Hervey Bay Gossip

If you’re heading north or south during February or March then you may notice an increase in Army trucks heading in both directions.

Australian Army trucks will be ferrying 350 shipping containers from Brisbane to Shoalwater Bay via Rockhampton.

The empty containers will be assembled as training structures in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.

Army trucks will transport the containers from Monday to Saturday each week. The activity will generate a very small increase over normal traffic volumes which should not inconvenience other motorists.

The transportation of the empty containers will be spread over two months during daylight hours to ensure maximum safety and minimum inconvenience to other road users and residents along the route.

So be patient and give these trucks a little bit of consideration when you’re overtaking.

HERVEY BAY RESIDENTS TAKING UP HOME WATERWISE REBATE SCHEME

The Beattie Government this week will pass the $20 million mark for rebates paid for water tanks, water-efficient appliances and fittings under the Home WaterWise Rebate Scheme.
The Home WaterWise Rebate Scheme is the largest rebate scheme in this state’s history in terms of the individual applications.
 
Around 14,000 cheques and 21,700 electronic funds transfer payments have been sent to people under the Home WaterWise Rebate Scheme.

Nearly 16,000 rebates for washing machines have been paid for washing machines, over 15,000 rebates for water tanks and over 2,800 for dual-flush toilet suites.

The Scheme is available for Hervey Bay residents.  “My office has assisted numerous Hervey Bay residents in accessing the rebate scheme, I believe we are all concerned about saving water.  The Home WaterWise Rebate Scheme provides encouragement to make our homes more water efficient.” Mr McNamara said.

The Home WaterWise Rebate Scheme offers rebates of up to $1000 for water tanks, $200 for 4-star or better water-rated washing machines and $150 for dual flush toilets.

Residents can obtain further information on the internet at www.nrw.qld.gov.au or by contacting the Government’s Water Hotline on 1800 243 585.

The towers have gone.

On Tuesday morning one of Hervey Bay’s landmarks disappeared forever. The old ABC transmitter towers in Pialba - out of service since December last year - were demolished.

There’ll be no more red lights in the sky at night.

edited to remove dead links

At 4am this morning the Tropical Low situated 180 kilometres northeast of Townsville was moving southeast and is expected to into a Tropical Cyclone. However, this is not epected to happen until it is well away from the coast.

The Weather Bureau suggests that if it does develop into a Tropical Cyclone it will be approximately 600 kilometres off Gladstone by 4am on February 10. The forecast track map can be seen by copying and pasting this URL into the address bar of your browser

bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml

At 2.20am this morning the weather bureau advised that the low pressure system east of Cairns that had the potential to develop into a tropical cyclone had dissipated.

Meanwhile Tropical Cyclone Nelson crossed the coast south of the Gilber River around 4.40am this morning. It is currently travelling in an east-southeasterly direction and will gradually weaken.

However the system is expected to move into the Coral Sea on Thursday where it is expected to re-intensify and a Cyclone Watch has been declared for coastal and island communities from Cape Tribulation to Hayman Island.

Is there worse to come?

ABC Wide Bay is reporting that Wide Bay Water is not ruling out tougher water restrictions for Hervey Bay at some stage in the coming weeks because demand for water has not decreased.

You can read the full story here

You never know what you might see along the Esplanade in Hervey Bay on weekends.

This classic Ford Mustang was parked outside a cafe in Torquay this morning

Sometimes headlines say it all. This one from the sports section of the Courier Mail’s website is about as eloquent as they come.

 You can read the full story here

What is the Hervey Bay City Council going to do?

It seems that the current water restrictions that are in force in Hervey Bay and the surge in developments have been on minds of a number of local residents lately.

Last night one local resident asked me why the Council are allowing the major developments to go ahead when we are obviously short of water. Of course we’ve had droughts in the past, and this one may break sooner rather than later, but now we’re facing dire warnings of more droughts that will last longer.

So why is the council not cutting back on these developments?

Then today Fred Chick, who lives in one of the drier parts of Hervey Bay, left this comment on a very old post that most people won’t see.

A suggestion for the council. One way to save our water level dropping any more, would be to suspend building more new houses and stop giving approval for big resorts and high rise buildings. This suspension would ease the supply until the infrastructure catches up with progress.

Let’s hope the Hervey Bay City Council is listening Fred because if they aren’t we could be in serious trouble in the years ahead.

Yesterday was the final day of trading for Computer Traders in Torquay Terrace Pialba.

Two computer shops have now closed since Christmas and that leaves just four independent computer shops in Hervey Bay. One of those four is reportedly up for sale.