August 3, 2022
South Burnett Regional Council will spend $250,000 on upgrades to the Tipperary Flat rest area as a contribution towards Nanango’s 175th birthday celebrations in 2023.
The decision was taken at Wednesday’s Infrastructure Standing Committee meeting on a motion moved by Cr Kathy Duff.
Cr Duff said she had spoken to Liveability General Manager Peter O’May about a $550,000 allocation that had been made in this year’s Budget to fund work on Kingaroy’s Memorial Park.
Mr O’May told her the money was a nominal amount that would be partly used to fund a study being conducted into Memorial Park’s future development, and partly to fund minor upgrades to the park’s existing infrastructure.
Cr Duff argued that diverting $250,000 from this pool would still leave sufficient funds for the Memorial Park study and any urgent park upgrades required in the coming year.
But she felt Tipperary Flat was a higher priority because of Nanango’s 175th birthday celebrations.
Cr Duff was supported by Cr Jane Erkens.
Cr Erkens said Tipperary Flat was originally developed 25 years ago as part of the town’s 150th anniversary celebrations but since that time had not had any further funds spent on it.
She thought it was important the park’s amenities be preserved and the parkland upgraded to provide a welcoming entrance to the town.
Cr Kirstie Schumacher said she supported the proposal but could not overlook the fact that large amounts of money had been spent on upgrades to Nanango’s parks in the past few years while very little had been spent on Kingaroy’s parks.
Recent work on Kingaroy’s Lions Park had greatly increased its use even though the project was still incomplete, and Kingaroy’s Memorial Park was probably the most-used park in the entire region.
Mayor Brett Otto said he agreed with Cr Schumacher but in light of next year’s celebrations and the need to provide an attractive entrance to Nanango he would support the motion.
A public meeting will be held at Tipperary Flat on Friday, August 12, at 9:00am to gather community input on necessary upgrades.
The meeting will be attended by the mayor, councillors and SBRC staff.
Some early upgrade suggestions include improving the park’s drainage, fewer entrances and exits, clearer marking of camping areas and refurbishment of the park’s wooden structures to fix termite damage.
And please relocate the public dump point so it can be accessed by vehicles with holding tanks as well as cassettes.
Your comments make no mention of what will be achieved by the $250,000 funds. It is commendable that this initiative will be undertaken but further info would have been helpful. I am a seasoned traveller and understand these parks greatly and also realise that many “improvements” are NOT what is really required. Pages and reams of study materials (at great cost) but achieving nothing useful is the usual outcome. Almost all RVs today have every convenience built-in. Water taps, DUMP POINTS and rubbish bins are TOP OF THE LIST.