⏱️ The 64th edition of our newsletter is a 7-minute read.

🙋‍♀️ Hello all, it’s Ellie – your Mid North Coaster reporter.

🎉 We now have more than 14,600 subscribers! Thanks so much for following along and reading our local news stories. Its means a lot to see the community grow.

Today, I’m jumping in the car and driving west of Kempsey to meet with a fourth generation farmer. I’ll be chatting to David and his wife about a bunch of things, and I’m specifically interested in how disasters, like the recent floods in May and the upcoming fire season, impact them – financially and mentally.

📣 I’d love to hear from others, too. I know from experience as a long-term resident that living on the MNC is absolutely amazing in so many ways, but being on disaster prone country takes an emotional toll at times. To those interested in providing a community voice for a story I’m working on, please reply to this email. Whether it’s concerns on where to buy to avoid floods and bushfires impacting your home, how to cope working outdoors with predicted increased heat waves, or the mental exhaustion of watching your community struggle, it’s all relevant.

And if you ever want to get in touch to share a photo or a story tip, give feedback, or details of upcoming community events, simply reply to this email!

In today’s newsletter, we’re talking about local fire services with an aging population, what to plant in your garden this spring, and a costly crackdown on van-life in Kempsey Shire’s coastal towns. I’ll share a couple of videos as well.

Let’s dive in…

🚒 Rising temperatures and aging firefighters: What happens if young people don't sign up?

Volunteer firefighters on the Mid North Coast are getting older, raising concerns about how strong these vital community assets will be as Australia faces increasing temperatures and bushfire risk.

Last week, the government released its National Climate Risk Assessment, a document analysing the extent to which the country will be impacted by ongoing climate change. 

Coastal towns facing rising sea levels, increased extreme weather like major flooding seen on the Mid North Coast, and a general consensus that bushfires across the country are set to become much more intense, were all major points of a report that also noted the nation’s general emergency volunteer population is ageing – with an average of 42 percent of workers aged 55 years or older per LGA.

While all volunteers are valuable, and long-term servers bring experience and skills to provide disaster response and recovery within their communities, members aging poses an emerging risk – what happens when they hang up their hard hats?

Half of the volunteers are retirement-age

Inspector Chris Wilson, Acting District Manager for Lower North Coast RFS, services the Kempsey Shire and Nambucca Valley across 33 brigades. He said most members are in their 60s.

“We are facing a median age that is rising in our organisations,” Wilson told the Mid North Coaster.

“The retirement age is going up, which probably means that the people that have time to spare time [to volunteer] are their age”. 

While Wilson said these volunteers do “amazing work” and pass on invaluable skills, RFS is hoping to gain a “wider range” of volunteers, including more younger people.

Time-poor residents meet cost of living crisis

Inspector Wilson believes the rise in cost of living could mean people are less attracted to the unpaid work of volunteering with RFS – and could be behind the challenge of attracting young people. 

Another contributing factor Wilson considered was people being “time-poor.”

“Especially after COVID-19, they're putting a lot more emphasis into that family time,” he said.

“What time they do have, they’re spending on other important things like going to the kids' sport”.

🗞️ Read the rest of the article here – including local Fire and Rescue struggling to fill vacancies, how back to back wet weather can impact volunteer numbers, and the upcoming fire season prediction.

🟡 Paid parking and private enforcement: Kempsey Council will crack down on illegal camping at a $700,000+ cost

For years, residents in Kempsey Shire’s beachside towns have complained to council about illegal camping – particularly in carparks and streets. 

Fed up with vans parked overnight or motor homes taking up street spaces, these frustrated residents might be one step closer to seeing a change – but not without a hefty cost to council – as councillors endorsed an action plan on September 16 to solve the issue despite financial concerns.

📕What’s the Action Plan, exactly?

The audit: Phase one of the plan includes an audit of existing parking restrictions and development of a plan for time limited parking, as well as an analysis for signage.

What’s the cost to council? $130,000 operating costs and $20,000 in capital.

Education: An educational program involving community meetings, a social media campaign, and local information on the impact of illegal parking will also be implemented.

What’s the cost to council? $5,000 operating plus $2,500 capital.

Enforcement: Finally, council has proposed introducing pay by phone parking, as well as outsourcing the enforcement of illegal camping and parking in a one year trial. The introduced enforcement would undertake management of complaints and appeals, and reporting to council.

What’s the cost to council? $600,000 for outsourcing (subject to procurement) along with $25,000 operating costs, including contract management.

An additional $22,500 in capital costs was also approved.

🗣️ Mayor Kinne Ring did not support the recommendation, keeping financial sustainability at the fore.

“While there is no doubt from the representations made from CHRARA [Crescent Head Residents and Ratepayers Association] and the speakers last night [at the public forum] that there is a feeling of angst in the community of the people illegally camping, this council has made a really big commitment to financial sustainability,” Ring said.

“Within that is the fact that we have, at the moment, an operating deficit. And to add over a quarter of a million dollars into the budget, which would undoubtedly take away another service that our community has asked for, is something that I am not willing to do”.

🗞️ Read the full story on our website here, including why council rangers can’t do more and what other councillors had to say.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back on Friday morning with another newsletter.
Until then, you can keep up to date on our Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, or check the website.

Bye for now,

👋 Ellie

P.S. In case you missed it, here’s the answer to the Where is this on the Mid North Coast? video. Did you guess right?