Normal post office hours were completely disregarded and we soon learnt that even at 8pm and later that just because the door was closed it did not mean the postmistress was not inside still helping residents and visitors alike.

Deb's local knowledge of who lived where and who has a holiday home that was not in use, proved invaluable as she spent many hours and days phoning owners  and  matching the suddenly bereft and homeless with a safe place to stay. I saw the look on the some of the kids faces to suddenly find they had a place to call home after all, and it was if a great weight had suddenly been lifted from young shoulders and they could be kids again.

The post office, along with the hall, became the hub of Tathra with people calling in to ask Deb where Mrs such and such was now? How did the such and suches fare in the fire? Who lost what and a myriad other inquiries, very few related to mail!

Not only that, but Deb and Ian spent all day Sunday after the band day helping clean up the racecourse. I'm sure I can speak for Tathra residents and tourists alike when I say thanks Deb. It sounds a bit inadequate but it is heartfelt.

There was NO movement at the station, for the word had passed around, That the legislation we’d regret had got away.

And instead of rounding up feral horses,

All the cracks had gathered for a lazy day.

All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far, Had mustered at the homestead overnight,

For the bushmen love their Netflix,

And now they let the feral horses be,

And the stock-horse spirit snuffs it from lack of fight.

For PETA and the Nationals 

Love brumbies roaming free,

Regardless of the damage done 

And the insult to history.

The Man from Snowy River is neutered,

And no longer reins in feral horses, 

His legacy redundant 

Midst the muddy watercourses.

(With apologies to Banjo, but dedicated to those who have forgotten that the Man From Snowy River is about a bloke who got off his backside and REMOVED feral horses from the High Country)

It is now well over seven months since a group of “wannabe developers” submitted a DA to establish an exclusive Chinese flight school in the rural heart of the Bega Valley!

For some unbelievable reason, these “developers” have completely dismissed the rights of all the Bega Valley residents, and holiday visitors, whose peaceful rural lifestyle would be decimated by such a vulgar proposal. And, despite some pathetic promotional propaganda called “Fact Check”, have dismally failed in their bid to show how this abomination would benefit anyone but themselves.

Why can't they understand, that the reason the BVSC councillors voted unanimously in support of the thousands of residents who are opposed to the development, is simply because this is not the place to build a flight school for foreign students. Chinese students who would come, take away our reason for living here, pay the developers big money for the privilege, and then return to their own country.

After seven months, the proponents SAA must surely realise the incredible delay clearly shows their application is substandard and not feasible! And it hasn't even been passed on to the Southern Joint Regional Planning Panel.