Almost a million dollars is being invested in the revitalisation of Coonabarabran’s river scene after several community groups combined their motivations to achieve the same resolution. 

Coonabarabran was one of the largest recipients under the Murray-Darling Healthy Rivers Program, where funds of $899,000 will be invested into Castlereagh River rehabilitation and community education.

Warrumbungle Shire Council Mayor Ambrose Doolan said that the large cost will go towards a range of different features that aim to make the river a feature of the town. 

“We’ve got some overgrown areas with noxious weeds along the riverbank, and a tree there called the honey locust which is a noxious weed. We want to get rid of those and restore the bank so that people can walk along it and enjoy the beauty of the place,” Mr Doolan said. 

Another facet of the project is education throughout the community and in schools, with intentions to run workshops for children that encourage behaviours that assist river health. 

“People don’t understand that the drains in town go to the river, so if you put rubbish in there, it ends up in the river,” he said. 

As well as an attraction that causes tourists to look twice before driving through the town, the council is hoping that the river can become more activity based, after a proposal to open the local Timor Dam for recreation was rejected by the Department of Health.

“(The Department of Health) decided that any contamination would be quite significant, because it’s not a very big body of water,” Mr Doolan said. 

While council saw the rehabilitation project as an opportunity to draw the community to one place and make use of the natural feature to build community and tourism engagement, the funding came as a result of various local groups who saw opportunity in the river’s revitalisation. 

Council collaborated with the National Park Education Centre, the local fishing club, an Indigenous community group named ‘The Flying Mice’, Local Land Services, and Landcare. While the council's motivations were largely community focused, other groups were motivated by promoting and sustaining river health. 

Condobolin will also be on the receiving end of funds to improve the Lachlan River, with over $27 thousand awarded that will be directed towards installing fencing and planting natives to create biodiversity corridors along the Lachlan River. 

Within the Parkes electorate, over $1.31 million in funding towards the program will see over 24,000 plants planted and control 75 hectares for weeds. 

Work is expected to continue throughout the next 18 months in Coonabarabran to complete new walking trails along the river and the clearing of weeds. 

Mr Doolan assured that at no stage during the planned project will the river become inaccessible.