Welcome To Nanango Shire:
The South Burnett's Heritage Capital!
Welcome To Nanango Shire, the gateway to the dynamic South Burnett region
of Queensland, Australia and its acknowledged heritage capital.
Recent years have seen a great improvement in our Shire's fortunes.
The "green drought" that had afflicted our area for some time finally broke
in late 2003. And over the last few years our Shire has also played host
to the enormous workforce building (and now operating) the extensions
to the Tarong Power Station.
Obviously in a rural area where many of our residents still make their living
from the land, good weather and a strong local economy are vital to the growth
and prosperity of the Shire.
So I hope - as I'm sure we all do - that these good circumstances will continue.
Nanango Shire has been a popular place to settle in recent years and I'm
also very pleased to report that our Shire has continued the strong pace
of growth that began a few years ago.
During the last 24 months we've also been honoured with a regional cabinet
meeting and a visit by the Queensland Governor; by being selected as the
locale for several high-profile sporting events; and by the extensions to
the Tarong Power Station.
The extensions to Tarong created an additional 2,000 jobs during the construction
phase of the project - many of them filled by local people - and I'm very
happy to report that they've also created around 170 permanent new jobs
now that the construction work has been completed.
Again, this will contribute greatly to the long-term development of our Shire.
We all welcome this wonderful news!
Our Shire has always been proud of its sporting prowess and in March 2000
(for the fourth time running) we hosted the Ultrarunners' 1000 mile foot
race, which is Australia's premier long-distance endurance event.
We were selected as hosts because of the wonderful support the three previous
races enjoyed in 1994, 1996 and 1998 - which is really a tribute to the residents
of our Shire, who've thrown their weight behind the ultramarathon ever since
it began.
During 2002 Nanango was also selected as a venue for the Queensland
Criterium, one of the State's premier cycling races. And we were selected
once more in 2003 because of the great support our residents gave to this
event. Then again in 2004 and 2005.
Similarly, Blackbutt has been selected as the venue for State and International
Endurance Horse Rides several times in the last few years. Once again, this
has been because of the tremendous support our residents give to these
popular peak sports events.
Wonderful Community Events Too
In recent years we've seen a number of our Shire's hard-working community
organisations mount an adventurous range of initiatives too.
These include the
Friends of Cultcha's monthly art exhibitions in
Blackbutt; the week-long
Nanango Arts Festival;
our famous
Pioneer Festival; and a range of smaller but no less worthwhile
community events such as The Elegant Craft Affair, Nanango's Big Night Out
and - of course! - the Nanango Theatre Company's wonderful shows.
Each of these groups (and the many, many others that exist in our Shire)
make a significant contribution to the social fabric of all our
communities. We'd all be poorer without them.
Council always appreciates their efforts and supports them when possible
in a number of different ways. These might include such things as rate rebates,
loans, cheap photocopying etc.
In closing, I'd like to thank both my fellow councillors and Council's staff
for their efforts. The dedication and commitment to the advancement of our
Shire has been tremendous and I look forward to their continued support in
the years to come.
