News Archives

---

Novel Wine Industry Promotion Receives State Government Sponsorship

21st November 2003: A regional wine industry promotional campaign being put together by the South Burnett Wine Industry Association has received $12,500 in sponsorship from the Queensland State Government. Yesterday Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announced that the SBWIA's "Barrels To Breakers" program will be funded by a grant from Queensland Events in 2004. The industry's promotional campaign aims to showcase new season South Burnett wine releases at leading Noosa restaurants for a week each August, helping to raise awareness of the quality of the region's wine products amongst locals, the media and tourists. The campaign was inspired by a similar promotion operated by the French wine region of Beaujolais which has traditionally launched its new season wines on a fixed date each year. The "Barrels To Breakers" campaign is one of the keystones of the SBWIA's Wine Industry Marketing Strategy, which was developed by members this year. SBWIA President Graham Helmhold said that he was "delighted" with the sponsorship from Queensland Events, which will greatly assist the Association's efforts. Earlier this year the SBWIA received similar sponsorship from the Tarong Coal Community Development Fund to help formulate a region-wide quality control system for South Burnett wines and to develop a unified logo for the industry. Both projects are still proceeding.
 

Kingaroy To Bid For Chinese Pilot Training School

18th November 2003: Kingaroy Shire Council revealed today that it hopes to have a commercial pilot training centre established at Kingaroy airport at some time within the foreseeable future. In a story in today's South Burnett Times, Kingaroy Shire's Mayor Roger Nunn disclosed that the Council has been working closely with Aviation Australia (a State Government agency) in a bid to attract an investment from China's largest airline, which is facing a shortage of skilled pilots in coming years. The airline is currently considering establishing a commercial pilot training centre in Australia. According to the Times report a high-level delegation from the airline visited the South Burnett last week and were given a tour of current facilities at Kingaroy aerodrome by the Mayor and officers from Kingaroy Shire Council. "They were impressed by Kingaroy's high-level facilities and almost unlimited training space" the Mayor said. While negotiations are still at an embryonic stage and several other sites are also possible contenders for the facility, Mayor Nunn said that he believed the establishment of such a facility in the region would have considerable flow-on effects in both tourism and general industry. In September this year Elite Airways began operating an on-demand air charter service from Kingaroy Aerodrome, ending a gap of almost two decades in regular air services to the South Burnett.
 

South Burnett Retains Numbers On Regional Tourism Board

15th November 2003: The South Burnett has retained its level of representation on the Fraser Coast-South Burnett Regional Tourism Board (FCSBTB) with regional representatives occupying 6 of the 16 available positions (37.5%) - a ratio slightly above the area's proportional membership in the tourism super-group (25%). At yesterday's Annual General Meeting, Wondai Shire Mayor Cr. Percy Iszlaub was re-elected as the Board's chairman for 2004. Councillor Iszlaub will also represent the SBLGA as the region's Council Representative over the next 12 months. South Burnett Tourism Association President Mrs Carolyn Stone from Passchendaele Farm at Burrandowan and Mr Bruce Hurley from The Left Bank - Kilkivan will continue to occupy the roles of Tourism Association Representative and Area Representative that they filled in 2003, respectively. Mr Gerald Keating from Clovely Estates Wines in Moffatdale and Mr Allan Walters from the Yallakool Tourist Park in Murgon will also represent the South Burnett as Industry Representatives for 2004. Full details about the election and the 2004 FCSBTB executive are available on the Tourism Board's web site.
 

Local Councils Face Cost Blow-Out From LGAQ's Web System

12th November 2003: South Burnett councils have learned that they'll face an 800% increase in the costs of delivering online services to their communities if they choose to adopt the Local Government Association of Queensland's Web Enabled Services Delivery project (WESD). Over the last few weeks the region's councils have been informed that the average cost of joining the WESD program has now risen to $15,931 per annum. This represents an eight-fold increase on the average cost structure they currently face and is more than double unofficial cost estimates given to them in the middle of this year. At present the South Burnett's councils are acknowledged leaders in the delivery of online services in rural Queensland. Most of the region's councils have operated advanced web presences since early 2000 and many have been offering secure online bill payment services since 2001. South Burnett council web sites are also updated on a weekly to fortnightly basis to deliver current council notices, minutes and news to visitors as soon as information is approved for publication. Because of this, nearly all the region's councils now attract 2,000 to 3,000 online visitors per month, putting them on par with much bigger coastal and metropolitan councils with significantly larger populations to serve. To date the LGAQ's WESD program has assisted 14 small councils (average population: 3,400) who formerly had no web presence at all to move online. WESD is expected to move to a full-fee based service from 1st July 2004.
 

