In the Canobolas Local Area Command police district the rates of assaults within families are nearly double the NSW average.

According to the latest figures [2015-16] there were 445 women and 270 children in our region assessed by police as being at “serious threat of further injury or death” as a result of domestic violence.

And yet we have nowhere for them to turn for safety.

Orange is the only large regional town in western NSW without a specific crisis centre to safeguard women and children fleeing abusive and dangerous situations in their homes with full services to assist them.

The nearest centres are in Bathurst, Forbes and Dubbo but invariably those centres are often full.

And even if there are places available it is taking the victims out of their own environments, away from their workplaces, their schools and their friends.

The case for a crisis centre in our community has been promoted for a few years and government funding has been sought.

Housing Plus needs $1.7 million to achieve its aim of establishing a secure and comfortable centre for victims.

And finally, thanks to federal government funding through the Building Better Regions Fund announced on Wednesday, the tally has reached $1.1 million.

It is still well short of the target but Housing Plus say it is enough to get started.

A development application can now be submitted, work can started this year and there is light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

It comes on the back of last week’s opening of the Pay It Forward crisis accommodation centre which will provide shelter for a range of people in need in Orange.

The Housing Plus centre will comprise six self-contained family units with their own facilities, a common area and children’s play area plus the all-important layers of security.

Construction is now expected to start late this year and be completed next year.

It is good news on a lot of fronts.

There will be 200 jobs created in its construction, Housing Plus was able to show the government that it will be cost effective, returning $3 for every $1 invested and it will help highlight the serious problem afflicting our community.

But, most of all it will give women and children victims a safe haven in their own community when they are most at risk.