But with so much other horror since then in a world gone mad it's easy to forget some of the lessons of that dreadful Summer. Among them the inferno that erupted, perhaps for the first time ever, on the old Hermitage Colliery site. Ignited by embers from the main firefront the blaze came perilously close to homes and threatened suburban Lithgow for days afterwards when it spread along Farmers Creek.

We escaped a bullet that time but until Council comes up with a permanent role for the largely unkempt old mine site the danger will remain without an at least annual clean up. That shouldn't be too difficult.

The Hermitage site was in the past considered as the location for the new hospital and for a new nursing home to replace the now closed Tanderra. Those thought bubbles were pricked at least in part by the problems of overshadowing from the mountainside and, no doubt, undermining.

AS the construction of the new helipad at Lithgow Hospital moves slowly towards completion there are obvious difficulties for the medical helicopter teams that provide a priceless lifesaving service. At present their only option is to land on an unlit sporting oval, requiring ambulance transfer to and from the hospital. With no landing aids it's bad enough in daylight but a real challenge at night. Observers said the work appeared at a standstill for a time but has now resumed. It was never quite clear just why the existing hospital facility needed replacing anyway.

STILL with lockdowns and if Gladys doesn't release our hairdressers soon we'll all be wearing mullets. And not just the blokes either.

Spare a thought for the Tarana Pub and nearby Mumma Snow's Cafe. Popular destinations in normal times (remember them?) for bush road tourists, If they had been just a few steps along the road they would have been in the Oberon LGA and now out of lockdown. Instead they're sharing the tribulations of the rest of us in the Lithgow LGA. Could be grounds for secession.

CRAIG Kelly and Clive Palmer. Now there's a team to be reckoned with at the next election. Craig quit the Coalition over his COVID/vax views while Clive's the anti lockdown king who famously spent millions on advertising at the last election without getting a single team member elected. Meantime Craig's in trouble, it seems, with the Therapeutic Goods Administration over his latest spruiking for Clive''s outfit in their venture onto a pre-emptive campaign trail.