I've recently completed a tour of Cadia Valley Operations with the Federal Minister for Resources Matt Canavan, Member for Calare Andrew Gee and the Mayor of Mudgee Des Kennedy.
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Mining is an important part of our mixed economy and generates a lot of employment for Orange and region.
A number of supporting industries to mining are now based in Orange and travel throughout Australia and overseas servicing the mining industry.
We also have the opposition spokesperson for local government and veterans affairs Greg Warren visiting this week following on an invitation extended to him a few weeks ago in Sydney.
The Orange Private Hospital as it will known is close to operational and it has been announced that the next stages will be a Medi Motel and a Childcare Centre.
We are actively pursuing support and funding from the state government to be a LAP (Local Activation Precinct) based around the health sector.
The government has already supported an Activation Precinct in Parkes (transport).
I attended the Ginger Festival on Saturday at Wade Park with my grandchildren and congratulations to Rachael Brooking and her team of volunteers for putting on a great family fun day to raise awareness and funds for Huntington's disease.
Petries Mitre 10 had undergone substantial renovations,and welcomed tradesman and the community to an opening late last week.We wish them ongoing success with their business.
Last weekend I attended the Orange High School year 12 Graduation,and what an honour it was with my "old " year 1969 Higher School Certificate year celebrating its 50th year reunion.
Great to see so many return to Orange for a weekend of activities reminiscing and seeing first hand the enormous change to the school and Orange over that 50 years!
Last week we had another Citizenship Ceremony and it was honour to address the 18 new Australian citizens who now call Australia home.
They were from different nationalities; congratulations and welcome to our new "Aussies"
The last two years has seen over $310 million-worth of developments in Orange and certainly things in the building trade are powering ahead at present.
Last weekend the Netball Academies had their carnival in Orange with over 280 players and with coaching support, parents and friends, well over 1,500 visitors came to Orange over nearly three days.
As with the long weekend clubs,pubs ,restaurants and retail were a buzz of activity.
Along with daylight saving we have moved onto level five water restrictions pre-empting a hot dry spring/ summer.
Let's hope the predictions are wrong and we receive sufficient rain to make a difference to our storage.
We are tracking very responsibly at present and recent discussions with Minister Pavey (responsible for water) confirm all communities have a responsibility to work towards sustainable water use.
She is very complementary of what the community of Orange has done and agrees that a standard for water restrictions is needed across the state with various levels meaning the same thing from town to town (or local government area).
It is worth noting that Orange's consumptive potable water use per person, per day, is 140 litres and Dubbo recently announced that they were trying to get their water usage per person down to 290 litres per person.
Well done Orange on responsible water usage.
If you want to follow Orange's storage levels, water use and how we are tracking go to Orange City Council's website.
Shortly we will have a daily running update in the library and in the foyer area of council.
At present usage, and with our present storage, we have well in excess of 12 months supply.
We welcome another cohort of student trainee doctors with the University of Sydney's program here in Orange.
I am sure their 12 months in Orange studying and gaining experience in our outstanding medical facilities and hospital (not forgetting the outstanding lecturing and support staff).
Saturday saw the official start of the trout season and I had an early morning breakfast with the Orange Trout Acclimatisation at Lake Canobolas.
All present were awaiting the first catch of the season to present (and drink) the traditional bottle of red.
A week of school holidays remaining. Keep your eye out for children when driving, keep safe and enjoy.
An extra ordinary meeting of Council is on Tuesday to consider the recession motion that was lodged on the DA approval for the Childcare Centre proposal for Turner Cresent.
There will be a half hour public forum starting at 7 clock. In order to register contact council (registrations must be lodged before 5pm).
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