Rallying over club merger
This little pig didn’t stay home
TENNIS players facing a forced club merger and demolition of their courts have received an olive branch from Cairns Regional Council.
Woree Tennis Club treasurer Graham Goggin received a phone call from the council on Tuesday after the Cairns Post published details of his petition to save the club.
The petition was scheduled to be discussed in yesterday’s council meeting but was pulled from the agenda.
Mr Goggin said council officers had organised a face-toface meeting with him next week to discuss the issues. The club is in a tight spot. The Department of Transport and Main Roads intends to build a new entrance road to the Pezzutti Park sporting precinct that would bisect the two fenced-off court areas.
The council wants the Woree and Earlville tennis clubs to merge, and has suggested it could build another four courts at Lions Park in Earlville.
Mr Goggin said club members needed assurances in writing before they would consider accepting the offer.
“Without that commitment, I can’t see that anything much will come of the meeting,” Mr Goggin said.
“I acknowledge that there’s a clause in our lease where they can kick us out at any time with no explanation.
“But I think they’re morally wrong.”
The club funded the courts’ construction on council land 32 years ago and talk of closure has spooked potential members from joining and subsequently hurt cashflow.
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A PIG-CULIAR visitor to Mourilyan State School sent the school into lockdown yesterday morning.
A wild boar wandered onto the school grounds, forcing the students and teachers indoors until it could be removed.
Principal Susan Hoad said the pig was reluctant to leave, but was eventually removed without any danger to the students.
“It’s a bit different, having a lockdown for a wild pig, but it did have tusks and it was not a happy little pig,” she said.
“It was quite agitated, so we went into lockdown until it was removed from the yard.
“Our groundsmen rounded it up on a tractor and convinced it to go through the gate and into the paddock on the side … there were some children that were quite anxious about it but we wish to reassure everybody that it is all safe and the pig is back where it belongs.”
Mrs Hoad said the incident had the benefit of helping the school practise its procedures.