Local news for local people
Articles published in April 2024
Easter around Oberon The weather was perfect and there was a lot happening around Oberon over the Easter weekend, so Oberon Matters charged up the camera batteries and got out there pointing the camera at things and clicking. Rather than a thousand words, here are lots of photos. |  |
 | A busy school week Another week at Oberon's schools where too much excitement was hardly enough. There were some good sporting results, some less serious sport, some preparation for the future. And Easter bonnets. |
Another week in sport It was a week when the youngsters showed how good they can be. Four hockey players off to play in the big competitions and some future golf stars show the oldies how it's done. |  |
 | Book review: "Ladies' Rest and Writing Room" This slim novella (just over 120 pages) tells the story of two women who had been at school together and who meet up again as adults in totally different life circumstances - one as a socialite from a wealthy family, the other a shop attendant at the Farmer's department store. Daisy Bluebrook comes to the Ladies' Rest and Writing Room in the store to write undeliverable letters to her lover who didn't return from the First World War; Clarinda Littlemore is the shop assistant who tends to the needs of the ladies who use the room. |
A bit of rain around Oberon A big and nasty weather system arrived in NSW from the northeast on Friday, April 5, causing a lot of flooding and damage in areas around Sydney and along the coast. Possibly protected by the Blue Mountains Oberon got off lightly, with only the usual road closures that follow deluges. |  |
 | Will your mobile phone work after July 1? Telstra will be closing the 3G mobile phone network on June 30, 2024. This is being done to free up bandwidth to allow better 4G and 5G services. TPG/Vodafone made the switch at the end of 2023, and Optus will be doing it in September this year. If you have an old 3G-only phone you won't have any option except to replace it. The change will also affect some things other than phones which rely on the 3G network, such as some EFTPOS terminals, back-to-base security systems, some agricultural equipment and some medical monitoring systems. If you use one of these you will need to contact your supplier (if they haven't contacted you yet) to see what needs to be done. |
Never a dull moment at any of Oberon's schools Reading, writing, running, jumping, music, movement, painting, exploring. School was never like this in the olden days. |  |
 | A wet weekend of sport Heavy rain on Friday night caused some problems for sports planning to have games on Saturday. The matches involving the Wolves soccer players were cancelled because the field at Bathurst was saturated and the Woodbridge Cup matches between CSU and the Oberon Tigers were relocated to Oberon. |
Letter - The state of Oberon's water The quality of the water in some parts of Oberon has been a problem for some time, and has now caused the closure of at least one business (the Laundry Pad). Proprietor Vicki Walsh explained her frustration and disappointment, with a plea to the community for action and support. |  |
 | Autumn Garden Showcase - Bellenden A very traditional garden style, with clipped hedges and edged borders, but Heather and Bob Scott have made this into a small paradise. It's one of those gardens where you keep walking around corners and saying "That's something I haven't seen before". |
Autumn Garden Showcase - Casper's Cloud This anything but a conventional garden. Chris Dutton and Michael Wilson have over 12 years transformed a paddock next to the Fish River from a place with a single poplar tree to a large garden which incorporates the landscape and scenery into the experience. |  |
 | Autumn Garden Showcase - Meant To Be John and Patricia Moss show how even a small, standard building block can be transformed with a bit (lot?) of hard work and enough time. What was a totally bare block a few years ago now holds a lovely collection of plants. |
That's it for Term 1 The last week of school in Term 1 didn't mean slackening off the learning, but everyone is looking forward to the break. |  |
 | Have fun and learn some new sports The first Monday of the school holidays saw Creative Community Concepts (CCC) back in Oberon, this time with a sampler of many different sports for kids to try out. |  |
A "new" carriage for OTHR There was a surprise for everyone at the Oberon Tarana Heritage Railway late on the afternoon of Sunday, April 14. It was the delivery of a "new" train carriage to add to the railway's collection. The surprise was that it wasn't expected to be delivered until the following Tuesday, but it's the sort of surprise that doesn't bother anyone. |  |
