Local news for local people
Articles published in July 2026
Finally, progress on the relocation of the Leagues Club
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Action this day! There has been some good news about Victoria Pass. A decision has been made about who will be fixing the broken Mitchells Causeway. The NSW government had this to say: Contract awarded to reopen Great Western Highway, with further relief for impacted businesses
The Government is also announcing an expanded package of support for local businesses affected by the closure. The NSW Government knows the uncertainty of the past few months has been incredibly difficult for local communities. While this process has taken time, there could be no shortcuts when it came to understanding the cause of the failure and determining the safest long-term solution. Following an accelerated procurement process, Seymour Whyte has been selected to construct a new crossing that will restore the connection between the Blue Mountains and Central West while improving its long-term resilience. Extensive geotechnical investigations carried out over the past few months were critical to the procurement process, providing the evidence needed to develop the proposal for the safest and fastest reopening. You can read the complete media release here. Completion by April 2027 is a rather optimistic schedule so cynics can expect that the final date for reopening Victoria Pass will be "adjusted" as time goes on. No estimate of the cost has been announced, but it can be guessed as being $Lots. |
The NSW Government is today providing certainty for communities impacted by the closure of the Great Western Highway at Victoria Pass announcing the successful contractor to deliver a new, more durable crossing at Mitchells Causeway, with major construction to begin in July, and the road expected to reopen in the second quarter of next year.
It's a new record!
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Emma takes on the world
Emma has been with us less than six months and already making a huge impact on our station with her boundless energy and youthful enthusiasm! We’re very very proud to announce that Emma will be representing Fire and Rescue NSW FRNSW Sports Association when they take on NSW Corrections in July and rumour has it will be further representing the firies more this year. Emma is no stranger to the sport previously playing Union for Penrith Emus Rugby Club, League for Panorama Platypi Women's Rugby League and currently plays soccer for Abercrombie FC. We wish Emma and our league teams all the best! |
The people at Fire and Rescue NSW Station 411 Oberon have a bit to say about an employee:Let's help someone who needs it
The problem was that the pavers were in Raglan and her house is in Rockley and she had no way to get the stones home. Another social media appeal and an answer was found. Instead of the usual monthly barbecue in Oberon Common, Lincoln Briffa shanghaied the regulars at the men's mental health group Mr Perfect and with the help of Sharelle's family moved the pavers to where they are needed. The sausages intended for Mr Perfect provided the lunch for everyone. And that's what helping people is all about. There should be more of it. Keep an eye on What's On for the times and locations of the Mr Perfect events. |
Sharelle lives in Rockley. She is a single parent with two daughters. She also has cancer and has had to deal with a couple of shonky NDIS providers. (No, it doesn't cost $700 a week to mow a small lawn. No, a small bathroom update doesn't have to cost as much as a luxury car.) She thought it would be nice to have a patio out the back of her house where she could sit in the sun (and the quote for the bathroom suggested that getting a quote for a patio would be a stressful experience). She put out an appeal on social media and some kind person donated a heap of pavers.Chalkdust Torture
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If sport's your thing
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Oberon Council Mayor's Column
July 2, 2026 in Community
This fortnight's column from Oberon Mayor Andrew McKibbin can be seen here.
The Carers' Retreat is finally open
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There was movement at the station ...
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The train station, that is. Work is proceeding nicely on the construction of the station at Hazlegrove on the Oberon Tarana Heritage Railway. Getting the line running again is a slow process but that's the sort of thing that happens when the workers on the ground are volunteers and the professionals are in the bureaucracy, shuffling paper from one in-tray to the next. And often back again for another round of rule checking and obfuscation. The railway will run again one day but people have given up on predicting when because predictions have a way of coming up against train loads of red tape.Could this be Australia's warmest winter ever?
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School's out! So sang Alice.
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Sport. That's what the back page is for.
