TIME N TIDE
AMBULANCE OPEN DAY
Qld Ambulance Service Macleay Island will be holding an Open Day at the Emergency Services Centre, High Central Rd, Macleay Island. Saturday 10 September 2022 from 10am – 3pm. There will be displays from all Emergency Services, historical QAS display, CPR Awareness and even Snakes Alive! Obviously snake bite first aid sessions will also be part of the program. A sausage sizzle will be a must as well as other community activities and a major raffle draw. Enquiries and session bookings contact Cheyne 0457424438 or secretary@macleaylac.org.au or on our facebook page. It is also believed that the ambulance committee will be in for a ‘name change’ this coming month.
CONVENIENT ABC STORY
The ABC featured our islands in a major story on television recently. They choose to ‘interview’ a select few islander highlighting that there is no ‘long term plan’ for the islands and little infrastructure. We don’t know if any of those ‘interviews’ made any positive comments about our islands. If they did, it certainly did not go to ‘air’. One person complained about the ‘lack of parking’ at Weinam Creek. No mention was made of the multi-million PDA development of the area that is already underway. The ‘crowing glory’ of Weinam Creek will be a huge multi-story car park. No mention was made of the $45 million jetties currently under construction for the four SMB Islands either, nor the Satellite Hospital rapidly being build at Weinam Creek. The ABC were very ‘selective’ in who they interviewed for the negative island story. Clearly our islands have ‘missed out’ over the years in infrastructure, but huge steps in ‘catch-up’ are underway.
RUSSELL ISLAND CAR PARKING FIGURES
With the new car park coming to Russell Island soon in the wake of the new jetty and terminal, we thought we would do some calculating on parking needs on the ever-growing island. Council has released plans of the new car parking area that will take in much of the existing car park area in the jetty precinct, along with the inclusion of further land purchased by council at a cost of $250,000 to be included in the new car park. The car park work will cost a further $1.8 million. According to the plans we were given,, we counted approximately 122 car park spaces. Sounds impressive, but it won’t be nearly enough. A friend of ours did a ‘count’ the other day of cars parked to a maximum in the area, including the ‘unofficial’ car park areas and in surrounding streets. He came up with 284 cars parked utilising the ferry services. So, it doesn’t look like there will be parking for all for many years to come!
MAYOR PLEADS GUILTY, THEN BATTLES ON
Redland Mayor Karen Williams has been sentenced to 80 hours of community service and had her licence disqualified for six months after pleading guilty to drink driving. The south-east Queensland Mayor appeared in Cleveland Magistrates Court, charged with being more than three times over the legal blood-alcohol limit when she crashed her car on June 23. The court heard Ms Williams crossed four lanes of traffic before she left the road, entered a ditch and struck a tree in the single-vehicle incident at the intersection of Queens and Wellington Streets in Cleveland. Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.177.She was disqualified from driving for six months and had no conviction recorded. Despite calls for her resignation, Mayor Williams, has refused to resign and has apologised for mistakes and fronted up to court for the consequences. She said that there is ‘much more to do for the Redands’ “There are some big agendas with projects such as Birkdale, Weinam Creek and Toondah Harbour. I started with those processes and I am determined to see it through,” she added. Many others would have wilted under the pressure. Not Karen Williams though. She is one tough lady!
FROM ONE ISLAND TO ANOTHER!The Friendly Bay Islander team moved from one island to another this month for a few days for a family celebration. It was off to Fraser Island for us for a unique experience for the first time. No roads as such, some hairy tracks and a beach that doubles as ‘freeway’ are some of the things that make Fraser unique. Four-wheel-drives are essential, and we still saw some travellers booked in loose sand. We didn’t get to see ‘all’ of Fraser. You just don’t realise just how ‘big’ the largest sand island in the world actually is! You wonder at the huge trees in the forests that reach for the sun to incredible heights (how do they grow so big in sand?) Brilliant weather, friendly people, and most visitors ready to help fellow travellers if they get in trouble. Home to the dingo, we only saw a couple of them, but there is plenty of ‘education’ around when it comes to being in close proximity to them. Can see many similarities to our Straddie, with the amount of fresh water on the island literally pouring out of the sands every hundred metres or so as you travel k after k up the long stretch of beaches. And yes, we will definitely get back there again!