Mayor's Message
Building resilience against adversity
Australia Day allows us to pay tribute to our great country and the people whose effort over the past has built a nation that is known as the Lucky Country. Our celebration occurs on the date that Captain Phillip landed at Sydney Cove in 1788.
While we may be known as the Lucky Country and for the attitude of Fair Go Mate, the spirit of the people who forged this nation was developed because the settlers, facing adversity, developed resilience, courage and strength. Governor Macquarie may have been the originator of Fair Go Mate as Macquarie pursued a policy of allowing deserving emancipists (ex-convicts) to enjoy the same rights as free settlers. In 1810 he made two emancipists magistrates and invited them and other emancipists to dine at government house.
Queensland’s residents have faced many adversities in the past year- the flooding of Brisbane and many country towns, deaths due to the unforeseen water wall in Toowoomba and its devastation down the range and in the Lockyer Valley, Cyclone Yasi and bushfires. During and in the wake of these events Queenslanders have shown their resilience, courage and strength. I would like to thank the Winton residents who rallied to support the victims of these events.
I would now like to focus on some of the adversities encountered by settlers in the Winton area. The spirit of these past residents helping to build the community we have today and which I am proud to be a member of.
The first Pastoralists settled the area in 1860. Imagine the challenges of settling, the difficulty of fulfilling our basic needs shelter, food, and water, at the same time establishing an industry and developing a community. All of us at some time have complained about the town water, think of the Settlers who faced a constant shortage of water until the first town bore operated in 1895.
In the 1890’s our settlers faced severe drought. An example of its devastating effect is Elderslie Station which had maintained a herd of 28000 cattle. The muster found 847. Still in the 1890’s the working conditions of shearers saw the Shearer’s Strike. Some shearers were jailed. From this adversity the workers banded together and showed their strength by the birth of the Australian Labour Party. The Shearing Shed at Dagworth burnt down (was this the area’s first case of arson). This lead to Banjo Paterson writing Waltzing Matilda which has been adopted as our national song. This song has been sung in many arenas, from conflict zones to concert halls always cementing the matehip and fair go mate spirit.
The World’s major conflicts have had devastating effects on our community. In World War 1 it is claimed that the Winton Shire had the largest percentage of enlistees from their population. A look at the Honour Board will show that few families avoided the loss of love ones. However with the outbreak of World War Two, the courage of the residents saw Winton having some of the first enlistees for Queensland.
The tyranny of distance has always been a factor in the settlement and building of the Winton Shire. W.Hudson, Edmund Fysh and Paul McGuiness saw a need that lead to the formation of Qantas. Look at the history of Qantas and you will see that all but one attendee at the first board meeting were from Winton and that the shareholders who financed this dream were mostly from the Winton shire. These men and women had the courage to back a vision, an airline that is now known world-wide.
While droughts are a fact of life and occur regularly, the 1960’s saw severe drought, compounded by low wool/sheep and beef prices. This was a blow to the local economy as the wool industry was the backbone of the town, with approximately seven shearing teams located in the district. This was the beginning of the decrease in the shire’s population. While never returning to it’s previous strength the wool industry revived due to the introduction of floor prices. However the industry was again decimated with drought in the early 90’s and the abolition of floor prices. The resilience of the residents of our shire was needed in the town’s transition from being a part of Australia’s largest wool producing district, to an area which had lost most of its shearing teams and had properties moving away from carrying sheep.
Residents seeing one door closing looked for opportunities which would stimulate the local economy with long term outcomes. Winton entered the tourist market.
The town took up the challenge and fundraising began to finance a centre celebrating our national song Waltzing Matilda.
The social cohesion in this community past and present has enabled us to deal with the adversities faced The Winton community still faces adversity, in the form of the present global economy, the one vote and one value applied to rural and remote Australia by centralized government and from being complacent. This Community must continue to be resilient, take control and build on strengths and opportunities for our future generations. A possibility in our future is renewable energy initiating development using the sun for Solar Energy or our artesian basin for Geo Thermal Power. While actively encouraging new developments, present industries need continued support to achieve their full potential, e.g. our tourist industry including The Australian Age of Dinosaurs, the Gypsum and Opal industries and our original backbone the pastoral industry.
I look forward to living in a community that surmounts its adversities and builds a solid foundation for our future generations.
