Articles published in December 2025
Fields of dreams. We built them and they are coming
December 4, 2025 in Community and Sport  Finally, Oberon's new sports facilities are here. The new Sports Complex in Oberon and the O'Connell Recreation Ground are both open for business.
See more of the story here
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National Trust Heritage award for the restoration of the Malachi Gilmore Hall
December 4, 2025 in Entertainment, Community and Business  Another award for the Malachi Gilmore Hall.
Read what the National Trust had to say here
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Oberon Council Advances with New Sewage Treatment Plant
December 4, 2025 in Community  It's been a long time coming but something is finally being done. The Sewage Treatment Plant upgrade is now well on the way.
See the Council's announcement here
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Asbestos in wind towers: A statement from TagEnergy
December 4, 2025 in General News  There have been concerns expressed about the discovery of white asbestos in the brake linings used to control the internal lifts in wind towers.
See the response from the Pines Wind Farm here
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Oberon Council Mayor's Column
December 4, 2025 in Community This fortnight's column from Oberon Mayor Andrew McKibbin can be seen here. 7th Annual "Skoberon" Art Exhibition
December 4, 2025 in Community
 Ever since the Skoda & Tatra Museum opened in Oberon in 2019 there has been an annual art competition showing works related to the two marques. The artworks are displayed along with Skoda and Tatra memorabilia.
See some more about the competition | | |
Look at all that learning
December 4, 2025 in Schools  Not many weeks left for schools this year but that doesn't mean that everything stops.
Look at what's been happening here
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A quick fix
December 4, 2025 in General News If you have tried to use the search facility here over the last few weeks you might have received a warning that data was about to be transferred over an insecure channel. This was caused by the omission of a single letter in the code used to trigger the search. This has now been fixed. I have seen at least three stories in the media which have claimed that this problem was a major contributor to the $98.1 million that it cost for the recent disastrous upgrade to the Bureau of Meteorology web site. As fixing it here took less than ten minutes I can only look back and think that I would be a lot richer today if I'd known how to charge millions of dollars to fix trivial problems during my career as an IT consultant. (Note - the problems that caused the cost of the BOM upgrade to explode had nothing really to do with this but it was a convenient excuse to use to blow smoke into the eyes of journalists who know little about IT.) PB | | |
It's gingerbread time again
December 11, 2025 in Commuinity  It's that time of the year when gingerbread men and houses start appearing on the fences through O'Connell. This is an annual fundraiser for the O'Connell Public School P&C and you need to be part of it. You can see the fun from 2024 here and
Book your own gingerbread person for 2025 here
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A bit of history
December 11 11, 2025 in Entertainment and Community The Fish River Festival is on again on December 14. Lets' look back at last year's event. 2024 Fish River Festival
December 12, 2024 in Community and Entertainment  Things were looking really bad with disastrous weather on the day before the Fish River Festival was to happen at the O'Connell Hotel, but everything came together on the day with excellent weather and excellent performances by all the artists.
You can see the story of the day here
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No more call to cancel: the government wants to crack down on 'subscription traps'
December 11, 2025 in General News
Updated December 18, 2025  It's happened to all of us. You start a trial subscription to something, decide you don't want it after all, and it takes far too much time and effort to cancel the process and stop your credit card being charged. This article from The Conversation is written by a lawyer and gives some good advice about what to do.
See the article here
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School's (almost) out for summer
December 11, 2025 in Schools  Not many weeks to go now, but activity at Oberon's schools isn't slowing down.
See the excitement here
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Golfers go great on the greens
December 11, 2025 in Sport  What can you say about golfers? They are an enthusiastic bunch.
See some results here
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The gingerbreads are back
December 18, 2025 in Community  There are about 350 gingerbread people and houses along O'Connell Road through O'Connell. They will be on display for a month and there is still time to sponsor one, with all the money going to the O'Connell Public School's P&C. (The Oberon Matters sponsored man is playing cricket on the O'Connell Rec Ground.)
