6 DECEMBER 2019
ISSUE 222
YOUR REAL INDEPENDENT WEEKLY LOCAL NEWS
Smoke, fire ... and now for summer
Business
Regional telecom provider, Central Telecoms, based at Erina, has been named Top Telco in Australia at the recent CRN Fast50, held in Sydney on November 21. With a growth of 101% for the 2018/19 financial year, Central Telecoms has made its debut on the CRN Fast50 (which is a listing for all tech companies, including Telcos), at number seven, making it the seventh fastest growing tech company in Australia as well as being the fastest growing Telco. Page 13
Editorial The Three Mile fire in full blaze Photo courtesy NSW Rural Fire Service
The Central Coast is still suffering under a pall of thick smoke as the Gospers Mountain and Three Mile blazes continue to burn, with communities in the region on high bushfire alert. Four Central Coast schools, Central Mangrove, Kulnura, Peats Ridge and Somersby Public Schools, were closed on December 5 due to the proximity of bushfires, with parents advised to check the Department of Education website daily for updates. The Gospers Mountain fire, which has been burning in the
Wollemi and Dharug National Parks for weeks, has now spread to more than 232,900 ha and was listed on the Rural Fire Service (RFS) website as being controlled, but updated to Emergency warning level on December 5. Closer to the Coast, the Three Mile Fire was on a Watch and Act warning level on December 5, having already burnt over 6,000 hectares of bushland in the Yengo and Dharug National Parks. RFS Community Liaison Officer, Matt Horwood, said the warning could well be upgraded to Emergency throughout the
day, with residents between Kulnura and Greengrove, including Mangrove Creek, Mangrove Mountain and Upper Mangrove, advised to be prepared to take action at any time, and Lower Mangrove residents advised to activate their bushfire survival plans. Residents in nearby communities are advised to monitor conditions closely. Horwood said firefighters were at the mercy of weather conditions. “These fires are growing and the whole community needs to be aware that they could continue to spread,” he said.
“Weather has been delaying some of the back burns that we want to do. “Our first priority has to be life and property.” Horwood said backburns, which are burnt ahead of existing fires to remove fuel which could help them spread, were not to be confused with hazard burns, performed as a precautionary measure. Meanwhile, Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park at Calga remains on high alert, with all of its remaining animals relocated on December 4 as news came that the park could face spot fires from the north.
With most of the Park’s 300 animals having already been relocated over the past few weeks, Operations Manager and Owner, Tassin Barnard, took the decision that “even the too high risk to move” animals needed to be taken to safety. The last animals to go were the wallabies and emus, with as many of the wild animals as possible also contained and removed. With spot fires a very real possibility, staff were instructed on how to put them out by RFS volunteers on December 5. Continued P5
The Central Coast has produced many great champions and many great achievements over the past decade, but one statistic we take no pride in is being No. 1 in NSW for rates of domestic violence. Page 12
Sport
Vandals attack Little Tern colony The Little Tern colony at North Entrance’s Karagi Reserve has suffered a devastating blow after several nests and eggs were destroyed during a raid over the weekend.
The abandoned Little Tern chick in the care of ASRCC Photo: Australian Seabird Rescue Central Coast
The Little Tern is considered endangered in NSW and is particularly sensitive to human disturbance when breeding. They nest on the ground and have been severely impacted by the human takeover of
nesting beaches, as parents are known to abandon chicks and eggs when stressed or threatened, making for a generally poor breeding rate for the species. In an effort to help preserve the North Entrance colony, the section of the reserve where they nest has been fenced off and large signs informing of the colony’s presence have been erected by Central Coast Council. However, according to Central
Coast Birding Group member, Luke Ullrich, that did not stop two children and one adult from entering the nesting ground on Sunday afternoon (December 1) and harassing several parents and chicks, destroying multiple nests and eggs in the process. Ullrich, who had gone to photograph the colony’s latest lot of chicks a few days earlier, was riding his bike along The Continued P25
The Lisarow Ourimbah Magpies have taken out the first piece of silverware of the 2019/20 cricket season with a five wicket win over Warnervale in the One-Day final played at Erina Oval on Sunday Page 39
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