The Southern Downs Council is employed by the rate payers. These rate payers do have the power to make the council accountable for whatever it does. The council has a problem in its ranks because those at the top have a little power in their fingertips and common sense goes out the door, the Beehive Dam situation being the prime example of this. It has now come down to manipulating conception. Put it across in the paper that they did all they could and perhaps the community will calm down and quietly go away. Anyone can read through the excuses of the council and determine the lies they are attempting to put across.
Peter See (Border News 30/2) states that the dam was drained at the lowest value; this value has not been replaced. As far as being under 70 years of silt, very little silt was in the dam bed, stumps of trees visible once it was empty. He also stated that the dam would be refilled. It cannot be refilled from Cussacks Dam, as the pump set up won’t allow it. So that means it comes down to the weather. The council might like to play God, but they cannot make it rain and they certainly can’t make it rain fish and all of the other aquatic species that were lost.
Perhaps the investigation should not stop at the council, if they didn’t have the relevant approvals, then who have them? Who has the last say?
Mr Ferguson stated that regrettably some fish were lost (Jan 6) where in fact, very few were saved by the community dragging them out of the mud and relocating them. Mr Ferguson also claimed the community had been given an apology. It must have been in media; I have not seen it and it was not in the form of a letter.
Mayor Ron Bellingham’s clarification was a joke. An account of what the council is doing for the community of Wallangarra. Being on the very edge of the shadows of the amalgamated councils, the smaller communities are neglected until the rates are due. The $60,000 works to the dam would be questionable. The tidying up not taking very long and the seventy years of silt managed to fill a washout on the property past our house. Another complaint for the council, as they trucked the silt past the house on a dirt road without deploying a water truck to prevent the dust, this fell on deaf ears even after informing the engineer’s department at Stanthorpe that my aged mother on oxygen could not handle the dust the trucks were creating in the windy conditions.
After a few day’s work it is difficult to see what has been done. On looking at the rainfall rates in the Border Post since 1990 the chance of substantial rain and run off is very limited. Since emptying the Beehive the current water supply, ‘the soak’, is starting to dry up. This will leave us with the foul tasting water from Cussacks Dam, the smell of the water from this source also being unpalatable. The community of Wallangarra and its visitors have grown up with the pristine surrounds of the dam, which had given the perfect environment for generations of children is now living in a sense of grief since it was taken away. The feeble excuses of the council are not easing the feeling of loss in our community. They cannot even offer an opportunity to the town to voice their opinions in the form of a public meeting. I would like to thank all those concerned citizens who sign the petitions and hope that it will be acknowledged by those who will bring justice for this environmental disaster caused by the Southern Downs Council.
Kerri-Anne Springborg,
Wallangarra.
