TRANSCRIPT: SOUNDS OF THE MOUNTAINS WITH DAVID EISENHAUER, 17 OCTOBER 2024
Subjects: Local events, Local Government elections, crop damage, road safety
E&OE
STARTS: 8.39AM
DAVID EISENHAUER
Michael McCormack joins us on the line. Very good morning to you, Michael.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
You're okay behind a mic too, David, just saying.
DAVID EISENHAUER
No, I’ll have a sing-along, yeah. Don't know if I’ll be able to join the band.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
You know, a little birdie tells me that you've been doing the Junee Show, doing the commentating there, and being the MC for something like 36 years consecutively.
DAVID EISENAUER
Yep.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Oh, well, I suppose I didn't have the show during COVID, but that's an amazing record.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Well, I used to be offsider to Graeme Barker, who retired there a few years ago from Melbourne. Barker was big on the Royal Circuit, and a bloke called John Nash, John and Lois Nash, Mrs Nash, we used to do the bigger shows, like the Wagga Wagga show. We used to do that every year, and Yvonne would give us a few hours off every year.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Yvonne Brady, you must have been a boy when you started there.
DAVID EISNEHAUER
What was I? About 16 or 17? Yeah.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
If that.
DAVID EISENHAUER
And then, yeah, what am I, 52 now? So, yeah, no, it'd be a not straight run, but yeah, it'd be 35, 36 years, thanks to Bill Heffernan.
MICHAEL McCORMCK
I went to the Illabo Show on the weekend, and Simon Muller and his crew did a great job there, and of course, as you mentioned, it's show season.
DAVID EISENHAUER
My word.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
There’s a show somewhere happening on a Saturday, and we again commend those wonderful volunteers who put those shows together, because without them, you wouldn't have the exhibition halls, and you wouldn't have the entertainment, and sometimes they even have fireworks. It's tremendous. They have Sideshow Alley, and they're a great once-a-year event for our country communities, and may they long continue.
DAVID EISENHAUER
My word. It's great to see. We talked to the show societies, and we're hearing Adelong. I know we were talking to Junee there the other day, getting ready, and they've got some younger members coming in, Michael, which is terrific to see, to continue that flag. They're over, you know, well over 100 years. A lot of the shows are a lot more than that and I mean, these days, there's a lot more than just your show, but when we were kids, the show was the big thing. The once-a-year massive event.
Now, we're spoilt.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
We invested, as a Coalition Government, a lot of money into the amenities, whether they were even fencing around the track, but significant money in halls, upgrading of halls, public bar areas, toilets, those sorts of things. The facilities at many of the showgrounds are first class.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Oh, yeah.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
And they needed to be upgraded. They were upgraded when we couldn't hold shows during the global pandemic, but I tell you what, they look very good now. The Illabo Show facilities were first class on the weekend, and I know they hold more than just the show. They've got a motocross event. They've got a few other things that keep that showground activity alive during the year, but a lot of the shows are really ... They've got some great facilities, which is tremendous.
DAVID EISENHAUER
My word it does. No, it's a real credit, as you said, to all the volunteers that make up our committee. With that, infrastructure in Junee for example with their new pavilion, it's a vast improvement, but, Michael, the shows are one thing — the HSC we're up to day number three for our Higher School Certificate.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
71,619 bright and budding students across the state sitting for the Higher School Certificate. But what I would say to them is don't let it define you as a person, because, yes, it's important
it's important that you get an ATAR and all the rest if you choose to go to university, but for those of the students who mightn’t get the results that they are looking for — it's not going to be the end of the world. It's just one step in the journey along your life's plan and path and there's a whole big world out there and there's a whole lot of opportunities and, you know, it's a matter of, yes, doing your best while you sit down and take that paper today, tomorrow, week's coming, but certainly don't let it define your life.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Very true and of course there's a lot of hard work. I still remember sitting up there at St Luke's, the big hall, there with one of the one of the teachers that volunteered — I think they were retired and
they came back in and I still remember the days doing the HSC and, yeah, it was a busy time,
Michael, but times have changed a lot in the way that we look at the Higher School Certificate
and good luck to all those kids out there. They've done some wonderful things.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Good luck to them.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Now, Councils. Michael, let's look in our local region and of course we have our brand-new Local Council, our Local Government are all up and running. Of course Snowy Valleys — we've got their first meeting today, the first official meeting.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Julia Ham will be presiding there, with Hugh Packard as Deputy
Mayor. So good luck to Snowy Valleys. And spoke to Ab McAlister last night, he's back as a Mayor. He’s the Mayor of the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council with Rosalind Wight as his deputy and Ab was in typical Ab style last night — just he wants the best for his community. He wants the demerger, of course, and they'll continue to fight hard for that and they should get that. Just ridiculous those two councils were merged, but some years on they're still fighting to be demerged and that will hopefully, eventually take place and the sooner the better. But, you know, you've got to give credit to Ab, he's fought the good fight. He just loves his community, just loves representing country people and he'll lead that Council very well.
