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5TH LIGHT HORSE REGIMENT

APEX BREAKFAST

BLACKALL RANGE HORSELESS CARRIAGE CLUB

BOWLS

COMMUNITY CENTRE

GIRL GUIDES

GOLF

HEARTSPACE PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE

HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MALENY BLACKALL RANGE LIONS CLUB

MALENY BRIDGE CLUB

MALENY COMMUNITY GYM

MALENY HYDROTHERAPY INC.

MALENY MEN’S SHED

MALENY NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE

MALENY PLAYERS

MALENY RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB

MALENY SINGERS

MALENY STREET GARDENERS’ ALLIANCE

MALENY TENNIS

MALENY VISITOR INFO CENTRE

NETBALL

PARKRUN

PICKLEBALL

PIONEER UKULELES

PLATYPUS WHISPERER

PROBUS

RANGE CROQUET

RHEE TAEKWONDO

ROTARY CLUB OF MALENY

SPEAK UP NOW

SWIMMING CLUB

THISAD IS 100%PROUDL Y

TABLE TENNIS

TS CENTAUR

ZONTA

Spoiler alert ahead

I was stunned to read in last week’s issue that some locals have taken it upon themselves to spoil an established income stream for many community groups around Maleny.

I am referring to the closure of One Tree Hill following Council’s rubbish decision to pressure the long-time residents into paying for a development permit to operate a Function facility, so that wedding parties can stand on the hilltop for their photography with a stunning backdrop.

In their infinite wisdom, Council have deemed the space as Commercial. I mean, really? Let’s just clarify for anyone who doesn’t know, One Tree Hill is a large paddock on an open hilltop. A paddock. Commercial? And all this has happened because of just two complaints? Please explain!

Quite apart from the fact that this is a kick in the guts to the kindness and generosity of the property owners, it will negatively impact on those charity groups that have benefited for many years. Consider also how many family groups have been able to visit this awesome location, enjoy the natural beauty of our hinterland, spend their dollars locally and bring significant financial benefit to both our tourism and wedding industries.

I do understand that the increased traffic and parked cars from wedding groups could at times cause a nuisance for nearby homes, but we are not talking about 8 hours a day 7 days a week. Road safety may have been identified as an issue, but the location is not a busy main road and there is open space that could potentially be designated for safe parking options.

This is not a community-minded move by Council, making it impossible for the property owners to continue and negatively impacting on local business, many of whom are still recovering from loss of income during the pandemic.

Surely the positive benefits of allowing the continued use of this property on a donation basis is of far more importance to the wider community than a kneejerk reaction by Council to a couple of complaints? As the saying goes, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Just a reminder to Council that it’s the majority of the community who actually vote for them.

JW Glass House Mountains

Crunching the numbers

In letters published in the January 17 GC&M News Peter Bowles is outraged by the $1.2 billion dollars wasted building the unnecessary Tugun desalination plant (It was completed and is on standby Peter) and David Lowry discusses the quality of Chinese wind turbines which Peter rubbished in an earlier letter. David correctly advises that “in engineering you get what you pay for” but then states that “any company in Australia buying turbines will do a careful examination of maintenance costs”.

State government company SureSmartWater decided to cut costs building the Tugun desalination plant using lower-grade Chinese stainless steel which corroded and had to be replaced adding several million dollars, obviously without “a careful examination of maintenance costs”. David also makes an excellent point that “It would be good if we had a government with the vision and courage to establish strategic industries.”

Energy Minister Lionel Bowen’s vision is to establish extremely expensive power storage systems like pumped hydro and big batteries to supplement intermittent solar and wind power generation with hydrogen and put new carbon taxes on existing industries. These policies are driving manufacturing and heavy industry out of Australia and aluminium producers with their high electricity usage are hanging on by a thread.

Over the last 8 years NOAA figures show that average global temperatures have actually cooled while 14% of alltime manmade CO² was emitted into the atmosphere. Knowing this, more pragmatic countries including Japan, India, Turkey, Indonesia and China are building large numbers of proven “HELE” coal power plants to ensure reliable, affordable electricity supply.

Sel Hopley Maleny

A galled gull

David Lowry (GC News, Jan 17 issue) seems to think I’m irritated by his comments on the wind turbine issue, and insists it is taken from a “maliciously fabricated source”. Isn’t it amazing how the doomsday alarmists think anything they write is fact, and anything written by anybody else is “malicious”, but I hasten to add that the information I wrote previously, was taken from his own source