June 24, 2020
A house at 41 Macalister Street in Murgon will be offered for sale as a removal house to help the South Burnett Regional Council avoid expensive maintenance costs.
At June’s monthly meeting, Councillors heard the house was owned by Council, and had formerly been rented to a tenant who vacated the property in 2019.
A recent inspection found the house would require maintenance over the next 2-3 years to ensure it complied with current rental standards.
Council had offered the property for sale on the open market, but it did not sell.
Officers recommended the house be re-offered for sale as a removal house but the land be retained for future expansion of Council’s Murgon depot.
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Council has received a second electronic petition requesting it reconsider issuing an updated letter of support for the Bunya Mountains Dark Sky Park.
The petition also requested Council fund the $20,000 needed to prepare a lighting management plan for the area as part of the process of gaining international accreditation for the Bunya Mountains as a Dark Shy Park.
The petition was lodged by proponents of the Dark Sky Park concept.
Following normal practice, Councillors accepted the petition without comment and passed the matter to Council’s CEO for consideration.
An earlier petition containing 175 signatures was presented to the Council last October.
That petition was also passed to the CEO for consideration.
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A portion of an unnamed creek in western Kingaroy will be renamed “Memorial Creek”.
The decision came after the Council received an email request to rename the section that flows through Memorial Park by that name as part of this year’s 101st Remembrance Day commemorations to acknowledge the contributions of the region’s servicemen and women.
The creek flows from a wetland near Meiers Road, north of town, through a flood channel that bisects the park.
It then wends its way behind Kingaroy State High School and under River Road before eventually connecting with Kingaroy Creek.
Council officers said the only cost of agreeing to the request was the price of mounting two small signs at both ends of the park.
Councillors agreed, and passed the name change unanimously.
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A new road in Nanango will be named “Luna Rise” because it is the developer’s preferred choice.
At the June meeting, Councillors heard a development at 14471 D’Aguilar Highway in Nanango will require a new road to be built off Parson’s Road.
The estate’s developer had submitted three possible names, but Luna Rise was his first choice because the first word was also the name of his daughter.
Officers found the road name wasn’t used anywhere else in the region and otherwise met the Council’s naming policy, and offered no objection to it.
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Council will contribute $175,000 from its 2020-21 infrastructure budget to install automated road flood warning signs if the project goes ahead.
At the June meeting, Councillors heard the Wide Bay Burnett Regional Organisation of Councils (WBBROC) wanted to see flood warning signs and flood depth markers installed at key locations around the Wide Bay-Burnett.
WBBROC is asking member Councils to contribute half the funding for the project and will seek a grant for the balance.
If installed, the Department of Transport and Main Roads will be responsible for the ownership and maintenance of the signs and markers.
Councillors heard the signs would be installed at the:
- Boyne River crossing on Wondai-Chinchilla Road
- Stuart River crossing on Wondai-Chinchilla Road
- Boondooma Creek crossing on Mundubbera-Durong Road
- Boyne River crossing on Proston-Boondooma Road
- Stuart River crossing on Proston-Boondooma Road
Councillors agreed to the proposal, providing grant funding could be secured for the project.
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St John’s Lutheran School’s P&F Association will take over a shed at the South Burnett Enterprise Centre in Kingaroy formerly used by the Taabinga Rotary Club.
Councillors were told at this month’s meeting the Taabinga Rotary Club will be closing at the end of June, and the operation of the club’s major annual fundraiser – Bookarama – will be taken over by the P&F.
The shed is used to store books for Bookarama and the P&F wanted to retain the facility for storage purposes.
Councillors offered no objection to the idea and agreed to the request.
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Council will move three resolutions at the Local Government Association of Queensland’s 2020 Annual Conference.
The motions are:
- That the LGAQ lobby the State Government to waive agistment charges for roadside grazing in drought-declared regions
- That the wild dog bounty be consistent across all local government areas to encourage people collecting the bounty to stay in their own region and not go across borders, helping councils to get a better understanding of the number of wild dogs being caught in their region; and the dogs caught in a local government area should be paid for in that area
- That the State Government review the Waste Levy, which was due to rise on July 1 but has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
The conference will be held at the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre on October 19-21.