Oberon Matters took a walk to test out the new movie camera and you can see some of the gingerbreads here. (Santa has been asked for a gymbal carrier for the camera to reduce wobble.) | | |
December 2025 Oberon Council Meeting
December 18, 2025 in Community
Updated February 19, 2026  December 2025 Oberon Council Meeting
December 18, 2025 in Community
December Oberon Council meeting.
See a report on the meeting here | | |
Councillor McCarthy Recognised for 30 Years of Continuous Service
December 18, 2025 in Community and People  At the Ordinary Council Meeting held on December 16 Councillor Clive McCarthy was recognised for his 30 years of continuous service as a Councillor for the Oberon Local Government area.
See the commendation from the Mayor here
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Moron alert
December 18, 2025 in General News  There's always one, isn't there? Sometimes there's even more than one.
Some cretin wasn't happy about a sign outside a pub saying that it is a non-smoking area so he tried to set the sign alight. He was so incompetent that he only managed to burn a small corner of a piece of paper enclosed in plastic. Failure at a job this simple is probably quite difficult. No photo of the other one because anyone so arrogant and self-important that they think that the laws which apply to everyone don't apply to them might become a bit aggressive when called out. She was the driver of as silver BMW M3 parked outside Foodworks. The car had no number plates on either end and didn't have that shadow of grime that lives behind plates and can be seen when they are taken off, so it can be assumed that it had never had plates on it at all. If I see it again I'll block it from leaving while I wait for the police to arrive. Are these morons offended by being called "morons"? Too bad if they are. There's that old cliché about caps that fit. | | |
It's almost summer and the schools are winding down
December 18, 2025 in Schools  With not much left of the school year, Oberon's schools are getting ready for the break.
See some of the action here
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Just enough sport
December 18, 2025 in Sport  With almost all sport in recess for the summer, there's still always action on the fairways and the bowling greens.
See the results here
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Burraga Christmas party
December 18, 2025 in Community  On Saturday, December 13, everyone in Burraga got together at the sports club for a Christmas party. Oberon Matters was otherwise occupied so the task of taking photos was delegated.
See the excitement here
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2025 Fish River Festival
December 25, 2025 in Entertainment and Community  Another perfect day for the Fish River Festival (with just a small worry a few minutes before the start). Great music, great weather, great to get together and see what "community" means.
Lots of photos here
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It's Christmas party season
December 25, 2025 in Community  It's that time of year again when everyone is in a party mood. The parties went on all around the place.
See some photos of the celebrations here
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Scammers won't take a break over Christmas. Here's how to make a plan with your family to stay safe
December 25, 2025 in General News  Benjamin Franklin didn't know about the Internet when he said that the only things that are certain are death and taxes. He couldn't know about one of today's inevitabilities - scammers trying to steal money. Here's a timely reminder from The Conversation about what you should look out for and what you should (and shouldn't) do.
See the warning here
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Oberon Council Mayor's Column
December 25, 2025 in Community This fortnight's column from Oberon Mayor Andrew McKibbin can be seen here. Media release: Over $26,000 Injected into Central West Schools, Clubs and Community Organisations
December 25, 2025 in Community  The Pines Wind Farm have a policy of providing small grants to local organisations and groups. Here they are telling us about the recipients of the latest round of grants.
See the media release here
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Another school year over
December 25, 2025 in Schools  That's it for another year. High school students leaving forever and some big challenges from real life. Primary school students off to different schools and different ways of learning. Oberon Matters wishes all graduating students the very best for what comes next.
See some of the end of year celebrations here
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There were 4,983 unique visitors to the site during December, 2025.
The most read page was
Snowing on Christmas Day. But when?. (Yes - from 2024!)
"Unique visitors" counts IP addresses that have connected to the site at least once during the month. It doesn't include search engines, but even if it did Google and Bing (who index the site at least once a week) would only be counted as one visitor each. Put another way, it is the lowest estimate of the number of visits to the site during the month.
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