Wednesday 10 November 2021 Cr Liesbeth Long Welcome Record

Published on 10 November 2021

I’m passionate about nurturing local communities and am actively involved with Dunolly & District Incorporated (DDI). No longer a financial member due to a conflict of interest as councillor, I still attend their meetings as a guest.

Run by an enthusiastic group of local residents and business owners, this committee was initially set up in 2017 to be an auspice organisation for locals to assist with grant funding, however it does so much more!

Currently the DDI is working on two major projects:

The first one is to get Dunolly ‘RV Friendly’ status through the CMCA. This project is well on the way to becoming a reality with the Dunolly dump point completion imminent.

The second project is to get the Dunolly Gold Rush Festival up and running again, promoting tourism. First appearing in 1971, it ran for many years before petering out. Prospecting has seen a huge resurgence of late with younger generations taking up this hobby, my daughter and her partner included.

Due to COVID, the reality of running the festival this year became too much of a challenge, so sights are set on 2022 instead.

However, the DDI came up with an alternative and are now busy planning ‘Dunolly Unlocked’, an event which will allow residents to reconnect by facilitating them to get out of their homes after lock-down. The afternoon will provide a stimulus through council’s community grants funding to local food businesses to provide catering and local musicians to provide entertainment.

Congratulations DDI for being so community minded, I’m so proud of you guys.