https://www.drstevepeterson.com/

Steve Peterson Orange City Councillor, 135 Byng Street, Orange (2026)

04/09/2026

Passing on a mix of council and community news. Monday I attended a meeting with state MP Phil Donato, the Mayor and Deputy, and representatives from the Sargood foundation about potential neurological disability focused holiday accommodation in Orange. Sargood on Collaroy is a purpose-built resort for guests with spinal cord injury in northern Sydney with appropriate equipment and carers included with bookings. Orange has been put forward by many people over the years as an expansion option. Nothing definite yet but good to be having these conversations.

Sargood is operated by Royal Rehab, a 125-year-old NGO with 2000 staff. They run specialist hospitals, allied health services, supported independent living homes, employment agencies and advocacy through Spinal Cord Injuries Australia. The photo is me at their Ryde rehab hospital early on in my injury. They have asked me to set up and chair the new Royal Rehab Lived Experience Council and our first meeting was Thursday. Hopefully this committee can proactively and reactively help Royal Rehab maintain and improve their services.

Another Thursday meeting was the Wangarang board where I volunteer. Quite interesting to hear about the financial and behind-the-scenes happenings of the organisation and hopefully make a small contribution to keeping it healthy.

One link between Wangarang and Council is that we were successful in our application to be part of a Return and earn pilot scheme. Our public bins will soon have an area for containers that Wangarang will collect for Return and earn. This reduces landfill whilst generating revenue for Wangarang, so a win-win.

Finally, I nominated the ‘Stars of Orange’ committee for the Community group award as part of the 2026 7NEWS community achievement awards NSW/ACT. I found out that unfortunately they were not selected for the semifinals. This group has raised over $2 million for Cancer Council NSW over a decade, and is the most successful ‘Stars’ event in the state, so I will try another way to highlight their achievements.

02/09/2026

Last night was a monster 4.5 hour Council meeting. 19 community speakers was an early warning sign! I put forward a motion to allow a local school to remove a large gum tree in the primary school playground for safety reasons. They had previously asked Council who had refused, and multiple arborists had stated the tree was healthy but couldn’t exclude limb failure. The school reported the tree had dropped branches and were worried in the light of a tragic death of a primary school student in a different school from similar. It displayed the tension between a landowner having autonomy on their own land for risk mitigation versus government trying to preserve a community benefit. Tree removal was ultimately allowed with conditions including planting 6 trees in compensation and having the wood available for community use.

A recession motion was submitted after last fortnight’s decision to retain the Cook park Aviary. Others felt it was premature to decide to rehome the large birds like cockatoos before the decision on what any new or renovated aviary would look like. I thought that was reasonable as potentially the birds could have been appropriately housed but that proposal was defeated.

As finance chair I facilitated debate on small donations and event funding. Donations were made to the Canobolas Highland pipe band, Housing plus, Northwest Orange Rural Fire Brigade, Rotary club of Orange, Gnoo Blas, the Orange Woodworkers men’s shed amongst others for various events and equipment purchases. $10,000 was given to both the Orange chamber music Festival and the Orange W**e Festival as part of our flagship event program.

The disability action plan was adopted. I clarified that council will make an objective plan about how we will gradually tar the 43 km of gravel roads within our LGA. A decision on a new church build was deferred for more information regarding traffic flow options. I questioned how the athletics track foundations progressed and was happy to hear it is projected to remain within budget.

Boccia is a Paralympic sport similar to lawn bowls and there is a come and try day next Thursday. See above. All abilities welcome!

01/09/2026

The weekly road and footpaths report is below. Dams still at 100% capacity.

Roads
Unsealed Road Grading
Wrights Ln
Lysterfield Rd/Hawke Ln
Gosling Rd / Brooking Ln

Footpaths
Dalton St – Seymour to Mt Lindsay (Southern side)
Allenby East End to Icely Rd (Western side)

Kerb and Gutter
Spring St (repairs)

