Hervey Bay Gossip

Has the new method of delivering junk mail reached your part of Hervey Bay yet?

Up here in Kawungan it arrived yesterday when everyone discovered a bundle of junk mail, secured by a single thin elastic band had been tossed into their front yard overnight. I suppose that it’s a very efficient form of delivery from the point of view of those who are doing the deliveries, they can cover more ground in less time but what happens when that elastic band breaks and there’s a slight breeze?

I’m sure that those advertisers whose brochures have been blowing all over the streets in some parts of the town will be really popular with their prospective customers.

A recurring theme I often see appearing around the Net is that backpackers find that there is nothing to do in Hervey Bay. I’ve never been quite sure where most of them got that idea from because there is plenty to do here in the Bay. Of course we could always have more things to do but we’re not really that short of things to entertain visitors.

That was confirmed for me yesterday when we put a visiting relative back on the plane. He’d arrived on Friday morning for a family get together and had managed to find the time to look around Hervey Bay while he was here.

His only complaint was that there was so much to do in Hervey Bay that he hadn’t been able to do everything in the few days that he was here. And just to drive home the point he listed around 10 different things that he wanted to do but had lacked the time.

So it seems that there really is plenty to do here in Hervey Bay if you’re prepared to get out and gather a few brochures and make a few enquiries.

The detail of the latest Queensland budget has now been released and the major impact for Hervey Bay will in road widening projects, the installation of new traffic lights, more contracts awarded to EDI Rail in Maryborough and an upgrade of the Buccaneer Pontoon at Urangan.

Boat Harbour Drive will be upgraded to 4 lanes between Hunter and McNally Streets and new traffic lights will be installed at the intersections with Taylor Street and Banksia Park Drive.

You will find a map here that plots those changes.

The Maryborough to Hervey Bay Road will also be upgraded with the sections between the Torbanlea turn-off and the Dundowran Road turn-off, and between the Dundowran turn-off and the Pialba to Burrum Heads turn off, widened to four lanes.

It’s so easy for us here in Hervey Bay to be fooled by our self-appointed title of ‘Whale Watching Capital of Australia’ and to think we will always have lots of people coming here to see whales.

The sad fact is that we’re not the only place in Australia can see whales up close and personal and lots of people think that there are better places than Hervey Bay. If you read this piece on the Sydney Morning Herald’s website you’ll see that we don’t get many mentions at all.

I think that it’s something we need to think seriously about because, apart from the whales and being an intermediate stop on the way to Fraser Island, we don’t really have much to attract the tourist dollar and that’s an important source of income for Hervey Bay.

It involves the phasing out of electric hot water systems from 2010

If you heard the Premier’s interview on television last night you might have thought you heard him say that electric hot water systems would be phased out by 2010. However, the press release clearly states that electric hot water systems in homes would be phased out from 2010.

Other key points of the government’s plane include:

Key initiatives of the strategy include:

• A $300 million Queensland Climate Change Fund to develop new technologies like hydrogen fuel cells. The fund will be financed from the sale of government-owned wind farm assets (mainly located interstate) and the remaining gas assets of the Enertrade business.

• A $55 million Smart Energy Savings Program to help business get energy smart, saving an estimated 3280 kilotonnes in greenhouse gas emissions and an estimated $78 million in energy costs.

• Providing $50 million for a Renewable Energy Fund to promote research and development in to renewable energy and are commitment to a renewable and low emissions energy target of 10% by 2020. This target will reduce emissions from the energy sector by requiring electricity retailers to purchase a set amount of their energy from Queensland-based renewable or low emission energy sources.

• Climate Smart Homes rebates - $7.25 million to help people living in remote areas of the state to install greenhouse friendly hot water systems, more efficient refrigeration and insulation etc. This will help lower emissions and lower power bills.

• Increase the percentage of Queensland’s energy generation being produced by gas under the Gas Scheme from the current 13 percent to 18 per cent by 2020. Generating power by using natural gas produces up to 50 per cent fewer emissions than coal.

• $10 million to identify future geosequestration sites to allow the safe storage of carbon dioxide emissions over the long-term.

• New planning standards for commercial buildings by 2010 and the phasing out of electric storage hot water systems.

• All Queensland Government office buildings to be carbon neutral by 2020.

• Establish a Queensland feed-in tariff for solar power to pay people whose home solar systems put power into the system.

• Phase out electric hot water systems from existing homes from 2010. It will be mandatory for homeowners replacing hot water systems to use greenhouse friendly hot water systems. Rebates will be offered for solar and gas systems.

If you want to start making your home energy efficient then check out your lights. We replaced all the globes in the rooms where there were a lot of lights that are often on with flourescent globes that screwed straight into the existing fittings and we could notice the drop in the amount of our electricty bill.

We’ve already had some light rain around Hervey Bay today and heavy falls have been recorded further inland but the weather bureau says that more heavy rain is on the way.

A developing system is expected to bring heavy rain to the Wide Bay and inland areas on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Suddenly the Queensland Government is thinking about the shallow water and the fish 

The Queensland Government has provided another 1200 pages of additional information for the Senate’s Traveston Crossing Dam Inquiry, Deputy Premier and Infrastructure Minister Anna Bligh said today.

“The additional information was contained in 21 volumes that provided some of the early draft work that informed thinking on projects that now form Australia’s largest urban drought response,” said Ms Bligh.

“The information covers a range of data from records of the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam’s detailed geological assessments to preliminary environmental advice on potential dam sites in South East Queensland.

“There is also draft information and early reports on the management of SEQ’s water supply and planning for its future. I have instructed all of this to be placed on my department’s website”

http://www.coordinatorgeneral.qld.gov.au/about/seq_water_submission.shtm

“Some of the reports identify sensitive issues and raise aspects that are critical of the project, but they also offer strategies for mitigation. For example, criticism of the dam’s shallowness can be mitigated, if needed, by use of destratifiers [a mechanism to mix dam water]; and installation of a fish lift and fishway have been included to mitigate impacts on fish movements.

“Our efforts sit against the Federal Government who last week refused to release documents on the Prime Minister’s floundering $10 billion Murray Darling scheme. We’ve cooperated and released all documents sought.”

It’s fully imported, it’s easier to operate than driving a car, it’s more fun on the water than any other wind-powered vessel and it’s right here in Hervey Bay.

The Windkart is a unique craft that’s now making it’s debut in Australia and Aquavue Cafewatersports down on the Esplanade at Torquay has four of them available for hire as part of their jet ski and beach equipment hire inventory.

These four vessels are just the start of an exciting new business venture for Larry and the crew at Aquavue because Larry has been appointed as the sole distributor for Windkart here in Australia.

It looks so simple to operate that even I might be tempted to venture out in one (and she-who-must-be-obeyed even said I could).