December 2, 2024 – Councillors and Brewarrina Shire Council’s management team came together on Tuesday November 26 for our monthly Ordinary meeting. It was a long and productive meeting, with lots of items discussed.
Highlights include:
I am very pleased to reveal homegrown Indigenous man Isaac Gibbs, who is a local business owner, prominent executive in Sydney and board member of a charity, will be our Australia Day Ambassador for 2025. We have always made a point of endorsing local unsung heroes as our ambassadors as acknowledging local achievement is an extremely important aspect of our town’s identity and encourages inspiration among our community. Isaac continues to demonstrate success in his field, and we look very much forward to welcoming him back to his hometown and hearing his story.
Nominations are also open now for our annual Australia Day Awards, including one new category, the Community Achievement Award.
I understand intrinsically the day is not a date everyone wants to celebrate, but the awards are an important opportunity to recognise and acknowledge the outstanding contributions and achievements of individuals and organisations within our community. Australia Day is an important day to reflect, respect and celebrate all our people, while acknowledging our history is complex.
This year we are welcoming nominations for categories including:
Nominations close at 4pm on Monday December 16, 2024. An independent committee consisting of myself, the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Vivian Slack-Smith, two Councillors and two community members, will review all nominations, with the winners to be announced at a ceremony on Australia Day on January 26, 2025.
Nominations can be submitted online at the following link – https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MLFX3JB
Nomination forms are also available to download from here or can be collected from Council’s offices. Completed nomination forms can be returned by email to ea@brewarrina.nsw.gov.au, delivered to Council’s offices at 57 Bathurst Street Brewarrina or mailed to PO Box 125 Brewarrina NSW 2839.
Please consider those who have made a remarkable contribution over the past year and submit your nomination today.
Work is progressing well on the construction of the new shared path in Weilmoringle leading from Weilmoringle Village, onto Jobs Gate Road and to Weilmoringle School on the Post Office Road. The construction by local company Civil & Quarried Pty Ltd, is more than halfway through, with the entire project expected to be completed before Christmas.
I was very excited to learn during this month’s Council Meeting that work will begin next week on the installation of a shade shelter over the Goodooga Splash Park. As a resident of Goodooga, it has been wonderful to see so many local families utilising this brilliant new free facility in town, but everyone has been asking and eagerly awaiting the shade. As well as the shade shelter, landscaping will also be completed as well as footpaths, seating, and BBQ area. I look forward to keeping everyone updated on this highly anticipated local project.
After a lengthy discussion at the November meeting, it was agreed that we would close the Goodooga Bore Baths for the summer season. As the weather heats up, the tourists and visitors also dry up as the appeal of a hot bore bath significantly drops in the hot summer. With visitors scarce during this off season, it was decided it was best from both a resource perspective and a repairs and maintenance perspective that we close the baths from November 30, 2024, and reopen them before the busy tourist season begins, on March 1, 2025.
In 2018, after legislation changes to the management of Crown Lands, Council received funding from the Office of Local Government to develop plans for each parcel of Crown Land across the Shire.
This plan aims to provide clarity in the future development, use and management of the community land, ensures Council is meeting all legislative requirements and makes sure the management of the lands meet the needs of the community.
Council first awarded the project to Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) however they did not complete the project. In October 2024 Council approached Ward Planning and Consulting (WPC) to finalise the plan. With a wealth of experience in this field, WPC have now completed the plan in a format that Crown Lands favour.
Councillors and I have reviewed and endorsed this draft plan. It will now go to the office of NSW Crown Lands for approval, and once they have approved, it will go on Public Exhibition for 28 days for the community to review and provide feedback. Any further feedback from the community will be incorporated, and a final version will then go to the Minister for Crown Lands, Hon Stephen Kamper for final approval.
I will continue to keep you updated on the progress of the plan, and hope to see it on Public Exhibition in the coming weeks.
Brewarrina Shire Council’s 2023/24 Annual Report has been finalised, officially endorsed by Council and is now available on Council’s website.
