November 19, 2012
The South Burnett Regional Council will spend $100,000 to create a “village green” in Wondai’s CBD by June next year.
At a public meeting at the Wondai Services Club last week, 16 representatives from local community groups heard the SBRC had allocated money in this year’s Budget towards upgrading the town’s facilities, but the choice of where the money would be spent was up to the community itself.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann addressed the meeting, along with Division 6 Councillor Cheryl Dalton and SBRC Economic Development Manager Phil Harding.
Mayor Kratzmann said the council was keen to progressively upgrade all the South Burnett’s towns, but wanted to do it in a way that met their needs and assisted future development.
Earlier this year, a similar community meeting in Murgon decided the facility the town most needed was a skate park.
Now it was Wondai’s turn, he said, and while the Council had no preference for any particular project and was open to suggestions, it had two ideas of its own: upgrading the Wondai swimming pool or creating a new “village green” in the heart of the CBD.
The Mayor said the SBRC knew the existing swimming pool needed further upgrades beyond the recent heating installation, and said $100,000 would probably go “most of the way” to upgrading the children’s swimming pool area.
The advantage of this for Wondai was that it might persuade some Kingaroy parents to bring their children to the pool because similar facilities at Kingaroy were already at full capacity. And this might have some benefit for local shopkeepers.
But the alternative idea of a village green could have much bigger benefits, he said, because the imminent removal of the railway tracks – scheduled for February – would allow the centre of Wondai to be “opened up”, encouraging more flow-through between the two halves of the town and making the area more attractive to tourists.
“The railway line has always split Wondai and the existing gardens are built to discourage people from walking across them.
“But when those lines are removed and the old tracks are converted into a Rail Trail in future, many tourists will come into Wondai along this route. And it’s in everyone’s interests they’re encouraged to stop in the town and spend money.”
The floor was then thrown open for comments. A majority agreed that while the swimming pool needed significant upgrading, the village green concept was their preferred choice.
Former Wondai Shire Mayor Percy Iszlaub, attending on behalf of the Wondai & District Band, said it was “a great concept” and urged everyone to “think big” about the idea and not forget the importance of tourism to the town’s future.
“I can really see a lot of potential in this,” he said. “Our Council saw the same sort of potential with Lake Boondooma and we eventually got a million dollar development out of it. A village green in the heart of Wondai could do the same.”
Several people suggested that developing one end of the green into a free caravan park would also be a big help to CBD traders.
“We see caravans regularly pass through here to overnight at Tingoora or Wooroolin,” one said. “It would be a lot better for Wondai if they stayed here instead.”
Elaine Madill, from the Wondai Art Gallery, said she’d like to see a walking trail in the green connecting the Visitor Information Centre, Art Gallery and Museum, along with a series of historical plaques which would create a “tourist walking trail” around the CBD.
After everyone had given their views, the Mayor said that the Council would now proceed to putting together some conceptual drawings for the project.
He hoped these would be ready by early next year and when they were, a second public meeting would be called so everyone would have a chance to comment on the concept plans and perhaps suggest further improvements before work began.
He said while he was very happy with attendance at the meeting, he would be even happier with a bigger attendance at the next one, and encouraged everyone present to “spread the word” about the night’s discussions.
