Mayoral Matters - September 2025
Published on 25 September 2025
On Thursday 11 September 2025, I attended the Wimmera Southern Mallee Councils Alliance workshop alongside our Deputy Mayor - Cr Andrew McLean, and Chief Executive Officer - Tammy Smith. Horsham Rural City Council hosted representatives from six Councils to facilitate discussions on joint advocacy initiatives. This was a valuable opportunity for the Councils to collaborate on important issues such as renewable energy, mining, financial sustainability, the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund, decline of basic services, lack of childcare and suitable housing across our region. I look forward to working with Horsham, Hindmarsh, Northern Grampians, Buloke and West Wimmera Councils, as we are stronger together when we are united.
The Council has engaged consultants to undertake a review and prepare Council’s Environmental Effects Statement submission for the Warracknabeal Energy Park. Council is concentrating on the areas of roads and economic and social impacts. In addition, Council will undertake a review of the surface water impacts in conjunction with the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority.
In addition, Council has engaged Maddocks Lawyers to represent Council at the Directions Hearing and Public Hearing. Council will make their submission public once completed and submitted.
Yarriambiack Shire Council currently has two Automated Weather Stations (AWS) within the municipality. Typically, weather stations such as those installed in Hopetoun, Charlton, Nhill, Rainbow, Longerenong and Horsham are owned and maintained by the Bureau of Meteorology.
In contrast to most weather stations across Australia, Council owns the Warracknabeal AWS and is responsible for all servicing and maintenance costs via a ten-year service agreement with the Bureau. The current service agreement between Council and the Bureau is set to expire 30 September 2025. Earlier this year, the Bureau informed Council that the annual servicing fee for renewing Warracknabeal’s new three-year service agreement will rise from $12,700 to $27,959 in the first year, reaching nearly $30,000 within three years.
Council considers this increase to be quite substantial, despite servicing intervals in the new agreement reducing from two services to one service per annum. Weather data for the Warracknabeal area has been provided since 1969 and plays a critical role in supporting global and regional weather monitoring. This localised, real-time data is also relied upon by emergency services, aviators, the agriculture industry and the broader community. This reliance is particularly important during high-risk weather events, such as the Little Desert National Park fire that occurred earlier this year.
Despite the value of this information, the provision of meteorological data is not a core function of Local Government and the financial burden of maintaining this infrastructure has become increasingly unsustainable for our Council. Without external financial support, we may be unable to maintain the AWS to the required standard and this may result in the unit being decommissioned. At this stage, the AWS is proposed to be taken offline on 31 October 2025. This is an outcome that Council would like to avoid. Written requests have been sent to Federal and State Ministers and the Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner seeking their support to ensure the AWS remains in service for our communities.
We have a number of exciting events coming up with Murtoa's Big Weekend from Friday 03 to Sunday 05 October, the Warracknabeal Show Day on 09 October, the Getting to Know You Hopetoun event on 19 October, and the Yarriambiack Seniors Festival Concert coming up on 22 October. We extend our congratulations to the volunteers throughout our Shire who actively contribute to organising events such as the ones listed above, that highlight our community to the wider region.