With huge crowds expected at Bathurst this weekend for the annual 1000 Orange people can only wonder what might have been had the old Gnoo Blas race track around Bloomfield Hospital not been hit on the head by Bathurst’s MP Gus Kelly.
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The opening races on January 26, 1953, attracted 12,500 people and followed a motorcycle meeting the same weekend.
At the time, the Central Western Daily described the track as “the biggest single community enterprise in the history of Orange” but Gnoo Blas faced problem after problem in the eight years it was open.
The main opposition came from Bathurst, whose MP Gus Kelly, the NSW Chief Secretary at the time, did his utmost to make sure Gnoo Blas didn’t become a serious rival for Mount Panorama.
He put every obstacle in its way, including the introduction of the Speedways Act. He also claimed noise was distracting patients in the hospital and used the age-old Sunday Observance Act to stop Gnoo Blas organisers charging admission on Sundays, which he didn’t apply to Mt Panorama.
Sadly, Gnoo Blas became a failed dream and Mount Panorama went on to become Bathurst’s biggest asset.
A SAD SIGN OF THE TIMES
AS a matter of pride, towns like to welcome visitors with prominent signs on the outskirts with announcements about their history like Tenterfield’s ‘Birthplace of Our Nation’, industry like Picton’s ‘The Stone Quarry Town’, geography like Armidale’s ‘Australia’s Highest City’ or positive attitudes like Dubbo’s ‘Time to Smile’.
The list of welcome signs goes on: Bathurst, ‘Australia’s First Inland Settlement’, Molong ‘Place of Many Rocks’, Parkes ‘Home of the Dish’, Cowra ‘Centre of World Friendship’, Lithgow ‘Steeped in History’, Goulburn ‘The First Inland City’ and Queanbeyan ‘Country Living, City Benefits’.
What do visitors entering Orange see? ‘Fly Direct From Orange to Melbourne or Brisbane’.
It was a huge welcoming sign until it was turned into an advertising billboard for an airline, more or less telling people to flock off before they even got into town.
So the new council might give a thought to restoring an Orange welcome sign on the city’s entrances to show visitors it’s a city we locals are proud of.
For heaven’s sake, even Lucknow has one. PeopIe there lobbied the council for two years for funding to build the six-metre-long sign from corrugated iron and stone from Blayney quarry in keeping with the village’s mining heritage.
BACKYARD FARMYARDS
IT seems cost-conscious families in Orange wanting to cut grocery bills are going back to producing their own home-grown eggs while at the same time the chooks are doing a good job by tucking into food waste that otherwise would end up in the bin.
Council lets people keep 15 chooks, ducks or geese in the backyard provided they’re housed in clean conditions and don’t annoy neighbours. Roosters aren’t welcome.
So the good old days of chooks in the backyard are returning and it’s a positive move, as long as they keep ‘em there.
Just in case you’re interested, council will also let you keep two dogs, two cats, 100 racing pigeons and 40 stock birds, 50 small birds including budgies and canaries, two large birds including cockatoos and corellas, one pet rat, 10 mice or guinea pigs and one sheep or goat.
