Council Connect: 23 May 2025

Published on 23 May 2025

Hello and welcome to this week's Council Connect. Alexandria Carruthers here, Councillor and Deputy Mayor.

So what a week it has been, we've got a bit of a weather situation happening! First of all, just a massive, big thank you to our council crews and the SES volunteers working around the clock to keep our community safe and updated. The SES has two rotational crews based in Dungog, and the council has a minimum of two on-call crews working with all emergency services around the clock. So a big thank you to them.

We've seen many of our council facilities closed for most of the week, including the Library, Service Centre, and our Waste Facility. We know this is not great, but we can't control the weather, so we just pivot and do what we can. We've also seen our schools close this week, and impacts to rail services. We've also had a number of evacuations.

Thank you to those who have listened to and followed the advice of the emergency services teams. It's really important that we follow the advice when it's given. They're there to keep us safe. That's their only objective. We've got an evacuation centre set up at the Dungog Memorial RSL for those who need it. So, if you do need it, please use it.

The Dungog Showground is also currently set up for livestock. So, if you have livestock that needs to be moved out of floodwaters, it's available for you.

Please remember, if you need help, call the SES on 132 500. That's what that line's there for. It's for you to call if you need help, and triple zero if there is a life-threatening situation that you're in. So that's 000, which will our emergency services directly.

We have a number of closed roads and flooding, which has disrupted garbage collection services. We've been working closely with JR Richards, and you will have seen notifications on Facebook about this. We're doing our best to provide updates on what that looks like, but again, we have to take it day by day because conditions are constantly changing and that determines what we can do. I do encourage you to keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates. Please keep in mind people who don't have access to Facebook and who might be close to you and help by filtering those messages and information through to them. They'll be appreciative of the updates.

This is a reminder that we're not out of the woods just yet, as the mid-Coast rain may head to the Hunter over the next 24 hours, which is the advice we've received. So please, please, please, continue to check the warnings on the SES page, on our Facebook page, and on the Hazards Near Me app. If you've got to go out on the roads, check the Live Traffic app and check your route before you go.

Please be patient as our crews work to inspect the network as well. There will be several roads that need to be assessed before they can be reopened. We must have a bit of patience there, and if you do notice something unusual, contact the Council via phone and report it. We'll include numbers in the comments below so you've got those at hand. We'll continue to provide updates on the closures as soon as we can.

We've also had a Natural Disaster Declaration made for the Shire along with 15 other LGAs. It's a big impact this one. These grants offer immediate support for those most in need, including small cash payments and direct material aid to cover food, clothing, personal items, and emergency accommodation. To find out more, we’ll include a link below, and this will give you some advice and guidance on what can be accessed via those grants that are available because we have been declared a natural disaster.  

The show must go on! Council convened for its ordinary monthly meeting on Wednesday. A lot of items were on the agenda, including receipt of the Arts Upper Hunter Strategic Plan for 2025 through 2028. If you haven't heard of Arts Upper Hunter before, it's a regional artists development organisation for the Upper Hunter, which includes Dungog Shire, and it plays a crucial role in supporting and promoting and delivering arts and cultural initiatives. So that includes local programs and bringing external funding into the region, focused on arts, creativity, and culture. And those grants can be federal and state, but without Arts Upper Hunter, those funds might not be able to be achieved. So there's a real benefit in having Arts Upper Hunter in the area. So essentially, without Arts Upper Hunter, Dungog would struggle to deliver and sustain quality arts programs independently. So they play a really important role in helping to leverage what we have here, and we have a number of great things. But again, if we don't have contact with the outside world, no one will know how great we are. You know, Dungog is the centre of the universe, but we need to tell people about it. So it was good to see the ongoing support from Dungog Shire Council to ensure that Arts Upper Hunter can continue to deliver high quality arts opportunities that help to enrich our local economy, strengthen community identity and make the region a more vibrant and connected place to be.

So again, everybody take care. This will be over soon. Don't forget to look after yourselves. It can be tough when you're isolated, so make sure you're picking up the phone and talking to people where you can, or you're just doing the things you enjoy, and just take care.

Also, just to note, another location where you can get information as things evolve in the area and warnings go out is the ABC Radio and Dungog Radio. They've been providing updates from the SES and the Hazards Near Me app and other emergency response services live on air and also on their Facebook page to help keep everybody updated. Not all of us have access to Facebook, and we know that, so the radio is also there for us too.