 | Perfect weather for sport Oberon turned on a perfect autumn day for sport over the weekend. Golf, cricket and football took advantage of the sunlight, and even the local wildlife took the afternoon off to relax. |
Walk'n'Talk, one step at a time towards preventing
suicide
April 13 saw a small group of people get together at the Oberon
Common for a regular Walk'n'Talk for Life meeting to talk about
suicide prevention. One small answer to the problem is simply
talking about it, rather than keeping it in the shadows. Not only
does this raise public awareness, but it lets those in danger know
that they are not alone. |
 |
 | ANZAC Day 2024 in Oberon Not a lot can be said about ANZAC Day that hasn't been said before, so here are some pictures of the Oberon community getting together for a day of remembrance. |
Goodbye NAB. It was almost nice knowing you The Oberon branch of NAB has finally closed. This happened 15 days after the new CEO of the bank assured customers that "We also want to help our communities prosper." Unfortunately, it looks like the community of Oberon will have to prosper without them. |  |
 | Lots of sport Some golf, some rugby league and a touch of rodeo. Something for almost everyone. |
Autumn Garden Showcase - Torbeag Janet and Hamish Gibley-Baird's garden at Torbeag might be small but it offers constant surprises from the Wollemi Pine to the fruit trees (that the birds love to feast on before harvesting) with the best surprises being the occasional views of Lake Oberon. The garden would be very nice without the view, but it's the glimpses through the trees as well as the broad views of the lake which make it special. |  |
 | Autumn Garden Showcase - Beyond Avalon There's a real surprise hidden away in Black Springs. It's Rosalie Pollock's wonderful garden named "Beyond Avalon". The size and layout of the garden make it easy to get lost wandering around, and the sheer scale of it make it easy to forget that it's the work of a single person. Rosalie started creating the garden about 20 years ago. "It was just a paddock with a few gum trees, which I hate," she said. "I have a passion for gardening and the time to do it, so I decided to transform the block." |
Autumn Garden Showcase - St Clements This is not a conventional garden with edged flower beds and trimmed shrubs, it is a total experience created over more than 60 years around the natural path of flowing water. There are some flowers and autumn-leaved shrubs and trees, but the real experience is just wandering around feeling a sense of peace. There is nothing individually outstanding or surprising, but it's the totality that makes this an almost perfect garden for relaxing and forgetting that the rest of the world exists. |  |
 | Quick action at the Op Shop Since its move to its current location a year or so ago, the Lifechurch Op Shop has become an established part of the Oberon scenery. In the middle of April, 2024, a minor disaster struck and the building started to have electrical problems, causing the temporary closure of the shop, but quick thinking kept the essential food bank open. |
Another day of busy fingers at the Malachi There was a project started some time ago by Lexi Kellam and Lynne Webb for the Oberon U3A Fleece, Fibre, Felt and Yarn Group. It was to create some small rugs for audience members at the Malachi Gilmore Hall to keep themselves warm on cold October nights. It all started in October 2022 when balls of natural raw wool were spun using wool supplied by Cress Dawson of Mount Olive. |  |
 | April 2024 Oberon Council Meeting The April 2024 meeting of Oberon Council attracted the largest audience of ratepayers and community members seen there for some time. They had come to ask questions about the quality of water supplied to some parts of the town, particularly the businesses along the western end of Oberon Street. |
Media release - Forestry Corporation to assess fossicking sites near Oberon
April 25, 2024 in General News
Two popular fossicking sites in Vulcan State Forest near Oberon are being assessed by Forestry Corporation to ensure the areas are safe for visitors. Forestry Corporation has recently noticed increased disturbance by fossicking activities near Blue Hill Quarry and Sapphire Bend. Excessive digging has destabilised plantation trees, while tunnelling into vertical rock faces poses a safety risk.
Read the full release here
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