Lloyd's message got tangled up in the filtering system - here it is...
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Hi everybody,
Following Klaus's posting a week or so ago with the good news about the
breeding of
the Lesser Sooty Owls at Geraghty Park, Julatten, (North Queensland) (the
nesting
tree was one which the Mareeba Shire Council had earmarked to take down),
quite few
people are getting some great sightings at dusk when the female (?) leaves the
hollow. Ron and Carol at Kingfisher Park think she is on eggs at the moment so
with
any luck, they should be at the hollow for some weeks to come. Will be great
when
the young appear.
Just thought some of those many, many good people who backed us in the original
fight to save the trees and followed the saga (some of whom were embarrasingly
confronted with a phone call from a certain Councillor after lodging a protest)
might be interested in an update. I will try to keep it short and hope it does
not
sound too much like gossip!
There have been a few anxious moments since we won the second battle to save the
trees. Councillor Gray - the main protagonist - later made an attempt to have a
swimming pool built in the park. Of course, the only place for a pool is where
the
trees stand. We always suspected a swimming pool was the real reason behind the
intended removal of the trees in the first place. Gray's property (farm)
adjoins
the park on the other side of the Rex Highway and there are subdivions of 5 acre
blocks close by on either side of his property. It doesn't take a rocket
scientist
to work out the thinking! Our suspicions that a swimming pool was behind it
all
originally were more or less confirmed at a 'management' meeting convened by
council (after the dust had settled from the second battle ). Gray's daughter
who
headed a local swimming pool committee which was trying to get a pool built in
the
Mt Molloy-Julatten district, volunteered the information that the only place
for a
swimming pool at the park was where the trees stood. Most of the community
wanted
it elsewhere - some did not want it at all.
About 6 months after that meeting, Gray cunningly moved a motion at a council
meeting without warning to have council approve the building of a pool at
Geraghty
Park rather than anywhere else. Council was divided on the issue with the
mayor's
casting vote coming down against it. The result was that the issue was to be
left
in obeyance for 12 months. That was a very close shave! Had the mayor voted
for
it, we would have had to do battle all over again.
Since then, local government elections have taken place (March). Previous to
the
elections the council had also upset most of the Mareeba Shire community by
crazily
backing a contractors application (without public consultation) to build a
gigantic
rubbish dump on the top of a watershed only a few kilometres from the town of
Mareeba, designed to handle ALL of the waste from north Queensland . Big money
in
it for the Mareeba Shire Council in royalties which would help to cover the
massive
debt that had been run up! This flew in the face of an established committee
responsibly set up by all shires in north Queensland with Mike Berwick as
chairperson (well known conservationist and Mayor of Douglas Shire which takes
in
the Daintree Rainforest) to tackle the waste problem in NE Queensland. When
Mareeba
residents realised there was possibility of contamination into surrounding
farmlands and into local waterways, there was public uproar. Up to 700 people
attended protest meetings. Suddenly, the council was in a corner and tried to
back
out of its decision. The contractors immediately took council to court and won
their case. What happens from here on, no one knows.
One consequence of this stupidity was that there was a record number of
nominations
for the local government elections. The sitting mayor wisely decided not to
stand
for re-election but all sitting councillors did. Only one was re-elected and
only
just! Gray polled poorly as did the others. Disappointingly, the single
pro-environment councillor who supported us also lost.
We are still vigilant however. Gray is probably nuetralised for the moment and
the
new council is re-introducing divisional representation. There has been a public
brawl between the defeated councillors and the new council mostly over
mis-managenment. The next elections occur in just under 4 years. Hopefully
the new
council will be an improvement but it won as a team on a platform of
industrial/agricultural development and 'responsible' management for the shire
and
the new mayor has already made some discouraging environmental statements.
Environment never got a mention in their campaign and tourism little more. All
of
the pro-environment candidates polled poorly.
Never a dull moment! Hope I haven't bored too many people.
Lloyd Nielsen,
Mt Molloy Nth Qld
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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