Killalea saved p3
Record Kiama house price
Win a pass to J’roo Action P p3
Winning gardeners p11
The Pines opens its Pantry p13
p17
13 DEC 2021
New look Council
With over 70 per cent of the first votes counted, seven positions on the new Council have been filled, with preferences to decide the other two. The Kiama LGA is determined using a proportional representation voting system, where a candidate is elected if they reach a quota of votes. Any surplus of over the quota then gets transferred to the next preferred continuing candidates. The preferences are scheduled to be distributed on Monday 20 December, after the final date for postal votes to be returned, 17 December. The election of the final two councillors will not be known until then. The elected councillors at the time of writing are: • Kathy Rice, The Greens • Jodie Keast, The Greens • Karen Renkema-Lang,
SAFE Kiama • Imogen Draisma, Labor • Neil Reilly, Team Reilly • Matt Brown, We Love Kiama Gerringong Jamberoo • Mark Croxford, Your Community Candidates. Three candidates are in contention for the final two spots on the Council: • Warren Steel, No Political Parties • Stuart Larkins, Labor • Tania George, The Greens. Opinions vary on which of these will miss out, but it could end up a close race. Given the above, at the very least there will be four women on the new Council, up from the one female councillor serving the community over the last nine years (Kathy Rice). The Mayor will be voted in at the first meeting of the Winning candidates: Neil Reilly, Kathy Rice, Karen Renkema-Lang, Mark Croxford, Imogen Draisma new Council, on 11 January. and Jodie Keast. (Absent: Matt Brown)
FROM THE EDITOR
2022 has been another roller coaster year, and through it all we are proud to have delivered reliable local news to our community. Local news is important, as it is about things that matter to us all in our everyday lives. It helps build community by giving shared knowledge and experience. The launch of The Bugle App has given us a new way to deliver news as it happens, and we are now attracting over 10,000 readers a month through this channel. We look forward to reporting on all that happens in 2022, starting in early January. Happy New Year!
Brewery and distillery coming to the Valley By the summer of 2022, Jade Papesch and her husband Lyntton Tonta hope to be welcoming people to their Windmill Farm distillery and brewery ‘paddock to bottle’ venture they are opening with friends Dave Chapman and Karen Keaveny on Swamp Road, Jamberoo. “We looked everywhere, including Tasmania and Queensland, and it is fantastic that we have ended up in the Jamberoo Valley,” says Jade, who is known to many as a presenter on WaveFM. until our DA was approved, “It took 837 days from our but we are finally there.” first meeting with Council The DA combined sub-
dividing a 14 acre block off Mayor Mark Honey’s family farm, Riversdale, extinguish-
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ing the housing entitlement, and gaining approval for a brewery, distillery and café/ restaurant on site. Courses will also be run there. “Because it involved subdividing agricultural land, we had to prove that you are using the land for agriculture so it was the advice of Council to do it all at once,” says Jade. “We want to show people how if you can get a small piece of agriculture land, and if you are clever and can diversify, you can make an income from it. “The problem we have in
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this area is that a lot of outsiders are buying up prime agricultural land, putting a couple of cows on it and using it as a holiday house.” Their multi-faceted plan is to grow what they can on site or enlist the help of local producers to try and keep it all as close to home as possible. “Using regenerative agricultural practices, everything we grow we will be using at our distillery, the brewery or in our kitchen,” says Jade. They will be sowing barley in May, and planting hops for the beer. There will also be botanicals to flavour the
white spirits, chickens, cattle, honey and a market garden. There is talk of an apple orchard to make cider. The project combines the Jade and Lyntton’s long held desire to expose their four children to farm life with his passion for distilling, particularly whisky. After having to give up his life as a pilot for medical reasons three and a half years ago, he has focused on developing his knowledge and skills in the craft. His background, growing up on a cereal and dairy continued on p4
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