Our Country… Our Community
We are so fortunate to live in this beautiful part of the world, despite its harshness, as Dorothea Mackellar so beautifully expressed it in her famous poem “My Country”. But the beauty is not just in the landscape. It’s even more so in the spirit of our community.
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State of Origin Reflections
I thought our State of Origin players did themselves proud on Sunday night, despite criticisms of a few armchair commentators. Of course there were a couple of little brain snaps – but that’s to be expected in such a pressure situation.
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Ecofest this Weekend
QER is again this year a proud sponsor and participant in Gladstone Ecofest. This year’s theme is ‘Turn a new leaf, love our reef’. It’s a terrific community event in which families, community groups, local business and industry come together to celebrate the amazing environment we live in and to focus on initiatives to keep it that way.
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Lighting up the Harbour
Congratulations to everyone involved in this year’s Gladstone Harbour festival. The weekend was a great success and a credit to the organizers, the sponsors, and especially the many volunteers who freely give up so much time to make the event a success.
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Indigenous Ranger Program a Great Idea
I recently visited the Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger base here in Gladstone. The program is sponsored by the Port Curtis Coral Coast Trust, industry, and the Queensland Department of Environment and Science. It is the product of a lot of hard work by the Gidarjil Development Corporation.
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Where did that come from?
Surveys have found that many kids don’t know where their food comes from (they often say ‘the supermarket’), nor their electricity or water. Understandably, they have no direct experience of many of the things we take for granted as a normal part of life in a prosperous country like Australia.
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Self-Sufficiency: An Australian Trait
As always, at this time of year, there is lots of reflection (and dare I say it, argument) about the qualities that make this such a great country. We often hear about mateship and the fair go. But one of our core values that doesn’t get so much air time, but which I think is also an important aspect of our character, is self-sufficiency.
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In the Right Direction
If you follow this column, you’ll realise that at QER, one of our favourite things to do is watching the world oil price. I know… we need to get some more interesting hobbies. But from QER’s point of view, the oil price is an indicator of how close we are to being able to finance a commercial project.
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PCCC Representative Honoured
Congratulations to Dr Kerry Blackman who last week was honoured by CQU. Kerry is a representative of the Port Curtis Coral Coast Indigenous group which includes people of Baiali, Gurang, Gooreng Gooreng and Taribelang Bunda peoples, who traditional lands include the Gladstone through to Bundaberg areas.
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The Importance of Australian Fuel
Like most people, I worry about events in the world at the moment – especially the conflict that seems to be escalating on the Korean Peninsula. One aspect that we don’t often think about is how interdependent we are with countries like Korea and Japan.
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