MT MEE NEWS April09
By Ian Wells
Hamish treated the Mountain in kindly fashion, dropping about 40mm of almost overdue rain in our parts, along with no more than what Andrew Jeays would term “a good working breeze”.
The country is still a picture.
It already is time to advise our audience that the 14th of June is the date for the first concert in the Hall’s Sunday series for 2009. St Lucia Orchestra manager Rita West tells me that they have two outstanding guest artists lined up and that the program is currently “work in progress”. Kay on 5498 2104 and Joyce on 5498 2270 are taking bookings.
The autumn round of feral dog control is another important coming event for Mt Mee west landholders. This is set down for Thursday 14th May, and Council officer Ray Johnson already has the paperwork under way. It will be just one week after the Rocksburg autumn program – perhaps setting up some sort of pincer movement. Here’s hoping, because there are still too many feral dogs on the Mountain.
The Mt Mee School is still waiting to learn what money it is to receive under the federal government’s stimulus package, and what it is to be used for. These grants are allocated to schools strictly ‘per pupil’, without fear or favour. Who knows, we may get a proper office, or a staff room which is not a corridor!
The P&C now have the new edition of “Tall Timbers” on the “stands”. Copies are available for just $25.00 from the school and from ‘birches’. This edition has much additional material and is a “must” for every Mountain household.
The School is busily planning its 125th anniversary celebration, to be held at the School and in the Mt Mee Hall on June 6th. This is a subset of the Queensland Q150 celebration, and it is remarkable that our school is a mere 25 years younger than our statehood. The P&C is also producing a historical DVD as part of the celebration – Toni Mount advises that it is ‘nearly ready’. For catering purpose, old pupils and those others planning to join in the celebration are asked to register directly with the school or via the school website.
Stirling Francis has located the missing honour board, which was once on the wall in the demolished Mt Mee RSL building in Robinson Rd. It is in poor condition and some of the names from WWI list are indecipherable. But Stirl believes that the list is not identical with that on the Hall board. He would really appreciate any help he can get – either from memories or forensic technology.
It is planned that it will eventually go up in the Hall too – as an important relic of Mountain history.
I attended a recent meeting of the Mt Mee cemetery trustees, as a fly on the wall. This group is working very nicely as a team under the leadership of Rodney Eaton. It has become incorporated, registered as a charity for tax purposes, now carries public risk and voluntary worker insurances, and successfully applied for a government grant of $3600 under the umbrella of the Q150 celebration. This money has been outlaid on the ground radar search, (which confirmed the location of a previously unknown grave), signage and a commemorative storyboard plaque for the entrance and on fencing materials. The cemetery enclosure has been enlarged to encompass about half of the reserve, and this will contain three sections – the historical area, a new lawn cemetery and a memorial garden. Vern Duncan and Rodney Eaton, (with financial help from neighbour Scotty Maddern), have done the fencing. Rock for the garden borders and to feature the commemorative plaque was donated by the Bracalba quarry and gates were donated by the Wamuran Coop. The ubiquitous Ian Chapman of Creative Earthmoving has been donating his time, machines and remarkable ideas to this community project too, working with Leigh Knight and Deb Cook in the design and creation of the gardens. They will be low maintenance, mulched and native planted and will have some interesting features.
In response to Trustee appeals, five or six nurseries have already donated almost 1000 native plants for the job and the Moreton Bay Regional Council has donated almost 100 meters of mulch.
It is a truly community effort!
The gardens will be available without restriction for the scattering of ashes and the mounting of memorial plaques; while – for the meantime at least, burials will continue to be restricted to people with clear Mountain affiliations.
The March monthly Hall dance was a bottler. The band, “Rhythm Plus”, with the superb Mike Woollet on the hall piano and with young Aaron on drums, really swung. People obviously were enjoying the music and its traditional sound – all done without electricity – other than for the stage lighting. One felt that old Fats Waller was looking down from his piano in the sky and chuckling “That joint is jumpin’!”
Mike is back in June and again in November – he is a real find!
During the month I attended a meeting for landholders run by SE Qld Catchments. I was prepared to be rambunctious – expecting yet another flagellation of graziers for the catastrophic effects of their recidivist practices on Moreton Bay water quality. I was pleasantly surprised – first to see Bruce Lord there as part of the organisation, and then to find that it all had a positive Landcare flavour. The aim was to inform landholders wanting to provide for wildlife in their property planning and to give helpful hints to those wanting to regenerate patches of native bush. It was a useful morning, with the usual scrumptious morning tea provided by the Anglican Ladies/Church Improvement group.
To conclude, I tell that I wandered across the road from the Hall to the Church the other day, to find Andrew Jeays contemplating a shallow hole in the ground. It seemed that he was trying to sink a posthole for the front fence and that he had struck a tree root – approaching a foot through.
He was pondering.
Curiously, I felt some compulsion to stay and assist. But then common sense took hold. I remembered my greying hair and my aversion to physical labour.
Yes, it was yet another instance of a grey’s allergy in a country churchyard!
