Aug2011_MT MEE NEWS
By Ian Wells
It is August, and the Mountain is still green. What a season! Of course it has been a great year too for noxious weeds like Stinking Roger, Mistweed and Crofton Weed, but I guess that life is never perfect.
It is time now to sharpen the thistle grubber and to tidy up the spray outfit ready for the spring.
The cattle export saga is far from over. That very well heeled extreme organisation that aims to completely ban animal farming in Australia has struck a solid opening blow and it continues to sharpen its pencils. Meanwhile the new manager of MLA has made a welcome promise to get the organisation back on the rails and focused on its core role – improving the profitability of Australian livestock production.
Welfare will continue to emerge as a critical element in achieving that goal and our animal industries must resolve some difficult issues to the satisfaction of Australians and the world at large – poultry layer housing, sow penning, sheep blowfly control and cultural slaughter techniques to name a few.
We are now on countdown to the annual “Songs on the Mountain” concert with the Savoyard Singers – scheduled for Sunday 11th September. Kay (5498 2104) and Joyce (5498 2270) are already taking bookings. The Savoyard Singers concerts are always relaxed, happy affairs and the musical offerings cater to a wide range of tastes. If you like hearing gifted people sing tuneful songs then you will like this show. Read more about it elsewhere in this edition.
The Hall has a couple of interesting outside bookings for August from the Mueller College of Redcliffe too – they are running a jazz concert on 21st August and a “Moreton Bay Youth Concert” a week later. Phone the Mueller College for start times and program details. Tickets will be on sale at the door.
Saturday 27th August is the annual “Back to Mt Mee Day” and we expect to see an impressive gathering of past and present residents in the Hall. Call Kay Hennessey on 5498 2267 for information.
August is a busy month for the Hall!
Cr Adrian Raedel’s “Pimp on a Pothole” campaign is bearing fruit. The Council response to reports has been quite remarkable – with most of the holes so identified being repaired within two to three days. There are a million potholes in our roads after such a prolonged wet spell, but it is the hazardous ones that force vehicles in to erratic ‘off line’ paths, and those that really shake the false teeth that Adrian is campaigning to locate. Even if you have lost or already used your form it is not too late, just phone Council!
July sadly saw the disappearance of yet another link with the early days of settlement of the Mountain, with the death of Amy Duncan at the ripe old age of 97 years. Amy’s funeral took place in the Mt Mee Hall on Monday 18th July.
Amy was one of nine children born to Harry and Lena Thomason, who arrived on the Mountain from England in 1910 and took up dairying. It so happened that in 1920 William Duncan and his wife Ethel moved with their three children from Ireland via Casino in NSW to settle on the Mountain, and their son Arthur in due course courted and wedded young Amy.
Arthur, who predeceased Amy by some years, became a successful dairyfarmer and a highly respected leader of the Mt Mee community. His contributions to the district were commemorated in the naming of the Arthur Duncan carpark, recently completed across the road from the School and Hall.
Amy is now at rest in the Mt Mee cemetery.
July also saw Queensland Senator Mark Furner officially open the brand new Resource Centre at the Mt Mee School, before a capacity audience of P&C executives and other school supporters. This wonderful asset was conceived and constructed under the Commonwealth Government BER scheme and is highly prized – (although I suspect that an additional classroom or even a staff common room might have been a welcome addition too).
Informal schooling began on the Mountain in the early 1880’s, when settler Richard Thomas began teaching children in one of his farm buildings. In response to settler requests the Government provided the original school building in 1884 and Richard Thomas was appointed as founding principal and official teacher.
Quite remarkably, Richard’s great granddaughter Jennine Simpson was present for this opening ceremony, as was former long-time principal Christine Schulz.
Senator Furner was flanked during the ceremony by an array of local community leaders including Cr Adrian Raedel, Dr Paul Inglis of the Uniting Church, Pastor John Lind of the Mountain Top Church, Neil Cook of the Mt Mee Rural Fire Brigade and your writer, of the Mt Mee Public Hall. The formalities were followed by a brief look around the school and a spot of afternoon tea.
