Hervey Bay Gossip

The Bureau of Meteorology has announced at 11.55am this morning that Tropical Cyclone Anthony has redeveloped this morning and is now moving in a north northeasterly direction.

The Bureau expects Tropical Cyclone Anthony to change direction and begin to move towards the Queensland coast and increase in intensity to a Category 2 Cyclone during Saturday. At the moment it’s not clear where the Cyclone will cross the coast but it’s currently north northeast of Townsville.

It must be a sign that local government elections are approaching. Jim MacKellar … an occasional contributor here at the Hervey Bay Gossip … now has a website online that’s a clear indication that he intends to stand for the Fraser Coast Regional Council at those elections.

You can find his website here and it’s definitely worth looking at if you want to know what Jim stands for.

I must admit that my memory is a little vague here but wasn’t our much vaunted Water Park – that attraction at the bottom of Main Street that draws lots of people – supposed to be a major tourist attraction for Hervey Bay?

I guess tourism isn’t that important to us any more … either that or the Water Park wasn’t such a tourist attraction after all … because according Wide Bay Water, the body that runs the Water Park, they will soon begins closing it on weekdays and only opening it on weekends.

Maybe Wide Bay Water thinks that tourists only come to Hervey Bay on weekends during the off-season.

The announcement that the park is going to spend most of its time closed till next summer has already had some impact. The kiosk/cafe closed on Tuesday when the current operator decided that there was no point continuing in business at that location if the park was going to be closed.

Wide Bay Water’s decision to close the park is rather sad really. Hervey Bay needs all the open and operating tourist attractions it can get.

Update
Earlier this evening I had some discussions with Ms Maynes from Wide Bay Water and I urged them to join the conversation and post a response in the comments section. I’m pleased to say that they have done that and I urge you to read the comment section to see what the real position is going to be with the Water Park over the coming months.

In case you don’t see the comments as you read this in the general section of the Gossip this link will open the original post and the comments too.

Tropical Cyclone Anthony is currently located west-northwest of Mackay and well out to sea.

In the next few hours the intensity of Tropical Cyclone Anthony is expected to drop below cyclone and the subsequent low is expected to turn northwest and begin to move back towards the coast.

While the Bureau of Meteorolgy’s track map is suggesting that the low pressure system will remain below tropical cyclone level right through tomorrow other forecasters are suggesting that the low will re-intensify as early as this evening.

Tropical Cyclone Anthony continues to move in a generally easterly direction and the Bureau of Meteorology believes it will weaken in the next few hours.

At 4am this morning Tropical Cyclone Anthony was rated as a Category 1 tropical cyclone and was located approximately 820km northeast of Mackay.

At that time the cyclone’s central pressure was 991hPa and it was moving east at around 35km/h.

The Bureau of Meteorology believe that the cyclone will continue on a similar track for the next 24 to 36 hours and remain a Category 1 cyclone.

The Bureau of Meteorology at 5.19am this morning advised that Tropical Cyclone Zelia is currently moving southeast away from the Australian coast and should maintain a south-eastward track and increase in speed and intensity through the next 24 to 48 hours.

The Bureau believes that it will have no impact upon Australia.

I guess if you want to live in Queensland then you’ve got to take the great weather … with weather that’s not so great and sometimes it has the potential to go on getting worse. We’ve had the floods and now we have a tropical cyclone to think about.

A few hours ago the low that was lurking north-east of Willis Island upgraded to a Category 1 tropical cyclone and given the name Zelia. At the moment the Bureau believes that Tropical Cyclone Zelia will move slowly south-east and continue to grow in intensity.

By 1pm on Sunday the Weather Bureau predicts that Tropical Cyclone Zelia will have intensified to a Category 3 storm … be moving more quickly … and be situated over 700km east of Townsville

So our wonderfully effective mayor seems to be quoted in the Fraser Coast Chronicle as saying:

“Fuel supplies have not been interrupted, but a rush on service stations created a temporary shortage yesterday.”

Really Mick? Mate where have you been? Obviously you haven’t been in Hervey Bay where all the servos have been out of fuel for the last few days … not just yesterday.

Come on Mick – try and make a real difference like most other Mayors are doing instead of producing nothing but hot air!

The link to the Fraser Coast Chronicle article

As we all know … or should know … the Queensland floods have cut all the roads to the north, south and west of the Fraser Coast and there’s been a rush on shops and supermarkets.

Bread and milk are now hard to find but if you’re looking for bread then we can tell you that Brumbys in Centro, Hervey Bay is still baking but you may need to call in and pre-order.

We understand that they are planning on flying in more ingredients later in the week if the roads aren’t re-opened by then … but that plan may change now that the water is rising in Brisbane.