DAVID EISENHAUER
My word. It’s a bit challenging time, Michael McCormack, as we go through but especially financial times and of course with our rates and all the other things that council have to take into account these days — a lot more than just the three R's that we used to just say.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, they have to be so many things to so many community activities. Whether it's aged care, child care, roads, you know, the declining road funding. Unfortunately, there's has been a stall in some areas of road funding and the road network has taken a battering in recent years with the weather, and, of course, you know rate bases are always interesting and always challenging for our country Councils. I know they can apply for rate variations but that doesn't go down very well with the local people, but they're just required to do so much more. So, the onus is on State and Federal Governments to help them as much as they can and we do. I know we certainly did, I know the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program I put in place when I was Deputy Prime Minister — it made a world of difference to the liveability of our country towns and those sorts of programs should be encouraged and continued.
DAVID EISENHAUER
In a big way. It's something we talk about a lot but interesting times ahead. Day one of the next four years, two years for our elected representatives, there in the executive roles but yeah some interesting — I just saw the business papers for Snowy Valleys there yesterday. Gee, they've got a lot of discussion going on. Michael, it's a busy time of year we mentioned our shows but there's a lot of festivals coming up. Tumbarumba have got their big Spring Flower Festival coming up next weekend, the same weekend the Junee Show. We've got Bloom Snowy Valleys on the 26th of October as well — that's a new State initiative there. It's like a, it's listed as a street festival, but this one is a bit like Lanterns on the Lagoon were down at Rotary Pioneer Park down there in Tumut. And, of course, a huge weekend with the Sydney Male Choir coming up. The regions are pretty well blessed with some wonderful variety this time of year, aren't they?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Murrumbateman Field Days, if you want to go a bit further afield, coming up this weekend as well. They are the sorts of things you remember as a kid when you went to the show. We went to all these sorts of festivals. Of course, in November we've got the book launch of the Snowy Valleys Heroes 1854 to 1920. Now, this this mightn’t sound exciting — museums and these sorts of things, book launches don't always grab the attention. But I'll tell you what, there's going to be an Army band, coffee van, guest artists, Light Horse groups, special guests, it's going to be a great thing, but more importantly than that, Zita Vafiopulous has really spent so much time, nine hours a day for weeks and weeks, months and months, compiling this wonderful tome about the Snowy Valley’s heroes who went to war. 561 of them didn't come back. And they are remembered and applauded in this book, commemorated as they should be.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Michael, it's a big day that day. I know unfortunately I can't get there but I was listed there to be the MC, but we've got a few things on here. But it will be a great day, yourself…
MICHAEL McCormack
In Richmond Park at 11 o’clock, Saturday November 9.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Yep. And we talked to Zita and Phyllis and their team, they're quite regularly here, but this week a big week. Their Royal Highnesses, of course, the King and Queen visiting, flying across from the UK into Australia. A very significant time for the country. Haven't seen the King for quite some time in our region. I think Prince Charles…
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Been here many, many times. This will be his first visit as King and of course he came here many times as a Prince. He was, of course, educated here.
