HOW WE SEE IT! Saturday Snapshot
With Bryan Littlely and Shaun Hollis
Mossy Mill on the market
As a bit of a train buff, I’d like to get my hands on a little memento from the Mossman Mill rolling stock if it was truly being sold off at the markets as our cheeky cartoon this week plays at.
But the fact that it is now more of a possibility for the cane trains to find their way into a flea market in bits and pieces as opposed to carrying an industry and the prosperity of a town and region is really rather sad.
With the Mossy Mill now officially on the market, let’s hope something of the rich history can be retained by the new buyer and the site can be utilised for a venture which, while it may not have trains, can still help drive the economy of the region.
Pool concept to make waves
Build it and they will come. Port Douglas, don’t start thinking that you are special in the way that a new swimming pool or seaside development gets proposed at least once a year and makes for big discussion.
More than 100 comments on such a story this week, a proposed swimming pool precinct alongside Sugar Wharf, shows robust community debate on progress… or pools at least… is conversational trade in any tourist town anywhere in Australia.
Just be thankful that Port Douglas has a marina and attracts cruise ships, because the debate over building such a facility in my home town of Victor Harbor - the original South Australian sea port and proposed site of its capital city - has raged almost since Captain Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin had their encounter in that very Encounter Bay a marina needs to be built in.
As for building a community pool, the town finally got one …. To share with neighbouring Port Elliot, Middleton and Goolwa (think a trip longer than Port to Mossman for a swim) and, at 25m in length, it was one metre worth of water for every year the concept was argued.
The overwhelming weight of comments we received for the latest Port Douglas pool concept was in support of the idea. Will they make enough waves to finally get a splashdown?
Concerns not warranted, but we hear you
While not at all surprised by people raising concern about the comments that may be made on social media this week as Rajwinder Singh, 40, faces trial for the murder of much-loved local volunteer Toyah Cordingley, I can assure you all that there is no need for that concern with Newsport.
We monitor and moderate comments on our social media posted articles and have the experience and insight from a combined 50 years of experience, including covering dozens of murder cases in print and in a digital world, to ensure not only our own protection but the requirements of the courts and reporting on them is adhered to.
If we don’t have the capacity to monitor and moderate comments, or we fear our readers and those who will post comments aren’t responsible enough human beings to do the right thing and offer the avenue of a fair trial while expressing grief and support for victims of crime, then we will turn off comments.
As the co-founder of a missing persons' foundation dealing with hundreds of families of missing loved ones, many believed murdered, I have an acute awareness of how comments may flow… and they mostly go the way of expressing support, strength and unity for grieving communities.
But we will keep the comments on the Toyah stories from here on in switched off as I don’t want anyone in our readership to feel anxious.
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