Clinicians across the region enhanced their emergency trauma skills with the latest round of Rural Emergency and Trauma Simulation Training last week.

Collinsville, Proserpine and Bowen hospital staff each attended the simulation sessions which focused on non-critical and critical trauma presentations.

The training also included skills stations which honed clinicians’ approaches to managing unexpected complications and intraosseous – directly into bone marrow - needle insertions.

The participants faced a number of scenarios, utilising the Telehealth Emergency Management Support Unit (TEMSU), as well as a Mackay Base Hospital senior Emergency doctor.

The Telehealth Unit assisted virtually with treating the fractured elbow of a 14-year-old patient, following a fall from a tree, to ensure safe reduction of the fracture in a first scenario.

The second challenge the groups faced was a critical scenario with a 29-year-old patient involved in high-speed motorbike accident.

The patient had been under the influence of drugs, and sustained thigh injuries and contusion of left lateral chest and abdomen.

Participants used their existing skills and knowledge to stabilise the patient with the assistance of Retrieval Services Queensland (RSQ) who provided virtual oversight of ventilation, intubation, fluid resuscitation and subsequent retrieval.

“Skills stations provided an opportunity for participants to refresh their critical thinking and review their own practice to consider various approaches to procedural sedation and to anticipate complications,” a Mackay Hospital and Health Services spokesperson said.

For authenticity, rib meat models were used to perform intraosseous needle insertion into real bone and place intercostal needles and tubes.

“Many of our rural clinicians are highly skilled in dealing with trauma emergencies, however it’s reassuring for them and junior staff to know they are supported by teams who provide a crucial link to consult with specialists when needed,” the spokesperson said.

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Proserpine, Collinsville, and Bowen hospital staff took part in trauma simulation training over the past week

The training helped the staff hone their skills in emergency trauma situations in a safe environment

Advanced Practice Enrolled Nurse Debbie Phillipson first walked through the front doors of Proserpine Hospital 40 years ago and she hasn’t looked back.

She was only 21 and on a trip around Queensland with a friend, having just finished training at St Vincent’s Hospital in Toowoomba. That friend stayed on in Mackay at the Base hospital, while Debbie travelled north to Proserpine.

After an interview with the Proserpine Hospital’s matron, Debbie, to her surprise, received a phone call to say she was starting that night.

“There was no orientation, I just walked in the front door and started night duty,” she said.

“I came in and never left. I soon fell in love, got married and had children so this community is definitely my home.”

Aside from a year off after the birth of her two children, Debbie has worked continuously and still holds court across the wards and in the operating theatre as a scout nurse and also attends to the sterilising.

Debbie says she has no regrets about spending four decades in the same workplace.

“Everyone says ‘gee you’ve been here a long time’ or ‘you looked after my mother’ or I see children I saw being born having their own children and I think, they are right, I have been here for a while,” she said.

“It’s a lovely connection, most people know you are a nurse and relate to you for something in their life. You feel close to everyone even though they are not your family”.

Debbie says one of the qualities of a good nurse is always doing your best to look after people, and she has no plans to retire as one of the hospitals longest serving nurses.

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Debbie Phillipson, an Advanced Practice Enrolled Nurse, has been at Proserpine Hospital for forty years

A by-election to vote in a new Mayor for Whitsunday Regional Council will be held on 13 August 2022 according to Electoral Commission Queensland (ECQ).

Currently there are six candidates running for the office: Jan Clifford, Al Grundy, Mike Brunker, Peter Hood, Julie Hall and Phil Batty.

Two separate Meet The Candidates Events will be hosted by Bowen Chamber of Commerce and Whitsunday Coast Chamber of Commerce respectively.

Bowen Chamber of Commerce will hold their Special Mayoral Candidates Meeting on Wednesday, August 3 at 5.45pm at the Larrikin Hotel. Whitsunday Coast Chamber Of Commerce will host their Meet The Mayoral Candidates Event on Monday, July 25 from 6 to 8pm in the Reef Gateway Function Room.

ECQ Commissioner Pat Vidgen said there were a number of ways people could vote.

“Don’t worry if you can’t make it on polling day, we have several options available including telephone voting for people who meet the eligibility criteria - like those who have tested positive to COVID-19 and anyone interstate or overseas,” Mr Vidgen said.

“There will also be two weeks of early voting and postal voting and both of those options are open to everyone.

“We know there are more than 23,600 registered voters in the Whitsunday region and we want to make voting as quick and easy as possible for every one of them.”