DAVID EISENHAUER
That's right.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Yes, Tim Thompson. So that's great. He has many fond memories of Australia and Australia has many
fond memories of His Royal Highness.
DAVID EISENHAUER
It's an interesting visit, we talked to Wes Fang about this yesterday and that's down in Sydney there and there's a lot of preparation. I mean there's so much planning from a New South Wales Police point of view too. They’ve got a special, as you know, they've got a special department that looks after these types of visits. There's an old Rolls Royce that sits there hidden away in the shed for a lot of its time that belongs to the Governor and it comes out on a special role as well. There's a huge amount of work but a lot of employment in there too, Michael, when you've got an official visit like this coming along. Lots of jobs being created…
MICHAEL McCORMACK
People always criticise us, they say “oh look we're wasting their taxpayers’ money on special people coming” …
DAVID EISENHAUER
No, no, no.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
But that people — you know the funny thing is the people who are criticising are the first to try and get a selfie. It's the republicans who are always scrambling over the monarchists who are trying to get photo of the king in the background when he walks past or whatever, or the whoever it is — the Queen in the past or any royals that come — they're always the first to try and get that that snapshot for their Instagram. But look, welcome to King Charles. He's not well and, you know, we want him to have the healthy life that he deserves and, of course, bringing Camilla, Queen Camilla across that — it'll be a good occasion for Australia. And I know he's going uh further than just Australia, it's a tour of this part of the world and so that's great, good luck to him.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Michael, I noticed something else that I picked up there on the socials there, you had your feet in a pool, amongst many other many other things, out around West Wyalong there.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
West Wyalong yesterday, yes, I had Jamie Chaffey, as The Nationals’ candidate for Parkes, and Senator Perin Davey. I was showing them through the LRCI projects. And we've provided a bit of
money to the pool and other sites as around West Wyalong, as we have around across Australia. Snowy Valleys certainly didn’t miss out. The water temperature was 26 degrees yesterday.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Was it really?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, they heat it through solar heating, a bit of thermal activity and yeah, so, it's a wonderful pool. And I'll tell you what, as we were doing that there was a lady who braved the conditions — and in she dove. She was swimming lap after lap, and she was fitter than I could ever hope to be. But anyway, it's coming up to that season where people will take to the water, and it’s the Summer side of year — it's cricket, tennis and a lot of things to see and do around the region. But just if you are going to go into the water, if you're going to go into our creeks and rivers, make sure you know how to swim. Make sure you're with someone when you do so and keep water safe.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Oh look, it's so important but that infrastructure, Michael, particularly — and the reason I mention that, coming into the summer months, the drought times could be around, we were expecting a hotter than normal summer, we've always got those dry conditions, but our potable water supplies, our pools are an asset too. But to highlight those to our regional communities, like the size of West Wyalong and district — they're so vital to the future of our communities. The water supply is worth more than Gold as the old saying goes.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
It was good to visit the water reliability tank project at West Wyalong, because their water pressure has increased by 50 percent since we installed that amazing tower. 147 steps up to the top it's quite the tallest part of Bland Shire. But I’ll tell you what, and I know your program isn't that saucy but I'm about to spice it up a bit, David. People need to, when they're out and about on the roads around Tumut and around the Snowy Valley, they need to look out for strippers and flashing. Now, I know you're about to press the button on me and censor me, but there's a lot of harvesters moving about. They used to be called strippers when I was a boy.
DAVID EISENHAUER
They were.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
They are being moved around from paddock to paddock and farm to farm and they will be accompanied by utes, generally with flashing lights to warn oncoming traffic and those who are approaching them from behind to take and exercise caution around these heavy farm machinery implements which are being moved around this time as we head into harvest. So please be careful. I was up and down the Newell and all the byways yesterday and I noticed the number of big headers being moved and they do take up a lot of the road and people just need to exercise caution when they're overtaking. When they're approaching, move across to the side of the road and let them pass.
DAVID EISENHAUER
So important Michael, and I know there a bit of, when you look at the way that the weather has been, our frost damage in some of those parts around West Wyalong.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Terrible shame.
