Without in any way attempting to gain sympathy or notoriety from my nasty experience of suffering a heart attack on Saturday 10th March 07, I wish to use this extremely dangerous and traumatising event to highlight the need for all of us to become aware of the risk factors, act immediately to have your ticker tested, and adjust your lifestyle habits accordingly. My sincerest thanks to Geoff Pattie for getting me into Jimna after belting his vehicle through thick lantana and logs, to the Mogg family of Wacol who swiftly drove me to Kilcoy, to Dr Mark Weller, RN Rose, and the wonderful staff of Kilcoy Hospital, to the fantastic doctors and staff of Prince Charles Hospital and last but by no means least, to my dear wife Barbara, family,and friends for the many messages of concern and support.

The positive message from this twist of fate, is that it happened while preparing existing walking tracks, which have become neglected, to not only complement the campaign to preserve the Jimna Fire Tower, but to also promote the natural attractions of the Jimna area. The Jimna Fire Tower Action Group (JFTAG) unerringly believes, that the rim of mountains surrounding the major growth areas of South East Queensland, stretching in an arc from the New South Wales Border, taking in the Toowoomba Range, the Bunya Mountains, and the Jimna and Conondale Ranges, will be increasingly called upon to provide forest recreation for the burgeoning population of this region.

All of these areas have their nature orientated individual attractions and features such as Rain Forest Walks, Deep Gorges, Waterfalls, Fresh Mountain Streams, and the abundant wildlife that thrives in their unique environments, but none have the tallest Fire Tower in the Southern Hemisphere – the Heritage Listed Jimna Fire Tower, with views to Moreton Bay. Ever-growing public support and corporate interest has revealed the possibility of  combining disused Government buildings in Jimna, with other infrastructure that is suffering from lack of maintenance, into a total package for redevelopment into a Tourist Destination, with the Jimna Fire Tower as the centre piece attraction.This proposition appears to have much merit, and is now firmly entrenched in JFTAG’s strategic plan as an option worth further consideration.

Although slightly under prepared, JFTAG’s first public awareness day Sunday 18/03/07 saw a steady stream of visitors coming and going throughout a picture perfect autumn day. Many thanks to ex Jimna-ites John  Webber from Nanango, Grace Hopkinson who travelled from Maidenwell, along with Bill & Sylvia Justo from Burpengary who entertained with fantastic reminiscing and stories of early life at Jimna.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 11:35 am and is filed under Tower Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.