{"id":42364,"date":"2013-08-26T11:59:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T01:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=42364"},"modified":"2020-09-11T13:57:51","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T03:57:51","slug":"holiday-idea-like-a-lead-balloon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/08\/26\/holiday-idea-like-a-lead-balloon\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Idea ‘Like A Lead Balloon’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cr<\/a>
SBRC Division 1 Cr Barry Green (Photo: SBRC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

August 23, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

An idea to move the South Burnett’s Ekka Show holiday from Monday to Wednesday has “gone over like a lead balloon”, Cr Barry Green admitted this week.<\/p>\n

A discussion about the benefits or otherwise of shifting the holiday was held at the last South Burnett Regional Council meeting.<\/p>\n

Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said the long weekend gave the region an economic downturn.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, it encourages a lot of residents to take a long weekend away. And on the other, it gives a lot of our local businesses trouble because we have a public holiday here on the Monday and then most parts of the south-east have their Ekka public holiday on the Wednesday,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So if they do business with the south-east, they have to battle with two days every Ekka week when their phone calls and emails aren’t getting answered rather than just one.”<\/p>\n

At the time, Cr Barry Green said the suggestion was worthy of discussion but admitted on radio this week the idea was not popular with local residents.<\/p>\n

“I think it has gone over like a lead balloon, to tell you the truth,” he told announcer Michael Monk on Radio 4SB.
\n<\/strong>
\n“I’ve had more people complaining about that than complaining about the rates, so that will give you some idea.<\/p>\n

“I think theoretically it was worthy of discussion but I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere.”<\/p>\n

Cr Green said he believed probably only 10 per cent of the local people who have the holiday on the Monday actually go to the Ekka.<\/p>\n

“The idea was to have (the holiday) mid-week on People’s Day,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Those who wanted to go to the show, could go to the show – although why you would go on that Wednesday I wouldn’t know because half of south-east Queensland is trying to get through the gates.<\/p>\n

“But we could turn it into a South Burnett day.”<\/p>\n

Cr Green said a “South Burnett Day” to attract visitors to the South Burnett “could be bigger than Ben Hur”.<\/p>\n

“If we sold it that way it would possibly work. But at the moment it’s not very popular,” he said.<\/p>\n

Cr Barry Green said there would be no change with next year’s holiday arrangements.<\/p>\n

Councillors have already voted to hold the Ekka Show holiday on the Monday in 2014.<\/p>\n