Hervey Bay Gossip

It’s almost whale hunting season in the waters around Antarctica and the Japanese whaling fleet is heading south for it’s so-called ‘research’.  The Sea Shepherd organisation is also heading south with it’s vessel … the Steve Irwin … and a new weapon in the fight to protect the whales.

The Ady Gil may have an innocent enough sounding name but there’s something quite scary about this boat and it just may save a few more whales that will come back to Hervey Bay next whale-watching season.

The Queensland Premier announced a new eco-tourism plan today that could see new eco-tourism accommodation being built in seven different locations around the state.

One of the sites identified in the plan is Eurong over on Fraser Island and expressions of interest are being called from private investors to establish semi-permanent accommodation in either tents or huts for tourists who might want to stay in any of the seven locations. Whoever builds the accommodation will lease the land from the State and run the accommodation themselves.

According to government figures tourists who visit the state’s national parks provide around $4.43 billion every year and that accounts for around 28 percent of total tourist spending in Queensland.

While there is the possibility of some more rain for Hervey Bay today and tomorrow the Weather Bureau suggests that there really is little chance that it will rain.

If that’s so then Hervey Bay will have only received 3.0mm during November and that it will equal the driest November on record … a record that was set back in 1926.

Last week, in a time of total fireban, someone lit a fire on beach north of Noosa and unfortunately it spread to the nearby bush and before lone a bushfire was raging out of control.

The fire has now been contained but on Thursday smoke from the fire was blanketing Gympie and on Friday the smoke had drifted down the coast to cause problems in Brisbane.

Fortunately Hervey Bay missed the thick smoke but we did get spectacular display over the town late on Thursday afternoon. This was the scene looking south over the runway at Maryborough

and a little later this was how it looked over Dundathu

Not a chance!

While the thought that Hervey Bay might host the America’s Cup is one that’s exciting let’s face some reality here … it’s never going to happen. It doesn’t matter how enthusiastic we are nor how hard Councillor Nioa says she is going to work to make it happen … the fact is that it won’t and the reason was mentioned on last night’s news.

The America’s Cup boats are 27.43 metres wide … the opening that they would have to sail through to get into the Urangan Boat Harbour is 24.38 metres wide. That means that for the America’s Cup boats to be able to access the marina the opening would have to be widened by a minimum of 6.10 metres.

Widening the entrance would have to be done very quickly … in a matter of weeks because the boats and teams would begin arriving within three weeks of the final decision on the venue being made.

So there’s the problem … even if the Fraser Coast Regional Council could get off their collective posteriors and do the work in that short period of time – something that’s never been known to happen before … there’s still a little matter of environmental impact studies and a myriad of other bits of red tape that would have to be overcome.

Perhaps instead of latching on to pipe-dreams like having the America’s Cup sailed in Hervey Bay our councillors might be better employed in doing some real work to overcome the problems Hervey Bay is facing … many of which are of their making.

Love it or hate it the welcome to Hervey Bay sign is now in place on the road into town and it hasn’t taken vandals any time at all to hit it with graffitti. It’s now adorned with with various tags and looks anything but a good advertisment for the town.

I wonder how long it will be before the Fraser Coast Regional Council gets round to cleaning it up?

It’s been announced that our long-awited water park here in Hervey Bay is to open on December 6th. While many may find it a little underwhelming we have to remember that this was never going to be a water park in anything like the same league as what you might find on the Gold Coast and it’s unlikely to become much of a tourist attraction.

Right now it still looks like a construction site and it’s hard to get a decent photo of the park without signs associated with the construction getting in the way … but one thing does appear to be missing. Wasn’t there supposed to be some sort of water jet that was going to be in the middle of what used to be the roundabout?

And also right now it looks as though we may not be going to get that roundabout back … I believe that we were told that it was only going to be a temporary closure while construction took place but now you have to wonder if it’s actually going to be permanent.

Well basically not much if what the Gossip has heard is anywhere near the truth.

It seems that insiders are suggesting that as soon as the Bundaberg Airport upgrade is completed Jetstar … the ones who left Hervey Bay for “operational reasons” – will begin flying in there and Virgin will then cease flying into Hervey Bay and fly into Bundaberg instead.

But why would Virgin want to leave Hervey Bay? The figures tell the story … currently there are a total of 27 flights a week into Hervey Bay with 1532 seats sold on those 27 flights. Compare that to these figures and you’ll see why the tourists aren’t coming and seats aren’t being sold.

Mackay Airport with 10707 seats across 94 flights per week

Rockhampton Airport with 9209 seats across 99 flights per week

Proserpine (Whitsunday) Airport with 2499 seats across only 14 flights per week.

Sunshine Coast Airport has 9651 seats capacity per week across only 56 flights per week.

While three of those airports see far more traffic than the Hervey Bay airport Proserpine Airport sees fewer flights for many more seats sold.

 Add to that the fact that Bundaberg is a far bigger town and they have a regional council that is doing a far better job of promoting their region than the Fraser Coast Regional Council … a council that is beginning to frustrate many local people with its almost inept handling of just about everything … and the situation does not look good. 

So is it really true? Will Virgin leave Hervey Bay airport? I guess we’ll find out in a few months time.

Martin Fraser from Fraser Coast Business Brokers thinks that some local Hervey Bay businesses need to improve their customer service.

Like many other businesses we spend a lot of money encouraging people to move to Hervey Bay, we meet and greet them and want to show off the best of our city. I fear we are going back to the days of old Hervey Bay  “where the coffee will kill a brown dog, and if you dont like it P off!”
 
Wife went to a well known Esplanade Thai restaurant with a small group of school mums a couple of nights ago. Service was very slow, to the point of total indifference. The wine was corked (why serve a 2006 Chardonnay in a warm climate anyway?). After the term “corked” was explained, waitress took it to the kitchen where they tasted it and agreed. Another bottle was ordered an delivered with the blunt statement: “If no good, bad luck!”

Next night I went as well, I think it was to punish me. The service was again slow, with the waitress just wandering and when a request was made, continuing for quite a while until she had finished her routine tasks . Only two tables were occupied, the place used to be packed out. Plates on the table setting were removed after we ordered and set on the sideboard for reuse, not washing: we had been sitting before those plates for half an hour or more. A common soft drink was not stocked. The mandolin music was just too loud. Plates were removed from two diners while the third was still eating.

As wife had to wait for the bill the previous night, we asked for the bill early and were told “Go to the counter” This was not a takeaway, it was a licensed restaurant!

So we queued while takeaway customers ordered. No smiles, no thankyou, no courtesy. We weren’t difficult customers, perhaps we should have been.
 
We eat out a lot and get great service from a really friendly little Asian restaurant in Bideford St. Even though we know the menu backwards, guess where we are going back!

Sadly we’ve encountered similar poor levels of service from some local eateries and from comments made to us from time to time we’re not the only ones who are disappointed in the level of service that some Hervey Bay businesses seem to think is adequate.