketer’s blog today about an interesting situation that is arising where he lives. It seems that the local newspaper where he lives is bleeding advertising at such a rate that the paper may discontinue it’s daily print edition entirely sometime within the next 12 months.

In America advertisers are deserting the newspapers in droves. The boom areas for advertising revenue are websites and billboards.

I wonder when we will see the Chronicle begin to suffer the same fate.

Here is the link to the post that got me thinking about newspaper advertising here in Hervey Bay - The Fall of the Paper Newspaper

As always you can follow the ‘comments’ link to have your say.

Once again it’s time to check your junk mail here in Hervey Bay because there’s something very important buried in amongst it.

Yep, the Queensland Government has decided to send out an important piece of information and have it delivered with the junk mail so that quite a few people won’t even see it.

What you should be looking for in amongst the supermarket ads is a booklet that tells you what you need to do to prepare fo cyclones. We still have over a month to go in cyclone season so it’s important to find that booklet and be prepared.

If you live in Royal Drive at Kawungan you will already know who hard it can be to get out of your driveway. What is supposed to be a fairly quiet suburban road and is relatively narrow has turned into quite a busy access road.

It has also turned into something of a race track for the residents of some other parts of town and that makes it difficult for the residents too. Now we’re facing the very real threat of it all getting a whole lot worse.

Hervey Bay City Council currently has a building application before it for the town plan to be altered for the land at the end of Royal Drive. The plan has always allowed the building of quite a few single residences in what is now the cane field at the end of Royal Drive but the building application includes the construction of a number of multi-storey home units that were never part of the town plan.

The building application suggests that vehicle access will be made available from Main Street and Royal Drive but anyone living in that new area won’t be using Main Street to access the local school or a number of the amenities in town - instead there’ll be even more traffic added to Royal Drive.

If you live in Royal Drive you will know that the street won’t be able to handle that extra traffic so you need to lodge an objection to that application. At the very least the development needs to limit road access to just Main Street and ideally the multi-storey development needs to be knocked on the head too.

Objections must be lodged within the next 14 days so don’t delay - get down to the Council Chambers next week and object!

We’re into day 2 of water restrictions here in Hervey Bay and people are beginning to wonder about their gardens. What’s the best way to live within the restrictions - and any tougher ones that may follow - and still keep your garden flourishing?

To find the answer you may need to take a trip to Brisbane to visit the Botanical Gardens there. With absolutely no soil moisture left to a depth of at least 2 metres the Botanical Gardens are still managing to survive.

Not only are they surviving but they’re teaching a whole new set of guidelines for keeping gardens looking  reasonable in prolonged drought conditions.

You can read about it by following this link.

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There are worrying signs beginning to appear that the tourist boom that has burst on Hervey Bay over the last 12 months has not been a blessing to all small businesses in Hervey Bay.

Some are very obviously beginning to struggle as rents increase but business remains at the same level. Since Christmas a well-known computer store in Main Street Pialba has closed, a dress store in Torquay Terrace Pialba is closing down, there are several empty shops down at the Boat Harbour and the Gossip knows of several others that are teetering on the edge of closing.

While those in public office might wax lyrical about how well Hervey Bay is doing there are others more closely associated with some of the small businesses in town who can see things in a much different light.

After a frantic few weeks over the Christmas period the influx of tourists to Hervey Bay seems to be settling down. No vacancy signs are beginning to disappear, campers and caravans are beginning to thin out in the caravan parks along The Esplanade, you can now find a parking spot most times of the day along the same street and the big numbers in the cafes and restaurants have faded away.

Seems like it’s time to take a deep breath and get ready for the next surge of people that want to holiday in Hervey Bay.

Last night she who must be obeyed and I were leaving her parent’s place in the centre of Hervey Bay and commented to each other about the noise that was coming from the front of one of the nearby backpacker hostels. It wasn’t late but the noise was obviously coming from one of the guests who was fairly obviously under the weather.

And it seems he was perhaps indicative of a wider problem. A National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre released on January 15 has found that backpackers double their drinking rate while they are here in Australia.

While you may think that a few drunk backpackers are not going to be much of a problem the report suggests alcohol related problems are “all magnified in the backpacker population”. You can read more about it here

Selling tools online at great prices since 1998

Wide Bay Water has announced that from Friday 19 January 2007 the following restrictions will apply:

1. Hosting driveways and paved areas will be banned at all times
2. Garden sprinklers, irrigation systems and soaker hoses are banned between the hours of 5.30am and 8pm
3. Hand held hosing is banned between the hours of 8am and 4pm except for the washing of vehicles and boats with a working trigger nozzle

Bucket watering and washing is still allowed and residents are warned that breaches of the above restrictions carry penalties including fines up to $75,000 and/or restriction of supply.

It has been necessary to introduce these restrictions because the level in Lenthalls Dam, the source of the water for Hervey Bay,  is dropping.

One of the very sad things about local government here in Hervey Bay is that almost all of our representatives on Hervey Bay City Council are very visible and vocal when they want our vote but disappear off the face of the earth once they have it.

One well-known marketing guru in the United States chronicles his experience with his local government representatives and offers an important lesson that our representatives here in Hervey Bay would do well to learn.

You can find Seth Godin’s thoughts at How to get re-elected. In many ways what he talks about reminds me of Ted Sorenson’s response on the TV news about complaints people were making about the new town plan.

In some ways it’s comforting to see that we’re not the only ones who get treated poorly by the representatives that we pay for.

Another great Australian politician has passed on

Sir James Killen passed away early this morning at the age of 81.

He was one of the last genuine politicians from an era when Parliament was interesting and sometimes highly amusing to listen to. He was certainly one of the politicians that I liked listening to.

In a press statement today the acting Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, had this to say about Sir James Killen”
“Sir James represented Queensland for many years in the Commonwealth Parliament (1955 to 1983) as the member for Moreton, he also had a distinguished career as a barrister.

“As a former constituent I can attest to his tireless work on behalf of the people of his electorate.

“Sir James was a witty and skilful speaker and debater and he enlivened Australian political and social commentary with his talent and humour.

“He made a significant contribution to his country as a member of the RAAF and as Minister for Navy and Minister for Defence.

“However he was beloved for his legendary wit and oratory.

“Jim Killen was a man who transcended the political divide.

“His engagement with parliamentary foes, including his great mate Fred Daly and of course Gough Whitlam, made him a favourite of political commentators, media and the wider community.

“Queensland has lost a great raconteur today, but we have also lost a fine legal mind.”