August 18, 2021
A brochure outlining the tourist attractions of the Proston district will not be joining a recently released set of tourist brochures for Blackbutt, Nanango, Kingaroy, Wondai and Murgon … not soon, anyway.
At Wednesday’s SBRC Finance standing committee, Cr Kathy Duff said she had received a lot of “pushback” from the Proston community since the release of a new set of Council tourist brochures late last month.
Cr Duff said Proston had traditionally had a brochure of its own because it was the gateway to Boondooma Dam and Boondooma Homestead, two major tourist attractions in the western part of the region.
She also noted that Proston’s library was a major distribution point for tourist materials in the town, and was currently out of brochure stock.
Cr Kirstie Schumacher apologised for Proston’s omission from the town brochure set.
She was unaware Proston had its own brochure and its omission from the late July rollout was an oversight she would be happy to correct.
However, Deputy Mayor Gavin Jones questioned what other small communities – such as Wooroolin, Kumbia, Maidenwell, the Bunya Mountains, Durong and Benarkin – might think if Proston had a brochure of its own and they did not.
He also questioned whether it might be better, and more cost-efficient, to examine whether some or all the other small towns wanted or needed their own brochure and for those that did, to print them in a single run rather than generate multiple small print runs.
In the end, the vote to print a new Proston brochure was split 3-3 and Cr Jones, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of Mayor Brett Otto, used his casting vote to defeat the motion.
Cr Jones emphasised his decision was based purely on cost grounds and was not a reflection on Proston or any of the region’s other small towns.
Councillors then agreed that officers should carry out a study and get costings for a set of “small town” brochures.
The results of this will be presented for further discussion at another standing committee meeting later this year.
- Related article: New Tourist Guides Released
[UPDATED with correction]
Would be interesting to see the vote had they been talking about Maidenwell. 😎