June 2023 TAPP General Meeting

Minutes of TAPP Inc. Meeting June 6th 2023

Held at the Caloundra Power Boat Club

Welcome to Country – Ken acknowledged the traditional owners of the land on which we meet.

Member attendance: 15 (as listed in attendance book)

Apologies : – 5

Motion put that the apologies be accepted –

Moved: Helen                                     Seconded– Don                        Carried

Motion put that the minutes of the April meeting be accepted as a true record.

Moved: Graeme                                  Seconded-   Helen                  Carried

Correspondence

If anyone is  interested in any of the correspondence please let the team know and we will send this on to you.

Emails in – 43   

  • Aura Environment Day – requesting assistance to organise their event – Ken, John and Carla
  • SC Council responded to request for Signage re dogs on the sand dunes. Council jurisdiction stops at the high watermark – the sand bars are the responsibility of National Parks.
  • SCEC – request donations to their Forest to Coast program
  • Royal Geographic Society – Soils for Science Forum
  • Division 2 Meeting minutes

Emails Out 19

  • World Environment Day (WED) event cancellation notifications
  • Report of Kens presentation to students at SC University

Motion put that the correspondence be endorsed and accepted

Moved:     Ken                           Seconded: Carla                            Carried   

Treasurers Report

TAPP Bendigo Bank Cash Management Account

TAPP General Account as at 31st  May 2023

Balance Brought Forward from 30/04/2023                                                        $12447.43

Interest  1/5/2023                                                                                                       $        0.12

Membership – Peter                                                                                                   $      20.00

Nil Debits

Balance as at 30th April 2023                                                                                  $12467.55

 

Bells Creek Fund administration account for HLW

Balance as at 30/4/2023                                                                                            $   1950.81

 

Total

TAPP general Account                                                                                             $12467.55

Bells Creek Administration Fund                                                                          $  1950.81

Balance General Account and Bells Creek Admin Fund.                                $14418.36

 

Motion put that the Treasurers Report be accepted as a true record.

Moved: Ken                Seconded: Jude                                                Carried

Matters for Information

Pumicestone Catchment Forum – Carla/Graeme

Summary of this meeting was sent out to members. This meeting was attended by local Community groups and presented by Council

The most interesting presentation was from Mike Ronan who created website with information about all of the waterways in Qld.

https://wetlandinfo.des.qld.gov.au/wetlands/

Mike has agreed that there needs to be a ‘story’ about the Pumicestone Passage included on the website. This is apart from the technical information that already exists.

Pumicestone Catchment Network – Graeme /Carla

Summary also sent out to members. All interested residents, community groups, businesses, developers and local/state governments are members of this network body. Moreton Bay and SC Councils run the meetings that are held approximately 3 times a year.

A plan for the management of the Passage is developed at these meetings; however, the latest plan was not endorsed due to various reasons – including covid and the inability to meet.

It was decided that the plan be a rolling plan which would be assessed and reviewed each year. The plan has actions which different groups will undertake – TAPP has several actions which we are responsible for. Some of which we achieved – e.g. the RAMSAR information brochure.

Pumicestone Passage Catchment Management Body – Graeme

The new name of this group will be The Pumicestone Passage Catchment Advisory Group.

This will be a community advisory group approach to the management of the Passage in the future. The aim is to set up a group that would consist of current politicians who are responsible for this area, the local Councils – the SC and Moreton Bay Council, Our State Govt. representatives as well as Scientists from the university. Then as issues arise this advisory group could make recommendations to the governing departments. This body will be nonpolitical   .

Cancellation of World Environment Day– Ken

As mentioned in correspondence- The response from stallholders were not forthcoming so it was decided to cancel the event.

Bells Creek Project – Ken

Ken met with Gabriela Schuster from Healthy Land and Water at Bells Creek and discussed possible further work at this site.

 

Matters for Discussion – All

Inter-Urban Break Update – Ken

The SC Environment Council developed a draft brochure about the Inter-Urban Break which we will edit and circulate. Narelle is also formulating a pro-forma letter which will be sent to the Community Alliance Group who will send it to their members and then to our relevant  State Government Members. The new SE Qld Regional Plan is being written at the moment. We need the Inter-urban Break to be protected in that document.

The Comiskey Group have proposals to develop the old Roys Rd strawberry farm at the edge of Coochin Creek and The Passage.

He aims to develop a caravan park as well as a major music venue on this site.

The Council and Comiskey are in a court proceeding at present concerning the caravan park.

The status of the music festival is unknown but his plans possibly comply with the State Govt. and Council’s Recreation Plan for the IUB.  The link is below.

inter-urban break outdoor recreation plan

New Business

Meeting Format – Ken

The committee feel that the format of our meetings needs to change.

We would like to see less time spent on the formalities and the information giving and more time on member participation and perhaps guest speakers.

We will in future send out an update before the meeting that would outline the current situation of our different projects. In meeting times these outlines would only be discussed if there are questions.

This suggestion was well received by the members.

The Committee will work on this format in future.

Additional Committee members – Ken

Ken has been president as well as Secretary and Treasurer for most of this year.

Graeme has been supporting Ken as committee member but more committee members would be appreciated. It is understood that committee members will be absent at times during the year so ideally we need other members to help out at those times.

Please consider volunteering to take on a role as a committee member.

Teams Meeting with Healthy Land and Water and Graham Webb from SC Council Ken/ Graeme/Carla/Peter

This meeting was initiated to discuss the declining water quality in the northern section of the Passage. Ken and Graeme met with Graeme Webb earlier this year to look at the drainage of water into the Passage from the Bulcock Beach drain and Tripcony Creek. This issue is becoming a more pressing problem as the original bar is closing.

Peter also attended this teams meeting as our new member with a particular interest in this issue.

Our concerns were expressed to both council and HLW officers who admitted that their testing did not cover many of the health issues that are concerning our members.

Motion put that a subcommittee be formed to look at water quality in the northern end of the Passage

Moved: Peter                                      Seconded –   Carla                  Carried

Donation to SC Environment Council for their Floodplains to Forest appeal

It was agreed to donate $100 to this appeal.

Around The Table

Helen – It would be good to invite First Nations people to present at our meetings

Jude – Thursday morning Bush care will have Georgia Keeshan the SC Council coastal engineer to talk to us about the dredging in the Passage

Judy – Would like to have guest speakers at the meeting. To get more members and others to attend our meetings when we have guest speakers we could invite other community groups. Should we survey members once again about changing the meeting time to the evening?

Ken thanked all attendees and the Meeting Closed at 4.05

Next meeting will be on July 4th at the Caloundra Power Boat Club