February 11, 2016
If there’s one thing you can say about the Nanango Show Society, it’s that they don’t allow any dust to gather under their feet.
On Thursday, just weeks after receiving news they’d secured a $31,800 grant from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund to seal the Nanango Showground’s main internal roads, an asphalt crew was hard at work pouring the first layer of bitumen.
And Nanango Show Society president Les Schloss was taking time off from his farm to supervise the work.
Les said the project will put a bitumen seal on about 700m of the Showground’s roads.
The job will cost $50,000, but the Show Society is contributing the $18,200 difference from its own funds.
Les said the main benefit of the project was that it would eliminate dust problems.
“When we had the last Nanango Country Music Muster, we had to spend hours every day with a water tanker to keep the dust down,” Les said.
“But after this is finished, that should be a job we don’t have to do any more.”
The asphalting work is being carried out by Eco Asphalt from Brisbane.
On Thursday, the company laid and rolled the first seal, and on Friday they’ll lay and roll the second seal to finish the task.
Les said he believed road sealing would make the Showgrounds a more pleasant place to visit in the future, especially for patrons of the monthly Nanango Markets, and the many caravanners who camp at big annual events such as the Nanango Country Music Muster and The Waterhole Rocks.
Local groups headquartered at the Showgrounds, such as the South Burnett Gas Guzzlers, will also benefit.
Gas Guzzlers president Terry Mackrell said the club was looking forward to using the new roads as soon as the bitumen dried.
“We’ve had our share of dust issues in the past, but we’re confident this should put an end to them,” Terry said.
Once the road sealing is finished, the Show Society will be turning to its next big project, extending one of the main pavilion’s walls out to the end of the shed.
Les said work is expected to start in about a week.
When finished, it will not only provide a larger undercover area inside the pavilion but also allow The Waterhole Rocks to expand its dance floor at the annual October rock and roll dance festival.
However, tight scheduling is vital for both projects.
Just a few days after the wall gets moved, the Showgrounds will host the Australian Brahmousin Society’s annual three-day Cattle Handling and Judging School, followed the week after by the Nanango Campdraft, and then the Nanango Markets the week after that.
