News
Mother Nature lends a helping hand Council working with State Govt to change legislation
Mother Nature lent a helping hand to local around 4.45pm on Saturday. firefighters at Mount Hope last Wednesday Upon arrival they found an area similar to the with approximately 55mm of rain falling on fire on Wednesday (100m x 30m) which was the fireground which had been burning for burning through grasslands. nearly a week at Yarra Station. A third fire in the vicinity of the Old Res was The rain helped National Parks & Wildlife reported just before 10.30am on Sunday. Service (NPWS) personnel and NSW Rural “We engaged with both Cobar Headquarters Fire Service (NSW RFS) volunteer firefighters and also Louth Road brigades “slip on” applito successfully fight the fire within the National ances for our firefighting operations,” Mr Park. Moore said. NSW RFS Far West Team Operational Of- “This fire was due north of the Old Res along ficer David Moore advised The Cobar Weekly the Devils Rock trails. The perimeter of the fire the fire ended up burning out 7,718 hectares, was around 900m to 1,000m and was a mixture with the majority of that land being within the of a grass and scrub fire.” National Park. A suspected lightning strike is believed to “There has been no repeat calls to the fire have started a fire in Yathong National Park after the rain front and the area was inspected south of Cobar last Wednesday. the day after the rains by aviation in conjunc- Mr Moore said due to the rain in the area the tion with NPWS and RFS personnel,” Mr previous day, access to the site was difficult Moore said. however NPWS were able to reach the fire on The Far West Team has continued to be busy Friday. Approximately 121 hectares was burnt with six callouts in the Cobar area in the past before they could control and put the fire out. week. (Three fires were in the vicinity of the Two fires south of Nymagee last Thursday Old Res and are being investigated by police.) were also believed to have been started by The first incident took place last Wednesday lightning activity in the area. within the vicinity of the boundary trails just Mr Moore said the two fires on private propnorth of the Old Res. erty were reported at 4pm. The Cobar Headquarters brigade responded to They burnt through approximately 393ha the fire following a report just after 2.30pm. It before being contained by crews from the took almost an hour and a half to extinguish the Nymagee and Eremeran rural brigades along grass fire which covered an area of approxi- with private operators and heavy plant supmately 100m x 30m. plied by a local contractor. A mixture of grass and trees were burnt. These fires burnt through a mix of scrub and Cobar Headquarters brigade responded to a grassland in terrain that made it difficult for the report of smoke in the vicinity of the Old Res at local crews to access.
Cobar Shire Council is working with the State Government to change legislation that pertains to the old Cobar Hospital site. Council recently entered into an agreement with the State Government to purchase the now vacant land where the old Cobar Hospital and Cobar Community Health Centre were located on Lerida Road (adjacent to the new Cobar Health Service) with the view of developing it into a new housing estate. Council’s general manager Peter Vlatko told councillors at last week’s Ordinary Council Meeting that a problem had arisen during the sale process. He said it was found that the land had a special title on it. “A long time ago it had been gifted to the Cobar people to build a hospital on,” Mr Vlatko said. He advised councillors that it wasn’t a matter of re-zoning the land. He said a change to the Government Act would be needed to permit a change of use of the land. Mr Vlatko said if the land was to be subdivided and sold on, there could be a problem for buyers when they go to build a home. He advised councillors that council staff and their lawyers were working with the State Government to resolve the matter. All advertising deadlines 2pm Mondays
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Page 2 The Cobar Weekly Wednesday March 29, 2023
