By Dominique Tassell
Southern Downs Regional Councillor Jo McNally is back at work, and present in today’s Council meeting.
At the previous Council meeting, Council was advised that Councillor McNally had been appointed to the Darling Downs-Moreton Rabbit Board.
Lockyer Valley Regional Councillor Janice Holstein was elected Chairperson 15 July 2021, while Scenic Rim Regional Councillor Duncan McInnes was elected Deputy Chairperson 15 July 2021.
Joining Councillor McNally as the new Directors of the Board are Toowoomba Regional Councillor Tim McMahon, Ipswich City Councillor Kate Kunzelmann, and Andrew Mayfield from Logan City Council.
All directors have been appointed until 7 August 2024.
Council was issued with a report on operations of the Board for the period of 1 April to 30 June 2021.
In the report under ‘Fence Management’, it was reported that the Darling Downs Division Patrolmen, as part of their normal patrol duties, have been replacing footnetting, cleaning drains and floodgates, and doing vegetation control e.g. slashing, brushcutting, and spraying.
The Maintenance Team have also been replacing old style tin/wooden floodgates with floodways on the Chinchilla and Millmerran Patrol.
Work has started on the installation of 32km of dog height topnetting at Karara in conjunction with Goondiwindi Regional Council (partially funded project).
Work has also started on the installation of 2km of footnetting through a section of the rabbit fence at Kumbarilla which is being impacted by feral pigs entering cropping country on either side of the rabbit fence.
A dog height gateway has been installed in the rabbit fence at Kumbarilla on Gibson’s Property. Plans are in place to replace 200m of fence either side of the gateway which has been held up by wet weather.
Workers have installed the strainer posts and stay blocks for the Karara Cluster Fencing Project which is in the Southern Downs Regional Council area. The fencing side of the project is complete. Installation of a new floodway is still to be completed which is being held up due to wet weather.
Work has been done on Moonie Oil Project, with the goal refurbishing a dog height fence through the area.
In the report under ‘General’, it was reported that due to the recent wet weather, there has been flood damage to sections of the fence of the Millmerran and Karara Patrols. Temporary repairs have been carried out until these areas dry out. Once this occurs, full repairs on the fence can be carried out.
Due to the recent wet weather, vegetation has become a major priority for the patrolmen. This includes, for example, spraying and brushcutting. Slashing will be carried out later in the season.
In the report under ‘Forward Planning’, it was reported that work has been done installing top netting to Cluster Fencing Goldfields/Karara areas.
Camping accommodation at key locations along the fence is being upgraded.
Grading and slashing has commenced along the Millmerran, Karara, Cottonvale, Cullendore, Killarney, Brigalow, Braemar, Kumbarilla, and Chinchilla sections.
Work has also been undertaken on drain clearing, vegetation and sucker removal, as well as track upgrades.
In the report under ‘Rabbit Control and Eradication’, it was identified that 145 properties in the Southern Downs had been inspected during the report period.
This was part of a larger 525 properties inspected.
Of these 525 properties, 15 were new sites reported by the public, 209 were initiated by DDMRB compliance staff, 288 are ongoing, and 13 completed.
136 rabbit breeding sites were identified during property inspections across 77 properties and 155 breeding sites were removed across 55 properties.
Councillor Stephen Tancred stated during the previous meeting that:
“I know that Councillor McNally is on that board, she’s not here today, but on page 28 or so, they’ve got their budget and there’s a precept there $1.8 million dollars from several councils and we pay quite a big contribution of that to that and there’s a line item there of 45 thousand dollars that this council pays for some extra netting on the fence, on the fences, so I think it’s just worth noting that in that space we are doing quite a bit for our primary producers, both by having Councillor McNally on the board and in financial terms”.
