Ipswich missed out in the budget, Cotton On opens new shop at Yamanto, and the Ipswich Show gets under way this week
This week the Queensland Times looked at where Ipswich lost out in the budget
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OPINION
Budget stories are always about winners and losers, and Ipswich was mainly the latter after we took a while to look for which major projects were set to receive federal government funding.
At the top of our list this year were upgrades to the Cunningham Hwy Yamanto to Ebenezer Creek section, the Springfield-Ipswich rail line, and improvements to North Ipswich Reserve.
The upgrade to the Mt Crosby Rd interchange on the Warrego Hwy is the only major road project to get a mention in the budget.
Ironically, that particular design has not received the warmest of feedback from residents, who remain concerned it won’t fully address the massive bottleneck that occurs during peak hours.
The business community had a much more positive reaction, welcoming several aspects of the budget.
The Ipswich Chamber of Commerce said tax cuts for small to medium-sized businesses and the multibillion-dollar boost to regional infrastructure spending and skills training would help in the COVID recovery.
The show we’ve all been waiting for
The Ipswich Show is here, finally you might say, after sitting it out in 2020 due to the pandemic.
We have spent the past three weeks tracking down some of the newer aspects to the show, and this week we spoke to Circus Ipswich founder Meg Hooper about why she decided to take her passion for performing to the next stage.
Dr Hooper has been helping to inspire kids with autism and other physical and intellectual disabilities by teaching them what they are truly capable of.
Don’t forget, you can watch Circus Ipswich perform live at the show this Saturday.
There is also a huge range of other things to see and do at the show this year.
The QT will be at the show this weekend so be sure to keep checking the website for the latest news.
We had some slightly unseasonal rain this week across Ipswich, courtesy of a trio of storms that rolled through on consecutive days.
While none of them delivered anything Earth-shattering in terms of rainfall, the combined totals were not too bad in a lot of areas and will no doubt help us get through the dry of winter.
Ipswich was lucky enough to avoid the worst of the hail for the most part, which is just as well given the fact there are still some residents waiting repairs after copping the brunt of the hail in October last year.
QBCC inspectors went through the Rosewood and Walloon areas on Thursday to make sure there were no dodgy builders doing the rounds.
Here is hoping those residents are close to seeing their houses fully repaired.
This week we reported on a bizarre online scam targeting Riverlink shoppers.
The scammers, who posed as the administrators of a Facebook page run on behalf of the shopping centre, tricked their victims into believing they had won a prize before asking for personal details.
Police say similar scams have been reported at other Ipswich shopping centres in recent weeks.
This report should serve as a reminder for everyone out there to be extremely careful about who they provide banking details to.
And as always, if you are ever in doubt, don’t give any information away until you can be absolutely sure you are not dealing with someone or something dodgy.
Yamanto has been getting busier by the year, and this year in particular has brought big changes for what used to be a suburb of industrial sheds and paddocks not so long ago.
The new Yamanto Central shopping centre this week announced the arrival of clothing giant Cotton On, which opens its new store today, just in time for the Ipswich Show public holiday.
It will no doubt be a major drawcard for the new centre, but there is still a lot more to come before the big grand opening celebration happens mid-year.
Still to come at the new shopping centre will be a health and wellness precinct and an outdoor dining area capable of accommodating 300 people.
The possible downside to all this is that it give Ipswich residents another reason not to venture into our CBD.
We eagerly await news on the council’s plans for the rest of the mall in the coming months.
Originally published as Ipswich missed out in the budget, Cotton On opens new shop at Yamanto, and the Ipswich Show gets under way this week
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