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Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Rate rise fury
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By Rebecca Wallis
Sid Rantucci, Dean Mitchell and Eddie Toffanello from Dimbulah Lions Club are hoping to raise money for charity while enjoying a night of entertainment with cricket legends.
Three cricket legends coming to Dimbulah By Rebecca Wallis
Three Australian cricket legends from the golden era of the sport have chosen to stop in Dimbulah later this month as part of a national tour. Former Australian test cricketers Doug Walters, Len Pascoe and Jeff Thomson were at the pinnacle of their game back in
the 1970s and are now using their notoriety for great things. The trio are touring the country as part of their ‘One for the road tour – Tales from the dressing room’ and Dimbulah’s Lions Club managed to convince the boys to make Dimbulah one of their scheduled stops. “We thought it would be
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a fantastic opportunity to get them here and a great fundraiser,” said Lions Club President Eddie Toffanello. “We’re expecting a large crowd and there will be prizes, an auction and a BBQ.” The trio will be at the Junction Hotel on the evening of October 24 talking about the good old days of cricket, meet-
ing the locals, signing some memorabilia and recounting some of the most memorable moments of their heyday. Funds raised on the night will go towards supporting mental illness charities. Start of play is 7.30pm and tickets are $30 per person – to book your spot call Eddie on 0417 193 213.
Nearly 60 Tableland farmers came together last Tuesday night for a closed meeting to discuss the astronomical rises in their recent council rates. Tonight even more are expected to turn up to an open meeting at the Atherton International Club where the angry rate payers say they have been unfairly targeted. Thirteen farmers in the Atherton/Tolga/Kairi region have seen their rates shoot up by 50 per cent this year with over 40 others also struggling with massive increases that will see them paying tens of thousands of dollars in fees for services they say they don’t receive. “If you hand money over to someone you expect something in return,” said Paul Pensini. “Collectively our rates (for multiple properties) will go up to $125,000 a year and I don’t know what we get for it. I would challenge any one of them (Tablelands Regional Councillors) to tell me what I get for it. “We slash our own farms, we mow the road side verge. We don’t mind paying an increase if you could see better services, better roads and slashing
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and everything getting done and better gardens in the main street but there is a clear pattern from the council – it’s like they don’t want the farmers.” But Tablelands Regional Council say the rises are in line with the Queensland Valuer-General’s land valuations which were conducted on the Tablelands earlier this year for the first time since 2014. For some property owners that meant their properties had decreased in value and for others it had risen, in some cases by nearly 100 per cent. The council base their rates on these valuations. “Rural land categories were the most impacted by the new valuations, with some areas experiencing large increases in land value while other areas saw decreases,” said Tablelands Regional Council mayor Joe Paronella. “An increase in land valuation indicates an increase in the overall resale value. According to DNRM (the Department of Natural Resources and Mines), this was mainly due to underpinning demand for intensive grazing land and continuing market demand for premium agricultural land. “Like all Councils in Queensland, TRC rates continued P3
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