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Winter Seasonal Markets at Edith
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How to stop fraudsters tricking disabled people out of their NDIS funding
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Black Springs Community Association The Black Springs Community Association AGM results are in with the new elected committee being:
Congratulations to all new committee members. We would like to extend a big thank you to the outgoing committee members for all their work and effort put in over the past year. Here's to another great year. |
Book review: "The Fibre Factor" by Dr Joanna McMillan
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Left Behind: Transitioning to Work Getting Tougher
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A little bit of sport goes a long way
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Community Event: Suicide Prevention, Depression and Anxiety
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New owners for Oberon's taxi
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Thanks for the donations
July 23, 2026 in Community
The Oberon Garden club have announced two donations to local recipients. $10,000 goes to the Oberon Hospital Auxiliary and $1,000 to Oberon Museum. The money was raised from entry fees at the Club's Autumn Open Garden Festival.
Thanks and congratulations.
Time catches up with St Dymphna's Church in Burraga
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There are a lot of cattle around Oberon
July 23, 2026 in General News
Thanks to Scott Hilburn at the Argyle Sweater
Oberon Council Mayor's Column
July 23, 2026 in Community
This fortnight's column from Oberon Mayor Andrew McKibbin can be seen here.
School Daze
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School life gradually returns
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Chasing things around paddocks
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Two good to be true?
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Science comes to Oberon
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Another week. Another scam. The creativity (or perhaps dishonesty) of scammers is remarkable. They never tire of finding new ways to steal money from unsuspecting targets. Here's a statement from the Oberon Men's Shed about one going around town right now. The Shed has received an enquiry stating that a "Jeff" from the Men's Shed had done some odd jobs at a home for a lady in town. She had overpaid him and was requesting the return of the overpayment. The Oberon Men's Shed doesn't perform odd jobs for members of the community as our insurance doesn't cover this type of work. Nor do we intrude on the type of work local handymen undertake. Additionally, the Shed has never had a member called "Jeff." Please be aware that if "Jeff" or anyone else approaches you claiming to be from the Men's Shed looking to do handyman's work around your home, we reiterate that we don't perform this sort of work for the community as we don't have the required insurance. |
July 2026 Oberon Council Meeting
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Community Services Expo
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The 2026 Community Services Expo will be held at the Oberon Community Centre from 4 to 6pm on Thursday, August 6. The expo highlights the services that make the town such a nice place to live. Oberon Matters will be there with a stand, so drop by for a chat.Book review: "Surrounded by Idiots" by Thomas Erikson
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Men's Shed Raffle
The Shed's latest raffle has closed, and winners drawn.
Megan from Hair Flair Hairdressers was the barrel girl this time around. Congratulations to all winners and sincere thanks to all who purchased tickets. A new raffle has started. You'll find the volunteers in the main street again every Friday. |
If you ever walk past IGA on a Friday you can't miss the representatives of the Oberon Men's Shed selling raffle tickets. The purpose is to raise money to build a permanent home for the Shed rather than the cramped quarters they now occupy at the showground. The Oberon Matters office is in a small flat and the landlord is not at all enthusiastic about heating the place with a wood fire in a fire pit in the middle of the lounge room so when these are the prizes there is extra "encouragement" from the Shed people to buy tickets which are treated as a donation. When the prizes are groceries and petrol vouchers there is more buyer enthusiasm because, you know, food and driving. Whatever the prizes, however, the money from the tickets goes to a good cause.I like schoolin' and I'm not foolin'
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The sporting continues
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Oberon Council Mayor's Column
July 30, 2026 in Community
This fortnight's column from Oberon Mayor Andrew McKibbin can be seen here.
There were 14,531 unique visitors to the site during July, 2026. The most read page was New owners for Oberon's taxi .
The number of unique visitors during July reported by the server log analysis software was 20,633. This was adjusted downwards by the 2,707 attempts to access the Wordpress administrator login page. (Just as well I don't use Wordpress, isn't it?) It was also adjusted for the totally unbelievable 3,395 hits on
First Edith Seasonal Markets for 2026. The numbers do not include the 4,552 attempts by anonymous "search" engines to access the site. This might be a small and obscure web site in the scheme of things but it is still under constant attack by AI parasites trying to steal the content. Only ChatGPT identifies itself (twelfth most common crawler during the month) but it is a full-time job to track the rest and block them (if they can even be identified).
The short version (or TL;DR in net.speak) is that a lot of people visit the site each month but the figures are inflated slightly by visitors who are not welcome.
"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.
