About 50 residents came to the The Australia Day breakfast in the common area at the end of Kurrajong Lane. Brendan McGrath, CEO of Rural Council of Wangaratta and Warby Ward Councillor, Mark Currie attended the event. The kids enjoyed a range of games and even some of the adults participated.
There was a hot breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs in bread, fruit and of course the Slushy machine and some residents brought Sparkling White Wine, and mixed with a slushy..
Peter Ockenden being presented with the Local Achiever Award by Brendan McGrath, CEO of Rural City of Wangaratta
Peter Ockenden – Hamilton Park Local Achiever
Peter is on the board and takes care of the Water Portfolio which is so big it needed to be split between two people.
The water portfolio is responsible for the following:
- Maintenance of the weir at the 15 mile creek (which is subject to vandalism regularly)
- Organise pump rosters for the pump at 15 mile creek and check it is working properly
- 3.5 km of pipe from 15 mile creek, under McDonald’s, under Hume Fwy up to our dams
- 4 dams to balance having enough water in the dams for fire fighting and enough for the residents.
- Maintain all the pumps to pump water to the header tank
- From the header tank 6.5 km of pipe to all residents.
- Arrange plumber fix pipes when they leak, break or crack
- Coordinating volunteers to read all residents meters
- First contact for Dial Before You Dig
- Improved Mapping
- New fire hydrants painted and coated to be reflective
Peter receives calls at all hours when there is an outage or a pipe leak, our aging water infrastructure is regularly failing and he is tireless in making sure our water is connected to each and every house. Some houses utilise dam water in their toilets, air conditioning as well as keeping our gardens growing.
It is a tireless job and Peter does it without complaint. Congratulation Peter on a job well done and the Local Achiever award.