Postal votes are being put on the system today (Tuesday) and the absentee votes will be counted tomorrow. The current results show John Brent leading convincingly on first preferences with 41.7% of the vote, followed by Derek Swanborough on 29.2% and Wendy Creighton on 18.1%. Joy Drescher has 11% of the first preference votes.

Brent has pointed his finger at the victims rather than the perpetrator says Creighton. Both accused candidates answer Brent with accusations of their own.

Swanborough and Creighton both say the Scenic Rim Mayoral election is not over yet. "It’s too early to call," says Creighton. "John Brent has suffered a massive fall in popularity with over 60% of the Scenic Rim voting against him," says Swanborough. Joy Drescher on the other hand, congratulated John Brent on his Victory.

Nigel Waistell and Nadia O'Carroll seem set to take Divisions One and Two with new councillors set to take over in all but Division Three, where Virginia West has performed extremely strongly against her rivals with 58% of the vote counted to date.

Last night the Brisbane Courier Mail quoted John Brent as claiming victory in the 2012 Scenic Rim Regional Council election for Mayor. At 8:30 PM on Saturday night, Mr Brent had secured 40.1% of the vote with Derek Swanborough on 31.7%, Wendy Creighton on 18.9%. Joy Drescher had 10.12%.

Several hundred people from Tamborine Mountain and from all over South east Queensland visited the Wongawallan Road site.

Local residents named a senior Scenic Rim Council bureaucrat who they say was sleeping during the legal proceedings regarding the illegal water harvesting at Power Parade.

The Easter weather was perfect with blue skies, warm days and calm air. Traders throughout the Tamborine Mountain Plateau reported strong sales and plenty of customers. MT Brewery was busy on every day.

He has worked around the world designing products but the thing he loves best is designing the perfection into boats.  Derek Scruffie has an international reputation for building the sweetest boats that ever sailed and then selling them here and overseas as built-it-yourself kits.

Tamborine Mountain was visited by a TV crew from NTD Television, which is headquartered in New York. The New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television Network serves an audience of 100 million viewers in China and around the world.

This is a bad decision that smacks of political cowardice and intellectual laziness that is sadly typical of many made by the outgoing Brent/Cockburn Council.

A wave of outrage rippled through the Vonda Youngman Centre audience when it was announced that the Council CEO had been given sole responsibility to negotiate the next three years salary packages while the Council is in caretaker mode.

In a surprising statement at Wednesday night’s “Meet the Candidate Evening”, current Mayor John Brent said that he believed that Scenic Rim Ratepayers had been well served by rate increases above the CPI.

That unity amongst Councillors is essential was an over-arching theme of several of the candidates at the Tamborine Mountain Candidates presentation last Wednesday in the Vonda Youngman Centre.

The 1st April is the National Day set aside for changing smoke alarm batteries. Smoke alarm batteries need changing at least every 12 months, unless they are the lithium long life type.

A group of local artists are preparing a submission for funding for creating a space where local artists and artisans can have workshops and exhibit there works for sale.  The Tamborine Mountain Arts Collective also proposes to have artists in residence.

It is not often that simply buying a magazine like a Woman’s Day at your local newsagency can make a difference to your life.

The new member for Beaudesert is the international banking lawyer, Jon Krause from the LNP who secured 46% of the vote in the Beaudesert electorate.

Local resident Rory O’Conner, Director of the Yugambeh Museum in Beenleigh announced the launch of a joint Federal Government and local tourism industry initiative last week.

AB Medal winner and Daily Star reporter Mick Schutte said that the Bush Rats batted first and did a splendid job.  In just 30 overs they reached a highly defendable total of 8/162.

It is a sad fact that a community only gets the leaders they merit. Can we change for the better or will we simply continue to accept what the vocal and determined impose upon the rest of us?

In just thirty minutes the job was done. They looked a bit shell shocked, like first day recruits an army boot camp, their commitments honoured, their hair cuts uniform and their lives somehow changed.

The award was presented by acting Mayor of the Gold Coast Cr Daphne McDonald in front of a crowd of 150.  There were a total of six categories and an overall award.  Leanne was also nominated as the overall winner.

Senior Council bureaucrat Mr Mark Griffioen demanded a retraction and apology from the Daily Star over the article we published regarding an overrun in the Canon colour printing budget.

St Patrick’s day is as Irish in Australia as it is in America, Canada and Ireland itself.

Dave and Daniel Pearson are raising funds for cancer research.  They are participating in the Rio Tinto 200 kilometre cycle between St Lucia and Wivenhoe Dam in August and need to raise $2,500 each to participate.

What are you supposed to do when you find someone has withdrawn money from and ATM and walked away without taking it with them.

