New staff welcomed aboard Water security $8.24M project nears completion

The $8.24 million Nyngan Cobar Water Security Project is nearing completion and will deliver a new 650 megalitre storage dam to provide water security for the Nyngan community thanks to the NSW Government.

Minister for Water Kevin Anderson visited the site in Nyngan on Monday to see how work was progressing on the project that will help drought proof water supplies for Nyngan and Cobar.

Water security is at the forefront of the NSW Nationals’ agenda when it comes to delivering for regional communities,” Mr Anderson said.

It is great to see progress being made on the storage dam, which is located next to another $10 million storage reservoir, pump station and 1.8-kilometre pipeline that we built in 2019 during the height of the state’s worst drought.

Joining the Cobar Public School staff this year are: Bridie Bruce, a former CPS student who will be working as a Student Learning Support Officer with Stage 3; Kianah Nelson, a Creative Arts/Performing Arts teacher, who has worked in both mainstream and Special Education settings; Annette Gibbons, who has experience in a variety of Special Education settings in the Dubbo area, including teaching in a Juvenile Justice school, teaching hearing impaired students, and in a school that caters for students from Kindergarten to Year 12 with an intellectual disability will be team teaching MCMG; Crystal Lister has come to Cobar from Sydney to teach 3/4L; Amanda Fugar, a previous CPS teacher has returned to team teach 1/2LF; and Ellie Smith from Nyngan who will teach K/1S. ▪ Photo contributed

Farmers concerned about ‘fire bomb’

The NSW Farmers association is concerned we could be facing mass bushfires at the end of the year.

NSW Farmers Head of Policy and Advocacy Annabel Johnson said after a wet couple of years, there urgently needs to be a crackdown on public land managers letting weeds grow out of control.

“During Black Summer we saw horrific fires as a result of the disastrous ‘lock it up’ approach to land management,” Ms Johnson said.

“We’ve seen huge parts of the state converted into National Parks and just locked up in the name of conservation, and this is where the next fire risk will come from!

“The decision makers need to come to their senses and listen to the people who experience these natural disasters firsthand, and make sure there is an embedded strategy that will effect change in the short and long term.”

She said Australia had a long history of wet years which were followed by fires.

“I’ve heard of whole farms being incinerated and the people only barely making it out alive, and that was before we had these huge National Park tinderboxes everywhere,” Ms Johnson said.

“

For the most part farmers and private landholders are actively managing their properties, but there simply are not enough resources to do the same on public lands and this will surely lead to catastrophe.”

The two storage dams will double the storage capacity for Nyngan and Cobar holding up to 1,300 megalitres of water.

To put this in perspective, Nyngan uses 600 megalitres of water every year which means the new reservoirs can hold an extra two years’ worth of water supply which is great news for the region.

“We are also funding repair work on the first dam over the next few months, including installing a synthetic clay lining to prevent leaks.”

Nyngan and Cobar’s town water supply comes from a weir in the Bogan River which is topped up by water from the Macquarie River via the Albert Priest Channel when flows are low.

Mr Anderson said new storage dams will provide an important back-up water supply for the towns which are some of the driest locations in the state.

“While these areas have experienced record rainfalls and flooding over the past 12 months, it was only a few years ago that Nyngan and Cobar looked like a moonscape and they were on the verge of running out of water,” Mr Anderson said.

“That is why the NSW Government has also invested $4 million to build a new bore to the north-east of Nyngan to provide another water supply to lean on, as well as providing $2 million to carry out emergency repairs to the 65km Albert Priest Channel pipeline to fix leaks and disruptions to the system.”

Nyngan Mayor Glenn Neill said it was a great example of the local council working collaboratively with the NSW Government to boost drought resilience and improve long -term water supply and storage for the town.

“We have a proven track record of working hand-in-hand with the State Government to deliver infrastructure that is going to put Nyngan in a stronger position to manage a more variable climate,” Mayor Neill said.

“Out here, water security is the number one issue and without investment and support from the NSW Government we wouldn’t be able to build new reservoirs, pump stations, pipelines and bores.

“We have worked hard to get the new storage dam finished despite significant weather delays and once it is up and running it will be a great asset for the region,” he said.