| |||||||||
24 April 2013
New link road to open options for Springfield Central rail commuters
23 April 2013
Emu on the loose at Redbank
Police were called to Kruger Pde yesterday after a sighting of the emu but it disappeared into nearby bushland and has not been seen since.
"If anyone has a missing emu they should start searching around Kruger Pde," Cr Paul Tully said.
"They have very powerful legs so people shouldn't try to capture it. I've lived in the area for 40 years and I have not seen an emu on the loose previously."
22 April 2013
19 April 2013
Goodna phone outage update: All services to be restored by 7pm
Media Release - Ipswich City Councillor Paul Tully
Telstra has reconnected half of the 2400 telephone lines at Goodna which were cut by NBN contractors on Tuesday.
All services are expected to be restored by 7 o'clock tonight.
Telstra has been working around the clock to restore telephone and internet services to homes and businesses.
Local councillor Paul Tully said the cable was cut outside the Goodna telephone exchange by NBN contractors who "ignored maps of the Telstra cable network".
"This outage is now into its fourth day and is an indictment of NBN and its cowboy work practices."
Cr Tully called on NBN to negotiate compensation for all Goodna businesses affected by the outage.
"These businesses have been struggling since the 2011flood and this has been a real kick in the guts.
"It's not good enough for NBN to ng leave town with businesses still suffering financially because of NBN's total incompetence," Cr Tully said.
17 April 2013
14 April 2013
12 April 2013
08 April 2013
Burst water main Bellbird Park
Queensland Urban Utilities is currently attending a burst water main in Bellbird Park, affecting approx 40 homes in Katandra Crescent and nearby Marlene, Annabelle and Beryl Sts.
A water tanker and bottled water is available on the corner of Katandra Crescent and Marlene Street.
The burst was communicated at approx 3am and work to restore is expected to continue for a few more hours.
06 April 2013
05 April 2013
29 March 2013
Former NZ International joins Goodna Rugby League for 2013
David Solomona has signed to play for the mighty Goodna Eagles in 2013.
David is a very experienced well respected second row forward and will assist the cause greatly as the Club seeks the holy grail.
His signing as well as Alby Talipeau and David Heketoa will work well for the Club.
David's career spanned 13 internationals for Samoa, 13 internationals for New Zealand, 78 NRL games for Roosters and Parramatta, and 204 games in the English Super League for various clubs.
He retired last year from Warrington in the super league.
At 35 years young he has still got a lot to give to himself, his family, the community and the Mighty Eagles.
David is a very experienced well respected second row forward and will assist the cause greatly as the Club seeks the holy grail.
His signing as well as Alby Talipeau and David Heketoa will work well for the Club.
David's career spanned 13 internationals for Samoa, 13 internationals for New Zealand, 78 NRL games for Roosters and Parramatta, and 204 games in the English Super League for various clubs.
He retired last year from Warrington in the super league.
At 35 years young he has still got a lot to give to himself, his family, the community and the Mighty Eagles.
17 March 2013
Goodna Lads Toowoomba Newtown Park 1918 - World War 1
 |
| Goodna Lads at Toowoomba Newtown Park 1918 |
Do you or any family members recognise any of the "Goodna Lads" in this historic photograph taken in Toowoomba in 1918.
If you can help, please contact: PaulGTully@gmail.com
12 March 2013
Tully joins irate critics of ‘shoddy’ tree gang
 |
RESIDENTS MIFFED: Energex contractors
upset residents while cutting down trees
in Goodna and Bellbird Park.
|
RESIDENTS of Goodna and Bellbird Park are fuming over the actions of Energex tree loppers who have been accused of destroying trees and illegally entering people's yards.
Cr Paul Tully said Ipswich City Council was "investigating reports the Energex contractor using Victorian vehicles is dumping branches on footpaths forcing children and residents onto busy roads".
He described the contractors as "cowboys who seem to be breaking every rule in the book".
Cr Tully's Facebook page was inundated with complaints.
