Thank you
Thank you for printing the balanced and informative piece by the folks at CoralWatch on the potential impacts of both the proposed Esplanade resort and over-development around town on our shared environment in the Bay.
The headline should have been “Proposed resort WILL MOST LIKELY HAVE serious environmental impacts”...not could have. There is no doubt about that; just look at other coastal areas in Australia and abroad.
More importantly, the piece emphasises yet another key point, about our Bay’s environmental well-being, to add to what most people have been making about this particular project, as well as the unchecked development that is causing serious impacts in congestion, crime and gaps of affordability.
It’s time for the Council to acknowledge the voices of science and the majority of residents here, and the consequences of over-development.
Do not approve this unneeded resort that will damage the beauty and environment of Hervey Bay’s wonderful coastline.
Z. West
Growing population
What a great letter to the editor in number 84 edition from Syl Mod.
Excellent points and concerns raised with the issue of the ER, I live in the newer section of Eli Waters and they are still building like crazy here in the new Azure section; the traffic and chaos I see on a daily basis as I am an everyday bicycle rider.
These roads just cannot cope as it is, but these issues are rarely mentioned likewise the hospital not enough beds I had read Hervey Bay’s population had grown by 11,000 in the last 18 months wow think of all those cars!
Let alone when these people have an emergency or get sick or car accident it really is a terrifying thought now!
I am amazed how these counsellors only tend to think about the front end and not the back end consequences of this level of growth.
With the longer-term plan of houses all the way from the Serenity Drive traffic lights to the first turn off into Dundowran Beach at Ansons Road it really is a terrifying thought.
R. Brown
Hire Scooters
The hire scooter debate is ongoing.
The Council allowed them and then changed by-laws to allow them on Council land, jetties and pier without thought to the regular uses of the Council Footpaths.
The Council also removed all responsibility for them and put the responsibility on Queensland Laws to be enforced by our Police who don’t have the manpower to police all the illegal activities these scooter riders commit every day on Council Land.
The Council also stated that education is the way to go. No education is happening if they can just be hired at the roadside.
A recent article in the Sunday Mirror states that laws are not deterring the riders from flouting the laws and endangering the lives of hapless pedestrians. This is happening on a regular basis here in Hervey Bay.
The Council instead of increasing the places the e-scooters can go should have imposed no go areas. Footpaths were for the use of people on foot and now those people have to put up with bicycles, mobility scooters and now e-scooters. Our Esplanade footpaths are not wide enough to accommodate all this traffic.
The old railway line pathway is less used with plenty of room and can get those e-scooters almost anywhere they want to go in Hervey Bay and should be restricted to there and get them off our Esplanade.
Also because of the speed of private e-scooters the riders should have to get registration and a license for them as they use them on footpaths and on the road with traffic.
The Council needs to remove them from Council land and people wanting to hire them need to go to the business they are run from in Main Street and the proper education from that business is given before hire.
D. Taylor
Thank you
To our paramedics, Hervey Bay Emergency nurses and doctors, a great big thank you.
And also to the person/people who alerted the medics when I had a medical incident at the Anzac Dawn Service.
Anne Scott.
Land for Wildlife
We moved to this beautiful part of the world in 2000 onto our block which is mostly natural bush.
One of the first things we did was apply to be a Land for Wildlife property, with the Hervey Bay City Council Land for Wildlife officer, Peter Sykes.
I am just looking at a Reading inside the last newsletter we received:
“Membership statistics have declined since last quarter due to the cessation of the Land for Wildlife program in the Fraser Coast Region.”
So the Fraser Coast Regional Council no longer supports Land for Wildlife.
Incredible!!
We are in an area that depends on tourism generated by our beautiful environment - whale watching, visits to Fraser Island, sandy beaches and Council is not supporting the conservation of our natural areas.
Thirteen local government areas in SEQ support Land for Wildlife.
Lockyer Valley, which depends on agriculture, has a LfW officer. Somerset Regional Council which depends on agriculture and the abattoirs for employment is a member. Gympie Regional Council is a member.
Come on new Council - support the conservation
of our natural areas and please reverse his regrettable decision.
C. Bussey
Property value increases
I read in the last issue dated May 2nd, complaints from Delma Taylor and Z. West about the massive increase in land values since 2022, which may indicate an assumption on their part that properties in regional areas in Queensland, like Hervey Bay, are somehow immune to such capital gains if Council behaves itself.
The past thirty years, however, would suggest otherwise.
According to the published sales history of my three-bedroom home on a 600 square-metre block, in 1996 it sold for $92,000, in 2002 $114,000, and in 2007, $275,000, i.e. it increased its value by factor of 2.5 from 2002 to 2007, and a factor of 3.0 from 1996 to 2007.
From 2007 until 2022, that’s 15 years, it remained unchanged, before increasing by 90% to $520,000 in a mere 18 months to 2024.
This is the nature of real estate all over Australia, so let’s not just blame councils.
Perhaps the escalating housing costs in Brisbane have made cheaper places, as Hervey Bay was during Covid, more attractive, thus forcing up prices here.
And make no mistake, within fifteen years, housing in our little patch of paradise will most likely boom again.
J. Turner
