The Capalaba mural, Ormiston’s heritage, Government for the people and Australia’s defence are discussed in letters to Redlands2030.
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Capalaba mural
What do people think of the Capalaba Mural…please add a thought
I note with great interest the significant level of commentary on the Redland Bayside News Facebook post (20 June 2025) about the mural of children on the roadside wall in Capalaba.
How much further we might be advanced as a community if all those commenting had also visited the Council’s “YourSay” website, and commented on the new Corporate Plan.
D.C.
Thornlands
Editors note: The Redland Bayside News reports this week that the State Government’s Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) will undertake maintenance works of the noise wall located on Moreton Bay Road, Capalaba, including the replacement of missing panels, by late 2025.
Ormiston’s heritage should be protected
I noticed on a sign near Passage Street that Cleveland Point is a Heritage Precinct, this designation may have helped The Courthouse building (on the point) to continue as a much loved restaurant/cafe as advised in the local paper.
I believe that 17 McCartney Street in Ormiston, once part of the original Louis Hope sugar plantation, surely deserves this classification being so near Ormiston House and with various acreage properties nearby.
Please note this very urgent request for this well deserved nomination. The heritage trees on the property with koalas since many years and their corridor along the coast there, plus migratory birds etc should be considered a special area to be treasured and valued.
Please direct these and your thoughts where they deserve to be considered i.e. with your local Councillor.
G.C.
Ormiston
What happened to “government for the people”?
‘Government of the people, for the people and by the people’ : President Abe Lincoln at the end of his famous Gettysburg Address.
Some may still remember those halcyon days, where under the Westminster system, the three arms of government (legislature, executive and judicial), were separate and divisible. This ensured corruption and any obfuscation of government intentions were minimised. National interests were then transparently managed.
What we now have, is a vast array of public services who do what the federal, state or local government of the day wants. Often this may not be what the ‘public’ wants. That is, if they are permitted to know what the government intentions are in the first place.
Even if a government feels obstructed by public servants, consultants are always available to be hired at three times the cost, to ensure a government report says what the government wants it to say.
Official justification has a price. But then, it’s only public money.
P.O.
Cleveland
Defending Australia
Unless you are a gorilla, it is not a good idea to pick a fight with one.
A recent report that our defence planners are starting to talk about defending Australia from Australia was as stunning as it was overdue. Sitting silently like a duck on a pond over the last 10 years or so while the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has converted outcrops in the South China Sea into military bases has left me gobsmacked. Do people imagine they are doing it for fun?
And news that Trump, who lied when he said he would end the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a day, wants Putin’s help to deal with Iran is a stark illustration of a US administration in moral decay.
I saw a video of a lion attacking a pair of porcupines with a baby; called a porcupette. The lion retreated to try to remove the quills (hollow hairs with microscopic backward facing barbs) from its paws. Porcupines apparently eject these quills when they are attacked.
Why even mention this? Because the ever-expanding Chinese armed forces have, we are told, been instructed to be ready to deal with the Taiwan issue by 2027.
Do I think Australia should send our sons and daughters to die in the third war between the Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists that started in 1927? Absolutely not! Is it a vote changer for me? Absolutely yes!
All this comes at a time when the issue of our deep engagement with the US is in question thanks to Trump.
Australia should never take directions from an administration that runs on sycophancy, fear and hatred, because at some stage it will shatter like a fine crystal goblet dropped on a concrete floor.
Members of the US military have a Commander in Chief who refuses to accept that John McCain was a hero because he was captured. He is said to have described those who gave their lives in the service of their country as suckers.
It is past time we developed the sort of defence system that draws inspiration from the Porcupine. Echidnas do not shed quills!
After 9/11 Australia was unstinting in our support for the USA but. Trump, in turn, accuses us of stealing from the US.
Hegseth, a former Fox News talking head, who some say has a drinking problem, decided to lecture Australia about our defence spending. I was pleased with Albo’s response. to that.
The humiliation of President Zelensky and President Ramaphosa in a made for television Kangaroo Court led by Trump and Vance, in the Oval Office liberally sprinkled with golden trinkets that makes it look like a down-market second-hand shop in need of decluttering, was the most shameful exhibition of political thuggery I have ever seen.
No past US president would ever treat the leader of another nation in this way. Trump specialises in this cowardly behaviour and demonstrates it time and time again
Message for Albo – stay away from Trump’s Oval Office, when you’re negotiating AUKUS.
What Trump wanted (and got) was access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. He also wants Canada, Iceland and Panama and while making the already uneven playing field it even more uneven with unjustified tariffs.
China assumes they can exploit our anger with the US over recent tariffs, but we remember that they froze us out and implemented tariffs to punish us.
I lost a cousin, a pilot in 77 squadron, in the Korean war which ended in a stalemate. It was followed by the horrendous war in Vietnam.
The government introduced conscription and sent 60,000 of our young men and women to fight in it. The result was that 523 died and 2400 were wounded.
Despite these sacrifices that part of the map is still red.
Then came Iraq, a debacle, followed by Afghanistan, a failure.
I have no idea what we will need to do to defend ourselves post Taiwan but am grateful that it gives us time to concentrate on defence strategies. Albo is right, before we decide how much we are going to spend on defence, we need to work out what we need to buy or, more importantly, make.
We are a medium power with a GDP in the top 20 in a region that is destined to be dominated, not by the US, but by the next superpowers China and India.
Past assumptions that “The Lucky Country” will muddle through the changing dynamics will not cut it.
So, it is time to turn our innovators loose in a way we have never done before. This may involve backing some losers but compared to the cost in lives lost and treasure spent on other people’s wars over the past hundred years, it is a drop in the bucket.
Repeatedly doing something that fails, is the definition of insanity.
R.W.
Ormiston
More Letters To Redlands2030
Redland Bay apartments, Toondah Roadmap and the 2032 Olympics – in letters
Olympic planning laws – an outrageous abuse of power
Cleveland CBD, whitewater and bee hives in letters
Redlands2030 – 27 June 2025
Mural on Moreton Bay Road wall is well done & placed at entry to Capalaba CBD. On a smaller scale, may I suggest a mural be painted onto an eyesore panel on Old Cleveland Rd, Capalaba, Coolnwynpin Creek bridge, preferably of ducks swimming on surface of the water? This is a neglected area by Redland Council, as pedestrians accessing footpath curving around from bridge past the bottle shop, see no ducks swimming on surface of waterway, blocked by an ugly, tall, timber, non-see through fence. Closer view shows new timber panels replaced damaged ones. Original fence was an appropriate metal see through one, but when Central management requested fence be higher, they were dismayed to see a timber one installed in front of original metal one under Williams’ administration. Dog walkers from Crotona Rd residential area used footpath daily through to Old Cleveland Road bridge. They were angry view blocked of green vegetation & stopped using it. There are three (3) councillors for Capalaba, but all we see around the CBD is further environmental degradation added to recent removal of boardwalk allowed to rot. Agree with all who are requesting merging Redland City Council with Brisbane City Council under direction of Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner.