This is your Chambers 16th Business Awards which sounds like a lot and it is. However, when you consider Narrabri and District Chamber of Commerce was born in 1927 and has been voluntarily serving the business and wider community now for 95 years it gets lost somewhere in the calendar. This makes us one of the oldest community groups in the region. Your Chamber continues to serve as hard working committed volunteers with no support from government. We have no paid staff and have not received funding from either state or federal government unfortunately. Events like this and all the many services we provide are completely complimentary to our communities. Your highly subsidised tickets tonight and this outstanding yearly event are only possible due to the continued generousity and commitment of our fantastic member sponsors. Many of these are among you tonight so if you happen to run into one tonight shake their hand and offer a thank you… Kat has listed these earlier however, at the risk of singling out one; our major sponsor Whitehaven Coal has yet again supported you as they have for many years. Whitehaven along with our other sponsors are highly valued members of Chamber and play an active and much appreciated role in Chamber daily operations. Your Chamber is well recognised as right up there with the best in the state with well in excess of 100 members.
Tonight represents over half a million dollars invested by our members in The Crossing Theatre just for our Awards events alone.
Unfortunately, due to a microscopic insidious bug which almost brought the world to its knees we are not celebrating our 18th Awards tonight. Because of that I would like to give you a quick update on what your Chamber has delivered to you and the wider community since we last gathered here.
Chamber continues to stage the hugely popular Christmas Street Carnival which attracts in excess of 3000 locals and visitors to enjoy a Christmas celebration together. The majority of revellers are young families who can enjoy the celebrations without having to consider the cost at this most expensive time of the year. Our Street Carnival this year is set for Friday December the 16th. Of course the centre piece is the huge Chamber Christmas tree which Chamber purchased for the enjoyment of all. Our Christmas Street Carnival represents an annual spend of around $14,000 from our wonderfully generous and supportive members. There are no government grants involved. The event is completely developed and delivered in a voluntary manner by Chamber.
Your Chamber arranged and facilitated Chambers Meet the Candidates events for both local and Federal Elections so that the average voter could get to know their candidate. These events are recorded on video and appear on Chambers website for the benefit of the region. This free service has proven to be extremely effective and very much appreciated by candidates and voters. The upcoming State Election will be given the same attention. These events are fully paid for by Chamber and members with no external funding.
Chamber has worked closely with ARTC Inland Rail and combined to deliver open public meetings for timely up dates in order for the entire community to attend and get first hand updated information straight from the horse’s mouth…
Chamber has a close working relationship with Planning NSW in relation to the all-important Special Activation Precinct. We facilitate public meetings for the benefit of the entire community and regularly offer advice and suggestions at SAP team’s request.
Your Chamber applied for and received $450,000 from the last Federal Government for enhancements to Yarrie Lake. We worked closely with our partners at Wee Waa Chamber to bring this to our region. The Test Bore at Yarrie Lake is expected to be completed prior to the end of this month, with power upgrades and other much needed infrastructure follow directly after. Every cent of this money will be spent on Yarrie Lake with Chamber overseeing the entire project in our usual NO Charge voluntary fashion.
Your Chamber is well aware that the healthy growth of any regional community is very much aligned to a quality health service. Your Chamber recognised that Narrabri Hospital did not possess a suitable modern ULTRA SOUND unit so critical to a quality health delivery. Chamber immediately set about investigating this void. Thanks to the generousity of our wonderful members we raised $82000,00 to purchase a state of the art unit which was donated to the people of the region and now resides in Narrabri Hospital. I’m told the machine has already saved lives.
A member identified that 68 residents from our Shire are required to travel hundreds of kilometres every week to receive chemotherapy for cancer. This clearly is unacceptable. Chamber has a strong relationship with our members at the top of Hunter New England Health and was able to present our case for a Narrabri Chemotherapy unit. I’m delighted to say that on the 22nd of this month Chamber will be joining with Hunter New England Health to officially open the Narrabri and District Chemotherapy unit.
Your Chamber represents you as an active member of the Inland Rail N2N Community Consultancy Committee, the Coal Seam Gas CCC and the Narrabri Coal CCC as well as Chairing Regional Development Australia Northern Inland and numerous other working and advisory groups. We represent by membership every industry in our region. This is evidence in itself of the credibility of Narrabri and District Chamber of Commerce Chamber.
Folks our region is entering a period of economic and community growth not experienced since the development of our irrigation industry. It is for this reason that I implore you to have your individual thoughts and suggestions heard by Planning NSW. Don’t leave your future entirely in the hands of those of us like me and others who are fortunate to have regular contact with the Special Activation Precinct Team. The final draft of what’s planned for us is expected to be released in February next year. Chamber will facilitate another open forum with the Special Activation Precinct (SAP) team in order for you to attend. Check out our last open forum on Chambers website. It is critical that our future growth be developed from the ground up in a holistic community manner and not from a “what’s in it for me” from an individual’s angle. There is little doubt that if our Special Activation Precinct (SAP) is approached from a “what’s best for the entire community” attitude all will naturally prosper well.
Narrabri and District Chamber of Commerce provides a completely independent forum which meets monthly where questions and issues can be addressed in an open and collegiate manner without prior notice. Special guests are a regular feature at meetings.
Chamber receives regular contact from outside businesses and organisations looking to develop in our region seeking advice and support. We continue to assist local businesses looking to grow.