DAVID EISENHAUER
It’s the yields. Out at Lockhart I know they're putting a lot of canola into the into the square baler, instead of stripping and putting it into silos. It's not worth anywhere near as much, I mean it's sellable of course but it's not the same as putting an oil seed into a bin. Let's hope that the cereal crops are a boon. I mean if we've got a bit of rain coming, I know tomorrow's going to be fairly wet, but we've got the last bastions of our growth in the crops before they start to turn. And we really don't spend enough time talking about our farming community, Michael McCormack, do we? They're so important.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
No, and just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, the tomato brown rugose virus has been confirmed in Australia for the very first time, so a little bit of a biosecurity lapse there. Unfortunately, someone said it came in some packets of seeds. Well, you can't, I appreciate, test every single item that comes through Australia's border system, but the farmers are pretty uptight, particularly in South Australia. And they grow a lot of tomatoes across our region too. And I haven't seen any statement from the Agriculture Minister, Julie Collins, yet, but she needs to stand up this morning and tell the Australian farmers what she is going to do, what the Government is going to do, moreover, in relation to this, because it potentially reduces the yield of a plant by 75%. It apparently poses no threat to human health, but it's an unnecessary impostor gain on our primary industries,
And, of course, our farmers — we should thank them three times a day every time we sit down to eat, we should be thanking our farmers, they're the best in the world, and another setback for them, unfortunately.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Unfortunately. Michael, let's wrap up with Snowy Hydro, and of course they're celebrating 75 years this year, this weekend. I know it's way outside the electorate, but Cooma, down on the creek there, they've got a big Snowy Workers' reunion. And then, in a couple of weeks’ time, we're at T3 at Talbingo. The Snowy Scheme Museum's got a big open day on Sunday. A great milestone, 75 years as we work through Snowy 2.0.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
It's a magnificent migrant story, it's a magnificent engineering feat, it's a magnificent story of irrigation and power supply, well done to everyone involved.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Big event, this has got literally hundreds and hundreds of people, we're lucky that the generations that worked on the scheme, especially in the latter years, are still well and truly, with us, and those stories that will be told, as you said, the immigration and the songs that the settlers, Ulick O’Boyle, sings about those days. Especially a song called the Cooma Cavaliers. But when you drive through the mountains these days, it's pretty quiet, but once upon a time, Michael, trucks and tournapulls and big dozers and some wonderful family names that are still with us today, there's a real legacy left behind and it's celebrated. We are actually going to talk to Sarah Norris, around about quarter past nine, from Snowy Hydro about this weekend coming, but it's certainly a big milestone. 75 years, not bad, isn't it?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
It’s tremendous. It's one of the great Australian stories and well done to everybody involved. It really was quite the feat to transform that area into what they did, it's just truly remarkable. I just wonder whether we could achieve it today. I doubt it.
DAVID EISENHAUER
Indeed, with the technology of the day, look what we've got today to use obviously with 2.0, but back in those days, the safety standards of everything was very, very different. But Michael, a real Australian story without a doubt. Mate, look every Thursday fortnight we catch up. Anything you'd like to add before we head off to the news?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Safety on the roads, as I always say, please just be careful, as I say, with all those hitters and harvesters traversing up and down the byways, country roads. Please take care. Good luck to the new councillors who have put their hands up, been elected. To Julia and to Ab, the mayors of
Snowy Valleys and Gundagai and Cootamundra — Cootamundra-Gundagai. Respectfully, I think Ab would probably prefer to see Gundagai in front. But look, one way or the other they've put their hand up let's get behind and support them and let's make sure that every post is a winner.
DAVID EISENHAUER
And, of course, tomorrow we've got coffee with a cop in Khancoban, the Moto GP is next week so we've got a lot of motorcycles through the region as well relating to you.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Lots to see and do.
DAVID EISENHAUER
My word there is. Michael McCormack, you've got a busy day, thank you very much for joining us as always. Appreciate your time.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Wonderful, thanks David.
ENDS: 8.59AM