Postal vote applications are open now and close 7pm on 1 August 2022.

Early voting starts at 9am on 1 August 2022 and finishes at 6pm on 12 August 2022 at three early voting centres in Bowen, Cannonvale, and Proserpine.

On election day there will be five polling booths in Cannonvale Beach, Proserpine, Collinsville, Bowen and Hamilton Island.

Mr Vidgen reminded people in the Whitsunday region voting is compulsory and failure to vote fines increased to $143.75 from 1 July 2022.

Candidates may still nominate for the seat of Mayor until Monday, July 25.

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Campbell Irvine’s face underneath his iconic, well-worn hat, framed by thick grey beard and hair, is of “Never-give-in, of bright heat and of help-your-mate,” as Henry Lawson would have said.

One of Australia’s last bush poets, the true essence of Waltzing Matilda, has been wandering up and down the country’s coast for the last four decades.

He regularly stops in near Mackay, and on a recent trip through Airlie Beach where he performed poetry at the Airlie Beach Foreshore Markets, our Whitsunday Life reporter caught up with one of the country’s last swagmen.

Wearing blue jeans and a red button-down, Campbell the Swaggie had five or more festival bands on his wrist — he pointed to one and said it would be gone soon, replaced by another.

He hunches when he walks from years of carrying heavy swags and billy kettles on the road — as well as being born disabled up one side — but when he sits down there is an instant ease and gladdening.

With a swag, a few bags, and his hat, the Swaggie has trekked most of Australia. He’s performed countless round-trip tours of the country, taking part in festivals in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and Darwin in a life under the stars.

He’s become an icon of folk Australia – although a New Zealand born Mauri – since he arrived in the country in 1975 following a band, The Bushwhackers. It was a first infatuation with the cultural history and character of the lucky country and most importantly its swagmen.

“I’m a bard, I guess you could say. An Itinerant, nomadic, traveller,” Campbell said.

“It was Waltzing Matilda that drew me to the swaggie’s life; and I’ve been doing it for 40 years now, living life on the hoof.”

Famed Australians and poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson would have called him a swagman. Others have called him a walking storybook and the embodiment of the bush ballads and poems. He performs the poetry of Australia’s past, as well as his own originals, and has made friends across the regions.

Especially in Airlie Beach, where most know him for his performances at Wintermoon Festival near Calen.

“I love the Whitsundays; it’s the Great Barrier Reef for me that is so special. I’ve only been there once but that was enough to know how important it is,” he said.

“There’s the bush side to it too: tramping the stock routes outback Queensland, I was reborn and raised into the whole thing from the Bushwhackers band and Australian folk music — that was back pretty well in the early ’70s and ‘80s,” he said.

“An apprenticeship between learning to love the land and being a swagman on the old routes of cattle musterers in Winton and places like that. I take on that character and tramped those routes.

“It bore down to a love of pretty much everything that’s Australian; I hold dearly to it and celebrate it, that sort of thing. I came here at about the age of 23 and I’ve never left this country — it’s been 47 years, now.”

Appearances at festivals have kept the storyteller on his chosen path, as well as busking in between those gigs to make ends meet. That keeps his pockets filled and the damper cooking — although he once claimed a government allowance but has not done so for more than 25 years.

He said it was a love of poetry that kept him travelling.

“It’s a history. It’s education, that’s the way I see it, you know,” he said, “it’s about my home, my new home that I’ve nearly been in for 50 years already.”

He said being a swagman, a traveller and to recite poetry on the road was “like bringing things to life.”

Campbell is 70 now, but still recites his poetry by memory, as well as hoofing it much of the country.

As if he weren’t extraordinary enough, he uses much of his busking money — as well as festival hauls — towards charities like the Flying Doctor’s Service and Australian Conservation.

“Old bush legends like me,” he said.

He also wants Waltzing Matilda to be the national anthem: “It has more to do with Australia than that other song we’ve got,” Campbell said.

Campbell will be travelling through Airlie Beach once again in the coming weeks, dropping by to see some old friends, recite some poetry, and have a laugh.

His final message for the people of the Whitsundays was “I’ll catch up with them on the road.”

Photography and story by Declan Durrant

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Campbell Irvine is one of Australia’s last swagmen, a bush poet who regularly travels up the country’s coast, including Airlie Beach

Campbell the Swaggie’s iconic hat. Two torn wide brims on top of another, held together by tarn and cloth

Campbell’s only belongings when he’s hoofing it up the coast reciting poetry for a living

The Whitsunday housing crisis is set to be tackled by local council who have come up with sweeping reforms to ease the issue crippling the region.

