Some great rain moved through our area on Saturday night, which no doubt will be of great benefit to crops and stock feed in the district.
This coming weekend will see a huge influx of visitors to town for this year’s Duck Creek Races. This has been a huge event for our community for many years. Many organisations have received generous donations towards important needs from the Duck Creek committee every year which is run by all volunteers lead by Rowen Clever and they should all be congratulated on the hard work that goes into this event, I wish you all the best of luck for a successful event.
Another event on towns calendar is the Nyngan Ag expo which is fast approaching and will be held on Saturday the 3rd of August 2024. This committee is also working tirelessly and has continued to do so for over 30 years to make it the best of its kind in the state.
A huge effort from the Western Region with our congratulations to both Jack Hargreaves from Nyngan and Jack (Joseph) O’Brien from Walgett in being selected for the Australian 2024 Olympic Team for the Men’s Eight Rowing. Nyngan will be cheering the team on from afar, such a great achievement!
Council held a meeting last Thursday the 27th June, Councillor Jackson had a Notice of Motion for a Commonwealth Postal Savings Bank to operate out of the Post Office, with many big branches closing leaving regional communities without financial services access. This would mean licensed post offices would supply basic banking including deposit taking, business and personal lending, access to cash, particularly for our elderly people in the community who struggle with impending advancing of technology and internet banking.
Another topic at the meeting was for NSW Governments Holiday Break Program which provides young people in regional NSW with free activities to connect, socialise and learn new skills and have fun throughout the school holidays. The program has seen changes to the application process and the programs for spring and winter are now grouped together, meaning it is only allowing one application per funding per round for an organisation and a ‘first in best dressed’ allocation of grant funding. Council has been notified we have been unsuccessful in the next round of funding as the allocation for that period has reached maximum funding allocation. Council is going to seek clarification on the continued application process as it seems unfair and a disadvantage to our youth and smaller councils.
The council have had an arborist conduct an assessment on the Hill Fig trees located on Pangee Street after concerns were noticed about the appearance of the trees in a short period of time. The arborist reported the canopy of the trees were almost completely devoid of its leaves, with extensive die back at branch extremities, the main trunk and stems of the tree were discoloured, suggesting the tree is recovering from an event that caused a rapid and severe decline in its health. Upon more investigating that the soil surrounding the trunk may have had water soluble herbicide applied. Council will endeavour to work with the arborist to try and preserve the trees as best as possible.