From the Mayor's Desk - 4 July 2022

I’m pleased to begin this column by saying I’ve recently been in personal communication with the new federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Minister for Emergency Management, the Honourable Murray Watt. Along with taking the opportunity to congratulate the new Minster, I extended an invitation to him to visit the Goondiwindi Region to appreciate the strength and breadth of our local agricultural industry, given that it accounts for more than half of our $800-million local economy.

I also suggested to the Minister that it would be an ideal opportunity for him to inspect and appreciate the extraordinary historical success of the Goondiwindi levee in protecting our community against flooding - while we’ve certainly come close on a few occasions, Goondiwindi’s levee bank is doubtlessly one of the best examples of flood mitigation in the country. Beyond the levee, I offered to share what Council is continuing to do, to strengthen our region’s capacity to withstand natural disasters. I’m pleased to say the Minister has expressed his acceptance and will remain in communication to find an appropriate opportunity.

Inland Rail in the Goondiwindi Region

Council is currently seeking clarity about the progress of Inland Rail in the Goondiwindi Region following the change of government - specifically, whether there will be a review or any potential re-alignments. This is very important to our region, as the preliminary stages have been going on locally for the best part of five or six years. Given that we’ve now worked through many of the issues with Australian Rail Track Corporation, our community just does not want that frustration to continue – for our local businesses and community, we need certainty and clarity.

BOM visit to Texas

After 12 months of postponements, I’m pleased to say that the Bureau of Meteorology will visit Texas at the end of this month to look at opportunities for improvements in local flood gauging, modelling, and warnings across our region. Council has already approached landholders along the river directly and encouraged them to come along prepared with any data they use during flood events to help the BOM understand what kind of local information is important to them. For more information, please contact Council.

Telstra – improvements to service

Councillors recently had the opportunity to meet with senior technical officers from Telstra to discuss the issue of mobile service quality and coverage in the region. Council has been working to provide Telstra with information about any areas where residents have expressed concerns about coverage and service quality. With that information being consolidated, Telstra has now undertaken to spend several days in our region identifying, investigating and where possible rectifying the issues we face locally with signal quality and coverage.

Talwood CCC and Master Plan

I was pleased to attend the latest Talwood Community Consultative Committee (CCC) meeting with several of my fellow councillors to talk with the local community about the priorities and progress of the Talwood ‘master plan’ and its various projects. The master plan is an investment in the long-term development of the town, directed by the community with the resources provided to them by Council. I’m delighted to say that Council has committed $20,000 as part of its 2022-23 Budget towards the Talwood master plan for its second year – which matches another $20,000 towards the master plan in Yelarbon.

Thanks to local health staff

The Darling Downs Health (DDH) board met in Goondiwindi last week, and I was very pleased to have the opportunity to publicly thank DDH at that event for its ongoing commitment to health services in the Goondiwindi Region and more particularly thank our local health staff that deliver the services to our community.