Mandalay
Newsletter November 2002
President’s Report
Although the fireworks display had to be cancelled at the last minute because of the total fire ban, the Picnic in the Park on October 26th drew more people than last year.
I would like to thank all those who attended for leaving the park neat and tidy after the event. Cleaning up the next morning was an easy task and the council inspection resulted in the MPA getting back the full security deposit.
Special thanks to those who sponsored the event this year: Jim Holden of Wizard Auto Repair Clinic was going to pay for the fireworks but picked up the tab for the band instead. Lesley Brown of Nanette Lilley Property Centre paid for all the essential stuff such as the lights, power generator, toilets and the bits and pieces that go with it all.
Hopefully our residents will say thanks to these kind people by supporting the services they offer. Our thanks also to Ivan Gordon who, supplied our stage, once again.
Our referendum about the proposal to build a toilet block in Biami Yumba Park resulted in a “no” vote of 82.5% with 17.5% of residents in favour. The referendum was well supported and I thank those who participated.
Some of the submissions came in with comments and I would like to answer one or two of the questions raised.
The toilets in the Riverside Park have not been free of problems. The original was an earthworm-composting toilet that was destroyed by vandalism and fire on more than one occasion. It was replaced eventually by the less attractive but harder to destroy block we now have. These are some of the reasons for the large number of “no” votes from residents who have lived in the area for a while.
A number of people have requested upgrading of the play equipment and seating in the River park area. We will try to obtain that. Some have suggested moving the equipment further away from the toilet. The council promised to do this when the toilet block went in. We wanted the play equipment moved for child security reasons given the history of problems near public toilets in other Brisbane parks.
The Council later claimed that they would not move the equipment because other areas of the park suggested by us were either too sunny or under trees that regularly dropped branches. I suspect that the real reason was that they didn’t want to spend the money. We will try again however.
Another item on the agenda is to ask Council for permission to place a large stone with a brass plaque near the tree we planted in 1988. Permission was originally given for but we decided to wait until the tree was better established. We have now had the plaque made up and have asked Cr. Jane Prentice to present our request to Council.
This tree was planted as close as possible to the original Fig Tree after which the suburb was named. Unfortunately we couldn’t use the exact spot because it’s located in the middle of the road going down to the boat ramp. Full details of how we traced the location of the tree going back to John Oxley’s original map can be found
on our website.
Brisbane Transport has informed us that on Monday 25th November 2002 there will be an earlier departure for the 7:10 am weekday City 445 bus, which leaves from
Mandalay. The bus timetable at the bus shelter will be updated to correct the large number of inaccuracies.
Also the MPA has received the invoice for next year’s liability insurance, we have been quoted $735.00 per annum, just over two year ago the MPA was paying $230.00 for the same insurance cover.
One final thing, the Clean up Australia campaign last included a good effort from local residents who cleaned up our riverbank. We will be supporting this program again in early 2003 and we would like a more residents to participate. It won’t be a long day or a tough one and we will hold a sausage sizzle or something to make it into a social event as well as one that is of benefit to the area.
This will most likely be the final newsletter for the year so I will take thus opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and may the New Year offer you all that you ask of it.
Warren Fletcher
President
email: mandalay@uq.net.au
website: www.mandalay.org.au
