Councillor praises CQ bridge naming

Gladstone Regional Council have moved to formally name a bridge in the region to reduce confusion for residents, with one councillor satisfied with council’s response.

Kahn Goodluck at the Meet the Candidates event at CQUni March 12, 2020

The Gladstone Regional Council made the long awaited decision this week to name a bridge which has cultural significance to a small township.

Having received 440 responses during a community consultation period, the bridge outside of Euleilah was formally named the Euleilah Bridge after a resounding response.

Euleilah means butterfly in the language of local indigenous tribe Goreng Goreng, with the naming option collecting 83 per cent (366) votes.

The bridge spans Euleilah Creek, historically called Oyster Creek, on Hills Road and is located approximately 17km from the Fingerboard Roadhouse.

The purpose of naming the bridge was to reduce confusion for residents as to where the exact location of the bridge is during emergencies such as flood or road diversion

Other naming options included the 'Charlie Ikstrums Bridge', after the long-term Baffle Creek resident, which collected 9 per cent (41) of the votes.

The third most popular option was to name the bridge the 'Ted Hardy Euleilah Bridge' after the man who was instrumental to the bridge being built.

That option gained 4 per cent (18) votes.

Deputy Mayor Kahn Goodluck said the naming of the bridge is a good example of where council has listened to the community.

"Because we were faced with a report some months ago where we were potentially going to name the bridge something else," Mr Goodluck said.

"But we went out and listened to the community with an overwhelming 83 per cent of voters have come back to tell us that they know this bridge as another name.
We've gone out to the community, we have asked the people and we have listened."