Free Feb/ March Your only free locally owned, printed and published Community Magazine here in the Snowy Monaro Region www.snowyriverecho.com 1 Welcome to the February issue of the Snowy River Echo. IN THIS ISSUE We rear in to 2017 with glee and some new columnists! I would like to take this opportunity to thank the community for their amazing feedback and support. The Snowy River Echo is your only locally owned, pub- lished and printed magazine. We take pride in this and love supporting the community in any way we can. I had a phone call in early February from a resident in Berridale, the lady thought she had missed January’s edition. Explaining to me that she posts a copy each month to an old friend in New Zealand that used to work on the Snowy. I replied with joy now knowing that the magazine (if only one copy) gets to New Zea- land. As discussed with this regular reader, I mentioned that the magazine hasn’t been published in January before but as per the communities feedback we will as of next year publish 12 editions a year. The Monaro’s agriculture show season is upon us. So please support our local towns by attending or partic- ipating! I will be participating in a few of the horse events my self, feel free to come over and say hi! I took a drive to Buchan the other week, a little exploring down the Barry Way to the Mountain Cattlemen’s Get Together. Hosted by the Mountain Cattlemen’s Association of Victoria a great weekend was had by all and on pages 12 and 13 you have a read about some of the history and what went on. If you have any queries on any images within the magazine, the best way to contact us is via the website and we will respond to you as quickly as we can. Just a reminder you can view the current and previous magazines online - www.snowyriverecho.com Please search for us on Facebook for regular updates. LOCAL UNIVERSITY OPTIONS FOR LOCAL STUDENTS: The Cooma Universities Centre provides high-tech facilities and University level education 10 Wellsmore Family Reunion Part 1 28 Brumby Reprieve? opportunities to students in the Snowy Mountains Region! The CUC is open to anyone, so with HSC results now out - why not consider your study options available locally at the CUC? 16 Buckin Hell 31 Wisdom Words With Elizabeth 23 Socialising Your Dog 34 Anatomy of a bud in taste Two Degrees: Bachelor of Education - Early Childhood or Primary Degree in Events and Tourism Take your Independent study: Any degree that is offered via distance education pick! Contact the CUC today to talk about your study The Snowy River Echo is independently owned and welcomes all community input. If you have a story or prepared article for consideration, please contact us on 0405 278 517 or email [email protected] options! For all sales enquiries please contact Sophie Davies on 0405 278 517 or [email protected] The publisher accepts no responsibility for any advertisement, notice, letter or article published. Any advertisement, notice, letter or article is published at the risk of the contributor who accepts liability for any intended publication. All such contributors, by forwarding advertisements, notices, letters or articles, agree to indemnify the publisher and warrant that the material is accurate and is neither deceptive, misleading, in breach of copyright, defamatory or in breach of any laws and regulations. 2 [email protected] 02 6452 3368 38 Bombala St Cooma 3 was Gabrielle Kerr for her leadership in the school sector. A special achievement award went to a local A Snowy Summer young man of Somali heritage, Mr Daud Mohamed, Words and images by Paul McIver for his work with Youth for Global Peace which assists people from diverse cultural backgrounds to share their experiences and knowledge with the wider community. Sports person of the year went to our very own barrel queen Michelle O’Neil after a year of outstanding success in the saddle. Young sports person of the year went to rising squash star, Sam Sergo. Arts person was Allan Spencer for his enormous achievement in orchestrating the National Busking Championships. In Jindabyne the recipi- ents were Louise Frolich, citizen of the year, for her tireless work with children’s play facilities. Lachlan Harrigan was young Citizen of the year as result of his incredible cycling achievements. In Bombala the We all have that one friend who, late in the season, good company. For others, it can be a trail ride on citizen of the year was Colin Ryan for his revival of will say “Sheesh, what ever happened to summer horseback to experience life from, what seems like, rugby among many other achievements. this year. We really didn’t really get one.” Well, odds