letters to the editor

The Editor, I must admit I did have a chuckle at Max Schultz’s reply to my letter about inconsiderate drivers on Bribie. After nearly 13 years of retirement, my pulse rate has slowed down enough! Max, you forgot that the 40 km/ hr limit is only between designated times in school zones. But being a careful driver, I always use extra caution in these areas no matter what the time is. You forgot this when you did your calculation! As you are a self-confessed slow designated driver, who may be a senior (like myself) I do hope you know where your indicator is and use it correctly, especially on roundabouts. Some of our drivers (young and senior) on Bribie and off the island seem to have forgotten what they are for it seems. You are correct that exceeding the speed limit is a killer on our roads, and my frustration only stems from the results of inconsiderate and inattentive driving. These driver behaviours exacerbate the issues of road trauma and its consequences, for which I have more an extensive experience of them than you. As always, I wish everyone safe driving wherever you are.

Graham Hunt

The unthinking and uncaring nature of people never ceases to amaze and disgust me. On the morning of Sunday 19 Feb 2023, I noticed a discarded plastic Woolworths shopping bag next to the footpath of Cotterill Ave, opposite the bottom intersection of Barklya Cr. Being in the habit of picking up rubbish along the roadside, I picked up the bag that obviously had something not quite right in it. When opening the bag, I was actually thinking: “Please don’t be an Animal!” But of course, there in the bag was a beautiful but dead chicken. Yes, a lovely red feathered chook and a shopping docket. I had to wonder at the reason someone would dump a dead animal next to someone else’s home. They must know that it is going to become a putrid stinking mess. Do they not like the people in the area? Are they just inconsiderate fools with little regard for others? But I do know that on 18/02/2023 at 14:35, purchases of bananas, red plums, coca cola x 2,

Hello Ed,

When the LNP was in power they introduced the welfare card into several areas where domestic violence and alcohol abuse were prevalent and according to reports it was working but then came the ALP who in their wisdom decided that it is far more dignified to give welfare recipients cash and what happens alcohol violence and domestic violence increase again. We are talking about welfare recipients, not pensioners, many welfare recipients leave school, receive welfare have a family who leaves school and receives welfare and so on. The term welfare means looking after someone who needs a roof over their head, food in their stomach, public transport and clothes on their

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, tonic water, milo, jex steel wool pads the courier mail and one Woolworths Reusable Bag of which a use was obviously found. Cash was paid and they don’t have a rewards card. They don’t like to carry a lot of change as $50.40 was given to get back $20.15 instead of $19.75. Obviously can’t handle death, are not very nice individuals and I don’t think they are all that smart as they left the shopping docket in the bag with the dead Chook.

As for what I assume was the family pet, I took her home and buried her as was the most respectful thing to do and the shopping bag is in the bin. Now having said all that, I cannot say for sure that the owner of the bag was the owner of the chook. I don’t care if it was your chook or if you found the chook and used the bag to pick it up. Whoever it was who dumped the chook in the bag you should be ashamed of yourself for leaving it for someone else to deal with!

Morning Walker

back, it does not mean money to gamble, to buy alcohol or cigarettes, and a welfare card didn’t reduce the amount of money paid out just what the money could be spent on, what is wrong with that? After all, should the taxpayer be working to pay for someone else to be supporting the breweries, lotteries, poker machines and tobacco companies? How much checking goes into where the welfare money actually goes? Let’s say I arrived as a refugee sometime in the last 25 years, started receiving welfare, decided to go home for a holiday and never returned. Is it possible to have that money transferred out of the country? Or in another situation, someone on welfare goes to live in Bali or Thailand and has the money transferred

Top marks to Michael of Bongaree (The Islander, Issue 185,Feb 24) for his temerity - in the present political climate - in daring to highlight the benefits of Aussie society flowing from Britain's occupation and colonisation of our vast country, 250 years ago. Imagine (as Michael points out) what Australia COULD be like today if subjected to early colonisation by the French, Portuguese, the Dutch or the Germans!. And if no other seafaring nation had made the effort to open up Australia for progressive development and cultural change , what sort of Australiawith what services and facilities - would (or could) we be, today? That's worth thinking about.

With all the talk about ethnic origins today, it's also worth remembering that the British trace their ancestry back at least ONE MILLION YEARS.

Carbon dated footprints ( found recently) in northern England , and in Ireland, tell us that to an account over there, can this be arranged? I seem to remember when the Israel Jets attacked Beirut an awful lot of Australians needed help to come home and it was reported that up to 25,000 Australians lived in Beirut or had duel citizenship, was it possible for these citizens to still be receiving welfare? For many years the government has been trying to move towards a cashless society to control the taxevading cash for jobs and this to me seemed a good opportunity to control what government money was being wasted instead of being used for the right purposes, such as child welfare, and eating proper food.

