ORANGE CITY
NEWSWATCH
LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED WITH — INTEGRITY — WISDOM — BALANCE Saturday 20 March, 2021
www.orangecitylife.com.au
WORKER’S REVOLUTION! Tom McCutcheon is in the vanguard of a revolution that is transforming our working lives. It’s working-from-home, and it offers unbounded opportunities for those wanting to move to Orange from the big smoke. The trend mirrors recent launch of the Federal Government’s $5-million “Move to More” initiative encouraging people to flee our big cities for regional living. With Orange Mayor, Councillor Reg Kidd predicting that Orange region can sustainably support 60,000 in the future, there’s bright days ahead for the Colour City!
• Turn to page 4–5 for our special feature. TREES TREATED BETTER THAN BATTLERS
FAIRBRIDGE KIDS SERVED ADOPTED COUNTRY They were not even Australian citizens, and yet dozens served and three of them died for their adopted country. Dedication of a new Military Memorial near Fairbridge Farm at Molong commemorates the 96 boys from the facility who served in Australia’s war and peacetime armed services.
East Orange residents facing eviction from their homes have a question. What’s more important, trees or people?
• Turn to page 3 to find the answer!
• Turn to page 7 for our memorial special.
ISSUE No. 41
FREE
Talking POINTS
with DAVID DIXON
• No wonder there’s delays over the report into Council’s contentious plans to chop 513 trees from south Orange for the controversial sports precinct. A total of 170 submissions were received on the proposed tree destruction and stadium that is to take their place. That’s more than double the figure that Newswatch was told only a few days before submissions closed. With initial suggestions that the report into the tree removal— first stage in Council’s plan to tap a $25 million offer from the State Government for the sports stadium idea — could come before Council in March, that has now been pushed back to April, May. If the contentious plans get delayed any further, it could run into the September Council elections or even later. Which would be very interesting indeed! • And so, it starts… with us all doing so much more online since the pandemic hit 12-month’s ago, both Blayney and Molong are losing their last banking branches — with “Which Bank?” soon to close their doors. While we’ve all been told that the lockdowns, quarantine measures, travel restrictions, and other disease-suppressant rules, have saved many lives, I have a hunch that we are only now starting to see the unforeseen consequences of putting our lives on hold to combat the pandemic. • Newswatch was surprised recently to find locals in a street straw-poll almost evenly-split on those intending to get the coronavirus vaccine and those against. Local online comment on the vaccine also shows a fair amount of local resistance to a jab that corporate pollsters assured us — 75 per cent of the country were just dying to receive! Take it from someone who has studied the subject, polls are rubbish. They are only accurate if a vast majority of people approached are willing to participate, and that simply is no longer the case.
WHO WILL YOU VOTE FOR IN SEPTEMBER? Between now and then, we’ll keep you up to date with who’s who and what’s what... ORANGE CITY
NEWSWATCH