Caboolture – 1 – Wamuran
(written by Hilary Berger in 2011)
In early 1990, a local lady, Dianne Bartley, was fed-up with the crime and hooning in cars She invited all concerned residents to a meeting on 7th March 1990 for a discussion re a formation of a neighbourhood watch. 17 residents plus Constable Glen Thomas, the guest speaker and District Police Community Officer from Redcliffe, attended the meeting at the school. Const. Thomas explained what was involved with a NHW and all agreed there was a real need for this program to be set up in Wamuran.
Firstly, a Steering Committee had to be formed, maps of the area obtained and the area for the NHW defined. Then the whole of the Wamuran area had to canvassed (a huge job as our area was so large, with mainly rural properties then) and 60% of residents had to support a formation of a Wamuran NHW. The result was 95% in favour. A letter was written and sent to all residents explaining all about NHW and what it would mean to Wamuran and calling for the resident’s support.
The Launch Meeting of Wamuran NHW was on Monday 30th April 1990 with 150 residents and 5 police in attendance, including Senior Constable Bill Feldman, our first Police Liaison Officer. Volunteers were called for 4 Zone Coordinators – result: Zone 1 – Jim McKeown; Zone 2 – Hilary Berger; Zone 3 – Roger Graham; and Zone 4 – Doug Rumsey. The Area Coordinator was Dianne Bartley & Chris Martin Assistant Area Coordinator. 40 Block Coordinators also volunteered that night. Many of those block coordinators are still in that same position today. The yearly ‘Voluntary Donation’ was decided to be $3.00, (still the same today), and name tags were ordered immediately for the coordinators.
The first official Wamuran NHW newsletter was put out in May 1990 with a welcome to Wamuran NHW. A monthly newsletter (except for January each year) has been produced ever since.
During our 1st year, we held a number of public meetings, including a home security meeting with 98 in attendance, an Insurance Meeting with 46 attending, a Qld. Ambulance Meeting with 32 attending, and then ‘Fire Services in our Community’ meeting with 68 attendees.
The Caboolture District Commander, Tom Dillon, of Qld Fire Services spoke on the current local situation, government legislation & responsibilities of residents – urban & rural. Glen Mills, then the only paid employee of the Qld Rural Fire Service, spoke; and from this meeting, due to so much interest by the locals, a Wamuran Rural Fire Brigade meeting was called, to reform our local brigade. Glen Mills then chaired that meeting also, on 15th April 1991; and Wamuran Rural Fire Brigade was reformed, plus a Miketee R.F.B. was formed. This was a great result from a Wamuran NHW public meeting!
Other public meetings were held in those early days, including Domestic Violence, Victims of Crime, a very well attended one on security – locksmiths, security screens, guard dogs, personal alarms, etc. Another public meeting, well attended, was with the State President of ‘Care for Carers’ speaking, followed by Virgina & Trish from their ‘Bethany’ property on Bye Rd, Wamuran where they ‘care for carers’. It was an extremely informative night, especially as some carers in attendance had no idea that ‘Care for Carers’ even existed, let alone in Wamuran. Gradually, the locals became less interested in attending these public meetings, and eventually we stopped holding them. We also held a St John Ambulance Emergency Care Course in 1994; and a ‘Self-Defence for Women’ course.
In December 1990, we held our 1st Christmas party at the school, and had over 300 in attendance. Each school class made the Christmas decorations, and Grade 4 won the best Christmas Tree Decorations competition. Any profits for the Christmas Parties were given to the Wamuran State School P & C each year. We held these Christmas parties, with a BBQ or a spit, at the school for 6 years, with between 300 & 400 attending each year. Santa always came by different means – an old farm ute, Don Lindsay’s vintage cars, the Rural Fire Brigade’s Betsy, clydedales and dray, and one year even by parachute. Lance, the headmaster, was white with fear – he thought poor old Santa was going to land in the middle of the D’Aguilar Highway , with all the Sunday afternoon traffic coming back from a beautiful weekend at Somerset Dam. Santa, however, landed on the small circle marked out on the school oval. One relieved Lance! The volunteers on those days were amazing – everyone pitched in and helped!
We held many social sausage sizzles for all Wamuran NHW members under the school building, with members bringing along games such as quoits, darts, hooky, etc to play. They were just good fun afternoons & a good get-to-know each other. Some blocks have always held their own BYO BBQ’s or picnics regularly. One such area is the Basin Road; and most of the 30 or so families down there know each other. That is what NHW is all about – getting to know your neighbours!
Over the years, Wamuran NHW has helped out families in times of tragedies, including a Wamuran teacher who lived in a neighbouring NHW area, and whose house was burnt down. The school & Wamuran NHW worked together for donations, etc for the family. Also, when a Wamuran family with 7 children lost their mother in a tragic car accident just before Christmas that year, Wamuran NHW set up an appeal; and we took huge hampers of food, etc around to the family, plus some residents formed a roster to help with cooking of meals, teaching the children to cook, iron, etc just to help them get their lives back on track. It was great to see Wamuran Community pull together in tragedy, and give so much so quickly.
In 1996, Wamuran NHW conducted a ‘Safety Audit’ of the district with input from residents all around Wamuran. Wamuran had quite a number of changes as a result of that audit – 60 kph signs on D’Aguilar Highway were moved from the bridge back down the hill on the east side of Wamuran Community and outbound past the dump on the west end; the sharp corner east of the railway bridge was widened and a passing lane formed to turn right into Station Rd from the highway, Newlands Rd received ‘crest signs’ with recommended speed signs along its whole length, street lighting was extended west and east of the General Store, the drain outside the then Mango Tree Restaurant (now the IGA) was cleared, etc.
We have also been called by the Caboolture Police when there has been great concern about someones welfare.
Over the past 20 years, 1 to 3 of our members has nearly always attended State Conferences. At the State Conference, held in Toowoomba in 2008, I(Hilary Berger) was very proud to be named the North Coast Region Neighbourhood Watch Person of the Year; and presented with my badge by Commissioner Bob Atkinson. I had just retired as Area Co-ordinator after 13 years, and become the Assistant Area Co-ordinator
Wamuran NHW had always been a go-ahead group – the first NHW in Caboolture Shire, hence our number – Caboolture 1; and the 1st NHW in Queensland to become incorporated in May 1993. The State NHW Co-ordinator and Qld Police Dept. at that time were ‘dead against’ incorporation of any NHW group. Wamuran NHW still went ahead and became incorporated. We then received phone calls from other NHW groups from around Qld, asking how to go about incorporation, as this was against the Qld Police Dept’s advice.
Over the years, we have given many donations to the local community groups including – Wamuran School P & C, plus we paid for security grills to be installed in their computer room and a sensor light on the original building; purchased a seat for the Wamuran National Servicemen’s Park, plus cash donations to Wamuran and Mt Miketee Rural Fire Brigades, Wam Sports Club, Wamuran Historical & Visitors Centre (i.e. The Old Wam School), and others.
In 2011, Wamuran NHW now have 9 Zones and about 70 co-ordinators, with the population continuing to grow.
Over the 20 years, Wamuran NHW has tried to keep the community thinking of our whole area as “Our Community” and to help each other – getting to know and help your neighbours; and “Promoting Safety, Security and Quality of Life for all Queenslanders”, which is what Neighbourhood Watch is all about.
Contact Wamuran Neighbourhood Watch at
P.O.Box 99 Wamuran 4512 or wamuran.nhw@hotmail.com
