This week's Minute with Mayor McKibbin

August 28, 2025

Published on 27 August 2025

Oberon Council held its second annual Community Services Expo on Thursday, 14 August 2024, from 4pm to 7pm at the Oberon Library and Community Centre. The Expo was a great success with over 40 stallholders representing organisations such as community groups, museums, heritage railway groups, sporting organisations, schools, aged care, employment agencies, emergency service responders and church groups. The number of stallholders was nearly twice the number represented last year. The Expo included a presentation by Council to the community groups and organisations that have received Section 356 donations this year from Council.

See also: 2025 Community Expo

An Agritourism Workshop was held at RedGround Truffles on the evening of Wednesday, 20 August 2025. This was funded by a NSW Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development Drought Resilience Grant. Oberon Council and the Tilma Group, which specialises in regional tourism, coordinated the event. Attendees were provided with an insight into what opportunities existed in the tourism space to diversify farm income to include catering for the tourist trade. This could provide a supplementary income source, especially in drought periods. Experts on insurance, planning and legal/taxation issues provided attendees with an overview of the challenges of starting up a business and what required consideration and addressing. Destination Central West provided an overview of how that organisation can assist with placing people in contact with the right government representatives and in promoting new farm agritourism ventures. They provided kits to assist potential agritourism operators. The RedGround Truffles venue provided a fantastic location for the event, and Jill O'Grady shared her experience in setting up her internationally recognised tourist venture and how Destination Central West had assisted her in contacting other businesses to partner with and directing her to courses to assist her in establishing and promoting the venture.

Telstra held a Regional Technology Exchange Hub at Oberon on Thursday, 21 August 2025. Representatives from regional Councils attended to be provided with updates on the most recent technology developments. Updates were provided by Telstra and its partner organisations on sophisticated control systems for playing fields irrigation/security/lighting, water meter technology, and sensors for flooded or potentially flooded roads that could close roads and activate remote signboards/boom gates. Telstra also provided information on the new direct satellite-to-mobile phone handset technology for texts, with work continuing on direct voice-to-satellite development from mobile phones.

Oberon Council's ordinary meeting was held at 5:30pm on Tuesday, 19 August 2025. At the meeting, Council resolved not to provide GPG, the developer of the Paling Yards Windfarm, with owner's consent under the Roads Act to make modifications to O'Connell Rd and Abercrombie Rd for the transport of wind turbines and blades. The decision was made on the basis that there were significant financial risks to the community, community submissions had not been responded to by GPG, significant environmental risks were posed, the information supplied by GPG indicated there was a risk of damage to the O'Connell ANZAC Memorial Avenue of Trees, no assessment had been made of the effect such modifications would have on critical freight and commuter use of the roads during the modifications, no network-wide dilapidation preworks survey had been undertaken, and the responses by GPG following the 3 July 2025 meeting with Council did not cover the specific questions of Councillors. The lack of communication and conduct of GPG for the 19 months prior to the meeting was also a factor. Council was clear that this was a considered decision based on the facts and the Oberon community's public interest.

A further motion was resolved as a Mayoral Minute at the 19 August meeting that Council, at the Local Government Conference, move a motion regarding guidelines for renewable projects. Issues during the construction period that the NSW Government was asked to address in guidelines for the increased workforce and community impact included:

Rental accommodation guidelines so as not to further restrict available rental accommodation and increase rents.
Construction camps, including how Councils fund and provide sewerage, waste and water.
Providing Councils not in the Renewable Economic Zones (REZs) but with renewable projects the same economic benefits as REZs.
Provision of gravel and water sources and licensing for concrete (wind tower bases, substations, powerline towers, housing camps and roads).
Upgrading health services where already under-resourced/overstretched. Increased policing.
Road traffic management plans, including dilapidation reports on all roads used or to be used, together with bank guarantees to ensure reconstruction/repair of damaged roads.
Environmental Impact Statements needing to include the effect on local industries and commuters due to road works, plus road closures for transporting blades and components for windfarms.

In addition, the motion stated the State Government needed to address the decommissioning of renewable projects, including mandating that bank guarantees, escalated by the construction materials and labour inflation index, be put in place to ensure decommissioning occurred at the end of the life of the project.

After a very cold, windy and wet winter, it is pleasing to see the first signs of spring growth with daffodils, jonquils, wattle and the buds on the trees, together with some grass emerging from winter hibernation. The lambs in the paddocks finally seem to have a spring in their step and not look so huddled up and freezing. We can only hope for a few more sunny days to spur this growth on.

Andrew McKibbin
Mayor