Marine Rescue needs you
Have you been sitting at home, thinking that you would love to do some volunteering to put something back into the community? For six hours a week you can volunteer at Marine Rescue in the radio room to help support the boating community or even become a boat volunteer and go out to bring home a stranded boatie and even help rescue the occasional whale.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Where else as a radio operator do you get to sit on the headland with magnificent views, whales breaching while the whole time keeping an eye on our boating community? Or as a boat person, on the high seas rescuing boats in distress? Full training is offered to any prospective volunteers and full uniform is provided after a provisional period.
If being a radio operator or boat person is not your passion, we also have a fabulous fundraising group that provided sausage sizzles, meat raffles and other activities to raise much needed funds to support the work of Marine Rescue Narooma.
Don’t sit on that couch any longer, don’t sit and wonder what you could do within the community to help – email narooma@marinerescuensw.com.au right now and make enquiries.
Pat O’Shae, Marine Rescue Narooma
Future energy needs
The recent events in South Australia and now in Victoria have brought home the sad truth about lack of planning in either at the Federal or State level regards to Australia’s future energy delivery modes and how the energy is generated.
It has emerged via SA storms that the existing electricity grid is so outdated that it has a difficulty in coping with the wind-generated energy; this clearly indicates lack of planning in modernising the energy grid as a whole. In most states, parts of the energy delivery and generation have been sold to foreign interests to detriment of the people who initially paid for its construction over time. Once the essential services are sold to private enterprises, it then reflects upon future decisions that will be made by the state governments, as they have an obligation to please the private sector, rather than continual improvement for the public at large – the end user of the generated energy.
There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the Hazelwood power generation plant is old and in need of rebuilding, but where was the plan to do so? That went out the day it was privatised to foreign ownership. A large number of our coal-fired power plants are rapidly aging in all states and yet there is no foreseeable plans to build new ones that will be more efficient, producing cleaner energy into the future.
The only thing that is preventing state government from having solar panels on every school and hospital and all government buildings is the fact that NSW is now bound to look after its private investors over power distribution, as the solar is directly transferred to the building using the energy. Thus it will not benefit the privatised poles and wires – prove me wrong, Mr Baird.
It is truly a sorry state of the affairs when such an important public utility as the energy sector is flocked off to the lowest bidder to build tollways that benefit no one.
Power generation is much too important to leave it to politicians to decide what is needed; it requires careful planning by knowledgeable engineers and scientists. Politicians are foreign to the idea of planning beyond the first 18 months of the electoral term.
Markku Ikonen, Dalmeny
Narooma Chamber says world its oyster
2016 has been a busy year for the Narooma Chamber of Commerce. We started last October with a fresh new committee and immediately took on the task of building a business case for the Narooma Visitors Information Centre (VIC). A task force was established and they worked tirelessly to create a new vision for the VIC based on the membership’s desire that it remain a community-based organisation. Ultimately our tender to Eurobodalla Shire Council was unsuccessful.
Our second major initiative, to partner the Oyster Festival with the Narooma Blues Festival got off to a good start. Initial discussions and plans drew positive community support, so it was a disappointment to the chamber when the Blues Festival was cancelled. We took the opportunity to postpone the Oyster Festival for 2016 and undertake a long overdue review of the its vision and planning.
Whilst our two major public initiatives didn’t come to fruition, we have been working hard behind the scenes, streamlining chamber processes and communications. Our Narooma.org website continues to grow and show excellent results. Our social media presence is improving steadily and we’re growing our membership base.
2016 also saw the inaugural Eurobodalla Business Awards, which involved all local chambers working together with the council and the NSW Business Chamber to run a shire-wide awards program. This successful event has paved the way for 2017 and beyond, which is an excellent outcome.
Working with Club Narooma, the chamber helped coordinate the “Dying to Know” day run by Shanna Provost. This excellent information day providing a range of information about dying - a subject that we all tend to shy away from.
So what’s next? The chamber committee of seven members is back on board for 2017 with the addition of two new members to help with the workload. Our focus is to get the Oyster Festival off to a sustainable new platform and to action a range of activities from our soon-to-be finalised strategic plan. We look forward to your support in the coming year.
Niels Bendixsen
President, Narooma & District Chamber of Commerce & Tourism