THE Cobargo Tourist and Information Centre needs assistance.
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It is completely staffed by volunteers, and coordinator Joan Salter said more are needed to keep the service running.
Ms Salter hopes to get people to assist at the centre for work experience, however as someone with experience will have to be there to supervise volunteers are still required.
“We just hope that it’s going to get bigger,” Ms Salter said.
While the centre has been running since 2007 beginning at the RSL Hall, it has only been in its current location for a few years, opposite Cobargo Automotive and Tyre Service on the Princes Hwy.
“A lot of people don’t know we exist, they think we just sell bits and pieces,” Ms Salter said.
At a morning tea held to recruit more volunteers last week, 32 people attended and one more person put up their hand to help out the centre.
The centre sells local products on commission, such as jewellery, jams, plants and fruit, which have been grown or made by its volunteers.
Volunteers only have to work one three-hour shift a month to be able to display their handicrafts or produce for sale.
To volunteer at the information centre call 6493 6110 or drop in to the shop.
It is open every day except Sunday, 10am until 4pm, and every day during the school holidays.
By Ben Smyth
COBARGO is not just a “whiz-through town” according to the volunteers manning the village’s information centre.
A handful of locals have been helping visitors to Cobargo learn more about the area and its many attractions.
However, one question remains the most common says info centre coordinator Joan Salter – where are the public toilets?
“We have a core group of working volunteers at the centre,” Ms Salter said.
“Last month was a slow month, but we still had 400 people come in – 25 of those were from overseas.”
Ms Salter said volunteers enjoyed sharing the unusual history of Cobargo with visitors.
“It is such an interesting area and goes back to the 1800s,” Ms Salter said.
“The story goes that William Tarlinton moved away from his Braidwood home and lived with the area’s Aboriginal tribes.
“One day he saved the chief’s wife from a snake bite and was granted a parcel of land as thanks.
“He wanted to start a town there, but the government wouldn’t let him because of a lack of water,” she said.
A cattle farmer, Mr Tarlinton began working on his landholding, which became the Bredbatoura homestead.
The township of Cobargo – originally Twin Rivers or The Junction said Ms Salter – instead began to take shape a little further north where the Narira and Bredbatoura Creeks meet.
Ms Salter said another quirky aspect of daily Cobargo life many visitors inquire about is, of course, the town’s resident gnome population.
“Yes we get a lot of questions about that,” she said.
“It’s great fun – the kids even know many of them by name.
“Sometime they go missing and then reappear later.
“I know one elderly lady who takes them home, cleans them up and puts them back!”