From the Mayor's Desk

Cemetery guidelines reminder

Our Parks and Gardens team ensures that the Goondiwindi, Inglewood, Texas and Yelarbon cemeteries are maintained on a regular basis. While we encourage families to leave flowers at the graves of their loved ones, we kindly request that everyone adheres to the Council's cemetery guidelines. Lately, we've come across a significant number of glass vases, liquor bottles, and alcohol cans placed at headstones, along with solar lights and fishing poles inserted into the ground as tokens of remembrance. Although these items may hold sentimental value, there are potential risks including the possibility of glass breakage due to wind or maintenance activities, as well as the potential of larger items falling over. This risk not only poses danger to Council staff and visitors but also makes routine maintenance more difficult. The headstones in our lawn cemeteries at Goondiwindi, Inglewood and Texas are securely anchored with a concrete beam and are installed by a Monumental Mason. These headstones can also include a receptacle for flowers. If you're unsure about what's permissible at the cemetery, please feel free to contact Council for guidance on 4671 7400 or download our "Statement of Principles" found on our website -https://www.grc.qld.gov.au/residents/cemeteries/home

Goondiwindi Lions Club annual convention

Over the weekend, the Goondiwindi District Lions Club had the privilege of hosting the Lion's District 201Q1 Annual Convention in Goondiwindi, attracting more than 200 visitors to our region. It was a privilege to extend a warm country welcome to attendees from Brisbane and Toowoomba and talk to the many representatives from other countries on Saturday. The Goondiwindi District Lions Club as well as the Inglewood and Texas Lions Clubs’ dedicated volunteers are invaluable community assets who serve and support us through various fundraisers and projects. Congratulations on a such a great weekend.

Senior’s Week in Inglewood

It was lovely to see our older community members connect through activities like dance, music, entertainment, good nutrition, and bowling at Senior’s Week held at the Inglewood Civic Centre and the Inglewood Bowls Club last week where 29 seniors from across the region and 53 students from St Maria Goretti School and Inglewood State School met to connect and engage in these activities. Topology, a group of talented musicians, visited and inspired the group to compose their own musical piece then perform it. It was a creative and fun way to finish the mornings activities before lunch. Our seniors have contributed to our regional communities for many years and are valued members who always have a story to tell.

Inglewood flood planning

Recently, along with Cr Kelly, I visited the Inglewood Men's Shed to discuss future flood preparedness for the Inglewood community. As part of the open discussions, I was able to update members on the work currently being undertaken by Council to model water levels across all areas of town to the accuracy of a few centimetres, based on different flood scenarios, as well as the $700k Council is investing in raising the towns sewerage pump station switchboards out of all future flood heights. These combined investments will allow Council to make the case to the Qld Government to enable residents in certain parts of the town to shelter at home in particular flood events.

A discussion was also had on the feasibility of putting a levee around Inglewood to divert floodwaters. Such an option is not really possible, as the town is sandwiched between Rabbit Hill and the rise heading South towards Texas, just over the railway line. This all comes together to compress water into the small valley which Inglewood is built on, with no real opportunity to divert large volumes of flood water.

Texas power and water outage

Last week, Texas encountered an extended period of time with power and mobile telephone communications outages, as the result of a bushfire that brought down powerlines near Bonshaw. This event led to Council advising residents to conserve water, by restricting use to indoor requirements only. I thank residents for their cooperation. Whilst the Texas reservoir holds 2 megalitres and daily consumption was running at around half that, it made sense for caution to prevail. Council quickly shifted generators into place at the river pump site, water treatment and sewerage work, so as to ensure residents experienced no noticeable disruptions, other than the water conservation advisory.

The broader issue of concern for Council is that there appears to be limited, or no alternative electricity delivery route to Texas in such an event. When the power goes out, not only do the lights go out, but so does virtually all modern communications, when phone tower backup batteries quickly go flat.

With the move towards the over-reliance on mobile communications and the decommissioning of the old copper telephone network. Hundreds of people were left without communications for day to day and emergency requirements. Whilst local businesses did a wonderful job with generators to supply items such as fuel and food, many people did not have cash and tap and go and Eftpos machines were generally not working. Thanks to the businesses that advanced credit to people and rose to the occasion. Council will be raising the need for improvements with electricity network and telecommunications providers as well. It was somewhat ironic that the old copper cable network, which we are told is no good any more was the only reliable contact with the outside world for the people still lucky enough to have it.