BRIBIE ISLAND WRAP

At about 11am on January 17, police attended a Bestmann Road, Ningi address after multiple offences were reported in Banksia Beach and Ningi overnight.

At 1.20am on January 17, it is alleged a Sandstone Boulevard, Ningi business was entered and that cigarettes were stolen.

At about 2.09am, a resident of a Freshwater Drive, Banksia Beach address was woken by outside sensor lights and found two pairs of shoes missing from their front porch.

At about 2.15am, a second resident of a Freshwater Drive, Banksia Beach address was woken by noises and found that tools from their vehicle had been stolen.

At about 2.30am, a third resident of a Freshwater Drive, Banksia Beach address was woken by noises and found a man in the spare bedroom.

It is alleged the offender indicated he was armed and instructed the resident to return to their room, before stealing a Mimco handbag, two sets of vehicle keys and three pairs of sunglasses. A single cab, white Ute with a flat tray was allegedly seen at all four incidents which was reported stolen on January 16, from a Sandstone Point resort.

Police located the stolen vehicle and executed a search warrant of a 25-year-old Ningi man’s residence who is alleged to have been involved.

During the search, police recovered the stolen property including tools, sunglasses, shoes, cigarettes, vehicle keys and a Mimco bag.

It is alleged police also located weapons including a sawn-off rifle, ammunition, a taser and drug utensils.

The 25-year-old Ningi man was arrested and charged with trespassing, two counts of stealing, two counts of receiving tainted property, two counts of unlawful having possession of a weapon, unlawful possession of explosives, possession of property suspected of being used for a drug offence, two counts of entering a premise and committing an indictable offence and entering a dwelling with intent and robbery.

He is set to appear in the Caboolture Magistrates Court on March 8.

If you have information for police, contact Policelink by providing information using the online suspicious activity form 24hrs per day at www.police.qld.gov.au/reporting. Report crime information anonymously via Crime Stoppers. Call 1800 333 000 or report online at www.crimestoppersqld. com.au.

Other 3

Assault 4

Unlawful Entry 10

Other Property Damage 10

Unlawful Use of Motor Vehicle 3

Other Theft (excl. Unlawful Entry) 23

Drug Offences 11

Weapons Act Offences 3

Good Order Offences 13

Traffic & Related Offences 10

Dear Editor,

Just a quick note from a regular visitor who has noticed some unwelcome changes on Bribie. My parents lived in Banksia Beach since the early 90s and my family has been regular visitors over the years. Now that I am retired, I am looking at the possibility of retiring there myself, so drove past a few places for sale. I had to stop at one point to look up directions on a narrow road but made sure others could pass. One tradie mum with kids in the back, passed me yelling out of the window - apparently didn't like where I pulled up. I headed over to the Community Nursery to check out their plants and upon leaving pulled out into slight traffic heading for Woorim. Another tradie tailgated me all the way honking his horn and swearing at me 2 kilometres down the road, presumably because I was looking out and driving carefully at the wildlife crossing zones.

It appears the island is being overtaken by rude, angry, entitled, aggressive tradies and their partners. I pity their children. I also pity the older islanders who 30 years ago had a peaceful and happy place to retire to and have now lost this. I certainly won't be falling into the same trap. Anywhere to retire but Bribie is looking pretty good right now.

Sincerely,

V. Nizic

Dear Editor, Inconsiderate drivers on Bribie Island? Who would have thought such a thing? I have many years at the wheel including urgent duty driving in marked and unmarked police vehicles as a police officer for 36 years. I have been involved with road safety for many years during my career.

I have been surprised more than once by the increasing incidence of slow-driving road users on Bribie Island since moving to this idyllic place 18 months ago. At the time of the incidents, traffic was reasonable, roads were dry overall conditions were excellent. For example: An unladen flatbed truck travelling at 40 km/hr from Freshwater Drive, Banksia Beach drove all the way to the BP garage. The speed limits are signed at 50 and 60 to 70 km/hr respectively. The driver appeared not to have a care in the world, oblivious to the long line of traffic behind, clipping most of the kerbs as he went around the roundabouts. No chance to safely overtake of course. Could the driver have been using a mobile phone? Possibly, but I don’t know. A number of vehicles with the driver talking to the front seat passenger arms waving and looking at the passenger. The drivers obviously not paying due care and attention to driving. Sometimes these cars weave within and over the white lines travelling at 40 km/hr. Drivers are oblivious to everyone else and no road situational awareness is displayed.

Most drivers would agree that the posted speed restriction signs are the legal maximum speed and it is the driver’s responsibility to drive at a speed up to the posted speed taking into consideration the traffic conditions at the time. Common sense should apply of course, if the driver actually possesses some and applies it. The exceptions to driving to the speed limit or driving markedly below it, are in the many estates to protect wildlife and where traffic conditions warrant it. In my opinion, slow driving can cause some inpatient drivers to take unnecessary risks by attempting overtaking or following too close and becoming aggressive. Letters to the editor mention the growing number of residents and vehicles on the Island, especially during the weekends and holidays. Traffic congestion is certainly increasing and slow and distracted driving only compounds and adds to the risk of road trauma on our beautiful island.

Stay safe on our roads.

Graham Hunt

Retired Sergeant Queensland Police Service and with Metropolitan Police, London.

