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Eyes in the skies Continued from Page 1. Both helicopters are always prepped ready to respond and can be in the air within about 15 minutes to respond to a fire call. “But if we’re here at the airport, then it could be just five minutes,” Mr Picoto said. Both machines have the capacity to carry “a bucket” with 600-700 litres of water to assist with fire fighting. They fill up “pretty much anywhere we can find water - dams, creeks, lakes and pools if we have to, any suitable water source”. Mr Picoto explained they generally don’t take off with the bucket on as it speed limits them with the drag but instead will return to collect the bucket and fill it as needed. “We generally have an RFS member on board who maps the fire and makes a plan. “We can set them down and if needed go back and collect the bucket.” Mr Picoto helped the RFS out at the fire last week near Mt Hope, which he said was about 50 minutes flying time. “We have a fuel truck here and that went down to Mt Hope. Any time you can get a fuel asset close by makes a really big difference to the response because otherwise you lose a lot of time coming back to get fuel. “It’s really important in these remote areas to have access to mobile fuel,” Mr Mulcahy said. The helicopters have a flying time of about two and a half hours. “That’s a pretty standard time, travelling at 110 knots, so kilometre wise that’s about 500-600km,” Mr Picoto explained. RFS Far West Team District Officer Greg Martin said it was very important that local landholders are prepared with their own equipment for fire fighting. “We encourage them to ensure their pumps and equipment are regularly serviced and checked to be in good working order, that their water tanks are filled and that they carry out slashing around their homes, outbuildings, sheds and other assets,” he warned. “We recently saw two hay shed fires in the Euabalong area, that both started on the same day. “Both had been impacted by floods and the bottom bales started to self combust as they dried out.”
Kasey Chambers and her band charmed the capacity crowd at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club on Saturday night.
Packed crowd for Kasey Chambers Fresh from playing at the Tamworth Country Music Festival last week, country music super star, singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers, played to a packed Cobar audience at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club on Saturday night. Cobar was one of a long list of venues Kasey is performing at on her current tour to promote her latest album, ‘Campfire’. Along with playing her new songs from her 12th album, Kasey also played some of her earlier hits, including crowd favourite, Not Pretty Enough, which became a number-one hit on the Australian ARIA music charts in 2002. Cobar Bowling & Golf Club secretary/ manager Jason Howell was thrilled to welcome the multi-award winning performer to Cobar and said he found her to be “really down-to-earth”. Jason said she charmed the crowd even before she got up on stage to perform.
“Kasey spent time with our VIP ticket holders, chatting with them and taking photos,” he said. “It was great to see a big crowd on Saturday. “The VIP tickets for the three course dinner for 100 sold out quickly and we had to bring in extra seats once we opened up for general admission,” Jason said. “The night had a really great vibe and it was wonderful to be able to bring this sort of experience to Cobar.” And when Kasey did get up to play, she got a rousing “Welcome to Cobar” from the audience. Kasey said it wasn’t her first time playing in Cobar and that she’d been here on a number of occasions playing as a teenager with her family band, The Dead Ringer Band. “Sometimes it was to audiences of two or three … people,” Kasey joked. It was however a different story on Saturday night as she played to a capacity crowd.
Wednesday January 25, 2023 The Cobar Weekly Page 3