Pothole repairs
Leeds Pde, from Dalton St to the Northern Distributor Rd
Ploughmans Ln, at Stirling Ave and Boyd Pl
Canobolas Rd, From Pinnacle Rd to Ploughmans Ln
Beasley Rd, from Forest Rd to Commins Rd
Hill St, at Seville Pde, and from Casey St to Roselawn Ave
Clinton St, between March and Byng streets
March St, from Curran St to Lords Pl
Burrendong Way, from Dalton St to Wiradjuri Pl
William St, from Dalton St to the bridge
Pinnacle Rd, from Shiralee Rd to Lysterfield Rd
Woodward St, from Kite St to the railway crossing
Margaret St, from Anson St to Jubilee Ave
Matthews Ave, from Wahratta Way to Burrendong Way
Dawson Gates Rd, from Auberson Rd to Burrendong Way
Clergate Rd, at Auberson Rd
National Avenue, between Hill and Clinton streets
Strathgrove Way, at Clergate Rd
Dalton St, from Sale St to Burrendong Way
Lords Place, between Kite and Moulder streets
McLachlan St, from Bathurst Rd to Caroline St
Total repaired: 1086

Last night was a Christian health professionals dinner that I organised. 34 of us heard from Dr. Catherine Hollier on her recent service as the crew doctor on the Mercy ships in Sierra Leone. These two ships are the largest civilian hospital ships in the world that stay long-term at various African ports offering free life-changing surgeries. They are a waterborne hotel and hospital needing 2500 skilled volunteer staff from around the world to keep them floating and operating. Motivations include adventure, personal development and sharing God's love and first world healthcare to a vulnerable population also made in his image. It was interesting hearing about infection control given close quarter living so if something like gastro or covid got loose that would close the operating theatres. Thanks to all who attended and the speaker who came from Newcastle. We'll do another dinner probably next March.

29/08/2026

Friday I went back to school, attending James Sheahan high school to speak to year 11 work studies students completing a unit on community engagement. It was great to chat about the strengths and challenges of Orange, volunteering and community service and the impact my disability has on that for me. I hope it was useful for the students in how they spend the remainder of their school time and young adulthood. I rolled away with a further reminder of the need for more indoor entertainment options aimed at teenagers.

For what it's worth, I think some of the strengths of Orange are its ideal size, multiple economic options, extensive local services and being a city/country combination. Challenges are water, transportation, and remaining a city where everyone can afford to live.

Thursday night I attended a board meeting for the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service. This is a major provider of medical and other services to a diverse range of Orange residents and is also a large employer. I want to help keep their 20 years of useful service going for many decades to come. For me personally it’s great to go back and have a role in the practice where I first started work in this town. There are some exciting developments and new infrastructure underway!

27/08/2026

Wednesday began with a health liaison committee meeting. Assoc. Prof. Rob Zielinski presented on the Central West Cancer care centre trials and the benefits of local research for both patients and the community. Councillor and pharmacist Frances Kinghorne discussed the increasing scope of practice for community pharmacists, their training and practice expansion this allows. An Orange health service update was notable for a reduced number of low acuity presentations to emergency department likely due to the nearby urgent care centre. There were also large numbers of applicants for junior doctor roles at Orange Hospital showing they want to work and live here. I discussed my supervision of medical student research projects.

Midday I was briefed on Cadia’s continuous operation project, aiming to extend the life of the mine for 25 years beyond 2031. This is a state government decision but councils make submissions. Orange council is currently negotiating a voluntary planning agreement and effluent agreement with Cadia. The last VPA saw $8.8 million spent between council funding, various community and project support and roads. Cadia were keen to show their Australia first via live public environmental monitoring available online. which shows real-time air quality, noise and surface water data.

I've been asked by a Cancer Council NSW colleague to help gather men aged 40-70 years living in Bathurst, Dubbo, and Orange who would share their thoughts about cancer screening. This is part of the FOCUS Project (Facilitating Opportunities for Community Understanding of Screening), a co-designed bowel cancer screening initiative. This 3-year project aims to improve cancer screening participation and outcomes across regional NSW. Participants will do a 90-minute focus group session at times that suit participants and receive a thank you gift. For more information or to register please contact [email protected]

The photo from my GP days is in honour of that bowel cancer research and of my favourite AFL team’s (Hawthorn) unique team jersey. They are in the finals. Go Hawks!

25/08/2026

Below is the weeks planned roadworks and last week's pothole repairs. All dams are 100% full.

