Johns River

The 2011 Annual General Meeting of the Johns River Community Progress Association, Inc. reflected on the year just past, and highlighted plans for the coming 2011-2012 term.

The officers of the 2011-2012 JRCPA Management Committee were all unanimously returned to their same positions, with David Shepard as President, Chris Bawn as Vice-President, Keith Allen as Secretary and Joe Malvicino as Treasurer.  Ordinary members sitting on the Management Committee include Rod Heath, Richard Wilson and Stan Davies.

Deena Lane was thanked for her years of service to the community on the JRCPA, including the banner Johns River Jubilee last year, and more recently as Public Officer of the assocation.  Her duties will be taken over by Lorri Fischer.

Cheryl Teague was also thanked for her exemplary service on the Management Committee in the 2010-2011 term, and for her truly excellent efforts in organising and operating key facets of the Jubilee, including bar management and events organisation. 

The President's Speech

David Shepard gave a run-down of the term past, and a glimpse of what was to come in the 2011-2012 year ahead, as follows:

"It has been, without a doubt, a truly great year for Johns River and for the Progress Association.

"Our Management Committee started off the year with a huge task at hand – the Johns River Jubilee, our celebration of 150 years of village life in Johns River and around the region .

"It was just one of those dates which could not be missed, and I must particularly thank my co-chair on the Jubilee committee, Mrs. Deena Lane, for her exemplary efforts throughout the four-month planning and management process.   Most of today's management committee were involved too on the Jubilee committee, with Cheryl and Paul making herculean efforts throughout, the Hall committee for manning the kitchens so well, and for the whole Johns River community for their super ability to pitch in at the last minute to make the whole thing a success.

"We staged the event for the benefit of our community, and even managed to make a surprise profit in the process, as you'll note in our Treasurer's report.

"From there we went on to Carols by Candlelight, enjoyed by many on the lawn of the hall here, it was a great event, with great music provided by the Camden Haven band.

"Bingo at the hall has continued to be both profitable and a whole lot of fun.  If ANY of you actually think that Bingo is boring, you are sorely mistaken.  It's a hoot.  Joe calls the balls most sessions, and the hall committee very kindly hosts the event for us, complete with heaters and a refreshments station, another way our community groups work together.  Thank you to Joe Malvicino and Rod Heath for your very generous efforts in making Bingo a financial and fun success.

"Our biggest coup of this year of course was the big Q&A forum, ably moderated by our own past president, Glen Ferrero.   Leslie Williams, Councillor David Keegan, and the actual top people from both our Local Area Command Police and the RTA were on-hand to answer questions from us, the community, in a direct and frank way which you rarely see.   The event was such a success, all agreed to continue after lunch time for yet another hour, making the three hours both memorable and constructive.   And yes, we have actually followed up on many of the promises made by the folks on that forum.  It's all available to read online at johnsriver.com.au

"Throughout this term, our committee and other villagers  have been working closely with the Greater Taree City Council and the RTA to bring promises made in the past closer to reality for our community.    Bruce Shaw, Richard Wilson, Tony Galati, Lorri Fischer and myself met down at Council to hash out our stake in the $2.6 million of handover money negotiated with the RTA.   The Johns River Implementation Group met for over a year, given power by Council to oversee handover negotiations and get the best possible outcome for our village.

"This process was not always smooth and there were breakdowns in the negotiations along the way.   I personally spent a fair few hours on the phone, and out on the road here with Bob Page and others from the RTA, highlighting problems and making the arguments needed for them to come over to our point of view.   In the end, $296,000 was agreed just to rehabilitate the corner there from the bus turnaround around this way.    Our delegation at the August Council meeting also managed to get some paragraphs inserted to basically quarantine the RTA money, so it can only be used for projects and facilities within our villages, no small feat.

"We lucked out this year as a community, with the addition of Stan Davies to our management committee, who was quickly appointed Chair of our Landscaping Committee.   His work has been beyond belief, with countless and tireless hours spent on the Koolyangarra Reserve board walk project, as well as on our much-better-looking town entry areas at the roundabout and Wharf Road intersection.   Why the road-building Alliance thought they could leave those areas in such shoddy condition is unknown.   Last week I managed to get a cheque for $500 from the Alliance to make up for their less-than-spectacular efforts.

