General Business - May 28 2025 Ordinary Meeting

Published on 29 May 2025

Councillor Dan Ballard

Since our last Ordinary Meeting, the Council has welcomed two new directors – Kelvin Tytherleigh and Andrew Hobbs.

They form an invaluable part of our Executive Management Team, and they’re both very welcome additions. They have important work, and there’s a lot in front of them, so I’d like to make both Andrew and Kelvin feel very welcome and thank them for choosing Mount Isa City Council.

It’s that time of year when the North West really comes to life and there’s lots of events every weekend.

Since our last Ordinary Meeting, Commerce North West hosted the annual North West MPX. And the Mount Isa Race Club had a terrific turnout for the Mother’s Day Races.

We were lucky enough to meet with a delegation from the Tim Fairfax Foundation to hear about their work supporting mental health initiatives in primary schools.

Just to highlight how busy the event schedule is this time of year, this weekend the Mount Isa District Pony Club will have their Dinner in the Round Yard; Council’s Free Plant Day is on; we’ve got the Camooweal Campdraft and Rodeo; and the North West Community Festival.

So I’d like to wish the organisers every success for those events and certainly encourage people to go out and make the most of those opportunities to really enjoy those events.

The Mount Isa Race Club’s Isa Cup meeting will be on next week (Saturday, June 7), and no doubt it’s going to be a cracker.

I certainly encourage everybody to try and get down there and listen to a guest caller in Josh Fleming, who’s going to be hot seating for our very own Councillor Coghlan while he’s undertaking a sizable but beautiful endeavour.

I wish Cr Coghlan all the very best in what he’s undertaking and support him fully.

Councillor Travis Crowther

Congratulations to the Commerce North West team for North West MPX.

They’re obviously a small team and they’re producing not a bad little effort with support from Council, and then the RJC’s Regional Jobs Expo, they ran that in conjunction with North West MPX. I think that got a lot of people excited.

We got to see an assistant minister come up for it as well, which was great to see.

I just want to do a shout-out for Outback at Isa. I don’t know if people realise, but they had a bit of a disaster there recently where a busted pipe took down nearly all the ceiling in the café, both in the kitchen area and out in the seating area.

Thanks to the contractors that raced out there, got the water off, and disconnected the power so they could then get the operation back up and running, with the help of some of the guys from the Mount Isa City Council staff as well.

It was great to see that they all got together and also how well that Martin and the staff at Outback at Isa have rebounded from this disaster. They’ve made a little interim café and they continue to do the catering work, as well as all the other commitments that they have. They’ve shown great resilience in a bit of a disaster time for them.

Congratulations to our two new directors, Andrew and Kelvin. I wish them all the best and am looking forward to all the changes that are going to be coming. We’ll see them within the city change coming up.

Congratulations to all the awards recipients at the annual SES Mount Isa Awards ceremony that Councillor Tully and I attended.

Councillor James Coghlan

I’d like to welcome Andrew Hobbs and Kelvin Tytherleigh. I think we’re starting to get a pretty good team assembled to take us forward.

I would like to congratulate those who were involved with the Redearth Food and Wine Festival on Saturday night (May 24). I understand it was quite a success – if you put things on, people will come, and they did for that night, and it’s always a wonderful night.

This Saturday (May 31) is Free Plant Day, or Go Green Isa Day, from 9am to 2pm, so make sure you come along. Registrations have closed, but if there are plants left over towards the end, you can grab some. There’s lots of experts there who can help you. There’ll be different giveaways and so forth, so make sure you come down and grab a plant to put in the garden.

I would also like to wish the Mount Isa Race Club all the best next week for the Mount Isa Cup Day. I always say it’s not just one of the biggest events in North Queensland racing; it’s one of the biggest events in North West Queensland, with the amount of people there.

I’ve been working at the Underground Hospital, and the perception of Mount Isa – it’s great to talk to those people. They think the mine is closing and you say to them, “No it’s not, it’s the underground section” and you explain it to them, but they’re from the city. They find it very hard to comprehend.

But just to try and say, like, it’s all positive here, I’m trying to give that feedback to them.

And the number of them who come here to see their kids who are working here really blows my mind, and they’re really surprised at what’s out here and they love what’s out here.

And when I talk to them about their kids, they say they’ve loved it here. The thing that is going against us is still that cost – the cost to get in and out of here – and if we can somehow fix that, then the young professionals that come here, it’ll be easier to attract them.

And once they get here and they have kids and they realise the value of living in this place, they’ll stay. How many people come here for three months and stay for 30 years?

I’ve talked at the Underground Hospital to some people from Virgin Airlines, and they’re sending a bigger plane here at different times, because they want to test out the waters, so that’s good.

I’d also like to thank Madame Mayor and CEO Tim Rose. I’m not really into all of that big-deal stuff with politicians and that – I like to work with the local people, and make sure that we’re efficient and work within the community. I think we’ve got the right people in there championing our cause, and I would just like to thank them for their efforts and congratulate them on what they’ve achieved so far, and I hope it continues.

Deputy Mayor Kim Coghlan

I would like to say a big happy 90th birthday to Inez Bocos, who turned 90 yesterday (Tuesday, May 27) – congratulations on that.

Also a big congratulations has to go to Meals on Wheels, who won the Community Volunteering Impact Award over in Townsville a few weeks ago. Lucie Sanderson went over to represent Meals on Wheels and was there to accept the award, which was really great to see.

We all know the impact that they do have on a lot of families in Mount Isa. I would just like to encourage anyone that can even spend half a day a month to just help deliver meals for them, because they not only cook, but because they haven’t got enough drivers, then they have to go and deliver the meals. So anyone that can spare a little bit of time, that would be great.

I know there’s a lot of people involved in this event, but I dealt with Yvette and Emma – they helped put on the Combined Under 8s Day last Friday at Kruttschnitt Oval, a great day. To all the stallholders, you did a wonderful job. The kids really enjoyed it. It’s only 3pm to 5pm on the Friday afternoon, it ends the whole week when they have all their Under 8s days. A big congratulations to everyone involved with that.

And also congratulations to the IsaRATS (Running and Triathlon Club). They put on a junior duathlon two weeks ago – they did a swim and a run around Kruttschnitt Oval – and it was very well received. It’s good to see that they’re still putting something on for the juniors.

To all the people out there, instead of whinging and getting on Facebook, get out and volunteer.