Dunedoo residents are celebrating after being awarded more than $6.3 million worth of funding for projects aimed at securing the town’s long term future.
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As part of the NSW government’s Cobbora Transition Fund, $4.5 million has been given to the Three Rivers Regional Retirement Community for extending the options of aged care accommodation while another $1.846 million has been received by the Dunedoo revitalisation project.
The Mendooran Showground will receive a $133,000 upgrade and the Coolah Recreation Group have been given $287,500 to go towards their Three Rivers recreation ground.
The grants were part of the $20 million dollar fund that aims to compensate towns for the disruption caused by the proposed Cobbora Coal Mine, which bought property off local farmers.
Each of the four affected councils, Warrumbungle, Wellington, Mid-Western and Dubbo, has been given $1 million, leaving just over $8 million remaining.
Residents of Wellington, Mid-Western and Dubbo shires will find out today which of their projects have been approved.
Warrumbungle Shire Council Mayor Peter Shinton said the funding would be a welcome benefit to the town of Dunedoo but said it was needed, because the town had been badly affected by residents moving away after selling their land.
“I don’t think we have ever had a funding injection like this. It’s great that it’s focused on the area that needs it and has been affected by the buy up,” he said.
“If you talk to individual shop owners, a lot have noticed a problem, they have falling profits. But it’s a seasonal thing and you have to study over a long period of time. We saw with the census that the population has fallen and it’s mostly attributable to the buy up of land in the Cobbora area.
"I hope it is a rosy future but there are still going to be more effects that we will feel before it starts to feel better.”
Barry Evans had been the driving force behind the quest for independent living units on the site of the old hospital at Dunedoo and he said the government money would go a long way to ensuring the first 11 were built.
“Once we build these, we will have everything from high dependency aged care to self care for those who are looking to move after retirement and everything in between,” he said.
“This will benefit the town because even with the first 11 units, you keep people in town and they are shopping here. In the next 10 years, I would like to see us build up to 25-30 units. We have the ground to be able to do it.”
