Cherbourg’s residents received a welcome ‘leg up’ this festive season, with council handing out free Christmas hams and disaster kits to every house in town.
Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council staff gathered a fleet of vehicles on Thursday, 12 December to aid them in the giving initiative; over the next four and a half hours, each of the town’s 350 houses received a ham, battery-powered torch and lantern to help them through the end of the year.
The ham handout tradition began in 2023, and was bolstered this year by the addition of the disaster resilience kits.
CASC chief executive officer Chatur Zala explained council budgeted around $30,000 for the initiative, funded through the contributions of a range of government agencies.
The legs of ham came courtesy of SunPork’s Swickers Kingaroy facility, and were brought from the South Burnett fresh on the day of the handover.
“[We wanted to] share the festive cheer around and thank everyone for being part of our journey,” Deputy Mayor Carla Fisher said.
“Christmastime for families here can be very hard, so this was a way for council to help the people of Cherbourg,” she said.
“We are not well off, so this ham and torch will come in handy for a lot of families,” added her predecessor and fellow councillor, Tom Langton.
Mr Zala said he was proud to add the disaster resilience kit to the Christmas ham initiative, saying that especially right now – as Cherbourg grapples with heavy rainfall and flooding – an added measure of peace of mind for each household was welcome.
“Queensland is the most disaster-affected state in the country,” Mr Zala said.
“We thought that supplying the torches and lanterns would help in case of any power failures [in town]. This will be useful for every house.”
Councillor Gordon Wragge agreed.
“We’ve come a long way. Back in the early 2000’s, we struggled a lot, we didn’t have a lot of things in place,” he said.
“Especially in 2011 and 2013, Cherbourg was hit badly by serious flooding and we were cut off for about a week or two. We’ve learned a lot, and we prepared as much as we can for any disaster.
“It’s empowering for the whole team behind me,” Cr Wragge said of the giving initiative.
“The more we do things like this the more we bind together. In sticky situations, Cherbourg comes together as one – like our [motto]: Many Tribes, One Community.”
For newly-elected councillor Daniel Weazel, the 2024 ham handout was especially important – as just one year prior, he himself was on the council staff team that was delivering the festive morsels to community.
“It’s a privilege to give to the families who are struggling. It makes me very proud,” Cr Weazel said.
“Pulling up to the houses and seeing the big smiles on their faces makes [the staff] very happy. We dropped a few off to the elders, and some looked like they were going to cry.”
