Council facilities are open and COVID Safe

All Council-owned community facilities across the Goondiwindi region are now open to the public with COVID Safe Plans in place.

Community facilities managed by Goondiwindi Regional Council include the libraries, community halls and Council customer service centres in Goondiwindi, Inglewood and Texas.

The Goondiwindi Cinema and Theatre will resume its film screenings from today – seating will be strictly allocated, and customers are asked to co-operate with the given seating to keep their fellow cinemagoers safe.

At this time, the Goondiwindi Regional Civic Centre and Visitor Information Centre will only open Monday to Saturday and will not be operating on Sundays. The Art Space (inside the Civic Centre) will remain closed to the public until Wednesday 22 July.

Mayor of the Goondiwindi region the Honourable Cr Lawrence Springborg AM said operational changes had been made to all facilities to ensure the safety of staff and customers. He is asking residents to co-operate with these changes to help prevent any potential spread of COVID-19.

“Council is continuing to follow the guidelines provided by the Queensland Government around the operation of its facilities,” Cr Springborg said. “This includes the provision of necessary PPE to all public-facing Council staff.

“Hand sanitiser is also available at the entry to each building and we ask that customers make use of this before entering the facility to limit any potential contamination.”

As per the current stage of the Queensland Government’s Roadmap to easing restrictions, venues such as the Goondiwindi Cinema and Theatre can have up to 50% capacity, or one person per four square metres, whichever is greater.

This includes Council-owned community halls, which are now once again available for public hire – however, bookings must still comply with the Roadmap’s capacity rules.

Cr Springborg said a number of community-managed services that operate from Council facilities are still assessing if and when they will have the capacity to reopen to full scale. For example, the Texas Rabbit Works will temporarily operate by appointment only.

“We’re very fortunate to have so many wonderful community-managed facilities and services across the Goondiwindi region - and these are largely run by volunteers. I would hope that we can all continue to show understanding as they assess their capacity and remember that some of those volunteers may be more vulnerable members of our community.”

Council will continue to follow the latest guidelines from the Queensland Government about the operation of its facilities. For more information, please visit: covid19.qld.gov.au.