From selfishness to selflessness

Armidale Regional Council staff have been busy trying to keep up with regular maintenance schedules and deliver on capital works projects, but with La Nina fuelled rains impacting roads, drainage and our open spaces, the community may experience some delays to standard service delivery as they endeavour to keep up.

The annual Armidale Cup races had to be moved to Tamworth because the track was "deemed unsuitable for racing". And in Walcha, 600 residents are still without internet after flooding destroyed the NBN hub last Thursday.

While the sports grounds in Armidale are saturated and unable to be used by our clubs, some locals decided to use them as off-road dirt bike tracks last week, causing thousands of dollars damage and infuriating Armidale Regional Council general manager James Roncon.

More irresponsible actions ruined the annual awards evening for about half our Armidale SES unit volunteers last week. Instead of relaxing and celebrating the heroic efforts of team members (or themselves), they were called out to a vertical rescue at the popular Blue Hole swimming spot where two reckless young adults decided to go swimming in the flood-swollen water and found themselves (luckily) stranded on an island in the midst of the rapids. Looking at the photos taken at the rescue scene, it is hard to understand what they were thinking at the time.

Luckily these examples of selfishness were balanced out with some wonderful examples of selflessness.

Southern New England Landcare has awarded the 2021 John Winter-Irving Bequest to local Armidale Rivercare Group founding member Bruce Whan for his long-term service to the Armidale community and Dumaresq Creek.

Jacquie Morgan has been recognised as the GP Synergy Practice Manager of the Year for her role in training and supporting GP registrars across the New England Region.

Award organisers said training the next generation of GPs takes a team and that the Rusden Street Medical Practice has been training and supporting GP registrars as they undertake their training to become specialist GPs, for many years.

And on Saturday, there was a wealth of local talent on display when the Armidale chamber choir, Fiori Musicali, performed Puer Natus Est for an afternoon of Christmas choral music in Guyra and Armidale, while Errol Russell Sinfonia, the chamber orchestra, performed live at the Old Armidale Teachers' College.

I hope you have a great week.

Vanessa Arundale

Acting editor Northern Tablelands and North West