The cattle export saga is far from over. That very well heeled extreme organisation that aims to completely ban animal farming in Australia has struck a solid opening blow and it continues to sharpen its pencils. Meanwhile the new manager of MLA has made a welcome promise to get the organisation back on the rails and focused on its core role – improving the profitability of Australian livestock production.
Welfare will continue to emerge as a critical element in achieving that goal and our animal industries must resolve some difficult issues to the satisfaction of Australians and the world at large – poultry layer housing, sow penning, sheep blowfly control and cultural slaughter techniques to name a few.
We are now on countdown to the annual “Songs on the Mountain” concert with the Savoyard Singers – scheduled for Sunday 11th September. Kay (5498 2104) and Joyce (5498 2270) are already taking bookings. The Savoyard Singers concerts are always relaxed, happy affairs and the musical offerings cater to a wide range of tastes. If you like hearing gifted people sing tuneful songs then you will like this show. Read more about it elsewhere in this edition.
The Hall has a couple of interesting outside bookings for August from the Mueller College of Redcliffe too – they are running a jazz concert on 21st August and a “Moreton Bay Youth Concert” a week later. Phone the Mueller College for start times and program details. Tickets will be on sale at the door.
Saturday 27th August is the annual “Back to Mt Mee Day” and we expect to see an impressive gathering of past and present residents in the Hall. Call Kay Hennessey on 5498 2267 for information.
August is a busy month for the Hall!
Cr Adrian Raedel’s “Pimp on a Pothole” campaign is bearing fruit. The Council response to reports has been quite remarkable – with most of the holes so identified being repaired within two to three days. There are a million potholes in our roads after such a prolonged wet spell, but it is the hazardous ones that force vehicles in to erratic ‘off line’ paths, and those that really shake the false teeth that Adrian is campaigning to locate. Even if you have lost or already used your form it is not too late, just phone Council!
July sadly saw the disappearance of yet another link with the early days of settlement of the Mountain, with the death of Amy Duncan at the ripe old age of 97 years. Amy’s funeral took place in the Mt Mee Hall on Monday 18th July.
Amy was one of nine children born to Harry and Lena Thomason, who arrived on the Mountain from England in 1910 and took up dairying. It so happened that in 1920 William Duncan and his wife Ethel moved with their three children from Ireland via Casino in NSW to settle on the Mountain, and their son Arthur in due course courted and wedded young Amy.
Arthur, who predeceased Amy by some years, became a successful dairyfarmer and a highly respected leader of the Mt Mee community. His contributions to the district were commemorated in the naming of the Arthur Duncan carpark, recently completed across the road from the School and Hall.
Amy is now at rest in the Mt Mee cemetery.
July also saw Queensland Senator Mark Furner officially open the brand new Resource Centre at the Mt Mee School, before a capacity audience of P&C executives and other school supporters. This wonderful asset was conceived and constructed under the Commonwealth Government BER scheme and is highly prized – (although I suspect that an additional classroom or even a staff common room might have been a welcome addition too).
Informal schooling began on the Mountain in the early 1880’s, when settler Richard Thomas began teaching children in one of his farm buildings. In response to settler requests the Government provided the original school building in 1884 and Richard Thomas was appointed as founding principal and official teacher.
Quite remarkably, Richard’s great granddaughter Jennine Simpson was present for this opening ceremony, as was former long-time principal Christine Schulz.
Senator Furner was flanked during the ceremony by an array of local community leaders including Cr Adrian Raedel, Dr Paul Inglis of the Uniting Church, Pastor John Lind of the Mountain Top Church, Neil Cook of the Mt Mee Rural Fire Brigade and your writer, of the Mt Mee Public Hall. The formalities were followed by a brief look around the school and a spot of afternoon tea.
And to conclude, here is an old maxim worthy of our Prime Minister herself.
“Forgive your enemy – but always remember the bastard’s name.”
