project engineer and former Cobar resident Dale Josephson with event coordinator and emcee Barry Knight on Friday at the Miners Memorial.
Cobar’s now annual Night to Remember our Lost Miners on Friday night at the Miners Memorial Park was well attended.
Event organiser and emcee Barry Knight welcomed locals and guests and thanked them for taking the time to remember those who had lost their lives in Cobar’s mines.
This year’s guest speakers included Annabelle Simpson who is the great granddaughter of one of Cobar’s “founding fathers” Thomas Longworth.
Mrs Simpson gave an account of how her great grandfather and his brother William came to Cobar and became involved in the running of the Great Cobar Copper Mine and the contributions the two men made to the town.
Mining project engineer Dale Josephson, who was born and grew up in Cobar, spoke about his career in the mining industry that has spanned 40 years since he began an apprenticeship at aged 15 at the CSA Mine.
Mr Josephson talked about his choice to go on to further study to become an engineer and how that took him all around the world to work.
Museum curator Kay Stingemore was also a guest speaker and spoke on the topic of bricks.
She spoke about how they were an important part of not only our mining history, but of our town’s infrastructure and dotted her speech with historical anecdotes about some of our town’s colourful characters of the past.
The night included musical performances by local musicians and school students, a ringing of the bell (which was used in the past to alert residents to an accident in the mine) and concluded with a guard of honour by our mines rescue and emergency services personnel and a wreath laying ceremony.
