Right now Townsville is awash in IT jargon , recent forums have been held in which experts in various fields have outlined how the city can make assorted giant leaps forward , become a hub for so many activities - hub being the current buzz word in spin , civic and Townsville Bulletin circles.
All this professional and technical advice has been showered on the largest city in regional Queensland ...where the Heritage listed former post office tower clock , now part of a building known as The Brewery , has not worked for yonks , it apparently beyond local technical skills to remedy and the powers that be in the town don't realise that it is a poor advertisement for the Queen City of the North when it cannot boast a tropical Big Ben that works , the clock faces showing a puzzling variety of times at once.
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In earlier times , the post office corner was a popular venue for many political rallies where soap box orators were heard .
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After Darwin was bombed by the Japanese in 1942, the British built clock in Townsville was dismantled and placed in storage, reinstored in the l960s, then followed motor trouble ; are the components in situ, in Never-Never Land or in a Japanese scrapmetal dealer's yard ?
But yesterday, the dynamic new spirit abroad in Townsville was visible for all to see...a Sunbus driver armed with a plug in torch , held in one hand , at eye level , sometimes higher , like a coal miner , which enabled him to read the panel on the ticket dispenser machine , the tape in which was not working properly at the start of a run from the ferry terminal to James Cook University .
When asked , later in the day, why the strange torch light dance , the driver added to the bizarre situation by saying the ticket dispenser could only be read at night without the help of a torch !!!
