Wednesday February 5, 2025
Volume 40 No. 03
$2 inc. GST
The Cobar Weekly Museum’s Phase 2 upgrade begins Pg 2
Endeavor’s re-start plan is on track Pg 7
Cobar Weekly celebrates 39 years Pg 8
Exploring the watering holes of the west The Pub Route, a soon to be released tour- to see when they get there,” he said. historical information at various locations. ism brochure, invites travellers to take a The booklet suggests a number of different Cobar Shire’s pubs feature in The Two Rivpub crawl to explore some of the west’s routes to take through the three shires and it ers Route (from Cobar to Louth, Fords Bridge most iconic pubs. they link up old, former pubs with existing, and Bourke) and also The Copper Route which The booklet is an initiative of the Far North and still operating pubs, in each shire. takes you from Cobar through Canbelego to West Joint Organisation (FNWJO) and covers Mr Hull said as part of the roll out of the Nymagee, down to Euabalong, across to the shires of Cobar, Bourke and Walgett. project there will be road signage, social media Mount Hope, and back to Cobar. The Pub Route explores the watering holes messages, videos and QR codes that offer more Continued Page 8. of the west, where ‘The Pub’ is more than just a place to have a beer—it’s the lifeblood of many towns and a welcoming spot for locals and travellers alike. Project coordinator, Bourke resident, Andrew Hull, explained The Pub Route idea came from the FNWJO tourism marketing strategy in 2020 which aimed to identify great things to do in the bush, things that all three shires had in common. “We’ve dug deep into the history,” Mr Hull said. After identifying there were over 300 pubs across the three councils, it was from there that the idea of The Pub Route came about. “There’s a lot of interest in old pubs because part of the history of a region can be told through those old pubs,” he said. From their study, Mr Hull said another tourism aspect the three shires had in common was the lack of a consistent digital media presence. He said the use of quality digital images, a better digital presence, more videos and enabling more access through phones were all identified as a need in each shire. Mr Hull gathered together a digital marketing expert and a researcher to work with him on the project. He explained The Pub Route trails have been broken up into a couple of loops. “There’s no point sending people on a wild Cobar Shire Council tourism manager Demi Smith and Great Western Hotel publican goose chase out into the bush if there’s nothing Rebecca Everett with a new tourism booklet, The Pub Route.