May 2, 2024
The Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s push to connect local businesses with the multi-million dollar “renewable” projects coming to the region is gearing up.
The business association is urging its members to draft capability statements which the KCCI will share with the contractors and sub-contractors engaged on the upcoming wind farm, battery and solar farm projects.
Progress on various KCCI projects was shared at the group’s latest meet’n’greet which was held in the courtyard behind the Hunter Gatherer Trader café in Kingaroy on Tuesday night.
The café and three adjoining businesses – Resonate Regional Radio (4SB), Kingaroy Accounting and Tax and ATC Engineers & Project Managers – hosted the get-together for local businesspeople.
The KCCI is also collecting data from its members which it plans to collate to use while lobbying Council, State and Federal governments on local issues.
A mini-survey was conducted at the meet’n’greet which found the majority of businesses present used Telstra as their internet supplier, followed by Optus.
The data collected during this project will enable the KCCI to work out where it can better support its local businesses, and will also be shared with the media.
Another KCCI project is the collection of information for its South Burnett Regional Identity Project.
All South Burnett residents have been invited to fill out an online survey … but it must be completed this week.
The KCCI will be hosting a working group as part of this project to help unearth the “region’s true identity”. This will be held at the Kingaroy Red Ants Clubhouse on Thursday, May 23, from 8:30am to 4:00pm. Bookings can be made online
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Guest speakers at the meet’n’greet included representatives from each of the four host businesses:
- Emma Page and Sally Lynch, from Hunter Gatherer Trader, opened their café in 2020 – in the middle of the pandemic – and in the middle of the Kingaroy Transformation Project. As well as serving coffee, the pair do catering as well as running a boutique stocking local products.
- Peter and Pauline Janz, from Kingaroy Accounting and Tax, have been in Kingaroy for 31 years, initially with Griffin Jones Kingaroy; they bought the business in 2002.
- Resonate Regional Radio operations manager Geoff Speed said 4SB had been part of the Kingaroy community since 1938, but now the building was the hub for 39 transmitter sites and 11 Resonate stations across Queensland, all being operated and programmed from Kingaroy. Advertising manager Deb Gillespie invited the businesses present to record a free, short radio clip as part of the station’s support for Small Business Month.
- Allen Christensen, from ATC Engineers & Project Managers, spoke about the projects that the business has been involved in recently, including the sealing of the Maidenwell-Bunya Mountains Road and the construction of the John Peterson Bridge on Mundubbera-Durong Road.
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Representatives from Kewpie Stockfeeds reminded the audience that the business is planning to hold a Rural Industry Field Day later this month.
The field day will be held from 9:00am to 3:00pm on Thursday, May 23, and will feature about 30 trade displays, presentations, food and drink and competitions.
This is the first field day that Kewpie has held since 2015.
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The next KCCI meet’n’greet will be held on June 10, at a venue to be advised.
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