I HAD the opportunity to walk the length of Shute Harbour Road last week, from Paluma Road to Tropic Road, the exact same stretch that Transport & Main Roads has said it is going to widen.
I had dropped my car off at the mechanics and, as it was still early and cool, it was a great opportunity to walk home and get some exercise.
What really surprised – and delighted – me on my walk, was the variety of beautiful old trees lining the highway, along the nature strip.
Many of us would not see a lot of the trees as we whizz past in cars (and some of them are obscured by garden beds) but walking gave me a whole new perspective.
Beautiful, old yellow acacias, glowing with golden flowers, Whitsunday bottle trees, and flame trees with their red, bluebell-like blossoms bursting from the branches.
If the road is going to be widened – and it seems it is from what TMR is saying – the community needs to think about how we are going to save at least some of these beautiful old specimens, some of them unique to the region.
Christmas is coming…
Christmas has well and truly arrived with this issue of the Whitsunday News.
We have our annual ‘Shop Locally this Christmas’ feature starting again (see page 11) and council’s ‘Christmas Lights’ competition is full steam ahead (see advert page 13).
And the Whitsunday Neighbourhood Centre’s annual ‘Adopt-a-Family’ Christmas campaign is running again – see page 10 if you’d like to ‘adopt’ a family this Christmas.
In other news
In amongst all this festive frivolity, we have the council by-election, to vote for a new Division Two councillor.
This is an important election. There are only seven councillors representing the whole region, including the Mayor (who is also a councillor but with no specific division).
Councillors have a very important job to do, and it’s very important we have the right person in there, representing Division Two (and it’s the same for all councillors and their divisions).
Please make your vote count if you’re in Division Two.
As always, thanks for reading this newspaper.
Deborah.
