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Bowen beaches and parklands will close to the public this winter to make way for amphibious and land-based military training operations.
Kings Beach, from the mouth of Sandhill Creek, will be closed from 5am Sunday, July 18 to 5am Saturday, July 31, to allow the Department of Defence to conduct activities including landing of military boats, landing craft, and hover craft, plus the driving along the beach by military
vehicles. Council-managed sites in Bowen will be temporarily closed to the public at the request of Australian, American, New Zealand, Japanese, British, Canadian and the Republic of Korea Defence Forces. Picture: Supplied.
The community is likely to have a say on whether Whitsunday Regional Council should ditch its six council divisions At Wednesday s council meeting in Proserpine, councillors will consider a recommendation to consult and engage with the community on becoming undivided for electoral purposes and subject to the results of the consultation, ask the minister to refer the review of council s electoral arrangements to the change commissioner . The decision will impact how the 2024 council election is to be conducted, including how many candidates electors are able to choose from. Under the current system, electors can only vote in a division for which they are enrolled. Removing divisions would allow electors to choose their representatives from the total list of candidates.
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The three major infrastructure projects Whitsunday Mayor Andrew Willcox dubbed the “most exciting” in the council’s 2020-21 budget will not be delivered on time, if progress continues at the current rate.
Whitsunday Regional Council’s latest financial report reveals all but one of the council’s 2020-21 major capital projects are tracking behind schedule and will likely need to be deferred to the next financial year.
The top three projects promoted in the 2020-21 budget announcement are all far off completion.
They are: Bowen’s Flagstaff Hill redevelopment, which has started on March 8; the Proserpine Entertainment Centre, which is about a third of the way through; and the new Shute Harbour Marine Terminal, which is about half way.
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A rousing Dawn Service speech by Burdekin MP Dale Last brought the ANZAC Day message to life for the community of Bowen this morning.
Focusing on the story of âforgottenâ Indigenous north Queensland Digger Charlie Blackman, who until recently was buried in an unmarked grave, the speech brought the âLest We Forgetâ message down to a more personal level for the 500-strong crowd. Bowen s 2021 ANZAC Day commemorations. Picture: Rhonda Nilsson
Not least because the Whitsunday community played a key role in ensuring Lance Corporal Blackman got the respect and recognition he deserved, Mr Last explained, including the awarding of medals and the erection of a headstone at Charters Towers some 50 years after he died.