Agricultural heartland
Maranoa has a unique place in Queensland history in the heartland of Queensland’s beef cattle and dryland cropping industries. It is around 58,000 square kilometres and the region punches well above its weight in agriculture, tourism, and sporting endeavours. We are the birthplace of natural gas in Australia and that reputation has been enhanced in recent years with our place as the western bookend of the Surat Basin resource precinct.
Favourite attractions include the rivers, which provide some great fishing, and the Sandstone wilderness area in the far north abutting Carnarvon Gorge. The iconic Roma Saleyards is the most successful in the nation, selling 380,000 head last year and has evolved into a great man-made tourism attraction. We do know how to party out here though and our best attractions are undoubtedly the parties we throw. The Food and Fire Fest, the Mitchell Camel Races and the recent Roma Cup are pretty good examples of how we enjoy ourselves regardless of the weather.
Advocating for the rural and remote
I’ve been involved in local government for 22 years in total. I had eight years as mayor of Bungil Shire and had a second life after amalgamation with a further eight years. I took an early interest in council activities as my father Barrie was at one time the Bungil Shire Chairman. I think I am the longest serving current member of the Local Government Association of Queensland Policy Executive (LGAQ) after first being elected in 2004.
I still live on and manage my family’s cattle property ‘Alicker’ in the Injune region. That rural setting has always given me a strong understanding of what it means to be isolated and my strongest advocacy has always been for those who live in rural and remote settings. Roads, communications and pest animals remain the key issues for our outlying areas just as they dominated council discussion 22 years ago.
Outside of council, rugby union has always been my primary interest, both locally with the ‘Echidnas’ and at the top level. I also enjoy recording and researching local history. In the future, and on a personal note, I want to spend a lot more quality time with my teenage sons.
Tidiest Town
Key issues for Maranoa are keeping the balance and the peace to some extent between the resource sector and the traditional agriculture and tourism sectors.
The hardest part of the mayoral role in recent times has been attracting the attention of our state and federal governments. Many of our South West Queensland councils have had the same experience so we are now working together, far closer than we have in the past, both as South West Queensland and along with the Darling Downs on the ‘Council of Mayors’ led by Councillor Paul Antonio.
The announcement last month that Roma has taken out the 2015 ‘Tidy Towns’ award has highlighted a number of innovative areas where we have excelled. Apart from the community spirit component, which leads to a number of highly successful events, our approach to ‘waste and recycling’ and ‘resource recovery’ have been deemed to be critical factors. Our approach to acquiring and developing land has also been innovative to some degree and could never have been achieved without collaboration with the
state government.
Building a legacy
The best part of being a councillor is still being able to help people. As mayor I’ve also enjoyed helping a diverse and clever group of councillors to develop into a highly successful team and the best I’ve worked with in all those 22 years.
The worst part for me has been social media such as Facebook where too many people seem comfortable to offer opinions, often anonymously and rarely with the courage required to face up for a personal meeting or a phone call.
Like most councillors, I hope I will leave the place in better condition than it was in before I joined.
