The new green space will give residents a beautiful and spacious area for enjoying outdoor activities, picnics, sports, and other community events.
The concept plan is currently on public exhibition and will need feedback from the locals before the actual development. Earlier, a public consultation was undertaken in October 2021, where the planners learned that residents want these facilities to be included in Bedser Street Park:
bin enclosures
exercise equipment
imaginative and informal play nodes
kick-around space
picnic facilities
pedestrian pathways
seating
shade trees
Photo Credit: BCC
Locals may submit their inputs online. The public exhibition will run until Monday, 2 May 2022.
Per the Council, “Bedser Street Park will contribute to Council’s commitment to creating new lifestyle and leisure opportunities by enhancing the park network to respond to a growing and changing Brisbane. The creation of the local recreation park is just one of the many ways the Council is growing your Brisbane lifestyle.”
For more information about this project phone 07 3402 8888 or email parks@brisbane.qld.gov.au.
Mount Gravatt, Mount Gravatt East, Upper Mount Gravatt, and a number of other Brisbane suburbs have had a spraying blitz following news of South East Queensland’s first case of Japanese encephalitis in 24 years.
As the rains and the devasting flooding event have turned wet spaces into breeding grounds for mosquitoes, here’s what you need to know to protect yourself from JE exposure.
Symptoms of Japanese Encephalitis
Japanese encephalitis is a virus that causes a brain infection. It’s transmitted through an infected mosquito bite that may manifest symptoms within 5 to 15 days of the infection. The experts said that JE cannot be transmitted from person to person and it’s usually not transmitted by the most prevalent mosquito species in Queensland.
However, 99 per cent of JE virus infections will show no symptoms, per Queensland Health. Those who do could develop high fever and chills, severe headache, photophobia, neck stiffness, nausea, or vomiting, which could lead to convulsions or coma. A third of patients whose conditions become severe may develop permanent disabilities or succumb to the disease.
Prevention Measures
As the Council continues to monitor mosquito traps located across the city, residents may reduce their risks by doing the following below, per advice from the Australian Department of Health:
applying and regularly reapplying an effective insect repellent on exposed skin
wearing long, loose fitting clothing when outside
ensuring accommodation, including tents, are properly fitted with mosquito nettings or screens
using insecticide sprays, vapour dispensing units (indoors) and mosquito coils (outdoors) to clear rooms and repel mosquitoes from an area
covering all windows, doors, vents and other entrances with insect screens
removing any water-holding containers where mosquitoes may breed
The best mosquito repellents to use must contain diethyltoluamide (DEET), picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus.
Subsequently, locals may be immunised against JE. Distribution and administration of the vaccines will be focused on at-risk groups, such as workers in piggeries, pork abattoirs, or pork-processing plants, laboratory workers who could be exposed to the virus, environmental health workers, and people who reside in locations with confirmed cases.
The developer of a planned service station and fast food outlet along the corner of Kessels Road and Mains Road in Macgregor has filed an appeal after the Council and the Department of Transport and Main Roads rejected the application in November 2020.
According to the decision notice (DA A005114967), the project cannot proceed as it had “not adequately demonstrated compliance with the following applicable codes – Stormwater code, Landscape works code and the Transport, access, parking and servicing code.”
The plan will also create a “potential safety issue” as Kessels Road and Mains Road are major thoroughfares. Adding a service station and a fast food outlet with a drive-through service will “introduce a new conflict point.”
Photo Credit: Pixabay
The State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) said that four rear-end crashes resulting in the motorists’ medical treatments have occurred on the location within five years and the access arrangement provided by the developers “has the potential to increase the likelihood of rear-end crashes.”
Over 50,000 vehicles pass through this intersection every day whilst an additional 116 cars per hour has been projected if service station and fast food outlet were to be completed.
The developer, however, filed an appeal with the Planning and Environment Court on 11 Jan 2021 through its lawyer David Astill, who argued that the proposal will not “adversely impact” the safety, efficiency and traffic movements on the said roads.
Mr Astill also stated that the project’s overall outcome complies with the Mt Gravatt Corridor Neighbourhood Plan and will deliver the location’s economic need.
