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Your Local Wagga Weekly - Friday, 23 February, 2018
NEWS
Chasing unicorns to save Matong’s historic pub Marguerite McKinnon TAKE a drive out to Matong and you might be forgiven for thinking it’s a ghost town. But stay a moment and you’ll discover its heart is still beating. The town’s two major buildings on Matong Road are boarded up and surrounded by fencing. The main eye-sore is the historic Farmer’s Home Hotel, which has marked an inauspicious 10-year anniversary of being closed following a suspicious fire in January 2008. Across the road, Laura Evan’s much-loved antiques shop, Matong Memories, still has the yellow and red NSW Fire and Rescue tape around it, almost four months after a fire ripped through the roof in November. That fire was believed to have been started by mice chewing through cables in the roof. Laura turns 90 this year, and her shop was her treasure. The build-up of the tumbleweed panicum effusum, or hairy panic grass, behind those fences almost mocks the townsfolk by reminding them that no-one is allowed into either building for safety reasons. Matong is now a town where you can’t buy bread, milk, tea or coffee, or even get a beer. And the public toilet block is set to be locked following attacks from vandals, adding even more heartbreak to an already heart-broken community. Late last year, locals gathered to show their support for the pub and the town. People came from miles around, including farmers who stopped their headers and halted their income stream because it was important for them to make a point. The town and its people deserve so much better. Ten years ago the pub’s current co-owner, Bruce Maples, bought the Farmers Home Hotel for what Bruce said was around $50,000 after the previous owner missed out on hundreds of thousands of dollars after a seemingly bungled insurance claim. In the decade that followed, the patience and belief of Matong’s locals has been sorely tested, as stoush after stoush between the pub’s owners and Coolamon Shire Council continued and stagnated, while the dilapidated
structure continued to deteriorate. Some tradesmen and businesses even put their hands up to help rebuild the pub, but even they say they’ve been burnt as they wait to be paid for their work. In a final act of desperation, Coolamon Shire Council slapped a demolition order on the pub before Christmas, forcing the owners back into the NSW Land and Environment Court. Many feared this would be the end of a sad and sorry chapter in Matong’s history. Yet, this month, the pub got its reprieve after the demolition order was withdrawn following agreement on access to the building. The question on everyone’s lips now is; When, if ever, will the pub get fixed? Coolamon Shire Council’s executive manager of Planning and Environmental Services, Colby Farmer, was succinct. “It’s the million-dollar question,” he said. “At the end of the day Council just wants access to the building to create an engineer’s report so repair works can begin,” Colby said. This week, co-owner Bruce Maples, said his lawyers were drawing up a time frame for engineers to come in and assess the worked needed. “It will allow construction certificates can be made and work can begin on the pub.” And, depending on his ailing mother’s health, “It will be ready this week,” Bruce said. “My gut reaction is, as soon as my engineer, Rob Jones, gets together with council’s lawyers, they can say, ‘yes this is the damage’,” he said. “Council insurers can get on with the assessment and a bill of quantities, and we’ll get to work on fixing the pub. I expect to have the pub repaired this year,” Bruce said. News of the latest development has been met with anything from measured scepticism through to outright disbelief, with one local claiming, “We can ride our glow-in-the-dark unicorns to the pub when it opens.” After 10 years of promises and stand-offs, Coolamon Shire Council also was restrained, but Bruce has dismissed it all. “Oh yes, I will be rebuilding the pub, and it will be this year, and for those naysayers, they can come into the pub when it’s finished, with or without their unicorns,” Bruce said. Wagga Weekly is staying tuned.
Kildare students fly the future of drones pennie scott ACCORDING to some forecasters, unmanned aerial surveillance devices, otherwise known as drones, have potential uses not yet imagined. The future of this new and burgeoning industry has numbers projected in the millions in Australia alone. To satisfy this anticipated demand, and quickly, secondary school students are the front-line of developing and servicing this branch of technology. With the rise of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in schools, the number of appropriately educated students to participate in this sector is increasing. Wagga’s Kildare Catholic College is one of the Ambassador Schools collaborating with JAR Aerospace from Sydney as a recipient of the curriculumbased information created so students can learn how to make drones from 3D printers, code the necessary software and
apply the devices to a range of application. The Chair of JAR Aerospace, Tim Kennedy, is Wagga born-and-bred and is delighted to have a Wagga school participating in the project. “Yes, I do have a soft spot for my home town, but Kildare is a perfect fit with its focus on technology and electronics, both essential for drones,” Tim explained. Coordinator of the Technology and Applied Studies at Kildare, Jennifer Watt, explained that the school, part of the JAR Aerospace education program, is the only school in regional NSW at this stage. “We have 32 students in Year 10 studying Design and Technology and iSTEM for one term to engage them in design and engineering, solving real world problems with technology,” Jennifer said. Tim explained that the program is rolling out to schools in all States, with the projection of between six thousand and 10 thousand students participating in 2018. For more information visit www.jar-aerospace.com.au
L-R: Jack Cullen, Jennifer Watt, Gabby Clarke, Jess Knox, Annabelle Mortensen and Tim Kennedy