Dec2014_MT MEE NEWS
By Ian Wells
Our local season is shaping up as a real disaster. As I write, there is no rain on the horizon. Brisbane’s 100 mm storm delivered a shade under 9mm to us.
Many cattle owners who didn’t lighten off for disappointing money when they might have are now either caught in an unaffordable feeding cycle or just hoping that something might turn up. Sadly, both routes could lead to ruin. The cattle business is a hard one!
Joyce Knight Send-Off
Joyce Knight OAM has moved into a retirement village in Caboolture. At a farewell morning tea on 25th October in ‘birches’ restaurant, more than fifty people came to celebrate her friendship and her enormous contribution to our community. Reference was made to her service as an office bearer in organisations such as the CWA and the Mt Mee Pony Club, the School Bus Committee, the Anglican Guild and the Mt Mee Church Improvement Fund. She was a member of the Mt Mee Hall Committee for more than fifty years and she held various Hall executive offices continuously for almost 35 years.
Joyce was presented with a painting that she had admired for some time. It is a rural scene depicting the very truck in which, in her ‘salad days’, she travelled to dances from the family home in Old Cove Road with a group of local youngsters.
At a later event, the Moreton Bay Regional Council made a special presentation to Joyce commemorating her 52 years of continuous community service to Mt Mee on the Hall Management committee.
The Crouch family Score Their Third Outright Endeavour Rally Win.
Martin, Rowena and Karen Crouch have just scored their third successive outright win in their 1977 Holden HX V8 wagon. The Endeavor Rally began as a Bicentennial celebration in 1988 and has been held annually ever since. Marty and his crew have competed in each since 1997. They won the inaugural NSW event outright in 2013 (Penrith to Bathurst via Cameron Corner) and this year they won both the Queensland – (Warwick to Bundaberg via Corner Country) and the New South Wales – (Sydney to Dubbo via the Flinders Ranges) events. Marty says that the roads were mostly rough, many rocky, and that there were lots of corrugations and plenty of mud for variety. Some water crossings were “over the bonnet”.
He stated that to be successful, both your crew and your vehicle need to be tough, reliable and have specially strengthened bodies! Teams fundraised along the way to help the Endeavour Foundation’s work with the handicapped.
Mt Mee Says “No” to District Community Association
The idea of a district community association was firmly rejected by a poorly attended public meeting chaired by Hall Committee president Denton Webster in the Hall on Friday 14th November.
In introducing the issue, Denton and co-speakers referred to several important issues mediated by Hall Committee over recent years that could have been more effectively dealt with the ‘bottom up clout’ achievable only through the public meeting process. Particular mention was made of the far reaching draft Moreton Bay Council Regional Plan, that almost completely escaped the attention of residents when it was released as an impenetrable web posting earlier this year.
The concept was of a new group, to be elected by public meeting and aiming to press matters of community concern with relevant authorities. It was proposed that it might operate – initially at least, under the wing of the Hall committee – to avoid the immediate outlay of the $1000 or so needed for essential incorporation and liability insurances.
President Denton made it very clear that the mandate given to Hall Committee is purely for management, and that it is highly undesirable for Hall Committee itself to enter into political process. A clearly separate organization is needed to act on community issues.
As the discussion progressed, the following reasons for inaction were put forward by various speakers from the floor:–
– There is an unacceptable risk that a Community Association might be taken over for its own ends by an extremist pressure group.
– There would inevitably be involvement of some Hall Committee members, and robust debate at Community Association could lead to a dysfunctional failure of harmony within Hall Committee.
– Substantial fund raising would be needed.
– It is not necessary. Provided that Hall Committee continues to be the contact point for incoming correspondence relevant to community wellbeing and to pass these matters on via the Newsletter, any concerned citizen can start a petition, call a public meeting or consult his/her local member in order to get satisfaction.
– The unstated position of most seemed that the community is drifting along very comfortably. Why be bothered? Why put your hand up to support the idea and just get yourself a job for your trouble?
– Why be bothered indeed? Those who brought the matter forward won’t be bothering in future either. But they will continue to look at the results achieved by the active and successful community associations of nearby districts such as Bellthorpe with some interest – and envy.
The New Zealand Trip
Your writer found northern New Zealand to be having a record season, with knee high rye grass and clover everywhere you looked. Beef cattle were bringing record money, with steers worth up to $6.00 per kilo over the hooks as US grinding beef. Export milk prices have dropped this season by almost 50% (NZ producers are paid on a total milk solids basis) and dairymen are groaning a bit about this. But they know that this is just a cyclical swing. The dairy industry is still acquiring land formerly under pine forest or extensive beef/sheep enterprises. The NZ dairy herd is still building in numbers.
The NZ economy seems to be booming, manufacturing and value adding is at record levels and there is a feeling of great business confidence. It is truly like Australia was sixty years ago, when NZ was moribund! Where have we gone off the rails?