N.B. FERAL DOG PROBLEM
We now have a date for the Mt Mee dog meeting (SEE NOTICE ON PAGE 5) and it has been decided to defer the Mt Pleasant meeting for a few weeks – until the national coordinator is again in Queensland and available.
The autumn round of feral dog control is another important coming event for Mt Mee west landholders. This is set down for Thursday 14th May, and Council officer Ray Johnson already has the paperwork under way. It will be just one week after the Rocksburg autumn program – perhaps setting up some sort of pincer movement. Here’s hoping, because there are still too many feral dogs on the Mountain.
The Mt Mee School is still waiting to learn what money it is to receive under the federal government’s stimulus package, and what it is to be used for. These grants are allocated to schools strictly ‘per pupil’, without fear or favour. Who knows, we may get a proper office, or a staff room which is not a corridor!
The P&C now have the new edition of “Tall Timbers” on the “stands”. Copies are available for just $25.00 from the school and from ‘birches’. This edition has much additional material and is a “must” for every Mountain household.
The School is busily planning its 125th anniversary celebration, to be held at the School and in the Mt Mee Hall on June 6th. This is a subset of the Queensland Q150 celebration, and it is remarkable that our school is a mere 25 years younger than our statehood. The P&C is also producing a historical DVD as part of the celebration – Toni Mount advises that it is ‘nearly ready’. For catering purpose, old pupils and those others planning to join in the celebration are asked to register directly with the school or via the school website.
Stirling Francis has located the missing honour board, which was once on the wall in the demolished Mt Mee RSL building in Robinson Rd. It is in poor condition and some of the names from WWI list are indecipherable. But Stirl believes that the list is not identical with that on the Hall board. He would really appreciate any help he can get – either from memories or forensic technology.
It is planned that it will eventually go up in the Hall too – as an important relic of Mountain history.
I attended a recent meeting of the Mt Mee cemetery trustees, as a fly on the wall. This group is working very nicely as a team under the leadership of Rodney Eaton. It has become incorporated, registered as a charity for tax purposes, now carries public risk and voluntary worker insurances, and successfully applied for a government grant of $3600 under the umbrella of the Q150 celebration. This money has been outlaid on the ground radar search, (which confirmed the location of a previously unknown grave), signage and a commemorative storyboard plaque for the entrance and on fencing materials. The cemetery enclosure has been enlarged to encompass about half of the reserve, and this will contain three sections – the historical area, a new lawn cemetery and a memorial garden. Vern Duncan and Rodney Eaton, (with financial help from neighbour Scotty Maddern), have done the fencing. Rock for the garden borders and to feature the commemorative plaque was donated by the Bracalba quarry and gates were donated by the Wamuran Coop. The ubiquitous Ian Chapman of Creative Earthmoving has been donating his time, machines and remarkable ideas to this community project too, working with Leigh Knight and Deb Cook in the design and creation of the gardens. They will be low maintenance, mulched and native planted and will have some interesting features.
In response to Trustee appeals, five or six nurseries have already donated almost 1000 native plants for the job and the Moreton Bay Regional Council has donated almost 100 meters of mulch.
It is a truly community effort!
The gardens will be available without restriction for the scattering of ashes and the mounting of memorial plaques; while – for the meantime at least, burials will continue to be restricted to people with clear Mountain affiliations.
The March monthly Hall dance was a bottler. The band, “Rhythm Plus”, with the superb Mike Woollet on the hall piano and with young Aaron on drums, really swung. People obviously were enjoying the music and its traditional sound – all done without electricity – other than for the stage lighting. One felt that old Fats Waller was looking down from his piano in the sky and chuckling “That joint is jumpin’!”
Mike is back in June and again in November – he is a real find!
During the month I attended a meeting for landholders run by SE Qld Catchments. I was prepared to be rambunctious – expecting yet another flagellation of graziers for the catastrophic effects of their recidivist practices on Moreton Bay water quality. I was pleasantly surprised – first to see Bruce Lord there as part of the organisation, and then to find that it all had a positive Landcare flavour. The aim was to inform landholders wanting to provide for wildlife in their property planning and to give helpful hints to those wanting to regenerate patches of native bush. It was a useful morning, with the usual scrumptious morning tea provided by the Anglican Ladies/Church Improvement group.
To conclude, I tell that I wandered across the road from the Hall to the Church the other day, to find Andrew Jeays contemplating a shallow hole in the ground. It seemed that he was trying to sink a posthole for the front fence and that he had struck a tree root – approaching a foot through.
He was pondering.
Curiously, I felt some compulsion to stay and assist. But then common sense took hold. I remembered my greying hair and my aversion to physical labour.
Yes, it was yet another instance of a grey’s allergy in a country churchyard!
N.B. FERAL DOG PROBLEM
We now have a date for the Mt Mee dog meeting (SEE NOTICE ON PAGE 5) and it has been decided to defer the Mt Pleasant meeting for a few weeks – until the national coordinator is again in Queensland and available.
