Peter Carter was one of life’s great enablers. He had a passion for music and things electronic including short wave radio, community broadcasting and sound recording, and was always ready to share his considerable expertise with others.

He made significant contributions to at least two important local community organisations – Orange Community Radio and Orange Regional Conservatorium.

I had the privilege of meeting Peter through community radio back in 2002. In particular, we both worked on the radio plays project run by the station in 2003 and 2004.

Peter was instrumental in bringing the project to fruition, being the technical backbone that enabled high quality sound recordings and ultimately an award from the Community Broadcasting Association.

Peter always had a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, something that was reflected in the entertaining and humorous stories that Peter’s sons told at the funeral service. He had a warm and friendly manner that put people at ease and drew people to him.

He has left the Orange community with a considerable body of recorded works featuring local Orange talent, including a virtual library of radio plays and ORC concerts.

Peter was certainly appreciated by the community organisations he supported.

However outside those organisations, he may not have been widely known and given that it’s National Volunteer Week, I’d like to take the opportunity to acknowledge Peter as one of Orange’s largely unsung volunteer heroes.

Peter made major contributions to the social glue and lifeblood that holds our community together and keeps it singing along, and we are the poorer for his passing.

I’M aware of the old saying that "comparisons are odious".

However, during a recent two-day visit to Mudgee, a number of differences between that town and Orange quickly became obvious to my wife and myself.

Mudgee has virtually all the modern facilities that Orange has. It has no traffic lights, and traffic in and around the CBD moves much slower than in Orange and drivers were especially careful at all pedestrian crossings.

We saw no abandoned shopping trolleys and there were no items of rubbish anywhere. Toilets were dotted throughout the town - even a modern, brick toilet block in their Roberston Park. Garden seats were on many of the corners in the CBD and there were no signs of vandalism. Roads in and around Mudgee were in very good condition, with no sign of a single pothole.

While quickly acknowledging the work and initiatives of Orange City Council, may I suggest a day bus trip by all councillors and senior Orange City Council staff to Mudgee to see these for themselves.

ARE the Catholic schools arguing that because some of them will be getting less money it must be unfair? A needs-based system is surely a good foundation.