December 6, 2023
Members of the Carew family gathered in Kingaroy on Tuesday morning to thank the South Burnett Regional Council – and Cr Kirstie Schumacher – for recent upgrades to Carew Park.
In 2014, Council unanimously voted to name the park on the corner of Tessmanns Road and Doonkuna Street after the Carew brothers, who moved to the region in 1898.
However – apart from mowing – there were few improvements made to the area.
Members of the Carew family have been pushing for upgrades to the park ever since.
“After nine years of waiting, and so many emails, plans and nearly giving up any hope, we finally have something happening at our park,” family member Kay Dove, from Kingaroy, said.
“Cr Kirstie Schumacher took our case to the SBRC’s Budget meeting and was successful in getting $40,000 allocated for improvements to the park.
“Water has now been connected and beautiful mature trees have been planted, including kauri pines, flame trees and a silky oak.
“New garden beds with shrubs and smaller plants have been installed and mulched as well.
“The jacaranda trees which were planted by the families of the three Carew brothers nine years ago have been replaced with much bigger, healthier versions.
“Basically our little family want to say a huge thank you!”
Kay singled out Cr Schumacher and Council’s parks and garden staff, including Dallas Dyer and Matt McMurdy, for praise.
She said the Council crew worked on the hottest of days to get the planting and watering completed.
“It has been a pleasure working with these proactive people,” Kay said.
Several members of the Carew family travelled from Brisbane and Toowoomba for the get-together, including Patrick McCormack, who is almost 80.
Patrick was the instigator of the original park project nine years ago.
Kingaroy members of the family were also represented by Dan Carew.
“The jacaranda trees are a tribute to the mother of the three brothers who was responsible for many of the jacarandas on their two farms, ‘Greenfield’ (William and Ellen) and ‘Bellvue’ (Tom and Kate),” Kay said.
“The Bunya Pines units are now on the site of the Bellvue house (in Tessmanns Road), just across from the park.”
The Carew family is hoping even more improvements can be made at the park in the future.
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Thank you again for your support and coverage of the long-awaited improvements to Carew Park, it is greatly appreciated. I will make sure that I send a copy of this to our Irish relatives who found the 2014 park story online, years after it was published.
A great way to celebrate our pioneering history. Well done.
Thank you for improvements to Carew Park, Kingaroy – David Sturgeon, Cloncurry