Vote 1 - Group C - for Naremburn !

On September 13th most residents of NSW get to vote for members of their local councils. Sadly, quite a few LGAs have had autocrat / administrators installed by the state government as a result of corrupt practice. These situations have generally featured associations of corrupt political party hacks, Liberal and Labor. Fortunately on the Northside, we seem to have a tradition of favouring independent local Councillors. Although many Councillors are card holding party members, they seem to prefer standing as 'independents' probably because people don't seem to want parties in local government for the above - and other reasons.

Here in Willoughby we have 4 "Wards" each with 3 Councillors. Councils have a fixed term of 4 years, except for when the government would like to change that (e.g. this term was 4 and a half years). In Willoughby we also get to vote for the Mayor - who is then elected for the full term. Most Councils still elect a Mayor every year,by the Councillors. In my experience, although sometimes the people make a mistake with the Mayor, a 'popularly elected Mayor' generally delivers a better result as the Councillors are not distracted by the horse trading which used to accompany the annual election process!

Here is a pic of our team for Naremburn. I feel very honoured to have the support of these two people - Stuart Sexton and Bruce de Graaf.

Stuart and his partner Rhoda are the backbone of Artarmon's Sustainability Street group. He is also a member of Willoughby Walking Volunteers (responsible for much of the local route finding and signage you may have noticed around our parks and reserves) and of the Artarmon Reserve Bushcare Group

Bruce is the proud father of two beautiful and talented girls who attend local schools, he is Secretary of Crow's Nest Rotary and plays football for the West Pymble Pymble over 35 division 1 Premiership winning team. Perhaps because he works locally he can also find time to support Naremburn's Bushcare Group!

Thanks so much for your support guys!

Giant burrowing cockroaches @ Willoughby Park!

But not normally found there!
On show at Willoughby's Fauna Fair today, courtesy of the "Bug Man" were a range of stick insects, spiders and the giant - being shown around here by Daniel, an enthusiastic member of the audience. Apparently they're the world's biggest (up to 80mm & 35 grams) and thankfully, mostly found in north Queensland. Also on display were bats from the Ku-ring-gai Colony, a tawny frogmouth, lorrikeets and butterflies from Ossu, our sister city in East Timor. A great day, made possible through e.restore, Council's Environmental Levy - for which we have recently won an extension.

On the way there, I took this photo of Telford Lane - Willoughby's only surviving cobbled street runing between Eastern Valley Way and Fourth Avenue. An unexpected but wonderful relic don't you think?!