Hervey Bay Gossip

The $2 late night taxi surcharge which already applies in most major Queensland cities will be extended throughout the state from today.

Minister for Transport John Mickel said the decision to apply the surcharge statewide was an extra incentive for taxi drivers.

He said the surcharge was needed to counter a serious shortage of drivers, especially in the early morning hours.

“There is a national shortage of taxi drivers and we are feeling it here in Queensland just as much as any other state,” Mr Mickel said.

“It means taxis are sitting in depots when they should be on the streets providing services to Queenslanders.

“In particular, drivers have been opting out of the midnight to 5am period, leaving a severe shortage of services for people such as shift workers and late night revellers,'’ Mr Mickel said.

He said the $2 surcharge was introduced a few years ago in Brisbane and then extended to the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville and Cairns.

“It proved to be an effective incentive to drivers to sign on for those shifts, therefore we are extending it to all areas of the state,” Mr Mickel said.

He said the $2 surcharge was applied to the flag fall for each trip between midnight and 5am every night of the year except Anzac Day.

… some perspective

So our elected Councillors thought that they were worth a lot of money and so they voted to pay themselves the top pay rate. So what does that mean in terms of the common working man?

Well the base pay for one of our Councillors is $75,940 a year … or $1,460.39 a week … or $36.51 an hour (based on a 40 hour week).

The base pay for our Deputy Mayor is $85,430 a year … or $1,642.89 a week … or $41.07 cents an hour (based on a 40 hour week).

The base pay for our illustrious Mayor is $120,230 a year … or $2,312.12 a week … or $57.80 an hour (based on a 40 hour week).

Now if you were an employer and were asked to pay an employee amounts like that you would expect to get a heck of a lot of productivity from that employee or otherwise you would just be wasting money. If you were purchasing something worth those amounts of money you would hope that you be getting value for the dollars you were spending.

I leave it up to you to decide whether the ratepayers here in Hervey Bay and the rest of the Fraser Coast region are getting value for money - or will ever get any value for money -  that we’re paying our Councillors.

Get ready for some interesting traffic delays at the busiest roundabout in Hervey Bay. Yep work is about to start on something on the Boat Harbour Drive/Main Street roundabout.

Speed limits have already been reduced to 40km/h and traffic controllers have been seen and there are some unusual marks and numbers painted on the road surface that look rather ominous … and don’t the school holidays start next week?

Now that’s what I call planning!

… to subdivide an area into 600 sq. metre housing blocks here in Hervey Bay as the people out at Craignish and Dundowran are again finding out.

While the rest of the area is zoned for 2000 sq. metre blocks because there are no sewerage connections one developer looks like he could get the nod to subdivide without having to worry too much about anything as insignificant as effluent.

You’ll find the full story here on the Fraser Coast Free Clarion.

If you want to buy, swap, sell or give away something here in Hervey Bay there’s a new group to help you do it online and free of charge.

Herveybayguyswapsellfreebies started last weekend and it certainly seems to be rocking along so why not join in and have some fun as well as getting rid of all those things you don’t really need?

Follow the link and you’ll find yourself at the group’s homepage on Yahoo!. Joining is simple, the instructions on how to get active on the group are easy to follow and there’s already some good gear exchanged hands through the group’s activities.

The long-awaited Ramada development at Urangan got underway last Friday with the delivery of three truckloads of steel. Yesterday the on-site sales office was delivered too so we can expect to see the building begin to take shape over the coming weeks.

It certainly could be but whether or not such a sale will occur may well depend on how much pressure Centro’s creditors can apply to the company. The Sydney Morning Herald has published an interesting article on the status of the Centro Properties Group here

By now, if you’re a resident of Hervey Bay or the area covered by the new Fraser Coast Regional Council, you will know that The Chronicle’s favourite man Mick Kruger will be the Mayor for the next few years.

What may not be quite so apparent is that Mick really does not have much of a mandate from the people. It seems that poor Mick couldn’t even get close to getting 50% of the vote - a point that’s not lost on yet another local blog - the Fraser Coast Free Clarion.

It’s a local news blog that certainly is worth reading.

Here in Hervey Bay we get lots of backpackers coming through and sometimes I have to wonder what they think of us and our way of life. You may not think that we’re all that different to the people in other western countries but I think there certainly is a level of culture shock for some people when they visit us.

Here is a little snippet from one German visitor’s blog where he tells some friends what he thinks of us.

The Aussies: yes, they are laid-back. yes, they are friendly and helpful. What you will hear most of the time is: “no worries” that phrase pretty much IS  aussie-mentality. another one is :beautiful, no dramas (I love that one). They have an interesting sense of humor which obviously is delighting for the German non-humor: I had it several times that I was buying something when I was told something like: “oh, this book has a hole, I will have to charge you 5 dollars more then” which lead to the German reaction:”WHAT?YOU WANT TO CHARGE ME MORE??!!ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? oh, you ARE kidding me. how funny.

You can read more of his thoughts on Australia and Australians here

And for those of you who haven’t yet made it to Hervey Bay here is what you’re missing out on

An autumn Saturday on the beach at Hervey Bay. Other bloggers sometimes complain that Hervey Bay has no nightlife and that it’s dull and boring but give me the beach over a nightlife any day of the week.

Tomorrow it’s election day here in Hervey Bay. We’re faced with the task of electing councillors to the Fraser Coast Regional Council who will truly represent us instead of merely rubberstamping every development application that appears before them.

I suppose like a few other Hervey Bay bloggers I should be giving some clues on who to vote for but I’m not even going to touch that today. Instead I’m boing to give you a to something that is completely unrelated to elections, councillors, and crappy newspapers that as one-eyed as Lord Nelson.

What you will find at the other end of this link will really amaze you.