Council Corner January 2023

Looking for work?

Sign up to our Recruitment Pool today to be considered for a number of roles within Council throughout a 6-month period.

If you have experience as a parks worker, labourer, or operator, we would love to hear from you.

To find out more and to sign up to our recruitment pool, visit https://gympie.applynow.net.au/jobs/GRC951

Summer Food Safety

A few tips for summer food safety from the Food Safety Information Council. The holiday season is a time of gathering with others and sharing food so be food safe and stay well.

1. Prevent cross contamination in the kitchen by ensuring your kitchen tools, utensils, and chopping boards are clean before use and also allocate colours for different food.
2. Plan ahead and buy only what you need to prevent food wastage and also to avoid overstocking fridges and freezers affecting cooling ability.
3. Invest in a meat thermometer and know the safe cooking temps for different cuts of meat.
4. Put your drinks on ice in an esky or container so the fridge door isn’t always being opened.
5. Know your high risk foods and keep them cool. Only put out small portions and top up. Discard after 4 hours.
6. Always wash your hands and don’t prepare food if you are ill.

For further food safety tips for the holiday season, visit Food Safety Information Council (Australia) on Facebook.

Be Water Wise

There may have been heaps of rain this year but that doesn’t give the green light to waste water!

Water treatment plants are running around the clock to keep up with demand and this isn’t a good thing as it puts strain on our infrastructure. A few simple ways to conserve water are:

• Toilet: Flush the toilet mindfully, only use half flush unless necessary and make sure you have a dual flush toilet installed. Use tank water in the toilet if possible by getting a plumber to make the connection. Also check for leaks as a leaking toilet can waste more than 60,000L a year!
• Shower: Use a water-efficient shower head and aim for a 4 minute maximum shower. Collect water in a bucket while you wait for it to heat up and use it on the garden.
• Basins: Put in the plug to wash your hands and turn tap off while brushing teeth or shaving.
• Laundry: Use full loads, make warm water with less hot than more cold, sort clothes and only wash those that need it and divert greywater for immediate use on the garden (just not vegetables.)
• Garden: Avoid watering in the middle of the day, Identify soil type and include water-efficient plants, don’t overwater, mulch generously and compost food scraps to enrich soil which helps absorption and retention of water.
• Pool: Use a pool cover, check for leaks, maintain the water level and use shade to assist with evaporation loss.
• Outdoors: Install a rainwater tank, use a broom to sweep instead of hosing and use a trigger hose when washing the car and wash it on your lawn.
• Check for an undetected leak by making sure all taps and water-using devices are turned off, take a water meter reading, make sure no one uses any water for at least an hour then recheck the meter. If the reading has changed you may have a leak.

Contact Council

There are several ways to contact Gympie Regional Council including using the online requests portal on the website www.gympie.qld.gov.au in the Contact Us section on the top right hand corner of the homepage, emailing council@gympie.qld.gov.au , phoning customer service on 1300 307 800, by using the Snap Send Solve app or sending a message via messenger on the Gympie Regional Council Facebook page.