This lease will allow these two hard working community organisations to plan for their future. With a 20 year lease in place they will be able to invest in the facilities, and also lobby for grant funding towards their master plan proposal.

Both organisations will pay peppercorn rent of only $496 per annum for the land, which is council owned. The parties lodged a joint expression of interest for use of the land with the intention of developing shared facilities for equine activities.

They will now continue to develop a master plan with staged development for the site, with plans underway for a camp draft arena, undercover sand arena, livestock yards, car park, campground and canteen and office building. Road works, water reticulation and fence construction will also be necessary for the area; a number of these elements will require development consent.

READ ALSO: Woman charged with murder after man shot dead in Murrumbateman

A life cut short: Friends, family remember 'kind and gentle' Akram

In May this year, council endorsed the establishment of the Goulburn Mulwaree Award. Individual contributions by volunteers and community members can be recognised in many ways, through local organisations right up to the Orders of Australia.

At the time, council decided to delay expressions of interest for a working party to create processes and assessment guidelines until after the September election, however as we now know this has been delayed.

In order to get this moving along we will now be putting a report to council recommending we call for expressions of interest for membership within this working party. Once established, the working party will have delegated authority to make all decisions relating to receipt, processing, assessment and presentation of the award.

The new award process will give special recognition to more members of our community whose contributions and/or achievements are above and beyond the norm; encourage outstanding and valued service, and further instil our sense of community pride; provide further opportunity to refer individuals' credentials on to the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat for their consideration.

I expect the report will go to our meeting on August 17, and encourage you to keep an eye out for expression of interest advertisements following that meeting - assuming councillors agree.

Our region will be boosted by a University of Wollongong initiative to boost economic resilience and create jobs, after UOW's business incubator and accelerator iAccelerate was awarded $999,570 from the Federal and NSW governments' combined Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund (BLER).

iAccelerate will deliver education programs to support 90 of the most promising entrepreneurs and business owners in bushfire affected areas to create 300 new jobs. Goulburn Mulwaree is one of six local government areas to be included in the program, after engaging with iAccelerate and providing a letter of support for the application.

Transport for NSW will carry out work on Rossi Bridge on Range Road at Goulburn from Monday, August 16 to Friday, August 27, weather permitting. Detours for light and heavy vehicles will be via Chinamans Lane and Crookwell Road and are expected to add about 10 minutes to journeys. Work will include routine maintenance on the timber truss elements and safety investigations. The bridge will be closed in both directions and detours will be in place from 9am-3pm, Monday to Friday.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Make sure you are signed up for our breaking news and regular newsletters