News Bytes

February 29, 2012: Over forty locals attended the Break O'Day Council's workshop on developing a Transport Master Plan at the Portland Memorial Hall last night. Led by Greg & Bob, consultants from Melbourne and Adelaide, a subdued meeting heard of some of the problems, work shopped to highlight their most significant features and then offered solutions. These workshops are being held at ten locations in the coming week around the municipality. As well, there is an online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com//s/y382yKG and the draft brief for the development of a Transport Master Plan(TMP) is on page 38 of the BODC online documents.

January 9, 2012: The Blue Tier is the most accessible high point to view the north east of Tasmania. From Bass Strait in the north to St Patrick Head in the south and the Great Western Tiers in the west, three hundred and sixty degrees of the North East. From 1876 the area generated considerable work from tin miners, documented by Greg Jackman (1995), now it is again in the spotlight of the academics with four papers written in the last four years on the subject of rock art.
Bednarik et al kicked off in 2007, with a rebuttal from Flood & McIntosh in 2008. Bednarik et al, recruited P Sims to their argument in 2010 with Flood et al replying. Now Piotrowski & Ross (abstract only) have taken the discussion to a new level with their piece "Aboriginal Epistemologies and Interpretations of Art and Place on the Blue Tier".
Meanwhile, the road to the Tier from Lotta, although passable with care, is washed out in five places and the first dam at the stamper batteries below Lotta has washed away the access track. As Forestry Tas has closed its operations at St Helens and the Tasmanian Government is in a cost cutting mood, it is unlikely repairs will be made soon.

November 15, 2011: About thirty residents attended the Break O'Day Climate Change Forum coordinated by NRM facilitator Alison Hugo at Tidal Waters on Armistice Day. Local Council Managers Des Jennings and Leigh Stevens addressed the subject from a council perspective while the scientists, Dr Grose and Sven Rand looked at the physical data and interpretations of possible scenarios. Clive Attwater from SGS Economics, talked about the Federally funded Coastal Pathways Project.
It appears Tasmania will be spared the higher temperature changes of the northern hemisphere, mostly because of the ocean currents surrounding the state. St Helens can expect more extreme weather events more often, with a small overall increase in rainfall. The warmer sea and land will result in biological changes, for example, more sightings of different fish species and over-wintering of the Queensland fruit fly. Redmap represents a community approach to mapping the movement of uncommon fish in Tasmanian waters.

November 7, 2011: Building on past work on Climate Change there will be a Public Forum on November 11th at Tidal Waters with three guest speakers, starting at 5.30 pm.

October 27, 2011: Council elections results for 2011 have been tallied, giving Sarah Schmerl the position of Mayor and Hannah Rubenach the position of Deputy Mayor. Also elected for the first time were Michael Tucker and Glen McGuinness. Mr Robert Legge resigned his position as Mayor and on Council in August.

July 25th 2011: The Break O'Day Council Velvet Worm Award was won jointly by the Bird Observers North East (BONE) and the East Understory Network. The award is for outstanding achievement in the protection and enhancement of the environment in the Break O'Day region. The BONE group has been busy looking after the nesting sites of shorebirds along the beaches while the East Understory Network has been running education sessions and propagating plants.

April 2nd 2011: About fifty people attended the St Helens launch of Peggy Bogar's book "Bushfire Heartbreak", a story of the December 2006 bushfire that destroyed about twenty homes in the Scamander area. As well as documenting the emotional and physical aspects of the fire, Peggy, seeks to emphasise the ability that is at the heart of disability. Available from the Break O'Day Council Office and the website, www.fortysouth.com.au.

February 20, 2011: A fire that started at two yesterday morning, has brought an end to trading at the Village Store in St Helens. Since its conversion from a general store, run for many years by Mr T & M Avery, to a coffeeshop/deli in 2005, it has introduced barista culture to the town and proved very popular with both visitors and locals.

January 20, 2011: Recent rains invite comparisons with the past. For instance, BOM reports in February 1930 St Helens recorded 159 mm in 150 minutes, in April 1929 Mathinna had 337 mm in 24 hours, in March 1974 Germantown had 508 mm in 24 hours and last week St Helens had about 250 mm in the 24 hours. A fall rate of 63.6, 14, 21 and 10 mm per hour respectively. Before the present St Helens Hospital was built, there was a paddock containing a horse and a pond. The new hospital flooded soon after it was finished in 1974, then in 1992 and again last week, although this time the emergency care section was kept open.

December 2, 2010: Donna Coulson has been declared elected to Council to replace the retiring Alison Bleany. In the interest of public health, Council have decided that from July next year all food business will be rated for food safety and this star system will be freely available.

August 10, 2010: The recent contract between Fairfax Press and the owners of the Examiner to create online content has seen the electronic version of the East Coast News published on the internet. Various community groups have already been piggy backing on Facebook to keep locals up to date with what's happening, including the Footy Club, ABC Northern Tas, SHDHS & Alison Bleany support.

April 16, 2010: The recent death of Councilor David Clement, who came within 237 votes of being elected mayor at the last election, has prompted a distribution of preferences from the other candidates. Peter John Nichols has been declared elected to serve until the next general election of the Council. Media release Monday, 26th April.

