Feb2013_MT MEE RAMBLINGS

By Ian Wells

 I thought that it might be time to rename this column.  I’m no longer the keen newshound with his nose in everyone’s business – I never was really!

      STOP PRESS:  MBRC has advised that the Mt Mee Hall will be closed for renovations for the duration of February, following the February Markets.  The March markets will  proceed as usual.

This new title gives me a less restricted mandate, and if H.M. Doreen sees fit to use my stuff from time to time – beauty!  Meanwhile, I can rest on the verandah with a stubby and a clear conscience.

I can remark on the continuing change in Mt Mee demographics.  All sorts of people from all sorts of walks of life are choosing to settle here – some as weekenders and some as permanent residents, and our community is much the richer for this.  We welcome them, and we urge them to get involved with our very active community through Hall work and events, P&C, Neighbourhood Watch, the Historical Society and/or direct social contact.

Writing this mid January, the season has still to break.  Believe it or not, rain events in early November brought upwards of 80mm to most of the Mountain, but looking around now you would never know it.  There was a green shoot, but it didn’t last long in the heat.  The more heavily stocked places with less cover to protect the plants have suffered most.  The more lightly stocked places are not yet so ‘desertified’, but are still in ‘green drought’, with no grass growth and failing feed reserves.

With no useful rain at all since mid July it had been a long, long wait for man, for beast and for those typical western Mt Mee leaky dams.

I have not reported since the Mt Mee concert of the Sunshine Coast Symphony Orchestra, which fell on Remembrance Day last year.  Played to a packed house, it will be remembered – as one of the very best.  The orchestra was in top form and the two guest artists, Ruby Valks and Dominique Fagan, were superb. I continue to marvel that we can enjoy such performances in our little country hall.  

It was a phenomenal afternoon.  If you missed the show – too bad!  It serves you right! 

And guess what – old concert regular Tom Thomasen turned up – extracted, as a 90th birthday present, from his Kilcoy nursing home for the afternoon by good friend Joe Gough.  The audience and orchestra both gave Tom a rousing welcome.  He looked just like the cat that had stolen the cream!  

Later in November the Mt Mee Hall Committee hosted some 100 elderly people and staff from the CATS (Council Assisted Transport Service) to a Christmas luncheon prepared by our Mountain volunteers – a reprise of the event in 2011.  This was another resounding success.  If these annual lunches become much more popular we will need another extension to our building.

Also in November local resident and long-time community leader Joyce Knight OAM became a great grandmother yet again.  Granddaughter Michelle was delivered of young “Charlotte Joyce” in the Caboolture hospital and both continue to do just fine, under the vigilant supervision of mother/grandma Leigh Knight.

The December Sunday Markets celebrated the 21st anniversary of the first Mt Mee Market.  To mark the occasion, the Hall was festooned with streamers and balloons. Santa himself noticed the special arrangements and called in with a big bag of goodies for the younger set.  Sadly though, he ‘knocked up’ quite early in the piece.  He blamed the heat, but it actually followed his visit to the attractive young female staff next door at ‘birches’.  We have yet to establish just what strength sapping exertions he got up to there! 

Also in December, a group of people interested in Mt Mee historical matters met in the Hall following a Neighbourhood Watch meeting.  The outcome was the formation of a formal group, named “The Mt Mee District Historical Society”.

The objectives of the new group are to locate, gather and preserve local historical artefacts, and to raise funds enabling the construction of a museum or heritage centre and a restoration workshop – to be designated and also operate as our local ‘Men’s Shed’.

Kevin Austin was elected as president of this new society, with Roy Gillespie as secretary and Anne Pedwell as treasurer.  Membership at this point includes Darcy Hewitt, Merle Smith, Rowena Crouch, Neil Cook and your writer, – a small but promising start.  Much more ‘blood’ is needed – ring Kevin if you are at all interested

(5498 2282).

In the longer term the Society will be incorporated and operate under its own steam, but in the meantime it becomes a sub-committee of the Mt Mee Hall Inc, painlessly enjoying all of the benefits of Council support and of incorporation.

This project is going to take an enormous amount of ongoing work to succeed.  It is already a very busy time for these few members as they search for land on which the facility could be built and draw rough indicative plans, prepare for active fund raising and work up grant applications.

As a first step in the actual business of gathering and displaying artefacts, the new Society is preparing a modest Mt Mee display segment for the Woodford museum this autumn.  This will focus on the essentials of Mt Mee history – timber and dairying. Anyone who has suitable items that could be loaned to the Society for the duration of the display might contact Rowena (5498 2262), or Kevin.

Finally, my warmest best wishes for 2013 to the loyal readers of this monthly column – thanks Lottie, thanks Sheila!