Not that we needed any further evidence we are living in the golden age of political correctness – PC – but the withdrawl of John Ryan from the “men’s brekkie’’ chat with Mark Latham is right up there.
It was to be held in the St John’s Anglican Church hall in Camden on October 19, and as Ryan, a former Liberal MP wrote on his Facebook page: “This is about fun – not serious politics, we both live in Camden – the people you meet at church!’’
The problem as that Ryan, pictured, is also a disability royal commissioner and the minute they heard about his Latham date told him to give it a miss.
Try as I might I could not come up with anything that would be wrong with a bit of verbal jousting between these two veteran politicians, but’s that’s PC for you.
I do feel for Ryan, though, who’s made a good contribution to Macarthur and especially Camden.
He’s also a supporter of free speech, just like Latham, so this one will probably hurt a bit.
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When playing a round a Camden Golf Club it’s probably best to avoid talk of ghosts – especially when your group is within sight of Studley House.
But soon as someone mentions ghosts forget about playing golf or at least being able to concentrate.
At my last outing there a couple of weeks ago, one of our group, pictured below, spotted someone on the balcony of the old stately home at the top of the hill as we came up to play the 16th hole.
It looked like a woman with a baby but when we got closer there was nobody there.
And then the strangest thing happened: an old woman in a golf cart drove past us and one of us asked her if she wanted to play through.
The old woman just nodded and kept driving before disappearing out of sight.
We didn’t see her again.
As is well known Studley House is supposed to be haunted because two young children died in there, so has anyone else had weird experiences while playing golf there?
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Raby resident Simon James Owen was among a number of people who received a 2019 Australian Bravery Awards group bravery citation for helping to resuce five children swept out to sea on January 17, 2018, at Dolphin Point.
The awards were announced on Sunday by the Governor-General’s office in Canberra.
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There’s no doubt that with an international airport on the way, we are part of one of most dynamic growing regions in the country.
Now a guide to Greater Western Sydney called Best of the West, shares insight into the projects, events, centres of education, activities, business successes, natural assets and hidden gems in our neck of the woods.
It is good to see that for once outer South West Sydney gets a reasonably good run.
Camden Lakeside is in there, as is Macarthur Square, Camden Show, Campbelltown Sports Stadium, Moorebank intermodal terminal, Dharawal National Park and the Australian Botanic Garden in Mt Annan, among many others.
The Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue – with support from Western Sydney University – is behind this inaugural guide to the region.
There is a printed version and digital one, check the latter here.
The South West Voice in Macarthur has four copies of the book version, so the first four readers to email me with their postal address details will get one each.
Email: erickontos@southwestvoice.com.au
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Would love to know who thought of using sandstone from Sydney Metro tunnels to help build the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport.
More than 500,000 tonnes of sandstone is being transported from Metro tunnelling sites at Chatswood and Marrickville to the Western Sydney International site where it will be used as a high strength foundation to support the construction of the runway, taxiways and roads on the site.
Fair dinkum, how often do you hear stories where bureaucrats save taxpayers money and cut down on waste at the same time
We’ll take a stab in the dark and say almost as rare as hen’s teeth.
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And while on the airport under construction, Campbelltown Council Mayor George Brticevic and general manager Lindy Deitz recently met with the Western Sydney Airport CEO Graham Millet and media man Scott McKillop.
During the meeting the mayor and GM emphasised the need to fast track transport connection, both rail and road, to Western Sydney airport to enable both passenger and freight connection within Western Sydney.
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Campbelltown Greens councillor Ben Moroney had been thinking of moving to Tasmania, but has now told the Voice there has been a change of plans and will be staying put.
Which means he will be in the running for another council term at next September’s (2020) local government elections.
One local councillor and former mayor who is yet to make up her mind whether to run again is Wollondilly’s Judy Hannan.
Ms Hannan stepped down as mayor to run as an independent in the March state election so maybe she’s just tired of politics.
