March 22, 2024
Cherbourg made history again this week, becoming the first Council in Queensland to have its Mayor and Councillors officially declared elected after Saturday’s local government elections.
Bruce Simpson was declared winner of the Mayoral poll on Monday, while the four successful councillors were declared on Tuesday: Carla Fisher, Gordon Wragge, Daniel Weazel and Tom Langton.
A special meeting to swear in the new team was held in the community’s Council Chambers on Wednesday morning.
Special guests at the meeting were Cherbourg Elders (including Mayor Simpson’s mother Aunty Ada Simpson), Council staff members, Cherbourg State School principal Boyd McLean and the school’s captains.
Elder Uncle John Warry Stanley was invited to share a prayer before the meeting.
He congratulated the new councillors.
“You are now in the footsteps of your former councillors who went before you,” he said.
“Bruce, it’s going to be a challenging one for you. Four years is a long road to travel but in those four years you’ve got community, you’ve got people behind you.”
He said the councillors were moving into four years of “unknowingness”
“It is something that you have within yourself to make changes,” he said.
“The changes that you make will benefit this whole community, and this whole community will thrive on the decisions that you arrive at.”
Newly elected Mayor Simpson acknowledged all the people, and council members, who had shaped Cherbourg into what it is today.
“The Cherbourg community has spoken,” he said. “I guess they want some fresh ideas and new energy …
“We know that we’re not going to get everything right but we know that you (can) show us, and talk to us, bring some solutions, bring some deadly ideas that you can all contribute to this community.”
CEO Chatur Zala congratulated the new councillors and thanked the previous council.
Returning Officer Eric Law AM was also thanked for his help during the election process.
Uncle Eric took the opportunity to speak to the new councillors just as a Cherbourg community member.
“I think this is going to be the most crucial Council we’ve ever had,” he said.
“I think some of the decisions that you’re going to make around this table are really going to shine the light for us as a community.
“I think the best thing, and again this is my own personal opinion, I think what we need to do is to go back to our culture.
“Because if you look at it, everything revolves around it.
“It there’s one thing the Referendum taught me is that we have to start (having) self-determination.
“We have to start determining our own future. I think you councillors are going to have the ability to do that.”
