March 30, 2015
It’s taken two weeks of hard work but the former Maidenwell Astronomical Observatory is now starting to take shape at its new home beside Geoff Raph Drive at Kingaroy Airport.
Astronomer Jim Barclay said today while all the major buildings were now on site and stumped, there was still a lot of work to do to get the facility up and running.
This included electrical work, plumbing, earthworks, landscaping, and installing concrete driveways and metal walkways so that visitors can move easily from one building to the next in the complex.
He doesn’t expect the Observatory will be back in business until mid-way through the year, but when it does re-open to the public, Jim’s hopeful visitors will find it will be bigger and better than ever.
He said he decided to move the Observatory from Maidenwell mid-way through last year when upgrades were carried out to the Maidenwell Sportsgrounds.
“The sportsground was levelled to make it useful for the community and now many local groups want to use it as venue for events, There’s also some talk about putting in lights, too,” he said.
Jim said while he supported the improvements at Maidenwell, they meant it wasn’t a good spot for the Observatory any more.
So mid-way through last year – with his 10-year lease on the Sportsgrounds site about to expire – he asked the South Burnett Regional Council if they had a suitable alternative site he could lease.
Council offered him the use of a 1500sq m site at Kingaroy Airport, and after inspecting it he decided to move the Observatory there.
“Council was very helpful providing us with a new site, but they insisted that it be at no cost to ratepayers,” Jim said.
“So the $100,000 budget we have for the move is entirely out of our own pockets.”
The move was carried out during the past two weeks by Jamie Larsen, from Burnett House Removals in Nanango, who picked up the Observatory’s four major buildings, transported them from Maidenwell to Kingaroy, then re-sited them on new stumps.
“Jamie was brilliant and I can’t praise him enough,” Jim said, adding that all the work involved in the move is being undertaken by local contractors.
“I’m a big believer in supporting local business.”
The new Observatory’s telescopes will focus away from Kingaroy, so Jim doesn’t expect the glare of the town’s lights will cause any night sky viewing problems.
And with the NBN set to fire into life across the South Burnett towards the end of the year, one innovation he hopes to introduce is to beam live pictures of the Sun – taken with a special solar telescope at the Observatory – directly to one or more local school science classrooms.
Jim believes the move will be a positive for the region overall.
He said one of the drawbacks of the Maidenwell location was its distance from Kingaroy and Nanango.
This made it difficult for school groups, many locals and tourists.
“In Kingaroy, we’re close to accommodation venues, restaurants and cafes, and local schools, and much closer to Nanango and Wondai, too,” he said.
“The new site will make it much easier for everyone to get to us.”
The $750,000 facility is a work of love for Jim, 69, who first became interested in astronomy as a boy and has been obsessed with sharing his love of star-gazing ever since.
It’s also a unique South Burnett tourist attraction – the next nearest comparable observatory is in Charleville, 600km away.
