Local senior excited for Dawkins Park action Nambucca Valley Nambucca Valley - popup ad Nambucca Valley News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - March 7, 2024 Beattie Fuller thinks Dawkins Park’s islands should be grassed areas for picnickers. YOUNG Beattie Fuller, 95, made a special trip to the fortnightly Nambucca Valley Council meeting just to find out what was happening with Macksville’s Dawkins Park. She had heard Council was planning some work to clean it up, but for her and some of the residents of Nambucca Valley Care’s nursing home which overlooks the lake, she says it can’t begin soon enough. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au “I would like them to build the bridge,” she told News Of The Area. “Then, depending how wide the bridge is, they can take trucks over and take away all the rubbish and dead trees,” she suggested. Beattie would like to see Council then bring in lots of topsoil, “because the soil there is no good,” and convert it into a grassed area with tables and chairs for picnickers. She would like to see locals and visitors able to wander over there and enjoy the lake atmosphere. “Well, they’ve gone to a lot of trouble with the windmill and the pipes and other things, so I wouldn’t like to see it get filled in,” she said. Beattie doesn’t think leaving any trees for the birds on either of the islands would be a good idea. “Most people don’t see the real problem,” she explained, “because the birds are away all day.” “They fly off to the north and south at about 6 am and return at 7 pm. “When they are all there it’s like snow on the trees but if there were no trees there then they would find other places to make their nests,” she maintains. Beattie is a friend of the original Dawkins family after whom the lake and park were named. She says there is a plaque in the park dedicated to Colin Dawkins who was a local dental prosthetist (one who makes false teeth) but dedicated many hours to planting trees with the Macksville Urban Committee. For several years from the age of fourteen, Beattie lived next to the current site of Dawkins Park which at that time was a swamp. It wasn’t until the mid-sixties that the manmade lake was created. Last fortnight, as reported in NOTA, Council resolved to build a land-bridge to one of the islands to make it more accessible for clean-up and bird control measures. By Ned COWIE