Thank you to all those who have contributed to the final report including all those who took the time to suggest amendments during public exhibition. Community feedback is critical to ensuring we present a clear and open report and message to our constituents.
The 2023-2024 Annual Report can be viewed here.
Brewarrina Shire Council prides itself on supporting the health and wellbeing of all our team. In our ever-connected world, it is important our staff formally understand their rights to disconnect and take a break from work. As such, I was pleased to endorse Council’s new Right to Disconnect Policy, which promotes a balanced work culture by supporting employees’ rights to disconnect from work related communications outside of working hours and enhances their work-life balance and wellbeing.
A copy of this new policy is available here.
Earlier in the month I attended the first board meeting of the Western Alliance in Dubbo and had the chance to meet all the other Mayors and General Managers from across the alliance. A pre-conference dinner was held at the Dubbo RSL the night before and it was an ideal opportunity to speak with other Mayors about similar challenges they face as well as opportunities and what works in their Councils.
The Board Meeting AGM was held the following morning at the Dubbo Regional Council Chambers and Mayor of Bogan Shire Council, Mr Glenn Neil, was elected Chairperson of the Alliance unopposed. Mayor of Warren Shire, Mr Greg Whitely, was then elected Deputy Chairperson unopposed. A big congratulations to them both.
There were a number of matters discussed at the meeting including the Alliance’s strategic plan, and our purpose moving forward. This gave all Councils the opportunity to express their views on what they believe the Alliance can achieve moving forward. Other matters discussed included an update from Police Acting Superintendent Tim Chin about police numbers across the region, a presentation from Transport for NSW on the new Central West and Orana – Far West Integrated Regional Transport Strategies and discussions around holding the State and Commonwealth government to account when it comes to the allocation of funds.
It is very pleasing to report that the installation of a new CCTV system in Brewarrina is almost complete. I met with the suppliers SIMTEC during the week while the were in town and I look forward to sharing more information about the state-of-the-art system once the project in finished in the coming weeks.
The 3.5-kilometre Goodooga Road widening project under the Road to Recovery Grant has been finished, with line marking to be completed soon alongside a range of other line marking jobs around the Shire.
The Jobs Gate Road Stage 3 project is still on going. The projected timeline on this project has been extended due to additional work required on some sections done earlier during the project. Crushing contractors are also working on site and supplying material for this and other projects within the Shire.
Heavy patching (including flood affected areas) marked by Transport surveillance officer is underway including work on the Kamilaroi Highway within the Brewarrina town limits and near the Cato rest area. These works will be ongoing through to the beginning of next year, followed by sealing and line marking.
Culvert replacement under emergency works has been completed on Arthur Hall VC Way with four more replacement works expected to commence early next week.
Surveying work has recently been completed for the culverts project on the Brenda Goodooga Road, as part of the Infrastructure Betterment Fund (IBF).
Over the past month crews have undertaken maintenance grading work on the Yarrawin Road, Brenda Bukulla Road, Twin Rivers Road, Black Box Road, Narran Lake Road, Fingerpost Road and Charlton Road.
Elected to Council – 2024
Elected to Council – 2024
Elected to Council – 2024
Committees – Roads and Maritime Services Regional Consultative Committee & Western Regional Weeds Committee
Elected to Council – 2021
Committee – Tourism & Cultural Committee
Elected to Council – 2021
Committees – Murray Darling Association, Big Sky Library, Brewarrina General Cemetery Committee, Water Users & Tourism & Culture Committee.
Elected to Council – 2021
Committees – Aged Care, Brewarrina General Cemetery Committee & Heritage Committee.
Elected to Council – 2008
Email- markbrown2839@gmail.com
Committees- Aged Care Committee, Big Sky Library & Traffic Committee.
Elected to Council – 2008
Committees – Brewarrina General Cemetery, Tourism & Cultural Committee.
Elected to Council 2017
