DEAR News Of The Area,

IN the past month, The House of Representatives in Canberra has found time to reflect on the work of Garry Nehl, with an official minute’s silence.

But Coffs Harbour and the citizens of the electorate of Cowper seem to have no memory at all of the work that this man did for our electorate.

I, for one, am saddened with the knowledge that Garry Nehl will never be able to experience a drive along a fully completed replacement roadway for the old Pacific Highway.

Most of us now experience and benefit from the easy driving conditions between south Coffs and Sydney and north Coffs and the Tweed – and we eagerly await, as Garry did, the Coffs Bypass.

We have too easily forgotten the misery and pain caused too many of us by accidents on that old road.

For example the bus crashes at Ulmarra and Clybucca and the forest trees north of Urunga.

So, I am grateful that Garry Nehl’s invitation to the NSW Premier, and I am led to believe, the Prime Minister of the day, was accepted and they travelled with him by road to inspect the many black-spots along the length of the Pacific Highway.

Funds and plans for the replacement M1 road, followed soon after their trip, I am told.

I am not an authority on the work of this local member for the wider Cowper community, as I have only been a citizen of Cowper for 30 years.

But, I am advised that he also worked hard to set up Meals on Wheels in Coffs and Sawtell and also on the development of several nursing homes in the electorate; that he took local advice and did not support the construction of a Cultural Centre and a Marine Studies Centre on Corambirra Point; while the permanent preservation of the Antarctic wilderness and the education of Tibetans on how to grow vegetables to improve their vegetable diets and hence overall health were more worldwide issues that Garry worked at.

I am sure that many of your readers would do far better than this, and I hope they do, via, further letters to the editor!

On reflection, and with consent from Garry’s family, it would seem that a Thanksgiving/Commemoration service could be held in that new multi-purpose space at the new Yarilla Place council building, so that the work of Garry Nehl could be more accurately described and even, maybe, we could convince Transport for NSW to name an entry/exit complex on the new Coffs bypass with his name.

Regards,
Colin MCENTYRE,
Coffs Harbour.