Roads
Unsealed road grading on
Pearce Ln
Murphy Ln
Thompson Rd
Neals Ln
Wrights Ln
Lysterfield Rd
Hawke Ln

Forest Rd: trench reinstatement in asphalt

Footpaths
Dalton St – Seymour St to Mt Lindsay (Southern side)
Eastern end of Allenby Rd to Icely Rd (Western side)
Albert St – Dalton St (Western side)

Drainage
Pit reconstruction in Margaret St at the showground

Pothole repairs
Ploughmans Ln - Boyd Pl area
Forest Rd – between Cadia and Gosling roads
Ballykeane Ln – from Cadia Rd to end
Phillip St – from Jilba St to Yvonne Cres
Kurim Ave – from Currong Cres to Callawa St
Jilba St – from Phillip St to Nunkeri Pl
Churchill Ave – from Edward St to Endsleigh Ave
Banjo Paterson Way- from The Overflow to The Billabong
Garden St – from Glenroi Ave to Elizabeth St
McLachlan St – from Bathurst Rd to Moulder St
Old Regret Rd – from Coolabah Dr to end
Margaret St – Mirral Way to McLachlan St, between Sale and Hill St
Elizabeth St – from Bathurst Rd to Garden St
Nile St – between Dalton St and Olver St
Ophir Rd – Banjo Paterson Way to Pearce Ln
Leeds Pde – Honeyman Dr area
El Paso Pl – Barcelona Way to end
Seymour St – Between Dalton and Byng Sts
Warrendine St – Between Anson and Sale Sts
Gardiner Rd – Between Hill and Anson Sts
Total pot holes repaired: 1616

This morning I attended the Zest Fest launch. It is on Saturday November 14 and free tickets are available online now. 2026 is the 3rd year running with over 5000 attendees last year. 11 bands across 2 stages in Robinson Park and McNamara lane will entertain with plenty of food and drink stalls. The headline act is Sneaky Sound System with other supporting and local bands. The event is supported by the NSW government Active Streets program and local sponsors. It’ll be another great show!

Tonight was Jesus club, a church group for adults with an intellectual disability. Accessibility and including everyone sometimes takes more than just a wheelchair ramp!. I'm now starting a Lonely mountain ultra committee meeting. I've been able to help today with communications with Cabonne Council where the event is run

22/08/2026

Tonight I am at a fundraiser for Anson Street school hosted by Badlands brewery and organised by some of my local medical colleagues. The cause is to enable wheelchair access to the school library so a cause very dear to my heart! I wanted Wangarang representation and there are plenty of other members of the public. Hopefully there are lots of questions about niche areas of history and geography but not many on popular music, movies or TV. I won’t do well on the latter.

I was asking the questions at a clinical governance meeting for Wangarang on Thursday night. I’m certainly happy to be a volunteer on the board alongside others who I genuinely respect and can learn from. Earlier Thursday was a meeting of the Orange region su***de prevention network ORSPN where I am the volunteer treasurer. We discussed an upcoming Bunnings barbecue which can be a very useful source of income and awareness raising for us. I can’t be much use at the BBQ on the day, although I suppose I could buy a sausage sandwich even if I would struggle to eat it. I can contribute at a stall we are hosting in town on September 10 for World su***de prevention Day. Come up and say g’day if you see me there.

I appreciate community activities like the three above have minor links to council, but I think it’s good if councillors are active members of the community outside of paid council work. Several of the other councillors are volunteers as well and I think it helps in understanding the community we serve.

19/08/2026

I thought feathers would fly at last night’s council meeting but the Cook Park Aviary debate was tame if prolonged. Community consultation had the majority of the 1300 respondents express a desire to keep and upgrade the aviary with a third wanting removal. There are both community members and councillors with strong views on the issue which makes seeking community feedback a useful way to gauge an overall community opinion. Council decided to retain and upgrade the aviary as well as implement recommendations of an independent animal welfare assessment. These recommendations are numerous but the most interesting to readers could be a recommendation to rehome larger birds like cockatoos and add smaller birds such as budgerigars and finches. Potentially a new structure suitable for larger birds could be built? I have been frustrated that Council hasn’t used skilled volunteers to assist in the way we do at the botanic Gardens, Art Gallery, museum etc. I’m not alone in thinking this and the Orange bird society and others expressed an interest to be involved. It was even suggested the aviary might be leased into their care in a similar to the Conservatorium. I would love to see such involvement pursued further. It could help facilitate sponsorship and fundraising, ensure the best care for the animals, reduce council costs and have the community involved in a community asset. That would be something to crow about.

