March 22, 2022
A decision to move Wondai’s Christmas Tree from the Bunya Highway roundabout to nearby Coronation Park is continuing to cause grief for the South Burnett Regional Council.
At the SBRC’s monthly Finance Standing Committee meeting, Councillors were told a decision made last October to move the tree as part of a plan to upgrade the roundabout had prompted a petition from 99 residents opposed to the move.
The petition is the third the Council has received on the subject since 2018, when an initial petition favouring relocation of the Christmas Tree was opposed by a counter-petition a few months later.
Residents in favour of moving the tree argued its location on the roundabout was dangerous, because children might be encouraged to run across the busy road to embrace it.
They also argued Coronation Park would be a better site as families could safely gather underneath it and the town’s annual Christmas Carnival is held there.
Residents opposed to the move argued the tree’s location on the roundabout gave it high visibility every Christmas and provided a welcoming entrance to the CBD that would be lost if it was moved to the park.
They also argued the child safety issue was a red herring because no accidents involving children and the roundabout had ever occurred.
In 2019 – since the community was clearly split on the issue – Councillors elected to take to no action and leave the tree where it was.
However, recent plans to upgrade the highway roundabout revived the topic.
Last August, when the Council put three proposed new designs for the roundabout out to community consultation – all without the Christmas tree – they received almost 100 responses.
The consultation asked residents which of the designs they preferred but did not canvass their views on relocating the Christmas tree.
Council’s announcement last October that it planned to shift the tree when the roundabout was upgraded provoked a third petition which opposed any change to the tree’s location.
This petition was tendered at the Standing Committee meeting by Cr Kathy Duff.
Cr Duff said she believed siting the tree on the roundabout would not affect the new design because it only required a footing be built into the roundabout to hold the tree every November and December.
However, Council officers advised that if the tree were to be retained, the need to build footings to hold it and leave clear space around it for workers to dress the Christmas Tree would rule out any plantings on the roundabout.
They thought it likely these changes would affect many other aspects of the design as well.
Cr Kirstie Schumacher then suggested that because the community was clearly split over the Christmas tree, the matter should go back out to public consultation.
She moved a motion to extend the consultation period for a further three months, and this time seek feedback about the Christmas tree as well as the new roundabout.
Cr Schumacher said she hoped this extra consultation would produce a final design the entire Wondai community could support, and suggested the results be tabled at August’s Infrastructure Standing Committee meeting.
Cr Schumacher’s motion was carried unanimously.
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