June 16, 2016
The South Burnett Regional Council will soon begin compiling a Local Heritage Register to formally recognise and help preserve significant heritage places across the region.
The register is a condition of the State Government’s Heritage Act, which obliges all Queensland councils to keep a register to identify places of local heritage significance.
Heritage places can include buildings, structures, cemeteries, archaeological sites, gardens, urban precincts and natural and landscape features.
Once a site is included in the register, most changes proposed to it are regarded as development and require approval before any work can be undertaken.
However exemption certificates can be issued for low-impact development work, conservation work or simple projects that do not affect the heritage values of a place.
Planning and Property portfolio chair Cr Terry Fleischfresser said a public notice will be published in local media on June 24 to notify the public about the process and advise how submissions can be made about including places in the Register.
Letters will be posted on July 10 to the owners of local heritage sites the Council is considering for inclusion in the Register.
The Council will also hold one-on-one meetings with the public about the project in Murgon and Wondai on July 14; and in Kingaroy and Nanango on July 15.
Public submissions for the Local Heritage Register will close on Friday, July 22.
Cr Fleischfresser believes the Council will be able to adopt the Register at its September meeting.
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The SBRC is also working on a Lease Register to keep up-to-date information about each lease, licence, permit or agreement it has entered into.
Letters will be sent out to community groups, organisations and individuals shortly to request information so the register can be assembled.
The Council has a wide range of agreements with different community organisations which run facilities ranging from community halls, sportsgrounds and showgrounds through to airfields, art galleries and museums on Council-owned grounds.
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Staff from the SBRC’s property department have been working with South Bank Day Surgery to ensure that the newly reopened Lady Bjelke-Petersen Community Hospital will become fully operational as soon as possible.
Officers have been ensuring that information, plans and procedures are in place to comply with new legislative requirements, day surgery accreditation requirements and private hospital licence conditions.
The Council has helped develop a Water Management Plan to comply with new legislation, which has involved mapping the position of all external features such as taps, hot water systems and fire hose reels, as well as the existing water supply lines to the building.
Internal fixtures such as taps, hand basins, toilets and showers have also had to be mapped.
Part of the interior has been repainted, gutters and a downpipe repaired, and the building’s hot water systems, thermostatic mixing valves, air conditioning units, compressors and emergency backup generators have all been serviced.
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Maidenwell Hall and Mondure Hall will both be looking a bit spiffier after receiving a bit of TLC from Council workers recently.
Cr Fleischfresser said both halls had received some partial external painting.
Workmen had also carried out minor repairs to doors, door jambs, ramps and rails in both buildings.
