January 28, 2022
South Burnett Regional Council will invite Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council to include Cherbourg in the Kingaroy Transformation Project lanterns and Glendon Street shared area town names.
The SBRC will also commission Indigenous artwork for the Glendon Street shared area to recognise the region’s Indigenous heritage.
The decision was made at Wednesday’s General Meeting where Councillors adopted final designs for Glendon Street, the Rail Trail head at O’Neill Square and the Bank Gallery in upper Kingaroy Street.
The designs were initially considered at a meeting in July last year.
At that meeting, Councillors resolved to put them out to public consultation.
Eighteen community consultation sessions were then held between August and September at Kingaroy Shoppingworld, the Kingaroy Library, in the Kingaroy CBD and at a Disability Support Expo held at Kingaroy Town Hall.
Consultation was also held with a range of groups including the Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kingaroy State High School P&C, Kingaroy Lions, the South Burnett Mountain Bike Club and the Kingaroy BaconFest Committee.
The 18 sessions yielded 50 suggested improvements but the overwhelming majority of responses were positive.
Cr Kirstie Schumacher said one of the most common suggestions was to involve Cherbourg and a recognition of Wakka Wakka country into the designs.
While it will be up to Cherbourg Council to accept or decline the invitation, she thought doing so would be “a step towards healing our country”.
Cr Kathy Duff said she had originally opposed the designs because while she thought the shared zone would be “nice to have”, she felt the community would prefer the money be spent on other things such as road maintenance.
She said she recognised the inclusion of the shared zone was a key commitment the Council had made to secure the $4.5 million funding being contributed to the KTP project by the Federal Government.
But, on principle, she felt it necessary to continue her opposition to the shared area concept.
Mayor Otto said he thought it was wonderful that Cherbourg was being invited to be part of the KTP design and was also very pleased with the high quality of work on the KTP to date.
“However, I’m still not convinced that the community sees value in the shared zone,” he said.
Because of this, he would vote against it alongside Cr Duff.
Cr Gavin Jones said he had supported the KTP from the outset and had seen nothing since work began to change his mind.
He said people he spoke to were excited to see it develop and there was an increasingly positive view about the KTP in the general community.
Cr Schumacher said she had to respectfully disagree with Cr Duff, noting that a key aim of the Glendon Street shared space was to create a “safe zone” where parents with young families could come together to enjoy community events, and where the region’s arts community could perform.
Cr Schumacher said there was a real need for this type of facility amongst many parts of the community, and as a parent with a young family she was keenly aware of it.
In the end the designs were approved by five votes to two, with Crs Duff and Otto opposed.
The estimated total cost of the three zones is $1.37 million.
