For years we’ve struggled through corrugations, potholes and dust because the shire has had no money, or no interest, to upgrade the road.

Visitors to Orange last weekend for the Daimler National Rally were determined to drive to the top of the mountain to see the amazing views but had to be cautious so they didn’t damage their priceless cars on the climb.

Mt Canobolas is promoted as a district attraction and although lots of tourism development plans have been put forward through the years, including the construction of artificial ski slopes and restaurants on the summit, none has gone ahead.

The mountain has geological significance and high tourism and scenic value with slopes covered by an open forest of eucalypts, snow gums, wattle, wild cherries and hyacinths in a total sanctuary rich in more than 100 species of Australian fauna.

There's also a species of candlebark named canobolensis after the mountain that's not found anywhere else.

Birdlife includes crimson rosellas, cockatoos, parrots, lorikeets, fantails and bush canaries while grey kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas, blue tongue lizards and echidnas abound.

Mt Canobolas park has two spectacular waterfalls, Federal and Hopetoun, named at the turn of the century after federation and Lord Hopetoun, who was the NSW governor.

As well as a better road something should also be done on the summit because it resembles the moonscape. All that’s there is a forest of ugly steel communication towers and lots of rocks.

When the mountain comes into the Orange area it could be turned into a top tourist attraction.

Mayor John Davis is a keen supporter of that.

The ball’s in council’s court

With the so-called parking problems in the central business district and the council investing in an expensive number plate recognition thing to move people on, an Orange businessman reckons he has a solution.

 He says the old netball courts between Sale and Anson streets would make an ideal all-day car park because the area is formed and wouldn’t need much work to open it up to several hundred cars.

 And then there’s the council’s car park on the corner of Kite Street and Lords Place that costs only $3 a day, or $15 a week.     

The businessman says employers could give their staff  the extra $15 a week in their pay so they could leave their cars there rather than wasting time running out of work every hour or so to change parking spots in the street.

Bin Laden

 There’s people who wonder why we’re not walking around upside down because we’re known as the land down under.

It’s gravity that stops us falling off.

 But if any of these flat-earth visitors saw Orange in the past 10 days or so they’d be scratching their heads with thousands of garbage bins turned upside down on the footpaths for collection, wheels to the top.

We know it’s the collection of our old bins but visitors would wonder what was happening because the bins have sat there since they were put out on Sunday May 10.

The changeover has been a confusing exercise from day one with some householders using the new bins straight away which the contractors wouldn’t pick up while some people didn’t want new bins at all so just left them on the footpath.

It should have been simple enough but turned into some sort of shemozzle and it’s likely some of the bins, old and new, will sit on footpaths forever.

Blonde grey matter 

Did you hear about the two blondes who fell down a well. One says: "It's dark in here isn't it?" The other replies: "I don't know. I can't see."

We’ve told dozens of blonde jokes like this for years but political correctness aside all that light-hearted fun must now be consigned to the rubbish bin because apparently we’ve all been doing blondes a terrible disservice.

Researchers have found the dumb blonde stereotype is not only inaccurate but the opposite is true with blondes having a higher IQ than people with brown, red or black hair.

 The researchers said the evidence clearly showed we shouldn’t discriminate against them and although blondes are not necessarily smarter than others, they’re definitely not any dumber.

So there you go, all you Orange blondes out there.

We ought to promote a national blondes’ day to right all the wrongs of the past.

And you won’t read another blonde joke in this column.

Well … maybe not.

Did you hear about the blonde who ...

Licence to kill 

There’s one thing you can say about Orange drivers. They’re still bloody awful.

Think of something stupid and you’ll see a driver doing it.

Driving way over the 50km/h speed limit. Yes.

Speeding through school zones. Yes.

Tailgating. Yes.

Cutting you off in roundabouts. Yes.

 Failing to signal leaving roundabouts. Yes.

Seeing a red light half a block away and slowing to a 20km/h crawl so they don’t have to stop. Yes.

Taking up two car spaces or more when parallel parking in the central business district. Yes.

Blasting their horn at you when you’re trying to park. Yes.

 Is there anything left? No.

No flies on Fred 

 Fred is walking around whacking flies with a swatter. His mate Bill asks him if he’s getting any.

“Yeah,” he says. “Three males and two females.”

 Bill: “How can you tell the difference?”

Fred: “Three were on a beer can and two were on the phone.”