One resident named Katrina said the contractors "did Rosemary St recently and damaged the letterbox and walkway. Their trucks almost cut my driveway off. Made it quite unsafe to enter and exit our driveway".
Another, Mandy, said she "saw a small boy ... have to walk out onto the road" because of the contractors' actions. Cr Tully said council was investigating possible offences by the contractors with fines up to $110,000.
"A schoolchild could be killed as a result of these haphazard works," he said.
Cr Tully said the Energex contractors had blocked one footpath in Goodna's Queen St after NBN had blocked the other, forcing pedestrians onto a road that carries 20,000 vehicles a day.
"These cowboys should go back to Victoria before someone is killed or seriously injured," he said.
An Energex spokesman said the company had "an overriding commitment to provide a safe and reliable electricity supply for south-east Queensland".
This included "clearing tree branches growing near overhead powerlines, which can be a risk for children climbing unknowingly into danger, or in areas where tree branches can get blown onto lines, causing lines to fall and subsequent power interruptions".
"The council and Energex have in recent years undertaken jointly funded programs regarding overhead powerlines," the spokesman said.
"While around 25% of power in Ipswich is via underground cables there is still a requirement to carry out regular safety and reliability work around the existing overhead lines."
12.3.13
03 March 2013
More rain coming
The Sunday Mail reports:
DRENCHING rains since the start of the year have seen Brisbane receive more than half its annual average rainfall.
Thanks to the rain associated with ex-Cyclone Oswald, a wet February and a soggy start to March, more than 600mm has fallen on Brisbane, where the annual mean rainfall is 1149mm.
The bucketing is just a snapshot of a wild start to 2013 in Queensland - with more to come.
The weather bureau is watching a monsoon trough in the north that could turn into a cyclone, bringing more rain to drench Queensland.
Brisbane will today exceed its March average rainfall in the wettest weekend since the Australia Day holiday deluge.
From late Friday night to yesterday evening, between 100 and 120mm had fallen, with another 50 to 70mm expected before noon today, as a result of an upper air system fuelled by moist east-northeasterlies.
02 March 2013
27 February 2013
23 February 2013
Kelly Gang saga continues: Truth of Dan Kelly’s fate stays a mystery
 |
| MYSTERY MAN: Dan Kelly, the bushranger’s brother, whose fate may remain unknown. |
 |
| The Truth from August 1, 1948. |
IT IS a debate that has been in play for 80 years.
When an Ipswich vagrant going by the name of James Ryan walked into the offices of The Truth newspaper in 1933 and said he was bushranger Dan Kelly it unleashed an enduring controversy.
Ryan is buried in the Ipswich General Cemetery and his links to Kelly are honoured at the site.
Before Ryan's claims, Dan Kelly was thought to have died in the Glenrowan hotel fire of 1880.
In 2005 Cairns author and historian Brian Stevenson debated Cr Paul Tully about the issue in Ipswich. Mr Stevenson does not believe Ryan was Kelly, while Cr Tully is open to the possibility that he was.
Mr Stevenson has listed the errors in Ryan's statements. In the 1933 Truth article, Ryan said his father's name was "Old Ned". Kelly's father was in fact John Kelly.
Ryan said his father was brought to Australia from Dublin in 1845 for poaching. John Kelly was brought to Australia in 1841 from Tipperary for the theft of two pigs.
Ryan said his mother's name was Kate. Kelly's mother's name was Ellen.
Stevenson lists other errors and told The QT that "we have on record a gentleman that doesn't know the name of his father, doesn't know the name of his mother and gets mixed up as to when they were in jail and when they died".
"He says Constable Fitzpatrick was shot through the heart, but Constable Fitzpatrick lived a reasonably long life and died in 1924. There are inaccuracies all the way through it," he said.
But Cr Tully said the shrewd Ryan had good reason to throw in some misleading titbits of information and that he might have been "keeping things up his sleeve just in case he was charged with murder".
"He believed when he went into the offices of The Truth that the statute of limitations prevented him being prosecuted after 50 years, but that is not true," he said.
