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By Kirra Livingstone

BEERWAH residents are banding together to come up with a new location for a community coat rack, during what has been a particularly cold start to the winter season.

The coat rack had been set up at Beerwah Marketplace, but is not allowed this year.

Co-owner of The Local Stephanie Shipman said her business had a community coat rack last winter, where they received an outpour of support from locals, donating coats as well as knitting beanies and scarfs.

The chimes a-changin’ at Witta

Local Witta resident Hank Drent enjoys visiting the Witta Recreation Club for a catch up with old friends, while enjoying a pleasant home cooked meal, and maybe a refreshing ale or two. But he realised the Club was missing something: a way to gain people’s attention before announcements. So was borne the idea of donating a bell.

Part of Hank’s collection of old mining memorabilia included a tarnished bell, originally used in the underground mines in Mt Isa. David Cutforth kindly refurbished the bell and crafted a bespoke wall bracket. The now gleaming and engraved bell has been officially presented to the club by Hank, who invited Helen Gilmore-Walsh to ring the bell for the very first time in its new location.

“We were quite surprised, especially with how cold it is here and with the cost of living crisis and the housing crisis, there’s so many homeless families who might not be able to afford winter clothes” she said Stephanie said that Beerwah Marketplace management advised that the reason they couldn’t have a community coat rack this year was because it was too messy, however she said they cleaned it up everyday.

“Sometimes people would leave bags of coats and hand knitted scarfs and beanies out the front, but we always picked them up at the end of the day, took them into our storage container and then we refilled it as needed,” she said. “There would be the odd occasion where it looked like there was too much, but it wasn’t impacting anyone walking by and there wasn’t anything flying down the alleyway.”

The local Men’s Shed were also going to build a double coat rack for The Local, however that is now on pause, unless another business wants to step up.

“The rack was going to be a lot more sturdier so it wouldn’t get blown away but that’s been put on hold now,” Stephanie said.

“If there’s anyone else in the area that has the space to put up the community coat rack, then we are happy to supply the rack and support them.”

The Local considered having the community coat rack inside their cafe, however most people preferred using the rack at night for the anonymity.

“Most people won’t come in and take a jacket because everyone is watching them, a lot of people come after hours ...so if it was inside it would be locked up and only be available during our trading hours,” she said.

The Beerwah Marketplace management was contacted for a response.