Not two but three male koalas, confirms our wildlife expert

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]any of you would have seen a couple of short videos of two koalas up a tree I published last Wednesday in the Facebook page of the South West Voice.

While under the tree we alerted wildlife rescuer Ricardo Lonza, who after checking out the situation let us know that in fact there were three male koalas on that spot, along Georges River Road, Kentlyn.

The third koala was on an adjoining tree, but Ric says it was a very unusual situation to have three males, and it may have been a territorial stand off.

Speaking of koalas, Ric also reminded me of the planned koala rally in Oswald Oval, near Appin Road at St Helen’s Park on Sunday, June 3, between 10am and 2pm.

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Frank Ward, probably the South West Voice’s oldest reader – he turned 89 on April 14 – is a bit like footy coach Waynne Bennett, who declared this week “I will not be defined by my age.

“I was down in Campbelltown last Wednesday and Thursday mainly to play in the Kangaroos golf day at Camden Lakeside,’’ Frank wrote in a short message to us.

“I was flattered by the distance I got on my drives at Lakeside.

“However I was so inspired by my long hits that I played in the Saturday comp at my club, Nelson Bay, and I had an extraordinary game, coming in with a score of 42 Stableford points and shooting one under my age with an 88 off the stick.

“I won the comp yesterday.’’

Frank, we are impressed – and as golf hackers ourselves, very, very jealous.

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There was a bit of a Macarthur Advertiser reunion at Airds on Monday morning for the graduation ceremony of local people from a construction course which will lead to jobs for them.

Yours truly was there obviously, and I was chuffed when my former reporter and now Channel 7 star Sean Berry introduced me proudly as his first editor.

Also there was reporter Karen Smith, who also worked at the paper with Sean at the same time and is now the media manager at Landcom.

But wait, there’s more, Landcom CEO John Brogden was once upon a time close to becoming NSW premier but he never quite made it to the 2007 election, when the Libs would have been a shoo-in under him.

The thing is Brogden, a big Wests Tigers fans, loved coming to Campbelltown, and catching up with the crew of one of his favourite local papers, the Macarthur Advertiser.

We hadn’t seen him for more than 10 years and it was good to see him.

“I am still a big Tigers fan, always will be,’’ he told us.

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Credit where credit’s due: The speed with which Campbelltown Council acted to get rid of graffiti on the wall of a public toilet last week was commendable.

As for us we’re just chuffed they rely on the Voice in Macarthur to know what’s going on around Campbelltown.

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Why must the Industrial Relations Commission move to Parramatta, Ron Hoenig, the Member for Heffron, asked in parliament recently.

“What about south-western Sydney? The member for Campbelltown [Greg Warren] asked why this Tory Government always forgets Campbelltown,’’ Mr Hoenig went on.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, but he hadn’t finished.

“It [Campbelltown] is the epicentre of south-western Sydney and has a population of 500,000 people. Why is it always left out of the equation?

“This Government says it is moving things on the basis of enhancing the Western Sydney economy. That is a myth. The establishment of the Sydney West Trial Courts resulted in the closure of courts at Campbelltown.

“The poor of south-western Sydney now have to find their way to Parramatta to get to the District Court.’’

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Former mayor Paul Hawker rang to say he had a story for the Voice.

We consider all suggestions and so we agreed to hear him out.

“Well, he said, “now that councillors have less work to do since they were stripped of their planning powers, why do we need as many as 15 at Campbelltown Council.

“Maybe the time has come to reduce that to nine at the next election.’’

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Ruse resident Pam Stanton is this year’s Campbelltown recipient of the NSW Premier’s Volunteer Recognition Program.

Ms Stanton was nominated for the honour by Ruse Public School for her tireless volunteering in the school’s community.

For the past seven years Ms Stanton has volunteered at Ruse Public School in a range of activities, including working to cover books in the school library and assisting on the Mother’s and Father’s Day stalls.

Beyond that, the grandmother from Ruse works in the school canteen three days a week, where she also serves as the canteens coordinator.

Member for Campbelltown, Greg Warren, presented Ms Stanton with her award, pictured.

“I thank her for her tremendous work in both the school and Campbelltown community,’’ the local MP said.