Working both alongside Whitsunday Neighbourhood Centre and Bowen Neighbourhood Centre, Whitsunday Regional Council have adopted a consultation plan to determine what measures will have the best results.

According to council documents submitted at the July 13 Ordinary Meeting – a Housing Affordability Literature Review - the Whitsunday region is well above the statewide rate of 45.6 persons per 10,000 homeless, with a rate of “59 per 10,000”.

Director Development Services, Neil McGaffin, said the crisis was nationwide.

“As everybody should be aware, there is a housing affordability squeeze everywhere in the country,” he said.

“Alongside Neighbourhood Centre’s in the Whitsundays, we have come up with some potential solutions that could ease that.”

Councillor Jan Clifford said that, even within the council, they’ve been struggling with staff shortages due to the housing availability.

“The housing crisis is endemic across the entire nation. There is nowhere for anyone to live; it’s a crisis and it’s getting worse and worse every day,” she said.

Releasing their Housing Affordability Community Engagement Plan, council suggest seven potential changes for public consideration.

These include potential changes to the planning scheme, such as granny flat floor sizes and dual occupancy on measured lots, as well as revising minimum lot sizes.

“Council wants to know if there is anything the community is disliking about the planning scheme in relation to housing and the development of housing,” the document states.

Council will seek community feedback through email, Facebook, and other social media as well as in local newspapers.

Whitsunday Neighbourhood Centre have previously said that the crisis has seen families living in caravan parks, cars, and in tents.

Councillor Clifford echoed those sentiments.

“I have families living in my division who have been sleeping in cars and there has to be something we can do,” she said.

“This is a step in the right direction for that.”

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A group of Proserpine State High School Students didn’t think twice about letting Lochie Tucker join in on their pick-up basketball game at the Cannonvale courts.

Little did they know that it would mean the world to both Lochie and his mother Renee Tucker, who said, after her son came home that night, she had to wait until he’d fallen asleep to “just bawl with tears”.

“Lochie has Asperger’s – he just doesn’t fit in at mainstream schooling – his social cues are not there, which I love; he dresses how he wants, but he sees the boys down here and he always wants to join in,” Ms Tucker said.

“We’ve been down here to the courts so many times and these were the first bunch of boys that have ever let him join in with them.

“He was rapt when he came home; he was just so happy and he’s smiling all the time when he’s with them. Usually they’re forced but he’s just smiling for real.”

The Proserpine State High School Grade 9 students, Elijah, Will, Niall, Jason, Kody, and Chaz, said it was just a normal thing for them to include everyone.

“It’s good for him to see a group of good young men,” Ms Tucker said.

Sarah Post, a mother of one of the boys said they “didn’t think anything of it, that’s just how they are.”

Lochie said it felt very including to play with the boys.

“It was just really nice,” he said.

“I think we’ll come down and make it a regular thing!”

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The boys at the court, Elijah, Will, Lochie,Niall, Jason, and Kody

Hi, Constant Readers.

We can all feel a bit stressed sometimes. But, within those times, there’s an opportunity for great personal growth. I’ve certainly felt a bit under the pump lately – as is to be expected running a newspaper – but I already know I’ve learnt so much.

My time as Editor has been such a horizon expanding experience, to coin a phrase. I’ve certainly had some knocks along the way, like any new role, job, or responsibility. And there’s still (by my estimation) three weeks left.

I’m hoping the challenges keep coming and that I can keep hurdling them. Should I stumble, though, I know there’s plenty of people in my corner to come pick me up again and dust me off.

I’ve struggled in the past with mental health issues like depression and anxiety and learning to live with those things presented its own challenges, too. I look back on how far I’ve come, and I want you all to look back on how far you’ve come in your own personal journeys.

We should all take a moment in our day to just reflect on how we got here, who helped us, and where we want to be. There’s one thing we should always strive for: to be better than yesterday.

Stick with me here: there’s a line from BoJack Horseman that I always think of.

One character says to BoJack: “It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you got to do it every day. That's the hard part. But it does get easier."

In that instance, he’s talking about running, but he’s not really; take it as being about life.

Whatever you’re doing, keep the momentum. Keep doing it every day because it gets easier. One foot in front of the other. And if you haven’t begun, there’s no time like the present.

Declan

Quote Of The Week:

“It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.” – J.R.R Tolkien

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The more than 41,500 people visiting the Big Mango Visitor Information Centre and the information booth at Bowen’s front Beach in the past financial year can pick up a copy of the new Bowen and Collinsville Visitor Guide.

The guide was recently launched by Bowen Tourism and Business and is currently being distributed to Visitor Information Centres in Queensland as well as some in NSW.

It is a complete guide to Bowen and Collinsville with sections on where to eat, where to stay and what to do.

The business is hoping its new guide will capitalises on those visitors and the further 1,100 that passed through the centre in the first week of this financial year.

Manager of Bowen Tourism and Business, Leanne Abernethy, said those numbers are not expected to slow down any time soon with data showing strong forward bookings for accommodation providers in Bowen in coming months.

“We’re noticing the number of overseas visitors had been increasing each month since the opening of the international borders,” she said.

“In January this year, we only had 10 international visitors for the entire month but in June, we welcomed 177 people from overseas.”

The guide includes maps of Bowen and Collinsville as well as a regional map of the Whitsundays.

There is also a farming map with a QR code to be scanned by those looking for farm work.

There is a story about when the Big Mango was stolen as part of a publicity stunt and about the movie “Australia” being filmed in Bowen when Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman called the town home for several months.

The Summergarden Cinema, Queensland’s longest running movie theatre, is also featured as well as sections on the walking trails and lookouts around Bowen.

Aside from at the centre, it is also available at various business throughout the Whitsundays.

The 60 page A4 full colour guide is also available online by going to www.tourismbowen.com.au and clicking on “Holiday Planner” at the bottom of the home page.

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Bowen Tourism and Business staff Melissa Beuzeville and Beverley Adams reading the new Bowen and Collinsville Visitor Guide

A special council meeting was held on Wednesday this week to appoint a deputy mayor of the Whitsundays, with previous deputy, Mike Brunker, stepping down.

Councillor Brunker is one of six candidates campaigning for the role of mayor, and as such saw it fit to step down so there was no conflict of interest, perceived or real.

Councillor Brunker was filling the role of acting mayor with the office left vacant after now Member for Dawson Andrew Willcox was elected to the federal seat in April.

With there still no current council mayor, the role of deputy takes on status as acting mayor until the election appoints the position after the August 13 vote.

Councillor John Collins was elected to the role in a 6-0 landslide.

Now acting mayor John Collins was first elected as Councillor for Division 3 on Whitsunday Regional Council in 2012 and was returned for his third term at the 2020 Local Government Elections.

He has been a member of the Proserpine community since the age of four, when his family relocated to the region, with his father transferred as the local police sergeant. John completed his schooling at the local St. Catherine’s Catholic Primary School and Proserpine State High School, and currently lives in Proserpine with his wife Jill and four daughters.

“I would like to acknowledge the work of Councillor Brunker, who rang me after the federal election and said he was happy to step down there and then,” Acting Mayor Collins said.

“I’d like to thank him for what he’s done both in the budget and in the past months. Until the election I’m going to be calling upon my fellow councillors to delegate work to them.

“I’d like to thank everyone for their confidence.”

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Councillor John Collins has been voted in as deputy mayor of the Whitsundays this week, giving him the role of acting mayor until a new mayor is sworn in

Cody Gibbs passed away in early July after 11-months of treatment for a cancer which had manifested as three tumours on his brain and spine.

The 15-year-old Airlie Beach boy had originally been diagnosed with Pineoblastoma in 2018 – an aggressive, rare form of the disease in the pineal gland in the brain’s centre.

He was 11 at the time and spent nine months fighting the malignancy in hospital – four operations, chemotherapy, and radiation - which ended in clear scans for a period of two years.

In 2021, the cancer returned, and with the support of the community and his family, a second outing of “Cody’s Battle” began, but would sadly end in a Brisbane palliative care ward.

His mother Donna Davis said cancer is not the thing that defines who her son was, although it may have claimed his life in the end.

He was an avid Aussie Rules footballer, a larrikin with a self-deprecating sense of humour, and as a little boy he was “high adrenaline, high octane; he was on and he’d go and go and go, then he’d fall asleep just where he was.”

“I think his generosity and kindness defined him. He always thought of others before himself,” Donna said.

“I think I was pretty hard on him when he was little and it paid off. He was kind and had respect for others, but he was cheeky and loveable. He had that smile that you’d say: ‘You’re just trouble, mate!’

“You just want to hug him, and I think he affected everyone he met. He was funny, he loved to dance, and he loved making people laugh at his own expense.

“Those that knew him relayed it to others who didn’t. People knew he was a really good kid and that he didn’t deserve to have this disease.

