September 7, 2015
The South Burnett Regional Council will be holding a series of meetings in Kingaroy, Wooroolin, Wondai and Murgon over the next four weeks to discuss potential economic and community development opportunities flowing from the Murgon to Kingaroy Rail Trail.
The meetings will be structured around identified key uses in particular areas.
The first meeting will be held at the Wondai Art Gallery on Monday, September 14 at 2:30 pm, where the main topic will be the refurbishment of the former Wondai Railway Station and nearby rail tracks.
Later that day, at 5:30 pm, Wooroolin business operators are invited to attend a meeting that will be held at Wooroolin’s Grand Hotel to discuss new business opportunities the Rail Trail is expected to bring to the town and surrounding area.
The third meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 15 at the Kingaroy Hotel at the corner of Youngman and Haly Streets at 5:30pm.
This meeting will be for local fitness groups (ie walking, running and cycling).
There will also be a fourth meeting at Reflections Coffee Lounge in Lamb Street, Murgon at 6:30am on Thursday, October 8 in conjunction with the Murgon Business and Development Association.
The topic will be new business opportunities the Rail Trail is expected to bring to Murgon.
All meetings are expected to last about thirty minutes.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said the meetings were designed to ensure local businesses and community groups were prepared to take advantage of the opportunities the new Rail Trail is expected to bring to the region.
He said the Blackbutt-Linville Rail Trail had boosted business in Blackbutt, and he thought the Kingaroy-Murgon Rail Trail would prove even more successful for towns and villages along the route.
“We want to ensure our local sporting clubs and businesses take full advantage of the Rail Trail from the moment it opens,” he said.
“These meetings will be a follow-up from the initial round of public consultations we undertook in May.”
The first section of the new Rail Trail – between Wondai and Wooroolin – is expected to open later this year or early in 2016.
