Has it been a soggy start to 2021 for most across Cape York Peninsula? It is wonderful to see so much of the landscape come alive early on in the year, and it is certainly flourishing. March flies, mozzies and flying ants are out in force making sure we all know that the rainy season has embraced us.
Following quite a short-lived wet season for three quarters of our region in 2020, I am sure the consistent rainfall is welcomed by those who are receiving it.
Those living and working on the land, with so much rainfall unfortunately comes the erosion, washouts and damage.
It gets tricky to access the areas you may want to reach to spray weeds or manage pests and it means the few months of the year where you should be playing ‘catch up’ with the maintenance on fences and equipment after a busy dry season are slowly being sucked away. It means for the town folk, your access out becomes more of a challenge, your veggie garden is swamped, and the kids go stir-crazy because they are stuck indoors.
For many employed across the region working outside, including Rangers, those in earthworks and volunteers—your ‘every day’ just got a little more challenging and for some of you, work’s stopped because it has become too wet.
I think this is referred to as ‘balance’ and accepting we have no control over wonderful Mother Nature is all we can do. We enjoy what we can and persevere through the rest. Coming into 2021 though, your Board of Directors has begun to embrace who we are as a Board and how we consider the design and role into the future.
We acknowledge that the whole organisation was designed through broad community consultation over ten years ago and believe it is now time to rethink our identity today.
We have reflected over successes and challenges over the last few years and will continue discussions over the next few months before approaching Members for input.
Our landscape evolves according to the hand Mother Nature plays every single year, and the Board is confident that we too have evolved over the past decade, however now need to sit back and objectively consider efficiency, effectiveness and quality from a governance structure which will best work for our Members.
We welcomed two new Directors towards the end of 2020, Kathi Steffenson and Marilyn Morris and thanked Eric Rosendale and Trevor Meldrum for their commitment and efforts towards the organisation.
Our landscape will continually change and evolve. It is important that what we do, how we do it, and why we do it also changes and evolves. A healthy environment is an ever changing one, whether on the land, in the office, in the home or within an organisation. This reflects life.
Let’s see what 2021 has in store for us, but for you all, we hope it is a safe and successful one, however that looks for you.
Warm regards Emma Jackson