A highlight of the meeting was a medical student presenting a research paper that objectively compared shade throughout the year at numerous local playgrounds. We now have objective data that demonstrates playgrounds particularly in need of shade which will be useful for our resource allocation and grant applications. I am grateful to Oliver for this work. Medical students must do a six-week full-time research project and always need supervisors so I could facilitate a research project every year. My current idea for 2027 is research into local plants contributing to hayfever and allergy and to make a resource about allergic rhinitis management which Council could promote. Other ideas linked to medicine and Council are welcome!

18/08/2026

Below is this week’s planned roadworks. I am happy to say that all dams are 100% full.
Unsealed Road Grading
Auberson Rd
Pearce Ln
Spring Creek car park

Footpaths
Reinstatement of driveways and footpaths following water main repairs
Dalton St – Seymour St to Mount Lindsay (southern side)
Eastern end of Allenby Rd to western side of Icely Rd
Showground link to amenities

Drainage
136 McLachlan St
Yarawini Dr: tree root cutting and pipe removal

Potholes:
Burrendong Way– Phillip St to Wiradjuri Pl and Kangaroobie Rd intersection
Clinton St– Prince St to Summer St
Anson St– March St to Heatherbrae Pde, Tynan St to Morobe Pl
Forest Rd– Huntley Rd section
Canobolas Rd – Pinnacle Rd to Mount Pleasant Ln
Leeds Pde– Margaret St to Phillip St; Honeyman Dr section
Cadia Rd – Ballykeane Ln section
Byng St – Nile St to Autumn St
Peisley St – Phillip St to Matthews Ave
Heatherbrae Pde –Rosewood Ave to Pioneer Pl
Racecourse Rd – Breen St to rail bridge
Edward St – Moulder St to Warrendine St
Ophir Rd – Daydawn Ln to Priest Ln
Phillip St –Hill St to Peisley St
Shiralee Rd – Lysterfield Rd to Pinnacle Rd
Pinnacle Rd – Canobolas Rd to Lysterfield Rd
Kearl Rd – Cadia Rd section
Ploughmans Ln– Stirling Ln to Canobolas Rd
Springbank Ln – Burrendong Way to end of road
Seymour St – March St to Byng St
Total repaired: 1218

I get regular correspondence regarding small maintenance issues that need addressing. With details and a photo I can find out if repairs are planned or possible. I was contacted two weeks ago regarding a small missing connecting footpath to the accessible toilets at the Showgrounds. I flagged this and here is a photo of the work underway. Ideas won’t always be possible to address straightaway or even at all, but am happy to at least try.

I am about to roll into tonight’s Council meeting. I suspect the most contentious issue will be responding to public consultation on the Cook Park aviary. A medical student will present research objectively demonstrating playgrounds that need shade infrastructure which I facilitated as part of his studies. Council can provide feedback on councillors pay, and I will submit that we shouldn’t decide our own pay!

16/08/2026

Saturday morning I attended the Redleaf launch event. The first land release is imminent for this development of 274 homes with 20% being earmarked for affordable (not social) housing. There will be a variety of home types but overall will have smaller sizes than in many other developments providing more diversity in options amongst new houses in Orange. Accommodation needs vary significantly over a person’s lifespan so we want a range of housing stock to match. Further affordable rental housing will help in key worker retention so Orange has adequate numbers of teachers, nurses et cetera. Council is not involved with the upfront development which reduces our financial risk compared to housing developments in West Bathurst.

Before launch I was at the Christian men’s breakfast, and it was great to hear from the Rector of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church Andy Martin on his journey both in faith and incoming to Orange! An update from a prostate cancer support group shows that I can never truly escape work. Thanks to the organisers for putting this on each month.

Can I put a shout out to the Orange historical Society whose AGM was Saturday afternoon. Before Orange I was living in the Kimberley (Derby) as well as stints in Far North Queensland and Darwin. Everywhere in Australia has history, but Orange’s timeline stands out in comparison with nearly 200 years of modern history and this organisation seeks to preserve it. I enjoy their monthly newsletters and irregular publications and hope this group continues to keep doing what they are doing.

Steve Peterson Orange City Councillor

04/09/2026

02/09/2026

01/09/2026

29/08/2026

27/08/2026

25/08/2026

22/08/2026

19/08/2026

18/08/2026

16/08/2026

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