Hayne Kite Millar Road in Blackbutt (shown in blue)

August 15, 2012

The South Burnett Regional Council has turned down a request to rename Hayne Kite Millar Road in Blackbutt – partly to avoid confusion and partly out of respect for tradition.

At today’s monthly SBRC meeting, the Council heard that a request had been received from Mr Peter Scott to rename the road to either Douglass Millar Scott Road or Pioneer Drive.

The reason for the request, Council officers said, was that the first settlers in the Blackbutt area were named Douglass, Millar and Hart.

However they recommended the request be turned down because there were other roads with similar names in the Blackbutt-Benarkin area and because renaming a three-worded road with a similar three-worded road would cause confusion.

Cr Keith Campbell, moving the motion, said that he understood that apart from Mr Scott, other residents on the road were happy with the existing name.

And Cr Damien Tessmann, seconding it, said that, in general, he was personally opposed to renaming roads unless there was a particularly strong reason for doing so.

“Pioneering families may move out of the area or lose their connection with the area in other ways,” he said, “but roads named in their honour mark the input they once had. We should respect that.”

Mayor Wayne Kratzmann noted that the general rule in local government seemed to be that where there was a difference of opinion about renaming roads, then it was generally best to leave things as they were. He was inclined to agree with that.

The motion to turn down the request was passed unopposed.