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Newsletter April 2016# - 2

JUNKURI LAKA OFFICE PROJECT UPDATE The office work team is moving along nicely with the foundations for the office extension. Here are some photos of the progress.

First row of concrete piers in place, with a shot of the footing team and supervisor Ian.

The concrete mixing crew in action.

And a few more shots of these heavy blocks that will support the office extension.

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ANZAC CEREMONY 25 APRIL 2016 - 9:00 AM Last year the Council organized a very moving ANZC ceremony at the flag post at the council office. There was a particularly good speech given by Alan Wilson, who served many years in the military. A good crowd showed up, who enjoyed the proceedings and the morning tea following it.

Everybody is invited to attend this year as well. The Ceremony will start at 9:00 exactly and will be held on ANZAC day, Monday 25 April, at the flagpost.

CROCODILE SIGHTINGS

Just a reminder folks, the crocodiles are still hanging around in the channel. Last week two were spotted close to the boat ramp. Keep an eye out when boating and fishing.

NOISE AND NUISANCE We have received quite a few requests lately to talk about noise and the nuisance caused by loud music and parties in the middle of the night.

The best way to resolve these neighbourhood issues is to sort things out directly with your neighbours, and this is something the mediation team can help with.

But what is the law about this? Well there are different rules that apply for different types of noise. For instance noise from work activities or from animals and dogs is regulated by the council. Noise from amplified music and wild parties is something the police deals with. Contrary to common belief, there are no specific times during which loud noise is not allowed. Obviously common sense would dictate that a noisy party is much more of a nuisance in the middle of the night, but excessive noise is actually never OK.

So our advice is as follows, talk to your neighbours first, and ask the mediation team to help if necessary. If that doesn’t help, you’ll have to call the cops. Everybody is entitled to a good night sleep for their next day at work, that shouldn’t be spoilt by party makers without responsibilities.

NO ALCOHOL SIGNS We remind the community we now have “no alcohol” signs for those people who want to keep the grog and drunks out of their home. This is what they look like:

These signs are sponsored by the Council and Junkuri Laka. You can get one for $20 at the Junkuri Laka office, or come and talk with Berry for a sponsored one.

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NEW RESEARCH SHOWS WETLANDS ON BENTINCK ARE UP TO 800 YEARS OLD Recent research on Bentinck Island by Lydia Mackenzie and Patrick Moss (University of Queensland), who are members of the ‘Naïve Island Landscapes’ ARC Project undertaken in collaboration with the Kaiadilt Aboriginal Corporation, was recently accepted for publication in a journal called The Holocene. The study collected three small cores using a hand auger (about 5cm wide and 50cm deep) from wetlands on Bentinck Island and looked at changes in the sediments over the past 1200 years. The changes in the sediments can tell us how and when the wetlands formed. The study found the Marralda wetlands near Nyinyilki (near the cemetery) are the oldest coastal wetlands found so far on Kaiadilt country, forming around 800 years ago. Before this mangroves grew across the area. Swamps near Rukathi (Oaktree Point) are much younger, collecting water in the last 400 years.

Lydia Mackenzie and Lincoln Steinberger collecting sediment cores from the Marralda wetlands.

MORNINGTON SHIRE COUNCIL WEBSITE A GOOD SOURCE OF INFORMATION Remember folks, the Council recently started a new website, and this has certainly grown quickly into a very good source of information.

You can find this website at www.mornington.qld.gov.au

The website has information about all council meetings and provides access to minutes from the council meetings and many other council documents.

On the website there is also a section about events in the community, and there is a list of all available jobs with the Council.

Go to the Council website, and have a look for yourself!

The Council also maintains a Facebook page at “morningtonshirecouncil”.

VET VISITS FOR 2016 See the poster at the end of this newsletter for the dates when the Vet is visiting, and where to find him.

MAGISTRATE COURT

This is not really Stephen Mosch.

