Daniel Linklater and Jody Starick (a Wentworth Shire councillor) were among the
attendees at the Western Division of Councils conference last week in Cobar.
Cobar’s mayor, Jarrod Marsden, who has been acting as the interim chair of the
Western Division of Councils, was formally elected to the top job last week when the group met in Cobar for their annual general meeting.
The annual meeting provides a platform for Local Government representatives to hear from and meet with various Ministers and representatives from a range of State Government organisations.
The Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Western NSW, Tara Moriarty, addressed the meeting via Teams and State Member for Barwon Roy Butler attended, along with representatives from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Murray Darling Basin Authority.
Mayor Marsden said the group’s member councils (Cobar, Balranald, Wentworth, Broken Hill, Central Darling, Brewarrina, Walgett, Bourke and Carrathool) all agree that the Western Division of Councils is a very worthy organisation.
“It’s an advocacy group, a collective voice.
“Rather than each little council working by themselves, it’s a combined group working together,” Mayor Marsden explained.
“It’s a group of like councils—in that we don’t have huge populations and we don’t have huge rating bases.”
He said Western Division councils have unique problems that are specific to western areas.
“Like roads, we’ve got massive areas to cover and a lot of dirt road networks.”
Mayor Marsden said other issues, including water management, rivers, flooding, drought preparedness, and health, were also major concerns for the member councils and present a range of complex problems and challenges that many other councils in NSW do not have to face.