"If you were facing murder charges you might throw up a few furphies just in case the police had you extradited. Maybe he was changing some of the information so that if he was charged he could claim it was just a joke.
"You talk to people who knew him like (local resident) John Harris and they swear that he was Dan Kelly. One of the key facts is that in 1934 he appeared at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds in sideshow alley where people paid to question him. He spoke about his family and the Kelly gang and no one was able to refute him or catch him out on any detail. The Truth newspaper reported that."
Cr Tully said the article in The Truth may have included "transcription errors" by the journalist.
"The story in the newspaper in 1933 was provided orally. But having seen a newsreel of this chap, he spoke with a slight speech impediment and was roughly spoken," he said
"Could the reporter take shorthand? Everyone is assuming that what was written in the newspaper was accurately reported, but I defy anyone in Australia to say they have never read an inaccurate report in a newspaper."
Mr Stevenson said Cr Tully had "drawn a pretty long bow".
"Journalists get things wrong occasionally, but not perpetually," he said.
"If you think you are going to get yourself in trouble for murdering somebody, you keep quiet. You don't get yourself written about in the Sunday papers."
Mr Stevenson said Ryan likely enjoyed having the attention focused on him and the "free drinks" at hotels that went with his tales.
When The QT visited Cr Tully to talk about the Kelly saga he presented us with Ryan's death certificate. It says he was 94 years of age when he died in 1948 and that his parents were Luke Ryan and Kate Lawler.
But the real Dan Kelly was born in 1861 and would have been 87.
Cr Tully said a further discrepancy pointed to Ryan's propensity to leave false trails about his true identity for much of his life.
"That death certificate raises more questions than it answers," he said.
"I have done an online search of Victorian historical birth records and they do not show any record of a person named James Ryan with parents with those names.
"Did he falsify his pension application where that information came from? It is a bizarre situation. Even in death he might have had the last laugh of keeping the truth concealed."
www.QT.com.au
22.2.13
22 February 2013
Ipswich City's icon is on cloud nine
 |
| OPTIMISTIC AIR: Leighton Properties’ Bradley Norris, Mayor Paul Pisasale, Cr Paul Tully and council’s commercial asset manager, Steve Bannister-Tyrrell. |
ICON Ipswich is on track for a September completion as construction of the ninth floor of the Bell St building is finished.
The $93 million tower will welcome 1200 public servants on October 1, the first day the Queensland Government's 15-year lease.
The "topping out" milestone was achieved on schedule, Leighton Properties project director Bradley Norris said.
"To see the exterior of the building taking shape is an exciting stage in the development's progress, and is a clear demonstration of the continued progress of Ipswich," he said.
"We are also on track to achieve practical completion by September 2013."
The 117 Brisbane St address covers 15,000sq m of commercial space together with 750sq m of ground floor retail.
Leighton Properties is continuing to progress negotiations with several national retailers for the ground floor retail tenancies.
Mayor Paul Pisasale said he remembered when the iconic Cribb and Foote store occupied the site.
Now the address is embarking on a new iconic future.
"This is only the start of the journey. We are talking about a very historic site that was the heart and soul of Ipswich," he said.
"The Icon Ipswich building will now become another icon. The hardest thing is to get the rest of the CBD going. The partnership between the CBD and Riverlink will become more important.
"This iconic landmark is supporting local jobs - it will boost our local economy and drive further commercial interest in Ipswich - helping to grow our city and the surrounding region."
Work began on Icon Ipswich in late 2011 as the CBD took its first steps towards a major overhaul.
Doubts whether the State Government could attract public servants to voluntarily work in Ipswich were raised when Premier Campbell Newman admitted public servants did not want to move.
But Cr Pisasale plans to hold an open day in a bid to convince public servants Ipswich is a great place to live and work.
Icon Ipswich
The second Icon Ipswich tower is expected to have eight levels.
It will be home to 1200 public servants.
www.QT.com.au
22.2.13
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)