The Border Watch: March12, 2009

KEEPING THE SOUTH EAST INFORMED SINCE 1861

Thursday, March 12, 2009

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For mentally ill people in Mount Gambier a bus stop is

End of the line BY SANDRA MORELLO Email: [email protected]

MOUNT Gambier city councillors have called for a mental health accommodation facility to be built in the city, following revelations young people released from Adelaide’s Glenside Hospital are being placed on a bus and dumped at the bus stop. The shock claims fuelled debate among members at council’s

Corporate and Community Services Committee this week, with some councillors expressing dismay over the lack of supported accommodation for mentally ill people in Mount Gambier. A passionate Cr Penny Richardson called on council to become a leader on the issue and to lobby for a purpose-built accommodation facility, following mental health issues creating headlines in The Border Watch in recent weeks. “These people cannot be just put on the bus and left at the bus stop,”

Cr Richardson told the committee meeting. “We can’t sit back and wait for the government to do something.” Cr Richardson claimed some young people from Mount Gambier were being regularly readmitted to the Glenside facility because of the lack of government services in Mount Gambier. “I don’t want this happening to any of our young people,” she argued. Meanwhile, Cr Allen Smith backed Cr Richardson’s claims,

arguing people with mental illness in the community needed support so they could get “back on their feet”. “...they are just being thrown into the community,” Cr Smith said. “It takes little for them to tip over and when they do they tip over quickly ... it is very sad to see.” Cr Smith said their situation “snowballs” and they become trapped in a cycle. “We need to try and minimise that ... they need support to make sure they are taking their medica-

tion and getting enough sleep,” he said. Meanwhile, committee members also backed a motion to write to Country Health SA inquiring about the number of beds available at Mount Gambier Hospital for mental health patients. This followed confusion over whether the number of mental health beds promised at Mount Gambier had been delivered by the government.

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Oil search underway Email: [email protected]

THE Port MacDonnell and Allendale East areas have become hives of activity as surveyors search for possible sub-surface structures which may contain oil or gas. Meridian Resources, an international company which holds a licence to survey and drill for oil and gas in the region, started a $3.5m survey project last month to collect underground data and expects to complete the project in April. According to Meridian Resources liaison offi cer Chris Annear, the survey will provide three-dimensional pictures of what is beneath

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the surface which will be studied before the company assesses where and if drilling for oil or gas should start. Stretching from Port MacDonnell to Allendale East, just missing Ewens Ponds and down to Cape Douglas, Mr Annear said the project was causing inconvenience to many farmers who have been asked to move their cattle out of the way. “Cattle cause great damage to our cables by chewing on them, so we had to ask farmers to cooperate and either move them to other paddocks or to let us set up temporary electric fences to keep them out of the way,” Mr Annear said. pVibroseis trucks fitted with large vibrating plates underneath, move slowly along the Port MacDonnell beach to collect data which will indicate whether there might be oil or gas below the earth. Picture: JOAN LOCKWOOD

Continued page 3

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