This week we have Magistrate Court again. It is on Tuesday 19 April. Magistrate Stephen Mosch will be presiding.

There are a shocking number of well over a hundred people on the list altogether. This is the result of their not

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being a Magistrate Court last month. Below is a list of who needs to be in court, but those who only have DVO applications, or children appearing for the first time are not on the list in this newsletter, which leaves 101 people on this list. Here is the list for this week:

If your name is on the list and you think it shouldn’t be, or if you have a police notice and your name is not on this

list, go and see Olivia or Berry to work out if you have to be in court. You can also just come to court and ask it there, we will be there all day.

Normally we also write about the type of charges people are appearing for and we give some statistics, but this month we received the information we rely on too late and couldn’t finish that in time for the newsletter.

In any event, despite the excuse that there was no court last month, and that there are a lot of old matters on the list, this list is way too big.

We think that things are not going the right way. After having had years of offending going down, we are seeing an increase again. Junkuri Laka thinks the government’s refusal to talk about AMP review has to do with this, as we see ever more homebrew and illegal grog on the Island.

We also have a problem with the information exchange between police prosecutions and the Justice Group, which makes it much harder for us to talk with families early avoid further problems. This also makes it harder for us to make sure things go through court quickly.

MORNINGTON COUNCIL WINS QUEENSLAND AWARD The Council has won a Queensland award for asbestos education at the national awards - presented by Wolf Creeks John Jarratt, Council was awarded for it's proactive campaign where 50 locals from Gununa got involved with a simulated asbestos removal task a few months back! Awesome news, showing steps forward in capacity building!

Our Mayor, Bradley Wilson had this to say about winning this award:

"Mornington Shire Council is thrilled to receive the Queensland Betty Award in the national asbestos awards for most active campaign (after taking out the

Wandirrmu Alfred Russel NedAluvula Amini Mavis NeroCharlie Anderson Percival PetersAlistair Barclay Sharlene PetersPreston Beardsley Ronnie PyroAlan Bell Vonnie RainbowBeryl Bell Nickita RobertsRosemary Bell Raynard RobertsonRomina Ben Lee RogersLewanna Binjari Edgar RosserKaye Bush Michael RosserMickey Bush Adam RoughseyShantani Bush Andre RoughseyShereleen Bush Annika RoughseyIvy Charles Arthur RoughseyTrinity Chong Audrianna RoughseyDonna Davis Fabian RoughseyEphraim Davis Karlene RoughseyVictor Davis Kenneth RoughseyJanelle Dugong Lorraine RoughseyZephaniah Dugong Lorretta RoughseyDoricho Escott Michael RoughseyCandice Evans Mirindi RoughseyDonovan Evans Richard (Jr) RoughseyMelinda Foster Timothy Jr RoughseyKyle Gabori Virginia RoughseyLenford Gabori Hilda ThomasPatrick Goodman Cheryl ThompsonSamuel Goodman Kelston ThompsonUrsula Goodman Kylie ThompsonBrett Hills Luella ThompsonClement Hills Nelson ThompsonNathaniel Hills Ronston ThompsonNoelene Hills Chicko TobyRoxanne Hills Graham TobyAshlyn Jacob Ross TobyKirk Jacob Selwyn TobyLaurie Jacob Gregory WalpoBryson Jingles Neressa WattAaron Kelly Birrka WilliamsRoger Jr Kelly Denise WilliamsGeoffrey Loogatha Javon WilliamsDavin Lorraine Kate WilliamsJaslyn Lorraine Adrian WilsonDavid Jr Medwin Glen WilsonRalph Mitchell Hayden WilsonMishayla Moodoonuthi Sidney WilsonGlendon Moon Ian WoolfordAlexia Mow Jennika YarrakChantelle Namie Shaylene YarrakRodney Naranatjil

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asbestos national award in 2014 for most innovative council). Awards such as the Betty’s help to highlight the need for our community to be ever vigilant in the identification and treatment of asbestos. Asbestos awareness is paramount to the health and safety of all Australians and we will continue to work towards achieving an asbestos free community on Mornington Island."

