Mt Mee News March 08
Ian Wells
There’s not much news from the Mountain this month – every-one is immobilised by the mud. Shoes and wardrobe contents are going mouldy – it’s just like the good old days. I hear that some are actually buying household dehumidifiers.
There’s not much news from the Mountain this month – every-one is immobilised by the mud. Shoes and wardrobe contents are going mouldy – it’s just like the good old days. I hear that some are actually buying household dehumidifiers.
Oakhill Falls. This minor Mt Mee West watercourse which feeds Neurum Creek has been bone dry since 1991.
The livestock are sick of it too – we need a few sunny days to sweeten the grass and to reduce its water content. They need to dry their coats and shake off the rain scalds too.
The dung beetles are back – and boy, there is plenty for them to work on – wearing flippers!
As expected, the grass grubs have appeared. They are enjoying our lawns but fortunately they are not yet game to tackle the long grass in the paddocks. So while the ibis’s are waiting expectantly for their annual feast, it hasn’t yet materialised.
Rod Thomas, our Mountain dogger, has again been successful (in between showers) and has accounted for several miscreants on the eastern side of Mt Mee road. There is a current peak in dog activity as the bitches are training their spring litters to kill.
Rod can be contacted on 3205 2297 and he makes no charge for his services.
I don’t think that baiting will ever again be permitted on our Mountain and shooting is the only practical alternative if we are to keep feral dog and dingo numbers down to acceptable levels.
In more good news, the horse flu epidemic seems to have been stopped in its tracks. There have been no new cases of this very highly contagious disease since Christmas – either in Queensland or in New South Wales. This was a great feat for the authorities, who quickly responded with a sound strategy. They found supplies of the right vaccine and speedily got it into the right horses to block the spread. It was a great feat for the industry too—horse people did the right thing by the movement restrictions – often at great sacrifice.
Work on the long awaited new car park to be built across the road from the School and the Hall has been held up by the weather. Some three thousand cubic metres of fill is to be brought in – much from another weatherbound Council job.
Many will be disappointed to know that there will be no SunCoast Classic Rally this year. It was great fun seeing the cars tackle Campbells Pocket last year and there was a large turnout of local spectators. There is a material side to our disappointment too – local organisations had been negotiating with the rally to provide a lunch for competitors, officials and spectators at the Mt Mee Sportsground this year. This would have been a very nice little earner indeed. But the 07 event was devastated by the forced deletion of many roads from the planned course – this was reflected in a smaller entry and higher costs than planned and the event lost a lot of money. So the organisers are licking their wounds and regrouping for an 09 rally. Here’s hoping that residents along next year’s proposed route get the message that the rally is pure enjoyment with no sinister downsides.
We are all about to participate in yet another election. Many of us remain totally at a loss to understand what has happened following the postal ballot on amalgamations. We understood that the ballot was conducted by the State at the direction of the Commonwealth Government because of the unrest amongst ratepayers. The published interim results of the ballot indicated an overwhelmingly "no" vote in our districts. But amalgamation seems to be proceeding as though that never did happen. Why were we encouraged to vote on what seems to have been a closed debate? Why did we bother? And why has there been such a stunning silence on the issue – from all levels of government?
Mountain people are very sorry to be losing Councillor Greg Chippendale, who is standing for another Division. Greg has been a very popular representative of the Mountain. He has gone to great pains to keep us informed, he has been a good listener and he has been very sympathetic to a wide range of local issues, including weed and pest control, roads, amenities and cultural matters. And he has had the clout to get things done.
The dung beetles are back – and boy, there is plenty for them to work on – wearing flippers!
As expected, the grass grubs have appeared. They are enjoying our lawns but fortunately they are not yet game to tackle the long grass in the paddocks. So while the ibis’s are waiting expectantly for their annual feast, it hasn’t yet materialised.
Rod Thomas, our Mountain dogger, has again been successful (in between showers) and has accounted for several miscreants on the eastern side of Mt Mee road. There is a current peak in dog activity as the bitches are training their spring litters to kill.
Rod can be contacted on 3205 2297 and he makes no charge for his services.
I don’t think that baiting will ever again be permitted on our Mountain and shooting is the only practical alternative if we are to keep feral dog and dingo numbers down to acceptable levels.
In more good news, the horse flu epidemic seems to have been stopped in its tracks. There have been no new cases of this very highly contagious disease since Christmas – either in Queensland or in New South Wales. This was a great feat for the authorities, who quickly responded with a sound strategy. They found supplies of the right vaccine and speedily got it into the right horses to block the spread. It was a great feat for the industry too—horse people did the right thing by the movement restrictions – often at great sacrifice.
Work on the long awaited new car park to be built across the road from the School and the Hall has been held up by the weather. Some three thousand cubic metres of fill is to be brought in – much from another weatherbound Council job.
Many will be disappointed to know that there will be no SunCoast Classic Rally this year. It was great fun seeing the cars tackle Campbells Pocket last year and there was a large turnout of local spectators. There is a material side to our disappointment too – local organisations had been negotiating with the rally to provide a lunch for competitors, officials and spectators at the Mt Mee Sportsground this year. This would have been a very nice little earner indeed. But the 07 event was devastated by the forced deletion of many roads from the planned course – this was reflected in a smaller entry and higher costs than planned and the event lost a lot of money. So the organisers are licking their wounds and regrouping for an 09 rally. Here’s hoping that residents along next year’s proposed route get the message that the rally is pure enjoyment with no sinister downsides.
We are all about to participate in yet another election. Many of us remain totally at a loss to understand what has happened following the postal ballot on amalgamations. We understood that the ballot was conducted by the State at the direction of the Commonwealth Government because of the unrest amongst ratepayers. The published interim results of the ballot indicated an overwhelmingly "no" vote in our districts. But amalgamation seems to be proceeding as though that never did happen. Why were we encouraged to vote on what seems to have been a closed debate? Why did we bother? And why has there been such a stunning silence on the issue – from all levels of government?
Mountain people are very sorry to be losing Councillor Greg Chippendale, who is standing for another Division. Greg has been a very popular representative of the Mountain. He has gone to great pains to keep us informed, he has been a good listener and he has been very sympathetic to a wide range of local issues, including weed and pest control, roads, amenities and cultural matters. And he has had the clout to get things done.
