Maria River Road – Sealing #4

goolawahcoop Events & Social, Tips

PMHCouncil is the lead partner in this joint project with Kempsey to seal Maria River Road, and their Project Manager has given this update on its progress.

The road design is complete now, with 7.2m of seal and 0.5m gravel shoulders. Unfortunately, it won’t be straightening out the s-bend at the beginning of the existing seal going north.

Acquisition of a parcel of necessary land from National Parks passed through the NSW Parliament last week, and other regulatory and environmental approvals are proceeding slowly, which is apparently normal for this type of sensitive project.

As early preparation for the construction phase, some of the culverts and drainage along the road may be worked on later this year or early next year.

Actual construction should now commence in the second half of 2023 (not this year, as last advised!), and take about 6 months to complete. Weather permitting!!

He didn’t say anything about holding your breath.

Past Visioning Exercises

goolawahcoop Governance

Mairead prepared the following:

As an action arising from the recent visioning circle, I agreed to go through the archives and look at our past visioning exercises.  We did two exercises.  Between them they provide an excellent base/starting point and showcase what members identified as important to them.  Below are the topline/summary results.  See attachments for full results and additional information.

2011 AGM Visioning Exercise: The 24 members present identified and voted on 24 ideas to see which should be part of Goolawah’s vision.  The list included 8 principles/objectives as stated in our rules at that time to test people’s agreement on whether these should remain as part of our vision.  The top results were: 

  • Legally be allowed to live here  (88% chose this)
  • A community centre (75%)
  • Preserve and protect flora and fauna* (71%)
  • Promote and encourage self sufficiency* (71%)
  • Promote the development of a community of artists, musicians, artisans & craftspeople* (71%)
  • Promote sport and recreation (71%)
  • Food co-op (71%)

* Original object from our rules

2017 Reflective & Vision Survey involving 42 members encompassing our (1) values, (2) priorities, (3) issues we need to address and (4) how well we do things.  

1. The top values members chose as our Core Values were: 

  • Protecting the environment (86% chose this as a core value); 
  • Supporting each other in times of hardship (also chosen by 86%, so tied for first place);
  • Working together to achieve common goals (81% );
  • Safety to speak honestly without persecution or hard feelings (81%);
  • Trust (76%);
  • Personal responsibility (76%).  

2. Out of 41 possible options, top on our priorities/to-do list were:

  • Help food producers to sell/swap produce with members;
  • Upgrade solar and lighting in the camp kitchen;
  • Sit down communal dinners to share food, stories, art, etc;
  • Recycling / reuse center.

3. Issues people wanted to address the most were:

  • Improve Long Term Planning;
  • Deal with conflict amongst members;
  • Relate well to our neighbours.

4. Members thought we did most things well; top of the list with 95% of participants agreeing that we did these things well:

  • Socialising /social events that bring the community together
  • Beautiful nature surrounding us 
  • Good roads

1. Results from 2011 AGM Visioning Exercise

2. Results From 2017 Reflection & Vision Survey

3. Excel Data-set from 2017 Reflection & Vision Survey

4. Newsletter Extracts from the Early Days

5. Document on Community Principles