Gunnedah goes national

By Gunnedah Shire Council mayor Colleen Fuller

Gunnedah Shire was the location for a wonderful event last week – the launch of three new 50c coins with designs based on the poetry of Dorothea Mackellar.

The poet who is so famous for “My Country” spent a lot of time in Gunnedah where her family had two properties, and our beautiful landscapes inspired some of her work, including “Dawn” which is featured on one of the new coins.

It was an honour to take part in this event, together with the Royal Australian Mint and the Dorothea Mackellar Memorial Society, in front of the Dorothea Mackellar statue in Anzac Park.

Gunnedah was a natural choice for the national launch of this coin. We are home to the wonderful Dorothea Mackellar silos, the Mackellar Centre, the Maas Walk and the Dorothea statue.

The event was well attended by our community and by media who broadcasted the event nationally.

The coins proved very popular and have already sold out, but the word about Gunnedah Shire has spread just as far!

On a different note, there are two surveys out we would like our community to think about taking part in.

One is the Gunnedah Rural Waste Services Survey which will help guide consultation for the Waste Management Strategy and Rural Waste Facilities Study project.

Council has engaged ASK Waste Management to develop its Waste Management Strategy with the key aims of the project to develop a 10-year Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy, evaluate current facilities, and recommend future actions aligned with the NSW Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy and Council’s Community Strategic Plan.

To help with this process the survey is available for the community to have their say about how we manage waste.

If you have something to say about rubbish collection, waste facilities or anything to do with waste management in Gunnedah Shire, you can complete the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/GunnedahRuralWasteSurvey

There is also a Bill before NSW Parliament to look at splitting the Hunter New England Health District into two separate districts – the Hunter Local Health District and the New England North West Local Health District.

At the moment, the Hunter New England Health District is the largest in New South Wales, accounting for close to one million people.

The intent of the Bill is to improve health services for people in the area by bringing back a smaller, more focussed health district.

If you would like to have your say about this in a survey that will help inform Council’s submission to the Bill, the survey is available on Council’s website www.gunnedah.nsw.gov.au

If you would like to make a submission directly to the inquiry, you can visit Health Services Amendment (Splitting of the Hunter New England Health District) Bill 2025 (nsw.gov.au)