Mayoral Column

Media release Two years since the Dubbington amalgamation – where are the results?   At 12.10pm on 12 May 2016 the Governor of New South Wales, with the advice of the Executive Council of the NSW State Government, proclaimed the amalgamati…

In March 2016, Expressions of Interest were invited by Councillors who wanted to be a part of any Council going forward. I completed the form and sent in my application including the written information below: . . I have been representing the views o…

It was 1708 days from the time that I first had the honour of leading this city to when my time was cut short last Thursday. In that time the numbers scare me. I wrote 200,000 words in columns; sat in 200 hours of radio interviews; spent 120 hours in…

The positive news keeps coming for our city. The latest good news is the announcement that FlyPelican will start direct flights between Dubbo and Newcastle on 18 July. The initial flights will be twice daily on Monday; Wednesday and Friday with the p…

The day was Wednesday 18 August 2010. The Mayor of the City was Allan Smith and the General Manager was Mark Riley. Kevin Rudd had just been ousted as Prime Minister by Julia Gillard and Kristina Keneally was Premier of the State. I sat in the office…

Thank you to the people of Dubbo for your ongoing commitment to the Anzac Day commemorations. It was always going to be hard to top the Anzac Centenary commemorations from last year but we certainly went close. The Dawn Service was again very well at…

It has been a busy week or two for discussions with politicians of all persuasions at both levels of Government. The highly successful Community Leaders’ Breakfast was held on Saturday morning. We had seven Councillors present along with senior…

Who funds our roads? What about schools? Hospitals? Waste management? Who controls the legislation that impacts our lives on a daily basis? For many people, including those that are involved in various levels of Government, it is often difficult to k…

Today I have the pleasure of announcing our Senior Citizen of the Year at a function held in conjunction with the Dubbo Neighbourhood Centre. I am lucky enough to sit on the judging committee to select the winner each year and this year was no except…

I hope everyone enjoyed the Easter break and caught up with family and friends. I would assume that, like myself, most people ate way too much chocolate. The good news is that the next component of our Tracker Riley cycleway was finished just before …

I had the opportunity to speak to 56 University of Sydney medical students on Monday this week. They were in Dubbo as part of the School of Rural Health Discovery Bus Tour and 16 students from the group will be in Dubbo next year and a different 16 t…

On 19 October 2014 I had the pleasure of being at the Arts and Edges summit in Kalgoorlie-Boulder to make the public announcement that Dubbo will host the next biennial regional arts conference. The will be the first time in 14 years that NSW will ho…

There was incredible pressure on some of our Engineering staff yesterday. Forget a $23.5 million Sewage Treatment Plant Augmentation or a ten-year Village sealing program. I had Shivani, Jey and Kuljeet – three of our young Engineers – wi…

The Romans are generally recognised as pioneers in ancient plumbing systems. The Roman Empire can lay claim to many advances in society but it is generally recognised that the most significant contribution to our modern society was in relation to san…

Thankfully this is the last week you will hear me talk about formal submissions to our Delegate Dr Ian Tiley. Submissions close on Sunday 28 February at 5pm. I can’t stress it enough – it is essential that every man, woman and child sends…

The French expression, fait accompli, comes from fait (a fact) and accompli (accomplished) and is generally understood to mean that something has already been done and cannot be reversed. It is an ‘accomplished fact’. I don’t mean t…

Thank you to the people of Dubbo for turning up in numbers last Thursday. That was the day, of course, that the State Government held public meetings in Dubbo and Wellington in relation to the proposal to amalgamate the two Council areas. There were …

Tomorrow is a big day. I will be risking everything and putting my life on the line for the benefit of Dubbo. To help promote the opening round of the Australian Kart Championships this weekend, I will be strapped into a racing kart and then hurtle a…

Thank you to the people of Dubbo who turned out in huge numbers yesterday. With at least 650 people present at our Australia Day celebrations, I can confidently say that it was the best attended Australia Day ceremony ever in Dubbo. Yesterday was cer…