Join us for our weekly update with Ipswich City Council and Mayor Teresa Harding! Celebrate the council’s recent Innovator of the Year award and hear about the Ipswich Central Revitalisation Project. Discover community initiatives like the test and trial street patio program and the popular parking day trial.
Plus, get the inside scoop on upcoming events: the Spark Ipswich Festival with its mix of music, arts, and interactive activities for all ages. Also, celebrate the Queen’s Park Environmental Education Centre’s 15th birthday and learn about the Festival of Horsepower launch.
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On the Breakky show here on West Bremer Radio streaming live on the app and also on Amazon, Alexa and Google Smart Home speakers. Time for our weekly check-in with Ipswich City Council and Mayor Teresa Harding. Good morning. Morning, Damo. It is good to talk to you and I tell you what, congratulations to the council because it has won a new business award. It has. We have been named Innovator of the Year at the inaugural 2024 Queensland Small Business Friendly Awards. Just for ensuring our
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and supporting our small business community. So it’s a really great thing to see. And of course that’s part of the Ipswich Central Revitalisation Project. I mean, council’s been working hard in that space to really bring it to fruition, hasn’t it? We have, and certainly Council Marnie Doyle has been spearheading a lot of that work to get that revitalisation back into our CBD and getting people back in here. And look, we were the first council back in 2020 to become the first small business friendly council in Queensland. And we’re also the first council…
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in Queensland to implement and provide a test and trial street patio program. And that’s that’s been really popular as well as we’ve designed a footpath extension to activate the outdoor trade in support of small businesses. So it creates a new space for people to sit in and engage with the community. It’s been really popular. It certainly has. I’ve sat in that a couple of times and I’ve enjoyed myself immensely. So in fact, it was very nice for council to put it right across the road from our studios here. That’s right. We also ran the park parking day trial.
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Over three days, it converted six car parks into public spaces where the community could enjoy outdoor dining, music, art. We engaged the Ipswich Plant Swap Community Group and the Ipswich Central Partnerships to transform the bays. And we took excessive engagement to ensure these initiatives were supported by the business owners and the community. And I really appreciate people voting and we had dot-mocracy boards and voting jars. So we really appreciate everyone participating in that. And it was really lovely to receive that state award.
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Yeah, it is good and also, you know, to our small business community, they are the heart and soul of the community and they need all of the help we can give them at the moment. Absolutely. We have these wonderful businesses, small businesses in the top of town in the CBD and they’re the businesses that employ people, provide our services. They also, they’re the ones sponsoring the local sports clubs and scouting groups and things like that. So it’s really important that we continue to support businesses. It certainly is.
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We do that too of course with getting people to come to Ipswich and also provide reasons for people to get out of their houses and at the moment we’ve got the Festival of Horsepower but just around the corner, I can’t believe it’s already here, the Spark Festival. Yes certainly June is the the month of the Festival of Horsepower but we do have to prepare for July which is the Spark Ipswich Festival, that’s our annual cultural and arts festival, it’s getting bigger and bigger each year and it’s over 11 days from the 4th of July.
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Now, of course, it is one of the signature festivals. And of course, it joins, you know, the likes of planes, trains and autos and the Festival of Horsepower. And it really does, you know, create that creative flair within the city, doesn’t it? It does. We try to get the programming and activations right. We’ve listened to residents, but also the creative community and what we can do. And this year’s program is a mix of returning favourites and three fresh new events. We have circuit, which is music in many places. We’ll see.
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pulsating beats played across 15 unique venues across Ipswich Central. We have something new, the Teddy Bears Picnic, where children and their families are invited to bring their favourite teddy, a picnic rug, and brunch to enjoy the entertainment on offer. And a locally created interactive fibre arts garden for children with reading and craft and play activities called A World of My Own at the Queen’s Park Environmental Education Centre. So there’s three new activities that are being brought along. And of course, many of the old favourites, coming back to you,
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One of the big ones is Delight, and that’s where we see those large scale projections on buildings. Yeah, Delight’s been very popular, and our local artists compete very heavily for that, so it’s great to showcase local artists on our local building. So Delight will be showing the local artworks in Darcy Dole Place for a second year with the projections on 143 Brisbane Street, as well as St Paul’s and Lichon Church.
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we’ll have a record-breaking 17 local artists artwork that we profiled as part of the initiative. So it’s looking forward to that. Wow, fantastic. And of course, the World of Music Ipswich, that really sees that one day festival just turn Springfield Central alive. Yeah, it’s in Springfield Central. And it’s a great place to be. It’s a one day World Music Festival. It’s always really full. And we also will have the little day out again, as well, which is for young kids, they come along and sing and dance and create and play and
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The Common People Dancer Stedford is back with local people in training now and practicing. So that should be lots of fun as well. More sequins and spandex that you can poke a stick at, that’s for sure. Absolutely, and lots of fluoro. Exactly. If you want further information on the full program of events across the city, jump on to smarkipswich.com.au for all the details. And you just mentioned the Queen’s Park Environmental Education Centre.
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celebrating a big birthday milestone. That’s right, to all nature lovers, this Wednesday, the 5th of June, is World Environment Day. And it’s also the Queen’s Park Environment Education Centre, which is just next to the cafe. It’s its 15th birthday. So the doors first opened on the 5th of June, 2009, and we’ll be celebrating that. So we’re welcoming anyone from the community who’d like to come along from 10.45 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. to drop in, have a piece of cake, and just share what’s been there.
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Certainly the last 12 months we’ve had over 21,000 visitors come there. It’s a very popular part of our city. Yeah. And of course, including many schools and groups that come through there. And of course we’ve got to, you know, take our hats off to the hardworking staff, especially all the volunteers in on the back of volunteers week to see, you know, without them, it just wouldn’t happen. We have amazing volunteers there in our bush care and land care and it’s their dedication, enthusiasm that really makes it a special place for the community to visit. And even there too on.
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at Queen’s Park, you know, the glass house there by the Glebe Garden community there. It’s really great to see everyone come together. And we’re also running a few things like a free drop in Pugletime program. It’s World UNESCO Environment Day. And the theme is generation restoration this year, which explores the way that we can grow forests, revive water sources and bring back soil. So a really great theme, I think, for Wednesday. And apart from all of these wonderful things, too, I mean, we see so much else happening. I know that you were.
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out at the Riverview neighborhood watch for the muscle immaculata on the weekend. And did I see you getting out of a high speed roadster on Willard Mac Raceway? Yes, we launched the festival horsepower on Saturday night at the Queensland Raceway. And there was a Porsche GT4 RS that we all got to be a passenger in. We didn’t drive them, drive them, Jameau, myself, Councillor Pai Augustine and Councillor Dave Cullen, who you know is an absolute car nut.
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had a ride in them. So it was, and they actually opened it up for everyone else who was there as well. So it was a great time. And the next day at Muscle Maculata, the blue skies came out, there was no rain. So it was a perfect time for everyone to bring up their muscle cars and display them and chat. And it was a really great day. Well, I don’t know about you, but you couldn’t wipe the smile off Councillor Pine Augustine’s face, that’s for sure. She liked the adrenaline rush. I think, I think her dog went very, very fast. Yes, I think she would have liked to have taken that Porsche home. But anyway.
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Listen, always good to catch up with you. And we look forward to doing it again next week. Thanks, Damo. Thanks to listeners. There we go, Mayor Teresa Harding joining us on the program. We’ll take a break back with more in a moment.
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