“He never, ever once complained about anything or got upset with having cancer. We always thought he’d break at some point but he never complained about anything.

“I think that’s why everyone loved him and supported him so much. He never let it get to him.”

Over the course of the two cancer diagnoses and subsequent treatments, separate fundraisers and GoFundMe pages raised tens of thousands of dollars for Cody’s Battle.

Some of those events included an Airlie Beach Rodeo, raffles and auctions at businesses across the region: The Metropole Proserpine, Kazza’s Barber Shop, Domino’s Airlie Beach, Jubilee Pocket Tavern, Hay Point Hotel, and Ray White Whitsundays.

Parts of those funds raised helped with treatment, while others sent Cody skydiving in Airlie Beach – a dream he’d always had - on a Jetski trip, and Jet Boating.

And some of them eased Cody’s journey close to its end, putting him in a comfy hotel room away from the hospital beds where he could lay in a bath and float, “finding the weightlessness he craved” when the pain was too bad.

His faithful local AFL team, the Whitsunday Sea Eagles were chief amongst those fundraisers. Cody had found Aussie Rules not too long before the second diagnosis but had made an indelible impression on the club.

They hosted an enormous Kickathon Fundraiser for him in 2021 on top of already donating to his Battle, which included an auction with signed guernseys from clubs across the country, giving club members an outlet for their desire to help.

But no actions were more touching than, in solidarity, when upwards of 15 of Cody’s mates in grade 9 at Proserpine State High School whipped off their hats to reveal they had shaved their heads in 2021.

“It was beautiful. The boys, that group of his close mates that he met through the Sea Eagles, they were wonderful,” Donna said.

“They were always telling each other they loved one another, and that’s hard for boys of that age to do.”

Donna said he made the most of every day and that he left an indelible mark on everyone he interacted with, which is why she believes there are so many whose lives he touched.

“His attitude was that he never sweated the small stuff and made the most of everything.”

“I know there are so many people out there who did something for him - things that we don’t even know about – but we’ll learn about them in the coming weeks.

“There are too many people who have become family and helped Cody in his journey. I can’t thank this community enough for what they’ve done for us.”

If you would like to attend The Cody Effect, a celebration of Cody’s life at Whitsunday Sailing Club on July 24, please RSVP at the link: https://forms.office.com/r/Yx2QCWQawD

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Cody Gibbs passed away in early June after almost a year of treatment for Pineoblastoma

Photo credit: Sam Gillespie

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Celebrating its tenth year, the Airlie Beach Festival of Music has big plans to celebrate a decade of unforgettable events.

Festival founder Gavin Butlin says the event has brought over 600 bands to Airlie over the past nine years and this year is looking big.

“We’re looking forward to our biggest and our best one yet,” he said.

“The whole town comes alive with about 15 venues through town plus the big tent at the Sailing Club.”

Imagine watching world-class live music on the shores of Coral Sea with an expansive view over the islands - it’s a party like no other in the Heart of the Great Barrier Reef.

Plus, there is something for every musical taste at the Airlie Beach Festival of Music.

“If you don’t like it in one venue, you just wander out and jump in the next venue and away you go,” said Gavin.

With a line-up featuring The Animals, Jon Stevens, Eskimo Joe, Ben Lee, Rogue Traders, Mi-Sex and The Badloves plus so many more, a brilliant weekend of music is assured.

As well as the big names, Passport to Airlie has become a highlight of the festival with over 1500 up-and-coming bands going through the competition in the past 10 years.

“Every year it’s getting bigger and bigger,” said Gavin.

Gavin says previous winners of the competition have gone on to great things.

“We’ve got so many local bands here in Mackay and the Whitsundays that don’t get a chance to play their music so it’s really important for the artists to get in front of a crowd and play their music.”

Gavin says tickets are moving quicker than ever this year.

“Get in now and get your tickets because it is going to sell out this year,” he said.

WHAT: Airlie Beach Festival of Music 2022

WHEN: November 4-6, 2022

WHERE: Airlie Beach

TICKETS: www.airliebeachfestivalofmusic.com.au

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Sunset on the Airlie Beach Festival of Music main stage. Photo credit: Kai Millen

A sea of maroon (with a few dots of blue) filled the Mackay Senior Citizens Hall as Golden Years showed their colours ahead of State of Origin last Wednesday.

A morning of smoko, tea and coffee, live music, dancing, raffles and bingo for just $3 is reason enough to turn up to Golden Years every Wednesday, but celebrations like State of Origin make it all the more fun.