Dear Editor, I would like to voice my opinion on the upgrade of Brennan’s Park, a park I have been taking my children and now my Grandchildren to play in for over thirty years. Almost every week I take my two youngest Grandchildren to play in a park on Bribie. They always get to

His sister, a big girl now at 4 years old, pipes up and agrees. Master 6 “Nan, did you know that the flying fox will be gone, I voted for it to stay because it is fun to play on.”

Ah the good old flying fox, the best thing in the park. We eagerly awaited the opening of the NEW playground. The question was asked, where will we go to play – the answerBrennan’s Park!!!!!!, hooray it's open at last.

Well to say the least on my part I felt a little disappointed, maybe because I was envisioning a few different playground apparatuses to be added, good to see though, the addition of seating and tables. The favourite flying fox has been replaced with a contraption, looking like a seesaw in the air, where the children need the help of adults to climb on and off the seats. Whilst visiting Brennan’s Park, this week, I watched as adults struggled to get their children on and off the flying seesaw, the children also struggled to get on the seats, when no adult was around.

I know that all children need to be taken into consideration when the Council choose playground apparatus, what I'd like to know is who is qualified to pick this apparatus?

In the end, though, all that matters is that the children have a fun time in Brennan’s Park.

This may sound a bit trivial compared to the regular topics in the Letters to the Editor.

Regards

Nanna Joan Bellara

Dear Editor,

Proposed new Bribie Bridge. A new bridge to Bribie could be built from somewhere just south or north of Toorbul Township without any negative impact on existing residents. The bridge could connect to Bribie somewhere just north of the ranger station or just north of Wrights Creek. White patch residents would not be affected in any way as the road from the bridge would be built along existing surveyed streets north of the village and thence to Banksia beach.

In any case residents of Toorbul, Whitepatch, Banksia Beach and the future development of the island will be enhanced. The road connection would be from somewhere near the Bestman Road roundabout across Ningi Creek, through some crown land to The Toorbul area.

Alternatively, a connecting road could be built from the Peel Road intersection through crown land and connect with the northern bridge location. This whole concept is to build a new bridge and reduce the impact on an already overloaded network through Bellara and Bongaree and provide for the dispersal of traffic and develop an alternative connection to Banksia Beach, First Avenue, and Woorim.

To rebuild the road network through Bellara and adjacent localities would be prohibitive and extremely expensive and in the end totally unnecessary. Given the existing traffic congestion already obvious, surely, we need to disperse entry points to the Island. The whole idea behind this is, no one is disadvantaged, and provision is made for further expansion of development. Instead of playing catchup let's get ahead of the game.

J Barber Bellara.

Dear editor,

The latest issue of your magazine includes two letters on the topic of climate change, from M. Cavenor and Thomas Mahon. I would like to rebut statements in both of them. Firstly, no one is denying that Earth has had past periods where it was much colder than now and others where it was much warmer. But what climate change deniers choose to ignore is that these changes happened over tens of thousands of years.

The normal oscillation between extremes is of the order of 20-50,000 years, but what we are seeing now has happened over little more than 200 years. Furthermore, the start of this change coincides with two human events – the beginning of the industrial age, and the human population reaching one billion.

In the time since, fossilfuel burning, CO2- making industrialization has expanded exponentially, and humanity has exploded to over eight billion. But a host of right-wing commentators in so-called “think tanks” like NZCPR or the Institute of Public Affairs never quote these truths – too inconvenient, I guess.

I’ve seen the arguments by people like Prof Plimer and his ilk, and I find them illogical, poorly constructed and clearly written with a set agenda. Hopefully, Mr Cavenor and Mr Mahon are prepared to look at some alternative views. Here are a few suggestions: https://skepticalscience. com/ | https://tinyurl. com/5n6w52by | https:// tinyurl.com/4p6d5ten

Tony Longland

Bellara

Dear Editor, Earlier this week we reported yet another dead kangaroo, this time with her baby, on Sunderland Drive. She was apparently hit with such force that her baby was ejected from the pouch. This would be about the 8th dead kangaroo or wallaby we have reported in the last 4 years, seven of them on Sunderland Drive, the other on Avon Avenue. This one was lying alongside the footpath and some of her innards were exposed, her body was extremely bloated and both bodies were alive with flies feasting. They had obviously been there for some time and no doubt if it had not been school holidays, they would have been reported earlier even though it would have been a grisly sight to subject young children to.

Unfortunately, it seems to us that speed limits are not the total answer to the constant carnage of our precious wildlife, (even though we feel that a speed limit of 50 kph would be a great idea for the whole island), as there are always people who like to “push the envelope”, nowhere is this more evident than where we live on Endeavour Drive. The speed limit is already 50 kph but so many of the hoons, and they are not all young, feel that the roundabouts are just chicanes on a racetrack, and these people often reach speeds well in excess of 80 kph, especially at night-time when the native fauna is more active. Believe us, we live on a corner and see and hear most things and yes, Endeavour Drive and Avon Avenue also have a high death toll.

We feel that physical barriers are the only way of controlling the wildlife within the National Parks. This may seem simplistic but if decision-makers would just “bite the bullet” and fence only the eastern side of Sunderland Drive from Bribie State School to Hornby Road putting in lockable vehicle gates wherever necessary the carnage would stop. It would not have to be an expensive fence, like the one that was recently erected on the school grounds on the drive and parking spaces, but a hurricane wire structure with metal poles, some 150cm to two metres tall would be ample and perhaps the cost could be shared by the Council and the State Government with labour supplied by the Justice Department.

Please do not write us off as unrealistic as there are many other Bribie Islanders who would endorse much of what we say.

Very Sincerely,

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