Hervey Bay Gossip

It seems that the Member for Hervey Bay Andrew McNamara has been coming in for quite a bit of criticism lately and let’s face it, the Dingo Fence over on Fraser Island hasn’t done anything to increase his public profile in any positive way.

However, perhaps we knockers are being a litte unfair on our local member … sure he’s made at least one dumb decision but now he’s stepping up to the plate and facing a very difficult situation head on. While there are plenty of politicians who would like to hide their head in the sand and wish problems like these would just go away our Andrew is telling your straight … we’re looking at fuel rationing!

He’s being quite blunt about it too and he’s told the state Cabinet that fuel rationing really isn’t a case of if but when and when it comes we need to be prepared for it or we’re all going to be up the creek without a paddle.

It’s all very well to think that we’ll be able to rely on public transport … but that’s already stretched to the limit. And of course we can all buy electric cars … but what happens to the power grid when we all plug those cars into the system to recharge them?

It’s not going to be a popular story but someone has to tell it and it seems that someone is our local member. The Courier Mail is running the full story here.

It’s been many a long year since anything like this was seen sailing the waters of Hervey Bay and it certainly was attracting plenty of attention of people along bike path at Urangan.

So Tourism Queensland brought a bunch of travel agents from the UK to Hervey Bay and showed them the sights … but did they get to see the stunning sunrises and sunsets?

Did they get to see the real Hervey Bay and meet the friendly local people … or did they just get to see it all from the rather sterile surroundings of the white monstrosity down at Urangan?

It’s when you get out and meet the real people and look at it from our point of view that you begin to see just what a great place Hervey Bay really is.

Here in Hervey Bay we’re creeping ever closer to winter … but even at this time of year the beach is a great place to be … and it’s a great spot for some exercise even when the tide’s in.

And the weather forecast for this weekend is for more of the same beautiful weather.

Although it certainly got very dry here in Hervey Bay we were never drought declared however parts of Tiaro area certainly were but things are looking up.

Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries Tim Mulherin said several shires now in the new Barcaldine, Fraser Coast and North Burnett Regional councils were now no longer drought declared.

Mr Mulherin said today that the drought declarations had been lifted on the recommendation of local drought committees in Longreach and Maryborough.

The revocations took affect from April 30, 2008 in the former Barcaldine and Aramac shires, and on April 13, 2008 in Biggenden Shire and a part of Tiaro Shire.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist … or have a degree in wildlife … to know that dingoes are smart animals. Just how smart they are has become obvious since the state government started building those wire fences around the villages over on Fraser Island.

Since the first fence went up we can now see that dingoes are smarter than your average Queensland state government because the fences aren’t keeping the dingoes out at all - the dingoes are simply walking over the cattle grids that have been put in place to allow vehicular access.

And if you want proof that dingoes are accessing the protected areas via the cattle grids you’ll find a photo right here.

It seems that it would have been just as effective and a hell of a lot cheaper … not to mention more environmentally friendly … if the Minister hadn’t gone round nailing up a few signs that said “Dingoes Keep Out”

I guess the government is just going to have to move to plan B to keep those pesky dingoes away from humans. Do we have a plan B? Or are we just going to start shooting dingoes that are smarter than your average state government.

If we do that there may not be any dingoes left pretty soon.

A combination of a less than stellar whale season followed by bad weather over the Christmas holidays has certainly placed quite a bit of pressure on some tourist related businesses in Hervey Bay and in the past month  we’ve seen two more local businesses shut up shop. The well-known Bayview Motel has closed and the Fighting Whiting is no longer available for fishing charters.

The Fighting Whiting is for sale but in these tough times it’s unlikely to attract much interest.

Wednesday is crunch day for Centro for it’s on that day that the company either has to get approval from the banks to extend their debt repayment or go into receivership.

If the banks do give Centro extra time then the company has a chance to sell off a number of the shopping complexes that it lists as assets. Centro Hervey Bay will not be one of them though for ownership of that complex here in town is shared between Centro and another retail investor who apparently holds an option to buy out Centro’s share.

You can read the full story here on the Sydney Morning Herald’s website.

I can understand that a car might be part of the employment contract for a senior employee on the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

I can’t understand why Councillors on the same council should be supplied with a car at ratepayers expense. We already pay them a bucket load of cash so why should we also supply a car for them to swan around in?

And I really can’t understand why, when a Councillor is married to a senior employee of Fraser Coast Regional Council … and said employee is off on two years leave … both Councillor and employee should have a council-funded car each.

In these difficult times I’m sure that there are plenty of people in Hervey Bay who are struggling to afford just one car.

You can read the full story of this crazy situation here on the Fraser Coast Free Clarion

The talk over the last few years of renewed coal mining in the Howard and Torbanlea area has been of great interest to many people here in Hervey Bay. Few though would have heard much of the Tiaro Coal Company

The Tiaro Coal Company is an ASX listed company that’s exploring an area of around 2,200 square kilometres that stretches from around Dundathu in the north to south of Gympie and well to the west of the Bruce Highway. You can find a map of the Tiaro Coal tenements by following the link.

A hat tip to Roger Currie’s interesting blog for the link to Tiaro Coal. Interestingly Roger sees that some of these coal tenements may be affected by the Traveston Dam. If the Dam will flood some valuable coal deposits it will be interesting to see what unfolds as the State Government decides whether water is more important than coal.