We don’t know who the people in the photo below are, but they are holding the award given to the Council, and they look all hot and bothered about it, so that’s good!

HELEN PECK COMPLETES BOOK ABOUT THE HISTORY OF KAIADILT FOOD SOURCE USE Recently Helene Peck completed her PhD thesis at James Cook University. It is about understanding the history of Kaiadilt diet. Her project looks at long-term patterns in the diversity of fish and shellfish resources available to Kaiadilt people over the past 3500 years. This study also represents the first Australian investigation that uses

analysis of food chains to look at the effects of human resource use on the available fisheries.

The information used comes from eight Kaiadilt campsites across Bentinck, Sweers and Fowler Islands. Archaeological evidence indicates that shellfish, fish and crabs have always been important to Kaiadilt diet. A total of 124.3kg of shells and fish bones were dug up from pre-historic campsites and examined for this study. The results show that people’s hunting strategies were broad-based in terms of both range of habitats accessed and diversity of species collected. 62 shellfish species were identified. Hiant venus clam (Marcia hiantina), rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata), turban snails (Lunella cinerea) and longbums (Telescopium telescopium) were the main shellfish consumed. There was evidence for a long-term trend in changing habitat preferences that could reflect changing cultural preferences and/or changing environments affecting resource availability. From two locations on Bentinck Island we have signals that clearly imply changes in diet-breadth around 500 years ago, which were likely a response an environmental event (e.g. cyclone or storm surge) impacting mangrove habitats and therefore changing the available species.

At least 15 species of fish, 1 species of shark and 1 species of turtle were identified from the bones. Based on known habitats for the fish identified (e.g. catfish, grass sweetlip, rockcod, mullet, longtom, whiting, wrasse) much of the fish would have been obtained from hunting in nearshore waters, either from around rocky/coral reefs, intertidal mangroves, estuaries or in the numerous constructed stone-walled intertidal fish traps. We think it is likely that in the past, as in the present, dugong, turtle and some larger fish were butchered and eaten at the beach close to where they were caught, rather than returned to the main campsites.

The information obtained suggest that people targeted primarily shellfish during the early periods of occupation,

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before shifting their focus to a broader diet incorporating fish and other species. The research further shows that Kaiadilt people managed their environment carefully and had little long-term impacts on the overall fishery of their country.

This archaeological research undertaken in collaboration with the Kaiadilt Aboriginal community has resulted in the recording of cultural places on Kaiadilt country. Community engagement has been an integral part of this research and ultimately has contributed to the success of the project. Helen thanks the Kaiadilt people for the privilege of being able to work with them on Kaiadilt country.

MORE CLOSING THE GAP TALK By Mei Zondag, Parole Officer

In a previous newsletter there was a lot of talk about closing the gap and the doctor explained to us that people on Mornington Island die many years sooner than people from other parts in Australia (maybe even 30 years earlier, that is a lot!). Recently we had a wonderful event at the hospital with all sorts of interesting activities to make us more aware about the fact that we have to look after our health and the health of our families. Less alcohol, healthier food and importantly cleanliness because:

A clean house = a safe house = a longer life.

(And making sure your pets are clean and healthy is important too.)

Today I want to talk about closing the gap again. The gap I want to talk about is that more indigenous people who are on Parole go back to prison, as compared to non-indigenous people. And I think that going back to prison is not good for the health of our families. The Mornington Island team at probation and parole are working hard to close this gap and we would really like to see months or even better, years without anybody getting into trouble and going back to prison.

Being on parole is hard. Being on Parole is hard because it is a time to think and talk about what went wrong and what you need to do differently so you won't be making the same mistake again. That is especially important if someone was hurt because of your

offending. If you can see what went wrong, you can start doing something to change it. But changing its hard.

