The upcoming 10th anniversary for the combined regional council shows some mixed views on its success; as Dubbo makes another three-year bid for the hugely-successful NSW Touch Junior State Cup Northern Conference.

Decade anniversary for regional council a little “tinny”

The recent return of quarterly council meetings to Wellington after audio and video issues were fixed at the old council chambers, comes with the imminent 10th anniversary of the amalgamation of the two local government areas in May.

For Wellington’s longest-serving current councillor Richard Ivey, the May 2016 “shotgun wedding” forced on the two councils by the-then State Government, has been a qualified success.

“Personally, I was in favour of it at the time, and I’m still in favour of it,” Cr Ivey said. “I think also that the majority of the people in Wellington still think it’s a good idea.”

He emphasised, though, that these are not universal views in our second-largest community, though there’s no stomach locally – as with some unhappy marriages between other councils in NSW – to try and reverse the decision.

“A minority think that it was a mistake; a rump of people think that, and they won’t change their opinion. However, there’s no real push on for de-amalgamation; it would cost a fair bit, and it’s economically not really feasible,” Cr Ivey argues.

He said that fears of loss of local voices simply haven’t been borne out, with four Wellington district councillors in the current chamber.

“A lot of people thought that we’d lose our representation with the end of the ward system at the last election. But that was not the case, with four advocates now locally; me, and councillors Phillip Toynton, Adam Ryan, and Lukas Butler,” he said.

The perceived loss of spending control over local finances is another (largely unfounded) complaint, he said.

“Some people think we’re being short-changed in the regional council,” Cr Ivey said. “They say, ‘Oh, look at all that money being spent on Dubbo,’ that sort of thing,” he concluded.

Mayor Josh Black said that this belief could not be further from the truth, with Wellington doing very well in service delivery out of the forced amalgamation.

“Each council got $10 million for the amalgamation process to cover costs; well, $8 million of our money went to the Wellington pool refurbishment,” Cr Black said

“At the time, we were told that there would be ‘massive’ savings and efficiencies in operating costs for local communities, they haven’t eventuated, with most amalgamated councils having had very large special rate variations, which Dubbo has so far managed to avoid,” he added.

Not surprisingly perhaps, no plans are afoot at this stage, he concluded, to celebrate the regional council’s “Tin” (or Aluminium) anniversary...

Stick to the topic! New rules for public forums

While in Wellington, council held a public forum before this week’s meeting following the new Code of Meeting Practice as published by the Office of Local Government at the end of last year.

The new regulations allow councils to determine their own rules under which public forums are to be conducted and when they are to be held.

Councillors at the meet were presented with a report detailing meeting changes going forward including having the public forum at 4.30pm before each monthly council meeting, where community members can speak only on topics relevant to the meeting agenda.

Dubbo goes for another three years on footy carnival

With Lady Cutler Sporting Precinct the centre of activity last weekend for the 2026 NSW Touch Junior State Cup Northern Conference, council is putting its hand up for three more years.

The NSW Touch Junior State Cup brings together junior teams from across the northern half of the state, including Sydney Metropolitan, Western NSW, Northern NSW, Central Coast, Mid North Coast, and North Coast of NSW.

It attracts up to 10,000 visitors to the region with an economic impact for Dubbo and surrounding towns and villages estimated at over $8.5 million.

The fourth year that the Orana has hosted the event, Mayor Josh Black recently revealed that council is putting its hand up as hosts for another three years.

“Dubbo is a popular destination for major sporting events, having just hosted four major state sporting events already this summer,” Mayor Black said.

“Multi-day sporting events such as the NSW Touch Junior State Cup provide a major boost to the regional economy supporting a wide variety of local businesses,” he added, with NSW Touch CEO Duncan Tweed saying that this year’s event again saw record turnout.

“The NSW Touch Junior State Cup is one of the largest junior sporting events in Australia, and the continued year-on-year growth with team nominations, highlights the popularity of the sport and the increased participation in touch football in NSW,” Mr Tweed said.