A 'high five' to Matthew Nott for conceiving the festival fundraiser. Five thousand Watts from 500 tickets for five bands for five hours for $5 is a win for the patrons, a win for the sports clubs and a win for the environment. Imagine what 50 Matthew Notts could do.

How well deserved is this award! Dr MacKinnon was the anaesthetist at Bega Hospital when my partner underwent an emergency surgery a few years back. The wonderful surgeon rang me afterwards of course. But I was so surprised when Dr MacKinnon also called - to check that I understood the prognosis and inviting me to ask any questions I might need to ask. How many anaesthetists would do this? Subsequently I learned how very rare this is. I think Dr Mackinnon's experience as a community GP may be what makes him a much more compassionate anaesthetist. Congratulations.

I'm not surprised that your council informants are anonymous, given the false and misleading nature of their reported claims in respect of the Old Pambula Court House (BDN, 24/11).

While Opteon may be content to have its findings misrepresented by council, I'm sure residents and ratepayers aren't.

There is no mention of an achievable market rental of $40,800 in the Opteon report and the claim that rental figure is "achievable" is completely dishonest. Quite to the contrary, the report states that "Re-letting prospects are difficult/hard with few potential tenants in the current market, which is exacerbated by the current heightened level of market uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic" (page 5).

But then again, Bega Valley Shire Council seems able to do and say whatever it likes, while few apparently care.

In the broadest sense "history" is just the record of everyday events and we each contribute to that record by what we do each day. Obviously some actions are more significant than others and some people have the responsibility of making decisions which will influence the history of a whole area or even a country.

Councils have that sort of responsibility and both staff and elected councillors should be aware that they only have that power for a short time but their actions could have irreversible outcomes and permanent loss.

Australians are inveterate travellers, going overseas to look at ancient architecture, visiting museums and cultural centres and revelling in the colourful traditions of other countries. We watch TV programs like the Antiques Roadshow to marvel at examples of old arts and crafts and take part in documentaries that trace people's family histories.

We spend hours tracing our own genealogy and often regret that we didn't ask our older relatives questions about our pasts. We want to know our backgrounds.

Some people keep diaries, photo collections and treasure articles that have been handed through the family generations so that their personal histories will be retained.

Museums and genealogy societies do just the same activities but on a broader scale on behalf of the community.

It is obvious that those repositories are also of interest to people outside that community and they have a huge tourism value.

Tourists like to visit "cultural" sites as well as beaches and the volunteers who run these facilities know that some people actually come to the area because they want to research their family histories not sample the surf. The BVS annual museum visitation figure is quoted as being 57,000.

It is just as important to preserve the history of an area as it is to maintain the roads but it is easier to see the need to fill in the potholes than to repair the leaking roof of a building housing those historical records and artefacts.

In NSW it is an accepted council responsibility to finance libraries and subsidise art galleries but some local governments even run their own museums.

The Bega Valley Shire is fortunate that bands of dedicated volunteers have spent years preserving the history of their own communities but that contribution if now at risk of being lost because of lack of council support.

Obviously time and finances are limited but how much consultation has taken place by individual staff members and councillors with volunteers who are responsible for these facilities?

Have they ever visited them or even know where they are?

There is the risk that decisions could be made without sufficient back ground knowledge and those decisions will have irreversible outcomes.

Shirley Bazley, Merimbula