March 25, 2010: Results from the recent State elections in Lyons where the local resident and Labor Member of Parliament, Heather Butler, was replaced by a Liberal, Mark Shelton. With the distribution of preferences, Forestry Minister David Llewellyn was replaced by fellow Labor candidate Rebecca White.

March 1, 2010: The Australian Story on ABC television about chemicals in the Georges River has generated a lot of discussion in the local and national media. The Director of Public Health, Dr R Taylor, has released several documents and letters relating to the water quality and cancer rates. The Tasmanian Times has reported some of the reactions with various comments from interested parties. DHHS update 6/0/2010. New Water Panel Website 24/03/2010. ABC Update Managing Director finds story "in some respects fell short of ABC editorial standards relating to contextual accuracy and balance." 20/06/11

December 8, 2009: The Tasmanian Electoral Commission has announced the dates for the six council positions, deputy mayor and mayor in the Break O'Day municipality to be filled. Postal votes have been mailed out to all electors and these need to be returned by December 22. This election was delayed by the talks of amalgamation earlier in the year. Candidates election statements will be published as they become available. Online now are: Margaret Osborne, David Clement, Sarah Schmerl, Donna Coulson and Alison Bleaney. update 23/12/2009 Results

November 12, 2009: The Bay of Fires or Larapuna is again highlighted on ABC Radio National. The indigenous AWAYE program features interviews with local residents Gloria Andrews and Robert Legge. Meanwhile the State government has released a map (2.87 MB) of the proposed area and invited those interested to information sessions. The area proposed for the new national park is 7,410 ha, mainly the Mt Pearson and Bay of Fires Conservation area, much less than the 18,020 ha proposed by conservation groups. See below.

October 6, 2009: Local medical practioner A Bleaney has lodged a petition on the state government website calling for the ban on the use of triazine pesticides in Tasmania. Dr Bleaney has previously written about the health problems caused by forestry operations, a submission on contamination at slipways and is cited in an article in SourceWatch on Pollution in Tasmania. Update 15/02/2010 Australian Story

September 23, 2009: Recent rains again cut off the East Coast as rock falls on the St Marys Pass and rising flood waters between Fingal and St Marys brought road traffic to a halt. As usual for easterly weather, Grey topped the state with 126 mm. St Helens had exactly half that with about 63 mm. Killymoon peaked at 2.25 metres compared to last month's flood of 3.4 metres.

September 10, 2009: The Vision East consultation document has been released by the state government. Its aim for the BOD Municipality is to "Focus development in the key towns of St Helens and St Marys and improve tourist accessibility whilst maintaining a sense of seclusion to protect the iconic coastal and mountain landscapes". This sums up the contradictory elements of the document, development and protection. The authors of Vision East seek to resolve this dilemma by town planning. For instance, by encouraging construction in towns and restricting ribbon development, the planners seek to lessen the impact on the environment.

August 20, 2009: With the discussion continuing on amalgamation, Councilor David Clement has released two documents, a dot point list for amalgamation and a petition against. Meanwhile the Local Government Board is conducting a review with public hearings, submissions, FAQs and supporting documents. ABC News reports of 'Super Council' fears.

August 13, 2009: Wild winds and heavy rain bought down trees and caused landslides throughout the East Coast over the last two days. The Esk highway between Fingal and St Marys was cut by floodwaters as the Break O'Day river struggled to cope, with the Bureau of Meteorology reporting a river height of 3.4 metres at Killymoon as of 10.30 pm Wednesday night. St Marys Pass, St Columbia Falls road, Upper Scammander Road are also closed. Update now from Police Community Alerts webpage.

August 3, 2009: In her Budget speech, Heather Butler delivered a promise of things to come for fast internet connection at a reasonable cost with the laying of the fibre optic cable to the mainland. "Competition will deliver wider choice for the Tasmanian community and industries that are dependent on broadband Internet access"

July 28, 2009: One of fourteen boats built by the Pike brothers, the Wavecrest has sunk off Bicheno. Built of celerytop pine at their slip, the boat was designed as a cray vessel and was a regular sight on Georges Bay for many years. Mentioned several times in T Singline's book Crossing the bar: reminiscences of the St Helens cray fishing fleet availible from the Information Centre and the State Library.

July 26, 2009: ABC radio story on Friday about the proposed car park and toilets at Binalong Bay. The push for development has council backing but the locals are not happy.

July 16, 2009: Break O'Day Council is moving ahead with the building of the new home for Service Tasmania in front of the St Helens Visitor and Information Centre. Several questions were asked at the June Council meeting from the public gallery about public consultation, parking, shading and finance.

June 25, 2009: The Bay of Fires area continues to attract the attention of the media with the ABC running a segment on the area for the 7.30 report. The North East Bioregional Network and Bay of Fires Coastal Preservation Lobby conservation groups have published a proposal that includes lots of information on the natural values of the area. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has opposed turning the area into a National Park. All this interest seems to have come about since the publication of Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2009 book mentioned the area. However the Break O'Day Council has been looking at the tourism potential of the district since 2007 when the St Helens Tourism Precinct Development Plan was published.

June 6, 2009: Work has begun on the Barway sand removal project with heavy machinary moving the sand back from Blanche Beach to create a trap for the estimated 10,000 cu metres of sand moves in this area each year. Read the full reports about the social and economic impact and some of the proposed solutions.