Philip Arlidge

man first walked on British soil at least that long ago......which means that a great chunk of our Aussie population today can claim ethnic links going back that far, too. Compare this with the authenticated Aboriginal occupancy of Australia for 60/65,000 years.... or about 6% of the time the Brits have been around. Eight generations of my family have been born and bred in Australia since my great grandfather sailed here in the 1850s, just before the Gympie gold rush. That, in my view, makes all 8 generations of us “Indigenous".... although not of Aboriginal stock....and all the major internationally recognised dictionaries, worldwide, agree with this interpretation. Many of today's Aussies can claim indigenous status (on the same basis) dating back to first settlement by the British in the 1780s.....12 generations back, to the day of the "first fleeters”. That’s something else to think about.

C. Walker

Hi Editor,

I enjoyed reading your introduction on page 5 of the Bribie Islander. What you say is totally correct! We live in such a changed and dangerous world. You say something needs to change. And trust me it will change soon and for the better. You only have to go to JW.ORG and take a look and read up on some of the articles that clearly indicate we are living deep in the last days. Soon God will act on behalf of kind and decent people and usher in a peaceful world that will establish justice and righteousness.

Kind Regards K

Dear Editor,

Agree with Mr Fitzgerald regarding the four laned bridge most people have lobbied for. The discussions about a new bridge further down would appear more logical for traffic flow as the present bridge with four lanes would only add to the congestion through Bellara and along Goodwin which already is at peak load in holiday times.

As someone else suggested, why not just one extra lane next to the present bridge that can be used for pedestrians, cyclists etc, with removal bollards at each end, so that emergency vehicles can use it when there is an issue on the bridge blocking it. If there is an accident on the bridge, with removable fencing in between these two lanes then they can access the accident. Also,

Dear Editor,

A letter from a 7-year-old’s when visiting his grandparents and busted the new park.

“The rides look really fun. I feel really bad because you've done all that work and don't want you to have to come back, but I also really want to play on the playground.”

His wheelchair couldn’t get in because it was built on bark not accessible ground covering.

Jessica Dove London

Dear Editor, May I have the following message printed in your community column of your paper , in hopes of finding the perpetrators.

Around 2008 the RSL Beachmere Sub-Branch , with permission, placed two bench seats outside the then IGA store corner of Beachmere Road and Bishop Road Beachmere.

One seat was engraved in memory of the Vietnam Veterans who served, the other seat with a community message. Both seats were frequently used and respected, and remained in their position when the new shopping centre was built.

Recently both seats were vandalised by being forced out of their dynabolt mountings, the seats were situated outside the “Black Cat Eatery. One seat if there is no emergency but other blockage of bridge such as breakdown or minor accident, then the police can use the third lane to move the traffic around the issue and clear traffic. The main problem with the bridge is allowing movement on and off the island when blocked, this will still enable people to get past it to attend medical or other appointments and emergency vehicles to go about their business without waiting for clearance of the bridge. Police can manage the traffic flow just as they do in similar situations. Cheaper option and accommodates all the reason people give for two more lanes which does not address the heavy traffic influx dispersal onto the island.

Rhonda Cooper

To The Editor received unrepairable damage. Now there are small table and chairs presumably from the owners of the Eatery where the seats were.

Not only are there no seats to rest on, but this act of irresponsible vandalism is hurtful and an insult to our Defence Forces who fought in Vietnam, many of whom lost their lives. This could be interpreted as “Desecration of a memorial “

From a disappointed ex Service person.

(NFP —Dick Bird Beachmere

“ Domestic violence, it isn't just some Neanderthal men with an IQ's of a retarded grape, it is worse than that. Its tentacles spread like a virulent disease, the obvious horrendous numbers are the women who are killed at the rate of one a week. But it doesn't stop there, it affects their children, siblings, parents, friends, colleagues, workplaces and no doubt increases the risk of youth crime. Seven years ago the chief executive of DV connect said that domestic violence cost Queensland taxpayers $3 billion a year, the government knows the statistics, and yet every year the problem gets worse.

In a media article last year it was estimated that it would require $7 billion in funding to house around 3000 Women and children currently at risk of domestic violence in Queensland .

That compares to the $21 billion that DV has cost taxpayers in the last 7 years, or the $10 billion that the government has spent on the new cross river rail.

It would appear that the only thing that this government is interested in is the next “Shiny". A Shiny by definition is any activity that requires a hardhat, photo opportunities, and a complete lack of fiscal responsibility, logic or business plan.

All we seem to get is committee meetings and platitudes and the DV sufferers deserve so much more. .

Charles at Banksia

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