Ruffling the feathers is the announcement that Girraween will be the flight path, for want of a more appropriate word, for contractors' vehicles and equipment involved in feasibility test drilling for Energy Australia's pumped hydro proposal at Mt Walker.

If the controversial project goes ahead, residents fear it will be even more of a nightmare when heavy equipment and hundreds of workers are on a daily commute through Girraween Drive for a number of years.

And, our correspondent said, there appears to be no mention of this access route in the development application for the test drilling stage approved by Council last week.

"It's convenient that the five ton load limit sign on the single line railway bridge disappeared a few years back," she said.

Add to the mix the campaign being waged elsewhere in the Lithgow community against the entire project, mainly on environmental grounds, and we really do have a long and seemingly intractable season of discontent.

Still with the power company and the financial pages are reporting huge losses for Energy Australia in the past year.

The downturn was blamed on coal supply problems for our Mt Piper and fire damage at the company's coal fired generator at Yallourn in Victoria which forced EA to buy on the spot market at inflated prices. The war in Ukraine got a mention too.

CYNICAL people, and obviously that's not the column, would feel something is amiss when public meetings on important issues are called at times inconvenient to the public. It's happening again with Council calling a session at the Union Theatre on Saturday to seek support for, and try to explain the need for, a crippling rates hike. The time is 1 pm when large sections of the community are involved in their kids' weekend sport or midday meals. Why it couldn't have been scheduled later in the day needs some explaining. The Union Theatre is also a somewhat restricting venue, not just for capacity on such an important issue, but also the well known parking problems in the vicinity. In fairness, the Civic Ballroom is not available due to major upgrading work. It could be an interesting gathering anyway and the biggest of several such meetings being held across the LGA.

LOCAL revheads were all agog when a rare GT HO Falcon with Lithgow and racing pedigree went on the auction block in New Zealand at the weekend. Alas it failed to reach the reserve but Webbs Auctioneers' Holly Jenkins told the column they were talking with interested parties. The Ford, raced at Bathurst by Joe Butta and Bob Genders, was expected to bring at least $250,000.

WONDER what happened to the murals mooted for Cook Plaza a couple of years back. Heaven knows the surroundings there could do with a brightening up and the recent murals on the QE Park toilet block are a bright example of what can be achieved. Maybe now that Council is talking more murals .. hmm?

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