By Mitch Gaynor
THE Maleny Streetscape upgrade has crept up on residents so slowly that news construction is set to begin this month came as something of a shock.
“About time” is one way of looking at it.
The other is the timing of this “good news” story, which is worth exploring.
It comes just as council prepares to hand down its 2026-27 budget.
(Unfortunately, the timing hasn’t worked in our favour, with the budget documents released after we went to print. Stay tuned.)
We know it’s going to be tough. Division 5 Councillor Winston Johnston said as much at a Palmwoods Town Hall meeting last week.
Council has to find $1 billion in savings over the next decade to plug a hole left, inconceivably, by an accounting error.
While ratepayers might shake their heads in disbelief, council has few levers to pull. You’d be safe to assume many of us will be shaking our heads again when the next rates notices arrive.
Whatever lobbying has been done to secure additional state or federal funding appears to have yielded little.
Unlike some neighbouring councils, Sunshine Coast Council doesn’t do a particularly good job of keeping ratepayers informed about those efforts, making it difficult to judge what has or hasn’t been tried.
That leaves two options: accept significant cost-cutting and pay higher rates at the same time.
It’s not exactly a message that people will embrace.
In the meantime, there’s a touch of “look over here” about projects such as the Maleny Streetscape, a project three years in the making that will ultimately deliver some welcome but belated trees, tables and paving. Nice, certainly.
Unsung heroes
I’d encourage you to read our cover story this week on former World War II soldier Wies Amrein.
The resilience of individuals in the face of enormous adversity never ceases to amaze and inspire.
Amrein volunteered to fight, despite having no obligation to do so. He was imprisoned for three years, starved, beaten and sent to forced labour in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. He survived the Nagasaki bombing and, after gaining his freedom, helped search for survivors, carried wounded men to safety and assisted in recovering and cremating the dead.
Understandably scarred by the experience, he then quietly got on with civilian life.
Thanks to the efforts of members of the Glasshouse Country RSL and his family, this remarkable story has finally come to light, and he was posthumously honoured last week.
Show time
We were also at the Maleny Show last weekend and have plenty of photos in this week’s paper and on Facebook.
It wouldn’t be a Maleny Show without that familiar soggy-underfoot feeling, but at least the sun was shining.
Congratulations to the Show Society for once again bringing together a fantastic event celebrating the agricultural heart of the hinterland.