“We celebrate anything that is, as I usually say, worth celebrating,” said Club President Michele Shepherd.

Just like the punters at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night, attendees enjoyed meat pies thanks to Byrnes Good Food, as well as the usual homemade sweets.

“We always do pies and peas and plenty of sauce, they absolutely love that,” said Michele.

Betty and Bruce Kearney provided entertainment alongside some friends.

Everyone joined in on a singalong of ‘aye aye yippee yippee aye’, with dancing and a conga line getting everyone to their feet, Chris Harle being the leader of the celebrations.

“(Chris is) very special,” said Michele.

“She said ‘can I bring something?’ and (Betty) said ‘bring six balloons, we might do something with balloons,’ well she brought six bags,” she laughed.

“We’ve got some lovely people like that,”

Golden Years happens at the Senior Citizens Hall every Wednesday morning from 9am – 11am and is open to everyone.

“They don’t have to register, they don’t have to pay any membership fee, it’s good value for $3.”

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“Go the Maroons!” say the volunteers of Golden Years

A morning of meat pies, tea and coffee, music and dancing was enjoyed by many Maroons, and a few Blues' fans

A fundraising breakfast has opened a platform for men across the region to express themselves in art, with the theme of celebrating positive role models.

Shed Happens Mackay, sponsored by DGH Engineering, celebrated International Men’s Day (IMD) last year (IMD21) with a fundraising breakfast. This year, as part of the IMD22 celebrations, Shed Happens have facilitated an Art Show in partnership with the Mackay Art Society, and entries close on August 1.

The first pillar of IMD is ‘Celebrating positive male role models’, and this is the theme for artists to create their works.

Shed Happens convenor Frank Cowell said, “We are calling on any local and emerging artists to submit their entries for this exciting art show.

“The entry form can be found at the SHED Happens Mackay Facebook Page, and there is an entry fee of $10.00 per artwork submitted, with a limit of two pieces per person.”

There are four sections, each with prize money for the winners, with second and third prizes in three of the sections.

The artworks will be on display during August at the Mackay Art Society, Snow Wright Court, Beaconsfield, and the finalists works will be displayed at the Mackay Botanic Gardens Lagoons Café Gallery throughout September.

For more information, contact Frank Cowell on 0434 908 968 or man@dfcowell.net

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When Mackay people gather for weekend barbies with friends and chat about the issues of the day, the conversation invariably leads to a discussion about the best-looking real estate agents in town.

While opinions vary on different agents, I am consistently named in the Top 98 Best-Looking Agents in Mackay.

Some say that, considering my competition, Number 98 is not that great and others point out that numbers 99 and 100 are absolute shockers.

The truth is I have to put a lot of effort into maintaining my standing in the Top 98 and I am far from complacent about my position on the good-looking list.

Diet and exercise are important and my preferred form of physical activity is running.

I like to run in the morning and, while I prefer to do so in daylight, sometimes I wake up during the night, toss and turn for a while and decide to go for a run and go back to bed for a bit more sleep after the run.

I live in West Mackay near Nebo Road, which is beautifully lit up at night so it is a fantastic night-time running track.

The other night I woke up about 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep so I grabbed the dog and we went for a run.

The first thing you notice about Nebo Road at that time of day is how quiet it is now that we have a Ring Road. No more trucks and other vehicles powering their way through the city. The road is now eerily peaceful late at night.

The second thing I noticed as I ran along the footpath was the No Vacancy signs on all the motels. Not one vacancy in all the motels on Nebo Road.

I remember when the real estate downturn kicked in around 2013 that one of the things we noticed was that all the Nebo Road motels had Vacancy signs. The mine workers had stopped coming, business travellers no longer had prospects in Mackay and the motel rooms were empty.

“Vacancy” was a sign of the times.

The question now is whether “No Vacancy” is going to be a continuing sign of these different times.

For all the national media talk about inflation, interest rates, economic pain and housing downturns, the motel rooms are full on Nebo Road, unemployment is virtually non-existent in Mackay, residential rental vacancies are under 1 per cent and business is good.

Two of my properties had more than 30 groups of buyers at open homes in July and inquiries continue to be strong, another good sign of the times.

If our resources sector continues to do well, Mackay might avoid the downturn that is closing in on southern states. Economic pain in the south might lead to a migration to Mackay of people looking for work.

A thriving coal sector is the key as it will drive the rest of our economy. I’ll be keeping an eye on the No Vacancy signs on Nebo Road.

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