Why is change so hard? Changing its hard because you have to become a new you or at least a little bit of a new you. It means you have to stop doing things that you have been doing for a long time, for instance stop drinking alcohol and stop hanging out with friends who continue to drink. You have to start looking for new things to do to keep your mind busy and maybe you feel a bit bored or feel left out from your old group of friends.

It can be exhausting (making you tired) being the new you. Not only do you have to start doing new things, you also need to control yourself from relapsing. And then, one day you lose your self-control and you give in to the temptations, because going out with friends or family was so much fun, those first drinks tasted so good. Before you know it you‘re back into your old behaviour and in trouble again.

People need all the help they can get. People on parole try to change. They get help from probation and parole, from ATODS, the Wellbeing Centre, Junkuri Laka and sometimes from mental health. But all that is not enough. It is YOU, the family and friends, the people who spend most time with the person who is on parole it is you who is most important in helping the person to change. If you give up on them, then why should they even try, to change?

How can you help someone on Parole?

DO NOT

• Ask them to come drinking with you • Drink alcohol in their presence • Sell homebrew to someone who always ends up

fighting, or does domestic violence

DO

• Respect someone’s decision to change • Spend quality time with them

HAVE

• A safe house, without violence, without alcohol or drunken people in the house

• A quiet time at night, so everyone can get their much needed sleep.

A clean house = a safe house = a longer life

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FROM THE HOSPITAL: FLUE SEASON IS COMING, ARE YOU READY? Reminder to come and have your flu shot, its free.

Facts about the Flu Shot: It’s that time of year again—time to load up on tissues and glare at any sniffling co-workers, community or family member. Have questions? We have answers. Here’s what you need to know about this season’s hottest commodity: the flu shot.

WHAT IS THE FLU, ANYWAY?: “Flu” is short for influenza, which is a nasty disease caused by the influenza virus. The virus affects a person’s lungs, nose, and throat, so symptoms will be concentrated in those areas. The most common symptoms are fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose or stuffy nose, muscle aches, and fatigue. Not everyone will have all of these symptoms.

WHAT'S IN A FLU SHOT? : Each shot contains a teeny tiny bit of dead flu virus, just enough to help your body prepare against the real thing.

I NEVER GET THE FLU. WHY SHOULD I GET A SHOT? : Past performance is not indicative of future results, my friend. Just because you’ve never had it before doesn’t mean you’re invincible. Even if you never have symptoms in your life, you could be carrying the virus around, exposing everyone else to it. And not everybody’s immune system is as robust and macho as yours. Think about babies, and people with compromised immune systems, and pregnant people, and the elderly. Do you really want to be the one who gets them sick?

I JUST GOT VACCINATED LAST YEAR. WHY DO I HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN?: There are many, many types of flu. Each year, researchers determine which strains seem like they’re going to be a threat, and make a vaccine that protects against those strains. To stay protected against the latest flu risks, you must keep your shots up to date.

WHICH TYPES OF FLU DOES THE VACCINE PROTECT AGAINST?: According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, three kinds of flu viruses commonly circulate. The flu shots that we have in the hospital are designed to protect against four types of flu.

CAN THE FLU SHOT GIVE YOU THE FLU?: No. Your flu shot is either made with dead flu virus or with no actual virus at all. You may have some side effects after getting your shot, but those are usually limited to pain or swelling around the site of the injection. In rare cases, you may have a low-grade fever or mild muscle aches, but these are side effects, and not the flu.

CAN I GET A FLU SHOT IF I'M ALLERGIC TO EGGS?: Yes! For a while, doctors were cautioning people with egg allergies to stay away from the flu vaccine, but this seems to have been unnecessary. If you’re really concerned about an allergic reaction, talk to your doctor.

IF I GET THE FLU, SHOULD I TAKE ANTIBIOTICS?: No! The flu is caused by a virus, not bacteria; antibiotics respond only to bacteria.

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