Former Cobar boy is thrilled to be back home … permanently

To say Jason Howell is thrilled about
starting in his new role as secretary/
manager of the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club
would be an understatement!
(The staff report he was knocking on the
door early on Tuesday morning eager to start
his first day of work!)
Jason, a former Cobar boy, is beyond thrilled
to be back home and working in an exciting
role he’d never really considered he might be
qualified for.
Jason grew up with his family in Cobar and
“dropped out of high school in Year 10”.
“As most of the kids did back then.
“Basically I got told if I wanted to drop out I
had to get a job, so I went and saw Roger Doumani
and he gave me a job working after
school,” Jason recalls.
On leaving school, Jason got a full time job
at Cappers Hardware where he worked for two
years.
Jason’s older brother Steve, a financial money
market dealer in Sydney, enticed him to go
live in the big smoke where he introduced Jason
to some of his colleagues.
“I was offered a job and it sort of all started
from there.”
His other brother Brad also joined him in the
money market industry and the pair picked up
some extra work on weekends with the band
they’d formed as teenagers back in Cobar,
Typhoon.
Jason said while they got a lot of regular pub
gigs, it was hard making headway into the
competitive music space in Sydney.
“It got to a point where it was like, ‘Do you
want to be a financial money broker or a busted
arse musician?’
For the past 30 years, Jason has been working
as a financial money market dealer and, in
recent years, in energy broking.
He kept his music interests and through
‘Market Rock’ music gigs which the Howell
boys ran for 12 years, they raised over $1.5
million for children’s hospitals and various
different charities.
He and wife Tash (nee Fisher) were very
much living the fast life in Sydney where they
raised their family, Will, now 21 and Rosie 19.
However over the past few years, Jason said
he wasn’t really feeling the love for his job that
he used to.
“So in June this year I went in there and
pulled the plug and hung up my boots,” he
said.
Jason said coupled with the recent and sudden
losses of two beloved family members, he
said “it just felt right” to leave.
He and Tash went travelling for a few
months and then when he was making plans
for his son’s emerging band, Edgecliff (of
which Jason acts as manager for) to come to
Cobar to play at the Running On Empty festival,
a conversation came up about the vacant
manager’s role at the Golfie.
He applied and was offered the position and
made the move to Cobar last week.
“Most married couples let their children fly
the coup, we’ve done the reverse, we’ve left
them!” he said.
And Jason said the move back home is permanent.
“I plan to be here until retirement, I can’t see
myself packing up and going through all that
crap again!”
“It was sad to leave mum in Sydney, but it
just felt right to come home.”
Jason admits to having no former club management
experience, however he does have
years of experience in managing a team.

“I’m a people person, I like being involved in
functions, I like being involved in charity
gigs—anything that’s good for the town and
for our industry,” he said.
Jason feels his biggest challenge in the role
will be staffing and getting that sorted is his
first priority.
“I think I can bring more interaction, a decisiveness
and enthusiasm to the club. I’ve got a
lot of ideas, and I’m busting at the seams and
bouncing ideas off different people.
“This place is good as it is, but there’s always
room for improvement and growth and I
plan to be part of that growth.”