October saw veteran driver Craig Lowndes won his seventh Bathurst 1000. Meanwhile, there was a lot of talk of renaming the aquatic centre and water restrictions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
October 1: It was announced that Bathurst would host the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in February 2020. It will be the first time a World Cup round has been held in Australia and was a massive coup for Bathurst Regional Council, which had invested $1.5 million to build a BMX track.
OCTOBER 3: Plans for a new 900-seat Plymouth Brethren meeting hall, to be built on a battleaxe block near Bathurst Golf Club, were lodged with Bathurst Regional Council. The Bathurst Gospel Trust had submitted plans for a $2.1 million redevelopment of 13 Boundary Road.
OCTOBER 5: A brief appearance from Skippy during a practice session for the Bathurst 1000 prompted a call for the circuit to be fully fenced. The session, which was the fifth of the day and the first for the Supercars category, had to be red flagged by race control due to “wildlife” at the top of the Mount.
OCTOBER 8: Fan favourite Craig Lowndes capped off his last Bathurst 1000 as a full-time driver by comfortably winning the Great Race for the seventh time in his career. The win for Lowndes, alongside co-driver Steven Richards, brought him to equal second with Jim Richards and two victories off Bathurst 1000 legend Peter Brock.
OCTOBER 11: A call to rename the Bathurst Aquatic Centre in honour of the late John Manning and his wife Nina was gaining momentum, with more than 1200 signatures collected in an online petition. “Mr Manning”, as he was known to thousands of children, managed the Bathurst Pool for 32 years before retiring in 1994. He passed away, aged 90, in September.
OCTOBER 13 : Investors from outside of Bathurst were showing much more interest in the regional city in spring. According to the executive chairman of Raine and Horne, Angus Raine, Sydney investors recognised that Bathurst offered excellent affordability and investment yields of between four and five per cent.
OCTOBER 15: Councillor Alex Christian slammed the Federal Government’s proposal to require migrants with certain visas to settle in regional areas, saying many regional cities, including Bathurst, couldn’t support more people.
OCTOBER 16: A report from director of Engineering Services, Darren Sturgiss, recommending Bathurst move to high water restrictions from November 26 was set to be voted on by councillors. It said that if Chifley Dam had not reached 75 per cent capacity by November 12, they would be imposed two weeks later.
OCTOBER 19: A proposal to potentially implement water restrictions at the end of November was narrowly passed through Bathurst Regional Council. Approving the plans proved difficult, with the absence of councillor Jess Jennings leading to a four-four split of the votes. Mayor Graeme Hanger had to use his casting vote, which was in support of the proposal, to break the tie.
OCTOBER 19: Year 12 students around Bathurst had completed their first Higher School Certificate exam, English paper one. Both English advanced and standard students had to sit the exam.
OCTOBER 23: A $6.2 million plan was announced to construct two new sporting fields, a car park and amenities building on Hereford street. The space between the existing Bathurst Bulldogs rugby union complex and St Pat’s rugby league complex will be developed to create an overall precinct of six fields capable of hosting regional and state carnivals and events.
OCTOBER 25: A 13-year-old girl critically injured in a crash at Wattle Flat died in hospital. The teenager had been on life support at the Westmead Children’s Hospital since the crash on October 12. She was one of four people travelling in a Holden Commodore which hit a tree two kilometres south of the small township.
OCTOBER 27: A woman cried “no, no” from the public gallery at Bathurst Local Court as a Blayney man had his bail revoked and was taken into custody over a crash last year that has left his best friend permanently injured. Lachlan Hobby, 21, was told a custodial sentence would be appropriate for his role as the drink driver behind the wheel at the time of the crash near Bathurst in December 2017. Hobby’s friend Josh Farr, one of two people sitting in the rear tray of the vehicle at the time of the crash, suffered permanent injuries as a result.
OCTOBER 29: Bathurst Harness Racing Club hoped a new $750,000 facility at its complex south of the city would encourage trainers to relocate from Sydney. The club planned for its new training facility to be finished by the start of winter 2019 after its development application was approved.
OCTOBER 31: A drunk-driver who crashed his ute, causing serious injury to his best friend, was jailed for five months. District Court Judge O’Connor said it gave him no pleasure to sentence a young man to jail, but the circumstances of the case and the need for general deterrence gave him no option. Lachlan Hobby, 21, was charged with a string of driving offences after the crash in December 2017.
