Sick of grubs at the Hill
GRUB of the week award goes to the person who left a large pile of dog vomit on the public walking area near the plinth at the lookout on top of Castle Hill on Sunday morning. It’s not enough that we have to dodge fresh dog turds at every step on the hill. Now it’s vomit as well. Mums and dads on outings with little children in tow were rightly disgusted. A word of warning to people who walk up the hill in the early morning without torches: step carefully. Pub has a fresh look A FEW weeks ago I wrote about the delights of visiting and camping at Mount Coolon ( population about 11) 320km southwest of Townsville via Ravenswood and the Burdekin Dam. The photo I used of the pub was one I took several years ago. Murphy’s Law struck. It just so happens the pub has had a refurb. The owners sent in a photo. Looks smart, doesn’t it? It is the week for grovelling apologies to publicans. Last week the gremlins got into the system when I wrote about the Middleton Pub and also the Middleton “Hilton”. The latter is a bushbuilt bough shed I was writing about in my Friday camping column and yes, the Middleton Hotel went in as the photo instead of the open sided, slapdash “Hilton”. Lester and Valerie out there at the Middleton pub between Winton and Boulia aren’t what you’d call fusspots, but, still, we just want to let people know that their fabulous pub comes with floorboards, walls and a roof. The rough and ready “Hilton” across the road comes with little more than fresh air and dust. Helping out Winton TOWNSVILLE is playing a big role in efforts to help the Winton Shire Council and the town’s historical society restore and replace items lost in the fire that swept through the town’s Waltzing Matilda Centre early in the morning of June 18. Steve Sergeant, the RSL’s North Queensland District Branch president, is helping replace the honour board lost in the fire. Winton, per capita, had more people enlist in WW1 than any other centre in Australia. Out of a population at the time of 2500, 600 men and women enlisted. Mr Sergeant is keen to get the RSL involved with helping in any way it can. Townsville museum staff Ewen McPhee and Sue Valis will join three of their statewide colleagues at Winton as part of a team advising on the salvage and restoration of items damaged in the fire. Bruce and Helen Collins and their fellow members of the historical society are looking forward to their visit. A website address is being set up for online donations for the Waltzing Matilda Recovery Fund. Donate to the council at PO Box 288, Winton, 4735. Contents lost WINTON knows and appreciates it now has an opportunity to rebuild an aesthetically exciting Waltzing Matilda Centre. The loss of the building was not such a terrible loss in the fire as it wasn’t much more than a cement block bomb shelter. What is causing the heartache is all of the material and treasured family possessions lost in the blaze. From the ashes, expect an Opera House of the Outback to arise. Council chips in ONE council that has been very generous is the Moreton Bay Regional Council. The council puts up $ 15,000 to support the annual Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival in Winton and is now helping out financially with the rebuilding of the Waltzing Matilda Cen- tre. Moreton Bay Mayor Allan Sutherland and his wife Gayle travelled to Winton last week to show their support. Allan and Gayle were spotted with Winton Mayor Butch Lenton and wife Roz tucking into some prime Diamantina beef at the Tattersall’s Hotel. The two councils, by the way, have a sister city relationship. Sealed link push WINTON’S motorbike- riding Mayor Butch Lenton is pushing hard for the construction of a sealed Outback Highway that would link Townsville to Perth by bitumen road. It is the 2800km between Winton and Laverton in Western Australia which needs the bulk of the work. Presently 1700km of it is dirt. Butch, along with other mayors along the route and Townsville’s Senator Ian Macdonald, have been pushing for this road to be sealed for 15 years. Butch and his committee reckon it will be a case of “job done” by 2025. Senator Macdonald, who has travelled much of the proposed Inland Highway, thinks that 2025 is pretty good ballpark figure for completion. The Outback Highway Development Council is having its annual general meeting in Winton in September. The Mayor of Laverton Patrick Hill will be there. Let’s hope our own Mayor Jenny Hill can make it. Cr Jenny Hill, an enthusiastic observer of the cultural comings and goings at South Townsville’s Bellevue Hotel, would feel right at home at the Tatts in Winton. Left flat over road MAYOR Butch Lenton, who loves nothing more than heading out into the Simpson Desert on his dirt bike, told me the story last week of Winton livestock hauler Allan Grant, who had 34 flat tyres in one trip when carting cattle between Winton and Alice Springs in May. Chinese whispers THE Charters Towers saleyards have not been sold to the Chinese and are not about to be sold, period. That’s the word from the Charters Towers Regional Council’s Raymond Jayo, who phoned to say that people were reading things into the Channel 7s Sunday Night program that simply were untrue. Chinese investors have been sniffing around the Towers and around Hughenden and Julia Creek as well. A lot of it is to do with speculation about a new meatworks in the northern inland. The Charters Towers Regional Council met with graziers on June 2 where the concept of forward- selling cattle to the Chinese was raised. “Instead of selling off the farm and the cattle to overseas buyers we can provide them with continuity of supply by forward- selling them beef,” Mr Jayo said.