We don't know how propitious are the circumstances

October 31, 2024

The headline is a quote from a song by the late and very great John Clarke, performed as the character Fred Dagg. The song is "We don't know how lucky we are".

Oberon Matters spent a few days recently out of town on the Central Coast, and one of the events was a presentation and expo organised by the local state and federal members of parliament addressing the major issues that the residents are faced with.

As background, the Central Coast Council where the expo was held has a population of about 350,000 according to the 2021 census. Oberon LGA is about 5,600 by comparison.

Several concerns were raised by questioners during the talks, and it is useful to see how a very large local government area compares with a little country town like Oberon.

The big issue raised was health, both in availability and cost. It is apparently very difficult to even find a doctor in that region and bulk billing is almost nonexistent. Someone known to Oberon Matters has two chronic medical conditions which require constant monitoring and despite being a pensioner has to find a large amount of money each month for medical bills and has had to change doctors quite often. This issue was raised by several questioners and is a matter of real concern. There are some large hospitals in the area (Wyong, Gosford, ...) but one of them has recently closed its maternity department and for anything really serious patients end up in Newcastle. People regularly wait two or three weeks to get an appointment with a doctor.

Oberon by comparison, has eight doctors at the medical centre, with four visiting providers for specialised services. Children under 16 and concession card holders are bulk billed, and bulk billing is extended to others in the community when circumstances dictate it (such as farmers during a drought). Bathurst Hospital is closer to us than the big hospitals are to residents on the fringes of Central Coast.

The community transport service on the Central Coast recently closed at short notice, leaving its clients at the mercy of public transport. Taxi fares (the only option for anyone not living on or near a bus route) are an additional cost for anyone going to one of the hard to find doctors or needing to do the weekly shopping. Oberon residents will be familiar with the Live Better vehicles which zip all over the place taking people to where they want to go.

Central Coast Council was placed into administration almost immediately after it was created by amalgamation in 2016 and the recent council election was the first held since then. The council is broke, something that wasn't revealed until after the amalgamation. Things are better now than they were in 2016, but there's no spare cash to spend on anything. The council raised rates this year by the maximum amount allowed by IPART without special pleading. By comparison, Oberon Council has many millions of dollars in cash investments and was able to hold the 2024 rate rise to about the rate of inflation.

Apparently, access to government services is difficult up on the Coast, with several questioners mentioning how hard it is to deal with Centrelink and other organisations. A look at the wall outside the Oberon Neighbourhood Centre shows when some of these service providers are in town and Service NSW is right there at the Council offices.

Of course, people complained about the roads, but that applies anywhere where the roads aren't like billiard tables, which is everywhere.

If you are thinking of buying a house, the median house price in Oberon is $500,000, on the Central Coast it's $1,007,000.

Both areas rely heavily on tourism and by coincidence there's a large Borg manufacturing facility in both places providing significant employment, but what if anything is better there than here?

Not much as it turns out. With 46 beaches, Central Coast obviously wins out in that area, but the "Coast" in the name is a clue. There are several large shopping centres (the one at Tuggerah is probably bigger than the whole of the Bathurst CBD) but that just reflects the population differences. Transport to the Sydney CBD is a bit more convenient but it still takes a long time.

So there appears to be no compelling reason to move from here to there unless you are a compulsive surfer, hate pine trees, want a larger mortgage or enjoy driving up and down the M1. Oberon Matters will be sticking to its name.

If you are trying to remember the Fred Dagg song or never heard of it in the first place, you can see it on YouTube.

---