Mitchell refuse tip a load of rubbish

Anyone who has had cause to take their own rubbish to the dump will know that the state of the Mitchell Tip is a disgrace. It’s untidy, Smelly and difficult to access. But before we go crook at the council, I thought I would take the time to get some facts.

The Mitchell Tip for many years has been managed as a nice open pit into which the rubbish could be tipped and then backfilled and covered over. All that was left afterwards was a level patch of open grassland that caused no eyesore. The refuse was burned periodically to save space in the tip and extend the life of the pit. A front bund was in place to stop water from flowing in and a sump was installed to contain any water that did run in for pumping out or evaporation. All in all it was a reasonably neat and tidy place (to the extent that any dump can be)

A couple of years ago, the old tip filled up, so the council in due course set about preparing a new pit for the rubbish........ That’s when the trouble started.

As you know, the state of Queensland is governed by a bunch of people with no real practical experience who live far removed from what happens in the west in far off Brisbane. So when the application to the Department of Environment and Resource Management was received, they said that they could not justify the digging of a new pit for a town the size of Mitchell!

Pardon! Small towns aren’t allowed to have rubbish? Small towns are the ones that do NOT have access to recycling, and because of our location, everything that comes in to our town is packaged and protected for the long journey, creating even more rubbish.

I know the Council Environment and Planning department have worked hard to convince DERM that people who live in small towns DO have rubbish to throw away, but it seems that their efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

After much to-ing and fro-ing they have reached a “Compromise” You can dig down 1200mm or you can dispose of the rubbish above ground and cover it with soil. Excuse me while I swear, what clown thought that up? Instead of having a hole containing the rubbish out of the wind  that provided a level piece of ground when finished, we now have a pile of rubbish sticking up like a sore thumb blowing around the countryside and generally looking like what it is, a great big dump.

DERM need to realise that it is an unnecessary, yet significant cost placed on council and ultimately Bourne by ratepayers for the refuse to be transferred to the Roma tip.

Imagine if all the rubbish from the outlying towns was to be taken back to the Roma tip for processing? Extra Time, wear and Tear, Fuel and wages for council and extra vehicles on the road for the public.

I believe that enough is enough, The state government seem to want us to be happy to pay to freight our goods into town, and then pay to freight the rubbish away again?  It makes no sense, the biggest limiting factor to the development and progress of rural and regional towns is not the state of the economy, the geographic isolation or the impact of climate, it’s the state government and red tape.