Memorial funds

The Cobar Miners Memorial Project has missed out on funding in the current round of the Building Better Regions Fund.

The successful applications of the fund were announced earlier this month with the construction of the Miners Memorial application sadly not on the list of projects to be funded.

The Miners Memorial committee had applied for $200,000 to help with the construction of the memorial with another $80,000 to come from community funding through the Cobar Shire Council.

Miners Memorial committee president, Barry Knight told The Cobar Weekly the committee has yet to be told why their application wasn’t successful however they have been encouraged to reapply for the next round of funding.

Mr Knight said they are however being considered for a Department of Industry—Cultural Infrastructure Grant for $200,000.

In light of their unsuccessful grant application, The Cobar Weekly asked Mr Knight if the committee would now consider downsizing the project.

He said (with certainty) the committee is very happy with their design for the memorial and they will wait until they have the money to complete the project properly.

Mr Knight said ideally the committee would like to have the Miners Memorial completed before Cobar’s 150 Years celebrations in 2020.

“We have $90,000 now and need about $250,000 to $260,000 to go ahead with construction,” Mr Knight said.