"And speaking of cash, we had a very good term, as you'll hear in the Treasurer's report.   Not only did the bank balance go up, we've had an increase in memberships as well, and you probably noticed our media efforts have paid off too, with good coverage on Prime TV, Channel Nine, the Camden Haven Courier, Port News and Manning River Times.

"As Media Officer for the Association, I simply lucked out with the coverage on the highway Location Markers, they all seemed to pick up on that really well.  The front-page article in the Port News in particular went a long long way to lifting our profile on the local media landscape.   The interview with Lorri Fischer and myself at Rosie's was very well received.

"On the subject of Lorri, I'd like to congratulate our new Three Brothers Network chair on a fabulous launch.  For those of you who are not aware, she has done amazing work in a very short time in putting together the 3BN as we call it.  It' a business network focussed on promoting awareness and cooperation between local business with a tourism and economic development focus.   It's a function which we as a region have needed for quite a while, and I invite all of you to have a look at the 3bn.com.au website which Lorri has put up for more details.

"As chair of the 3BN committee of the progress association, Lorri was set up with a small budget but basically free rein on the direction and policies, with oversight from our Management Committee.   The Regional Development Australia – Mid North Coast really liked the 3BN's submission for a series of Village Transport and Tourism Stations for our bypassed villages in the region, and hosted an event at Rosie's, which Lorri owns, which really gave us super exposure to Council, regional businesses and folks in the tourism business as well.   Well done Lorri!

"All of these commitments of time, effort and perseverance, by our management committee members, our membership at large, and by the community have made the 2010 – 2011 term of the JRCPA a productive and indeed busy one.

"The future is packed with yet more projects and plans as we start to be able to use some of the handover funds to apply for grants – which often require the matching funding from Council or other bodies – and continue the progress started with the boardwalk.  If you haven't been down to see it, please do, the new ballustrade built along the middle section look just super, Matt Worth did beautiful work once again there.

"Of course these projects and plans all mean one thing:  your help is still very much needed.   Daintry Gerrand, Chris Bawn, and Keith Allen have all spent much of their own precious time away from their businesses, filling out countless dozens of grant application pages, and coming up with the reasons and descriptions needed to get funding for our village projects.

"But we still need more bright lights like them to push ahead and make more progress.   Our village toilets are actually nearing full funding – it's been a tantalisingly laborious process of cajoling and wheeling by the Hall trust and progress assocation combined to get the commitments and get the support of Council, RTA and Lands Office.  Chris Bawn has not only been indispensible in this process, but frankly, almost inspirational in his dogged determination to see the project to fruition.   Great work Mr. Vice President, and we all thank you for you extraordinary work on behalf of our community.

"So basically, in addition to the toilets and more board walks, we're looking to pressure Council to actually get the road works for this intersection on the books and scheduled.   After that, we'll be seeking to expand the road works needed, mostly for parking an bollards, from Royan Street through to the Tavern area.

"The Three Brothers Network will continue it's meetings with Councils and tourism bodies, and the 2011-2012 term will see more events and more opportunities for local businesses.   The Aboriginal Heritage Group is a committee under the 3BN which I chair, seeking to ensure that our promotional efforts for the Three Brothers Region are in-line with the cultural expectations and moral rights relation to Aboriginal lore.   The 3BN will be publishing a regional map for tourists and businesses alike, which is part of the Village Tourism and Transport Station project I mentioned earlier.

"Another past president, Richard Wilson and I have been meeting up at Kendall too with community representatives from Moorland, Kew and Kendall to hopefully garner more funding from the state for a series of workshops to get at the heart of how we can foster sustainable economic and social development into the future.   Designed to cater to the 2030 plans already in place out our local Councils, the Communities of the Three Brothers project dovetails nicely with our own 3BN, by providing research and planning.        

"If you haven't had a recent squizz at the johnsriver.com.au website, we've included our list of upcoming project there, if you have ANY time at all on your hands, please do consider how you can muck in and help us to make yet more progress.   And again, look at the www.3bn.com.au  website as well if you have any interest in tourism or business in our area.

"Thank you all for all of your efforts in the past term.   Seriously, I have been just blown away by the kind contributions of time and effort by dozens of our locals from the Jubilee onwards.

"I really do look forward to this coming year as we all live up to the JRCPA motto – Progress Being Made.

"Thank you."

More information from the 2011 AGM will be online soon in the meeting minutes.