General Business - November 27 Ordinary Meeting
Published on 28 November 2024
Councillor Dan Ballard
I’d like to congratulate the people at the St Pauls Lutheran Childcare Centre. Their works to increase capacity and bring that service back online helps to fill a much-needed void in our community, and their efforts are not lost on people that are able to access those much-needed services.
I’d like to congratulate Travis McElligott on his 24-hour run up and down Telstra Hill to help raise funds and awareness for men’s mental health. That was a huge effort and there was an outpouring of support from our community, which was terrific to see.
I’d like to congratulate Commerce North West and Emma Harman on the recent Northern Outback Business Awards. I’d like to give special mention to the Sunset Caravan Park, to Councillor Travis Crowther and his business, and also to Ella Coghlan, each of those being a very worthy award winner that was celebrated on the evening.
The Mount Isa School of Dance had their annual concert on the weekend, which was again one of the highlights of the year. We see the wonderful work that they do, the amount of participation, and the support that that event has from within the community. It’s an absolute credit to the people that put on the event – not just the dancers, but the board and the teachers – so a big congratulations to all of them.
I’d like to congratulate dad on his retirement from racing after 55 years in the saddle.
There’s been a lot of media around that and I think, in today’s society, we celebrate the high achievers and the people that are in the media for those big wins, but what I thought was great about the attention that dad’s retirement got was that we acknowledged the fact that a bloke managed to turn up to work for 55 years, and that in itself is noteworthy and worthy of recognition. So congratulations to dad.
Councillor John Doyle
Good luck to all the Grade Sixes graduating and going to high school, and congratulations on getting through primary.
Congratulations as well to the Grade 12s who will be moving on to hopefully jobs and work experience, and onto bigger and brighter futures.
I’ve recently been to Emerging Leaders; they did a graduation for the Indigenous emerging leaders and that was fantastic. It was great to see that supported.
I’ve also been to the Mount Isa precinct, with all the stakeholders and youth organisations. I went and spoke there on behalf of Council and our Youth Strategy, and my ideas of what my Youth Strategy is. It was taken pretty well, so as far as I know, we’re going to get together and make it a bit more of a common thing.
I’ve spoken to the Pathways State College principal Mark Wrigley and we’re going to look at trying to do how we can best serve our youth, in terms of the ones that are falling a little bit behind, and also some more intensive support for the Grade Three to Fives – the people that work with them, the support services, as well as the teachers.
Because, 21 years later, when I did education in 2003, we’re still dealing with the same issues, and we still need to try and get a more polished product to high school.
Because in Grade Three to Five, they start to establish their friend networks and their ideal behaviours and so on, so if we can get to those kids between Grade Three and Five, then hopefully we’ll get a better polished product for the secondary schooling system.
I did the Colour Run with the Junior Spinifex students, that was unreal. It was so much fun. All the kids participated well and it was amazing, so it was a really good event to be a part of.
Councillor Travis Crowther
On Tuesday, November 26, Councillor Coghlan and I attended the Camooweal Primary Health Centre opening, a $26 million investment into the community. They also announced they had $100,000 donation for two dialysis machines from a local company there, so that was great to see, and it’s going to be well received for Camooweal.
Also while we were in Camooweal, we dropped into the Drovers Camp and checked out all the murals that’ve been done. They’re amazing. That’s going to be a great tourist attraction. They’re gearing up for a busy 2025, and with what they’ve got installed, I think that’s going to be great for them. There’s plenty happening with Camooweal, it’s a credit to them.
Camooweal recently had the dramas with the bushfires, and they really appreciated the work that Roxby Downs did, helping them out with the fires, and how the community came together – it was great to see for them.
Congratulations to the Mount Isa Fish Stocking Group for the Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic, they had a successful event there – it was well received, numbers were up, and there was some great prizemoney.
Recently we attended the Zonta Club of Mount Isa’s White Ribbon Breakfast.
As well, there was the Northern Outback Business Awards – all well-deserved winners, and great work for Commerce North West.
The Early Learning celebrations involves five primary schools – Healy, Townview, Happy Valley, Barkly Highway, and Central Primary schools – they won a State award for this initiative. It was also announced that they got an extension for that program. The results they’ve got out of that was quite impressive – the number of young kids who are attending school more is increasing, so it was great for them.
The Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal has opened up for the year, and Mayor MacRae and I attended the launch earlier this month. We encourage everyone to go and donate for a worthy cause, especially over the Christmas period.
Councillor James Coghlan
I was at the Early Learning event on Tuesday and what really struck me was the passion of the teachers. It’s not just a career, it’s a calling for many of them. The Department of Education made a good decision to extend the program, and hopefully in the next few years we’ll see the benefit of it.
They’ve set it up well, because those young teachers come here and it seems the mentoring that comes from this program has really allowed them to grow and learn, and that’s great for our kids.
The trip to Camooweal on Tuesday was fantastic. I caught up with people like Baby Saltmere, Shirley Macnamara, Thomas Macnamara, and Auntie Margie Body.
I love the history of this place and to see those people who have been such an integral part of Mount Isa’s history, they actually all come out of Camooweal. We need to make sure that we do whatever we can for it.
One of the things that was raised by Auntie Shirley was old Wally Mailman’s house out there at the rodeo grounds.
Wally Mailman, as we all know, wasn’t just a legend, he was just an absolute gentleman.
Mr Mailman and his kids grew up in that that place, and we’ve got Deborah Mailman on the Birth Place of Champions sign, because she was born here. She grew up in that house and it looks really lonely out there.
Shirley is worried that someone will go out there and destroy it.
I just thought perhaps as a Council we could somehow look at doing something with that house, because I think everybody who drives past it who has any connection to the old rodeo out there identifies it as the Mailmans’ house.
Deputy Mayor Kim Coghlan
I just would like to say a massive thank you to the Zonta Club of Mount Isa, because wherever you are – even at the School of Dance show on Saturday and Sunday – they were there doing the ushering. This is a group that has grown from strength to strength over the years.
Congratulations to St Joseph’s Catholic School, who held their Christmas community concert recently. The talent was really good.
I want to assure people that the water going down the waterslide at Splashez Aquatic Centre has been fixed.
A big a thank you to the PCYC for all they do in our community. I do personally see what Dave and Faye do, because they work closely with Touch and also with the Family Fun Park there.
A big thank you to all the teachers that are finishing their time in Mount Isa. It’s always a sad time of year, where we do lose a lot of people with a lot of knowledge, but it’s also a good chance for new people to come in.