24 August update from Mayor Karen Williams

On behalf of Councillor Peter Mitchell and myself, I’d like to thank you for attending Saturday’s township meeting at Dunwich.

This session was an opportunity to discuss the future of the island and hear from residents about any issues and opportunities and how we can work together to realise the opportunities and respond to the issues.

During Saturday’s discussion there were a number of important matters raised, which shows the passion of the Straddie community and the value of engagement opportunities such as this.

While Council is a minority land holder on the island and has limited control over many of the NSI Economic Transition Strategy projects, we have committed to sourcing as many responses to the questions raised as possible.

This work has begun and the information will be loaded to Council’s website when complete.

While full responses to all of the questions raised are still being sourced, there are four matters that we wanted to quickly provide a response to:

1. One point heard loud and clear during Saturday’s session was the concerns around water being extracted from North Stradbroke Island. In response I have written to Seqwater asking them to undertake an urgent review of the extraction of water from North Stradbroke Island. Seqwater has been asked to inform the public about the results of these studies and Cr Mitchell and I will be following up Seqwater regarding this request.

2. Another point raised was the condition of the road into Brown Lake (Bummiera). We are also pleased to advise that already some minor maintenance has been completed on the road. This road is now under QYAC ownership and Council is working with QYAC on an ongoing maintenance program moving forward.

3. Council is also currently looking at the pothole in the ferry loading lane at Dunwich, with the aim of getting this repaired as quickly as possible.

4. Council officers have also inspected the swimming enclosure net at Dunwich and will be undertaking maintenance on it in the near future to tighten the net and clear weed, oysters and other objects from it.

Correspondence has also been sent to a number of State Government Ministers to let them know what was discussed on the day. While Ministers were unable to be there on Saturday Council will ensure they are aware of the various topics raised by the community. One suggestion included in the correspondence to State Ministers is for increased communication with the community to keep people informed about the economic transition of the island.

We are hoping to hold another engagement session early next year, with us considering what format it should take, as well as where and when. When these decisions have been made we will let you know.

Thank you again for your involvement in Saturday’s meeting.

Mayor Karen Williams.