Are you tired of the dangerous Beacon Road round-about? Many residents are and they have found a way around it. But this is turning a once quiet suburban street into a potentially dangerous rat race.

The State’s provider of electrical distribution infrastructure, Energex, had decided that Gallery Walk needed an upgrade and it set about doing just that.

Queensland State Election campaigns have been thrown into disarray by the Federal Labor Party’s systematic attempts to destroy whatever credibility they had left.

They came together then as they do now.  Because want a say in the development of this community that lives on the precious and fragile Tamborine Mountain plateau.

The property on Curtis Road was advertised as being suitable for a wedding venue, day spa, health retreat, luxury accommodation or just a casual retreat for a well healed buyer.

The John Muntz Causeway opened one of its lanes to traffic on Friday afternoon after 28 cubic meters of concrete were pumped into the structure to shore up the road surface.

Can we all save on power costs simply by banding together and buying electricity as a group?  That is the question an innovative group of Tamborine Mountain business owners and householders are investigating. 

Tamborine Mountain has the highest number of working artists in the Scenic Rim. Unlike many other tourists regions, Tamborine Mountain does not have a public artisan’s gallery and workshop where work produced on the mountain can be displayed and sold to visitors.

Our pets really are part of the family.  At Christmas time no less than any other.  For the indulgent amongst us, there are all sorts of gifts to give our family feline or fido.

Police Sergeant Mick Jones says that the recent burglery of DeliVino and Mt Tamborine Brewery were the work of a gang of youths who live in the Logan area.  Sergeant Jones said the gang was " . . . very well known to police" and that they " . . . have continued to haunt the Mountain over the past years."

Providing quality seasonal vegetables is an essential building block to overcoming immune diseases like cancer. Like all degenerative diseases, many can be linked to poor nutrition, and these can be linked back to what is missing in soil.

The Premiers Department has referred the Tamborine Mountain Daily Star's complaint of attempted censorship by the Scenic Rim Council to the Crime and Misconduct Commission for review.  Eight weeks after the complaint letter was lodged, Council Director Mark Griffioen says he will release his findings soon.

In a shopper preference survey conducted by the Tamborine Mountain Daily Star, 69% of residents said they preferred to do their essential food shopping off the mountain and over 50% indicated that local supemarkets offer poor value for money. 

In a recent article in the New York Times, Charles McGrath touched on one of today's great taboos - discussing what it means to be a man in a post-feminist society.  A weekend course for men looks at this very issue is being run by Men On The Mountain.

In a strongly worded letter to the Queensland Ombudsman, Ken Vandermolen accuses Scenic Rim Council CEO, Craig Barke of basing decisions on "flawed evidence" in written replies to several ratepayers who accused Deputy Mayor David Cockburn of Inappropriate Conduct at the inaugural meeting of the Scenic Rim Rate Payers Association.

A former Queensland Police Officer who made a formal submission to the Brent Misconduct Enquiry says his evidence has "been totally ignored" by Acting Director-General Jack Noyes.   Ken Vandermolen made the allegations in a letter to the editor sent to local media outlets on Friday.  Vandermolen said that standard investigative procedures were ignored during the enquiry.

Mayor John Brent was cleared of all misconduct charges brought by fellow councillor Derek Swanborough in a sweeping decision by Jack Noye, Acting Director-General of the Department of Local Government and Planning. Swanborough had alleged Cr Brent said Swanborough was “a lying toad”, “a bastard” amongst other things to members of the media.

Biosecurity Queensland is managing a second confirmed case of Hendra virus, this time at Mt Alford in the Boonah area.  Another property at Kerry, south of Breaudesert has a confirmed case of Hendra virus. A third property at Biddaddaba near Canungra has had inital tests that have proven negative, but two further tests are required to clear it completely.

Cr Derek Swanborough wants to be Mayor of the Scenic Rim Regional Council to bring sense back into our local governement.  Promising to control spending, rein in rates and increase openess, his words were appauded by guests invited from across the shire and by councillors from the Gold Coast and Ipswich.

Grants of between $5,000 and $20,000 are available to help local community groups undertake activities such as revegetating landscapes, removing weeds, controlling pests, holding field days and improving sustainable land management practices.

A small group of Tamborine Mountain residents gathered in front of the threatened Black Booyong tree on Gallery Walk at 7 am Monday morning.  Council Officer Michael Anderson served a verbal stop work notice to Castle Glen's prime contractor John Kennedy.  John said he had also been given instructions to cease all work from Castle Glen. 

One of the last original rain forest trees in Gallery Walk was being felled on Friday evening before a local resident and a Councillor intervened.  It is a rare 100 year old Black Booyong tree.  The owner of Castle Glen had ordered its destruction to make way for their one of its trademark retail castles selling spirits.