a bygone age. are that you won’t be hearing that this year. So, now that January has passed and all it had to We had our fair share of relatively minor bush and offer has been consumed, it’s onwards and deeper It has been hot. Almost relentlessly hot with above grass fires in January which should have prompted into the year as we begin to savour all that is on offer average temperatures, day and night, across the all of us to review our bushfire action plans in the in February and beyond. entire region. event that February has something more serious in mind. Naturally, when things get as hot as they did in January, we turn to the regions cooling resources Late January saw the annual event we call Australia and head to the dams of the Snowy Hydro Scheme Day celebrated across the district. A relatively recent or our watercourses. There are a host of cooling ac- community. In Cooma, the citizen of the year was tivities on the lakes and dams like sailing, swimming educator Kevin Dunne. The young citizen of the year and water-skiing. The Australian Water-skiing cham- pionships were held on Lake Jindabyne in January and what a tremendous spectacle they were. The roar of the engines of these high speed ski boats shook you to the core and the courage of the com- petitors was extraordinary. With record numbers of drownings on inland water- ways this summer it was good to see Maritime Au- thorities active on our lakes enforcing safety jacket regulations, boozed boating and fishing licences. Sometimes a visual presence can be the deterrent that saves someone’s life. When it’s a stinker down on the plains it is often worth the effort to take a trip up to the ski resorts for some blessed relief. There were still patches of snow on the ground up there this January and you can gain a valuable insight into their operation with the mantle of snow removed. With some of us having time off, it is well worth a camping trip for the cool air, serenity you can smell and relaxing cool nights under an ocean of stars in 4 5 Design Creativity and True Grit at Billy Kart Derby Upper Snowy Landcare – Greening Australia On a sunny hot day, the second running of the continue to tackle tree dieback in 2017 Monaro Billy Kart Derby at the Cooma Showground on Sunday 22 January was notable for a wide range of highly creative cart designs, hot times and close competition in all classes; also for the true grit of a young competitor who kept on getting back onto her cart after a series of crashes into the hay bales. Upper Snowy Landcare (USL) and Greening Aus- k2c.org.au/. Presenters included: Cris Brack (ANU), The Cooma Police were at the event with their radar tralia (GA) under the NSW Environmental Trust’s Jacqui Stol (CSIRO), Nicki Taws (Greening Austra- gun and clocked Tom Brown at 42 km/hour in the Bush Connect grant entitled, Monaro Tree Come- lia) - Monaro Tree Comeback NSW Environmental Cooma Rural Fire Brigade kart which was the fast- back Project, are getting more than 10 ha prepared Trust, Lauren Van Dyke (Upper Snowy Landcare, est speed for the day. While Elyssa Gould did not this year for planting in response to the tree dieback Dieback Project Manager), Sue McIntyre (CSIRO), win the 5-8 years Classic Kart competition, she won As well as age group Classes, the carts themselves epidemic affecting thousands of acres across the Mike Thompson (NSW NPA), Susannah Power the admiration of everyone at the event by pluckily were also classified as being “Traditional’ – being Monaro. (OEH), John Briggs (OEH), Johannes Botha (ACT climbing back on to her rope steered cart after a se- made from wood with rope steering, ‘Modern’ or Government), Chris Allen (OEH) ries of crashes and ‘soldiering on’ to complete all her ’Novelty’. Out of a total 34 competitors, the Class A proportion of the 10 hectares, spread across four 4 runs down the Cooma Showgrounds track. place getters on the day were: properties within the dieback zone, will be planted For information on the USL Dieback Project contact: out as straight biodiversity patches using seedlings Lauren Van Dyke MODERN DESIGN from local remnant species in a 50% shrub / 50 % USL Dieback Project Manager 5-8 years tree ratio. Other plots will be set up as a trial with Email: [email protected] 1st - Jackson Lee - best time 18.41s input from the CSIRO to investigate the benefits of Ph: 0411 402 978 2nd - Lachlan Corbett - best time 20.57s planting more robust and persistent species and 3rd - Max Ward - best time 21.88s subspecies of the affected Eucalyptus viminalis 9-14 years (Ribbon/Manna Gum) and test cool burning to en- 1st - Deana Hedger - best time 17.81s hance soil quality.