Hervey Bay Gossip

It seems that the new Officeworks in town is looking for staff. Contact details are displayed on a sign outside their new building.

The weather forecast for the weekend for Hervey Bay is certainly looking good with plenty of sunshine and gentle breezes.

Fishing, swimming or just kicking back and relaxing … Hervey Bay is definitely the place to do that this weekend.

Here are two photos taken just moments apart down on the beach at Torquay this morning.

Here we’re looking towards Scarness.

And here we’re looking towards Urangan and Fraser Island.

Despite the current economic climate there’s another office block on the drawing board for the Hervey Bay CBD.

Fraser Place, a three-storey development will be built at 73 Main Street Pialba and will feature over 1,000 square metres of commercial and retail space. An artist’s impression shows plenty of parking so it will be interesting to see close to reality the impression really is.

These days you can hire just about anything and the latest in Hervey Bay is a real live cocktail maker.

Hervey Bay Cocktails can make alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails for you or for your party and they have a range of other services too. You can find their contact details on the party hire page at the Hervey Bay Business Directory.

Last night it looked as though Hervey Bay was going to be in for a scorcher today with a forecast maximum of 33C and at 3am it was already 25 out at the airport.

At 5.30 this morning the forecast maximum was dropped to 30C and the sky was still telling us that it was going to be a hot one.

Building contractors in the Hervey Bay region are invited to attend a free financial education seminar at The Boat Club on Monday 23 February.

The Minister for Public Works, Housing and ICT Robert Schwarten said the Queensland Building Services Authority (BSA) had teamed up with financial experts to develop the seminars for BSA licensed contractors.

“These free seminars are aimed at helping contractors survive the building game in challenging times,” Mr Schwarten said.

“Many contractors in the building industry have only ever known good financial times.

“These free sessions with industry experts will show contractors how to prepare winning strategies that will allow them to take full advantage once conditions improve.”

Mr Schwarten said the BSA – the building industry regulator – viewed the free financial seminar program as so important that they will run three series of them this calendar year.

“The economic outlook for 2009 will present building contractors with a number of challenges to overcome and the business decisions made now will be crucial to their business survival.

“The financial experts attending the seminars will give contractors simple and practical advice for running a successful business and surviving the current economic downturn.

“To further assist contractors, all attendees will also be given the opportunity to have a free, confidential one-on-one financial planning session with an industry expert,” he said.

Monday’s seminar starts at 4pm at The Boat Club on Buccaneer Drive, Urangan. For more information phone the BSA on 1300 272 272.

Angus and Robertson will be opening a bookshop in the Eli Waters shopping centre here in Hervey Bay in the coming weeks. It seems that the fruit and vegetable shop will be closing this weekend and the bookshop will be going into the empty shop.

The Bureau of Meteorology is looking at the strong possibility of “vigorous” change hitting the coast around Fraser Island on Thursday and merging with a monsoon trough around Mackay.

Strong winds are forecast from Wednesday afternoon through to Saturday afternoon with the strongest winds of around 54km/h forecast for Thursday afternoon. Rain will develop on Tuesday.

Combine all that with the current high tides and things could get interesting along the coast.

Scrappers Haven in Liuzzi Street Pialba is another small business in Hervey Bay that has seen the value in taking their business beyond the local community and out into the wider world. Total Website Management is pleased to announce the launch of Scrappers Haven new online store.

Stop by and check out the huge range that Scrappers Haven has instore or online.

While we had another beautiful sunrise here in Hervey Bay this morning further north the remains of ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie were dumping heavy rain over and area stretching from Innisfail down to Mackay.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie is expected to move back out to sea later today and intensify once more. The last forecast track map issued by the Bureau of Meteorology shows the revitalised cyclone heading slightly south.