Regional Cellar Door Numbers Set To Expand

9th November 2003: The number of cellar door outlets in the South Burnett look set to expand by 25% over the next 6 months according to development applications submitted to Murgon, Kingaroy and Nanango Shire Councils in the most recent quarter. Murgon Shire Council recently approved the construction of a new cellar door at the Tipperary Estate B&B at Moffatdale and is currently considering development applications from Moffatdale Ridge for a new cellar door operation, and Bridgeman Downs for an expansion of their existing cellar door and accommodation operations. Meanwhile, Kingaroy Shire Council has approved a development application for the construction of a cellar door and cafe-restaurant at the Kingsley Grove Winery near the Stuart River, and Nanango Shire Council has similarly approved a development application for Whistle Stop Wines to open a new cellar door near Nanango. The new projects are expected to begin coming on-stream in early to mid-2004 and will expand the region's cellar door outlets to 20. This is equal to half the the number of cellar doors that presently exist in the Granite Belt, and almost twice the number of cellar door outlets that exist on the Sunshine Coast.
 

Tourism Association To Look At More Online Sales In 2004

6th November 2003: The South Burnett Tourism Association will examine a plan to aggressively promote more online sales of the region's accommodation, wines and tourist facilities in 2004. The plan - which will be discussed by the SBTA's executive next week, then passed on to the membership (if approved) at the Association's traditional Christmas break-up function - will try to capitalise on the extensive online audience that the region's tourism portal has built up over the last 18 months. Under the plan the portal would allow SBTA members to use the region's web presence to promote their services to a clearly defined target market at no charge. At the same time, the plan would reinforce the benefits of SBTA membership to tourism operators who don't currently belong to the rapidly-expanding organisation. Non-member operators would either be excluded from the proposal or levied a pay-per-use fee to take part. The regional tourism portal now generates between 3,000 and 4,000 queries per month, depending on seasonal factors, and several SBTA members have reported that they now receive as much as 50% of their bookings through it. The portal was developed in 2002 with joint funding from the Tarong Coal Community Development Fund and the Department Of Industry Tourism Resources in Canberra.
 

Property and Business Services Jobs Expand By 64% In A Decade

3rd November 2003: The number of people employed in the property and business services sector in the South Burnett expanded by almost 64% in the decade between 1991 and 2001 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In an analysis of ABS community snapshots from the most recent Census (now available on our web site), the figures show that growth in property and business services sector employment occurred in all parts of the region over the last decade but was strongest in Wondai and Kilkivan Shires. The largest percentage of the workforce employed in this sector, however, occurs in Nanango and Kingaroy Shires where more than 5% of the workforce is now engaged in these activities. Property and business services employment numbers for the region are shown in the table below:
 

Construction Industry 1991 1996 2001 % 91/01 % Wforce Nanango Shire 85 99 131 +54% 5.1% Rosalie (SthB portion) 28 42 54 +92% 2.9% Kingaroy Shire 192 187 275 +43% 5.6% Wondai Shire 15 27 53 +353% 3.5% Murgon Shire 25 37 44 +76% 2.5% Kilkivan Shire 15 32 34 +226% 2.8% Regional Totals 360 424 591 +64.16% 6.1%

 

Back to Latest News

Above: Despite being afflicted by the worst "green drought" in 100 years, the South Burnett's primary producers are still able to take advantage of the region's fertile soils and modern agricultural techniques to produce viable commercial crops. Leading-edge research into drought-tolerant strains of sorghum is being conducted by the Hylan Seed Company at their Durong research station. Commercial seeds developed in the South Burnett are then sold throughout the sorghum belts of Queensland, NSW, WA and the Northern Territory.

   © South Burnett Local Government Association 2000-2003

Email us anytime!