Central Gold ields Residents and Ratepayers Assoc. Inc.

Central Goldfields Ratepayers and Residents Assn Inc

Last weekend was the Dunolly Country Market. The weather was cold, but great to see so many out and about. Thank you to the organizers, stall holders and community for your efforts. Come the warmer weather this will be even bigger and be er. Reading last week's issue of the Welcome Record about the fibre op c cable roll out. On paper it sounded fantas c and we would like to know a bit more about it. Fingers crossed.

Last week our council held two community planning workshops. These workshops were around the increasing of housing lots in those two areas. One in Carisbrook, the other in Maryborough. We believe Dunolly, Talbot and our other towns are to be happening later.

These were a fantas c ini a ve and quite well par cipated in, regardless of one venue having its doors locked for the first hour of the workshop. There were a lot of great ideas and discussion. The largest two concerns in Carisbrook were:

1: Despite Flagstaff having a major effect on the levee and overland flooding, apparently the presenters were totally unaware of the flooding at Flagstaff, nor the rela onship between Carisbrook and the Flagstaff overland water from that area.

2. The infrastructure to provide for the new house occupants.

Maryborough was a well-a ended event, with again support toward increased housing for our area but the two main issues were:

1. Loca on of the allo ed areas, the access and fire concerns.

2. Infrastructure e.g., sewerage, doctors, hospitals, employment and roads.

Judging by the community response, they are ready to work with council. The one thing which was very evident was this project is already at stage three into this six stage process. The obvious lack of local knowledge, already shown by the council's professional advisors and council representa ves, was a huge concern with confidence in this project. This then brings us to the sa sfac on survey 2023. The state average dropped 3 points from 59% to 56%. Our shire dropped 1% from 53% to 52%. The sheer fact that our Shire is one of the lowest scored in the State, and s ll going down, does it give any confidence to know we are s ll dropping and s ll well behind the State. One only item - overall direc on - was one point above the State average. Two (customer service and waste management) were higher than last year's, 3% and 1% respec vely. More on this later.

Please look a er each other and stay safe. Regards

Wayne McKail President

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