Mooloolah meeting may be the last

Mooloolah meeting explores local viewpoints

By Greg Brown

Wild dogs, weeds, Brandenburg Road, King Road, trucks, speeding, crime, Neighbourhood Watch, CCTV cameras and mobile phone towers were all points of discussion at last Thursday’s town meeting in Mooloolah.

Organised through the newly established Mooloolah Residents Group, more than 30 locals attended the night meeting at the hall to raise and discuss issues relevant to the Mooloolah community.

Cr Jenny McKay reported back on a number of programs Sunshine Coast Council has under way in Mooloolah at the moment.

A biosecurity survey was approved at the last council meeting, which will see council staff checking properties for declared weeds and undertaking a range of feral animal control programs. This includes the contentious bi-annual 1080 bait campaign targeting wild dogs and foxes.

Good news for Brandenburg Road users. Detailed design work is about to start for the next stage of upgrading the road. The actual bitumen road works are planned for the 2020/2021 financial year.

There appears to be some confusion as to whether trucks servicing the new development off King Road will be using Maddock Avenue as a haulage route.

Local residents are fearful that the narrow road is not suitable for the estimated 120 dump trucks traversing back and forth each day. Cr McKay vowed to investigate and report back.

Beerwah Police Senior Constable Susan Lowndes has researched the crime statistics for the last couple of years and reported that they have been stable at about 60 reportable offences each year.

This surprised the meeting as many perceived that crime is on the increase in and around Mooloolah.

“But we also want to know what’s happening locally, so please report incidences as well as offences,” Senior Constable Lowndes told those assembled.

She explained the role of a Neighbourhood Watch group, saying that one existed covering the whole Glasshouse Country region. The group meets at the Beerwah Library and the next meeting is August 13 at 3pm.

A CCTV proposal was raised by the meeting chair, Jason Carroll, who explained that federal grant funding is available to buy the hardware.

Discussion went around the room on the merits or otherwise of having cameras in the town. Jason explained that it is at a proposal stage and that a further town meeting will be held to specifically discuss the issue.

By far the most controversial item discussed was the development application for a mobile phone tower at 390 Tunnel Ridge Road.

Many residents were unaware of the application for the Optus tower and with public submissions closing the day of the town meeting, many thought that the submission period should be extended.

Cr McKay didn’t think that would be possible.

“Be assured tower applications certainly don’t bring me any joy,” she told the meeting.

“But we have to assess applications that are lawfully made. We have refused a number of towers recently, with many of the decisions being reversed under appeal in the Planning and Environment Court.”

The meeting concluded with a vigorous discussion on the health and safety of mobile phone and nbn towers and the electromagnetic fields they broadcast, and the issues this causes people who identify as having electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

Subsequent to the meeting, a decision was made to change the approach to future meetings, with Jason informing the Mooloolah community via the Mooloolah Valley Bush Telegraph Facebook page.

“Just a short note to say thanks to all who came along to the Residents Group Meeting last night,” Jason posted on the page.

“All future meetings will be announced by the Division 5 Councillor and no further Resident Group Meetings will take place.

"Thanks to all that have contributed."

More information on future Mooloolah meetings will be printed as it comes to hand.