Bureaufuhrers

The following are from the pages of the Gympie Times on the 5/6th Jul 07: -

EIGHT Gympie families will lose their livelihoods this month in a major victory for Queensland’s culture of complaint, with the closure of the iconic Wises Road sawmill.
One complainant, it seems, has more say than all the mill’s other neighbors and all the people who depend on its social and economic contribution.

The mill’s image, subject of an award winning painting by Gympie artist Peter Hughes, hangs today in Queensland Parliament House as a symbol of Gympie city.

We could rebuild it, if we knew we were going to have timber in 10 years time, but they keep locking up the forests, part owner Rod Godwin said in the mill’s tiny old-fashioned office yesterday.

ONE-MAN bands are altering the character of a Gympie neighborhood and Kevin Gomersal says if it keeps happening, the city’s old world charm will be lost.

Bureaucratic nonsense, is how neighbors of Elliott’s Sawmill describe the action taken to close down the mill which they say has contributed to the cohesion of their community for as long as it’s been in operation.

The mill was here long before these houses were built, Mr. Gomersal said. We’ve lived next to the mill since 1975, raised all our children here and have never had a problem with the noise, you get used to it.

Strong support for the boys who work the mill has been expressed by every homeowner who lives near the mill; it’s believed the complainant who prompted Workplace Health and Safety to take action lives in a rental property.

Lisa Gomersal has lived opposite the mill all her life and questions how a complaint from one person can shut the whole thing down. I hope they feel proud of themselves because I think it stinks, she said. The mill workers are always there if any of us need a helping hand. From getting rid of snakes in our backyard to jump starting our cars, they have always given us a sense of security especially the elderly ladies in the street.

The complainant’s neighbour, Carly Tinker, says it’s a young couple that is doing all the winging, and a better solution would be for them to move. They complain about the whole neighborhood, she said. And the neighborhood fully supports Elliott’s Sawmill.

Many of the neighbors are worried about what will become of the property after the sawmill has been abandoned. They feel it may become derelict and will provide a home to vagrants or possibly could be developed into a large block of units.
The whole time we’ve lived here we have not heard one complaint they start cutting late in the morning and finish when the kids get home from school. A normal sawmill doesn’t work like that they will cut all day.

This is not the first time, as recently the Town Hall Clock was subject to an order by the state ecofuhrers, banning it from ringing at night , at the instigation of the owner of a recently acquired property, and over the objections of numerous residents.

So, I wrote to the Editor as follows

In May I wrote to you beginning as follows: -

"How good it is to see the proud smiling face of the man who stopped the bells of the Town Hall clock on the front page of the Times."

"How refreshing is it to know that those who are intolerant of any minor inconvenience, can buy a place nearby call a government agency, and spoil it for the rest of us."

This time we do not see a smiling face to associate with the closure of a valuable, job providing, evidently community orientated industry, which has for many years contributed in its own way to the economic, and the community structure of the town.

This time we see people put out of work, families thrown into turmoil, as only people who loose a reliable form of employment can fully understand.

This time, it is not people buying near an existing industry and wanting it closed, it's people renting near an existing industry and wanting it closed. If there is such a thing as Karma their landlord will decide that owing to the 'improved amenity' of the area the rent should go up dramatically.

This should not be happening. We as a community have enough on our plates with the social and economic destruction, of recent government decisions, without the petty bureaufuhrers traipsing around the state closing people down on behalf of lone, petty, intolerant, misfits. Yes misfits is the only way to describe people who wish to trample on the rights of the rest of the community over perceived petty problems.

The worst of this is in fact that it is not just happening to us. All over the state and probably the nation wingers will be going to government, and petty officialdom will destroy more industry.

I am reminded by this of the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote in “Lay Morals”, (“The Day After Tomorrow”)
This is over; laisser faire declines in favour; our legislation grows authoritative, grows philanthropical, bristles with new duties and new penalties, and casts a spawn of inspectors, who now begin, note-book in hand, to darken the face of England.