Outback Way Funds Secure
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Boulia’s Man With A Pram Brigade Photo By: Ann Britton Outback Way Funds Secure A funding boost of $160 million announced last Also under the strategy umbrella will be the year for the Outback Way has now been widening of 17km of road between Boulia and secured. Winton. The Outback Highway Development Council Boulia Shire Council Mayor Rick Britton said (OHDC) have updated their works strategy to Council and the OHDG were pleased the State include the roll out of projects the funding had and Federal governments were acknowledging been allocated towards. the need for a highway through the centre of In the coming months, work will begin on laying Australia. 25km of bitumen between Boulia and He said the benefit of connecting rural and re- Tobermorey, on the Northern Territory border. mote Australia were endless. The Channel Country Chatter is a Boulia Shire Council publication Phone: 07 4746 3188 Email: [email protected] or find us on All For A Good Cause There were pram pushers of all shapes and sizes who took part in the Fathers Day fun in Boulia recently. The Boulia Shire Council sponsored event was part of a nation-wide campaign to honour dads and raise money for men's health issues. Part of Boulia’s main street was cordoned off for the walkers. Also celebrating Fathers Day with a special morning tea, were the dads in Urandangi. Photos By: Ann Britton Heading into the Shire Hall for their well de- served brekky were the Man With A Pram participants pictured. A presentation was also made following the breakfast with men's health packs being distributed and several prizes being won. Photos By: Ann Britton Dangi Dads Enjoy A Special Morning Tea GEORGINA CRICKET ASHES Urandangi - October 19th Branding Champ! Allan Rankin recently took out three veterans titles at the Camooweal Drovers Festival’s National Bronco Branding Championships 2019. Allan is a long-term Ulumpia Community mem- ber (west of Urandangi), and has been Bronco Branding for many years. The veteran bronco brander has also passed his skills on to his sons, who also competed at the Drovers Camp Festival. Allan was recently in Urandangi celebrating his win's with the community. Mental Health A Priority In The Boulia Shire Mental health and well-being was the topic for Also last month, Mayor Rick Britton attended the month of August in the Boulia Shire, with the Central West Mental Health Roundtable in Council staff participating in the Rural Minds Longreach (pictured above right). Mayor Brit- Workshop. The workshop was held at the ton was introduced to the Weathering Well Council Depot (pictures above left) and pro- tool by Alister MacDonald from Western vided an avenue for attendees to learn about Queensland Primary Health Network. This is mental well-being and resilience for a new low intensity tool to promote conversa- individuals, families and the community.. tions about mental health. FROM THE DESK OF THE CEO Councils vision is to provide a ‘one stop shop’ for REGIONAL COMMUNITY HUB both ‘townies’ and ‘non- townies’ for services. By moving the Post Office – we should be able to pro- Draft plans provided by Griffith University have vide a continuous service and it will free up space been displayed at both the library and the Min Min which could be used for a gallery / training facility Encounter display board for review by the resi- etc . By moving the Library it will free up space dents. The next phase is to provide a scope of which could be used for a child care centre. These works and launch an EOI for an architect to com- are very real benefits to the town and shire alike. plete the design plans ready for use in future fund- Cost ? - We will be planning this project very care- ing rounds. This has been completed and ready for fully to enable opportunities for investment to be advertising. All of the comments we have received made attractive to the funding bodies. Things like so far have been supportive for the council to look environmentally friendly heating / cooling. The ma- to the future and plan accordingly. However, we terials the building will be constructed from, the did have alternative views and I thought this would surrounding landscape etc. be an ideal space to answer them: A few other questions not related to “The Hub” were also received: Q; To what benefit for graziers? Q: There are families who do not have Free to A: Many if not all graziers have wives , families and Air TV and cannot afford to replace VAST boxes workers who use our Library. The new centre will when they stop.? provide staffing support for the Library ( currently reduce to half days because of staffing issues.) This has been a burning issue for several years as The new building also has space which will encom- I am assuming the reference is to re-broadcasting pass things like the Post Office or maybe QGAP, TV. This is a costly exercise and one which council which council could support with staffing as it will has not considered in this years budget. be in the same building. This could mean that the post office no longer closes during lunch times. Q: Mothers walking their prams on the road be- Many small things like this could make a difference cause of lack of footpaths. and avoid an inconvenience in the future. Over the past 18 months council has replaced Q: Pulling down of old buildings, which tourists 370 mtrs of footpaths and installed 130mtrs of come to see. new footpaths. We have also replaced concrete egress points from road to footpaths. The current council building has been added to We have also completed a Footpath Asset Man- during it’s fifty or so years of life, even so the cur- agement Plan which has identified major footpath rent building has outgrown it useful life. For exam- traffic routes, the cost to install, maintain and re- ple our council has been innovative in using the place and as we can afford to install them we will. airport building as a council chambers. In the new building the opportunity to ‘multipurpose’ the coun- Q: The entrances to town leave something to be cil chambers will be an asset not only for the town desired? but other service providers. The existing building now needs repair (even after the ‘mini’ facelift in We are slowly working on this and our progress so 2014) as the extensions are failing. A business far……. case on the ‘repair or replace’ scenario will be completed long before a decision to move ahead with this projects gets under way. You will notice that council is endeavouring to record its history in the form of signage boards outside of each build- ing. History is being able to record and remember and this council building has already been burned down once before. Q: What benefit to the townspeople? And what cost to the ratepayers? More town entrance photos on the following page. FROM THE DESK OF THE CEO Renewable Energy for Boulia The prospect of potential energy savings in the fu- ture for Boulia residents and council is around the corner with the use of renewable energy. We are fortunate to have Professor Garnaut and John Chi- odo to work through our current usage statistics and advise of potential options for us. Mr Matt Ab- erdein, Area Manager Central West for Ergon En- ergy are also keen to speak with the Mayor, Coun- cillors and CEO on the future of Boulia’s energy supply and this will be happening in the near fu- ture. Tourism – Min Min Encounter. Well done to Anna and the team who weathered the storm of tourists visiting during the Camel Rac- es, Outback Golf and Big Bash events. Sales broke our previous records $56,252 for the month – excellent job by the tourism staff who had the number of visitors over a smaller time frame. Mural at the sports centre design – Keep your eye out shortly for the changes on the Sports Centre external wall. Surprises are in store after many years of talking about this we are now in a position to make it happen. Council have de- cided on the focus to be the Min Min Light and the artist (Joel) will be coming at the end of October. Q: What happened to the road around town for While he is here he will also repaint the Robinson the cattle trucks? Park toilet block (due to wear and tear). That plan is hanging up on my office wall…. along with the organic spelling yards (done), industrial TV advertising estate (done), the residential estate (planning stag- es). Initial discussions with Transport and Main Watch this space…..something new on our TV Roads (as it is their road) has been positive but screens before the next tourist seasons starts!!!!! non-committal. Some things we have control over – some things we don’t. Bye for now. Cheers Lynn Thank you for taking the time to write in- it shows you care about our town and its future. MAKE AN OFFER! Boulia Shire Certified Agreement – we have waited a long time. Council are selling the Library’s kids It has not been since 2006 that Boulia Shire has had a voted upon Certified Agreement with staff couches. and Unions. This has been a long time coming but benefits to our staff and council alike will be identi- fied in this new agreement. The last round of If interested please meetings were held on Tuesday 26th August and see or contact Julie we are patiently waiting for the Unions to ratify this agreement and take it to a vote.