This week's Minute with Mayor McKibbin

March 13, 2025

March 13, 2025

March 2025 is a very active month in Oberon and its surrounding villages. On Sunday 2 March the Malachi Gilmore Hall hosted a special event a special event for NSW Women's week with Sonya Lifschitz performing as a pianist with a backdrop of video of speech and subtitles providing the stories of extraordinary women

On Saturday 8 March Oberon Council area hosted three key events. Red ground Truffles held their TruffleFest and provided culinary delights to attendees. The Burraga Seniors lunch was held at the Burraga Sport and Recreation Club and hosted by the Burraga Agricultural Bureau. This event is always well attended, and this year was no exception as seniors and friends with connections to Burraga attend from all over new South Wales. The Federal Member Andrew Gee spoke on the importance of seniors to the Community and their significant contribution to Burraga. The Oberon Medical Centre Doctors Ayngkaran, Jingle Mae and Nor-Asha Cortez attended. Dr Jingle Mae provided a very thorough and inciteful presentation on the main medical conditions, both physical and metal, affecting elder Australians. She gave an overview of what preventative measures we all should take to reduce the likelihood of suffering from these disabilities and mitigate the effects through diet, exercise and where necessary drugs noting there can in some cases be side effects from medication.

The Burraga Volunteers, including several regular volunteers from the southern highlands, provided a magnificent meal of beef and pork supplemented with vegetables followed by desserts. A totally successful lunch that allowed those living in areas surrounding Burraga or those who have migrated away to reconnect in a highly convivial atmosphere. Thanks to all of the Volunteers for all the hard work.

As Mayor I was able to advise Burraga Community of the Oberon Health Hub Outreach program initiative for Burraga & Black Springs. Services will outreach to Burraga and Black Springs on the 3rd Thursday of each Month.

The first outreach will be 20th March 2025

Burraga - 11:30am – 1:30pm
Black Springs - 2pm – 4pm

The local RAMHP Coordinator Sonia Cox will be in attendance each month along with a community nurse, who can provide wound care, and then other allied health and other services will be on a rotational basis. On the 20 March there will be a Rural Financial Counsellor in attendance

The Oberon Library and Community Centre was a hive of activity for the Mayor's International Women's Day (IWD) event on the evening of 8 March. Over 70 people attended with Deputy Mayor, Katie Graham, being the Master of Ceremonies. Paul Toole, the local State Member, officially presented Kathy Sajowitz with her framed Certificate as Bathurst Electorate Woman of the Year. Kathy has been a Councillor, Mayor and volunteer in innumerable organisations in Oberon. Oberon is absolutely delighted that Kathy's contribution to Oberon and beyond has been so appropriately recognised.

There were three guest speakers for the evening: Tatian Coulter, Brooke McFadden (via prerecorded video presentation) and Lucy o' Flaherty. Tatiana provided an excellent presentation on the factors that contributed to her achievements in the finance industry and business generally. The principal at her girl's school in Brisbane actively encouraged her pupils and stated everything was achievable by women with work and dedication. Her mentors, female and male, actively encouraged and helped her in a male dominated industry even in joining the Captains Club AFL group at her business. The assistance from friends and colleagues motivated her to create her own financial advisory business, Monarch Advisory Services, and to buy with her husband their property on Lake Oberon, and to establish a trufferie. Her most recent endeavour as president of the Oberon Business and Tourism Association (OBTA) is a chance to give back to the Community and provide a support network for businesses.

Brooke McFadden's video presentation of her educational learning technics at her Bathurst based business illustrated how her person-first approach provides a unique and tailored learning experience that improves academic achievement and increases self-esteem. Rigorous initial assessments guide the scope and sequence and teaching models to determine how an individual will learn best including for struggling neurodiverse readers.

Brooke has also authored the Children's book Baby Gnowch which is a light-hearted, humorous and relatable story about a little girl, Angie. There are four key discussion questions at the end of the story that gives an honest insight into what really bothers young children or students and what they need to calm them down.

Lucy O'Flaherty CEO of Columbia Aged Care Services told the audience of how she is descended from French and Irish parentage and was adopted early in life and how she came to live in Australia. Her passion for aged care arose partly from looking after her adopted mother and deriving an understanding and empathy for those who were being cared for. In 2017 while working as CEO of Glenview Community Services in Tasmania Lucy was awarded the Excellence in Women's Leadership award for Tasmania. In 2022 Lucy was engaged as CEO of Columbia Aged Care Services which encompassed a number of aged care facilities in NSW including Oberon. Lucy stated that as aged services is her passion that working in the field is not a task but a privilege to improve the lives over those they care for. Columbia wishes to extend the Oberon facility onto the adjoining land which they own to incorporate facilities for Alzheimer's patients and to provide greater mobility trails for residents with walking and assisted cycling. Lucy emphasised that Governments needed to appreciate the majority of good providers in the aged care space were trying to improve the lives of those under their care.

Oberon was fortunate in having three such exceptional presenters for its IWD and the 2025 IWD “March Forward” was so eloquently espoused by these three presenters. My thanks go to the 3 presenters and to my IWD organising team of Katie Graham, Kathy Sajowitz and Sharon Swannell and to Michelle Nielsen for all the work when people arrived and in the kitchen throughout the evening.

The Oberon Field to Forest Festival continues through the remainder of March. The events are listed below so they can be easily booked and diarised.

• Friday 14 and Saturday 15 March Shakespeare Festival
• Festival feast and performance being held on Friday 14 March at the Malachi Gilmore Hall
• Free performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream at the Oberon Common on Saturday 15 March. This event is presented by the Oberon Rotary Club.

• Saturday 22 March

• Black Springs Pioneer Festival – includes history tours, photo displays, history talks, sausage sizzle, morning and afternoon tea, village walks, dance and much more.
• Simmo's Off Road Tours fishing and forage event
• Oberon Mushroom Foraging Workshop for beginners with Diego

• Saturday 29 March – Seasonal Dinner at Essington Park – Renzaglia Wines and Simmone Logue Autumn Seasonal Dinner.

The Countback process for Oberon's Ninth Councillor following Jill O'Grady's resignation was completed on 4 March and Michael Crye was announced as the new Councillor. We all wish Michael the very best in his new position as Councillor and I urge all Councillors to assist Michael in this transition period.

Andrew McKibbin

Mayor

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