The Orange Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Heritage architect David Scobie helps local residents who want to restore their house, navigate the minefield of design, finding suppliers and grants. This week on the Orange Podcast, how some early advice can head off a major kerfuffle. And, Orange City Council's youngest new member reveals how much he's enjoying his new role.

Send us Fan Mail  This week, we find out why the company that’s taking charge of keeping the state’s track and trains running has chosen Orange as the place for its new headquarters. Orange has a wine festival and a FOOD week, now Orange’s newest music festival has released it’s latest line up and there’s some names you’ll know.  And, we learn why one of Orange’s newly elected councilor, David Mal...

Send us Fan Mail Orange City Council started releasing more than four megalitres of water from Suma park dam this week. We find out why it's happening. We meet one of the new batch of council members and discover why a new place for mums and bubs to gather in winter is on the cards. And we discover why the Council has bought a new high-tech, remote-control camera that can travel 300 metres al...

Send us Fan Mail When Gerald Power isn't being Orange's new deputy mayor, he's running a tourism business which aims to give visitors from near and far a taste of 50,000 years of indigenous culture. And how Orange’s latest piece of public art, a mural in Anson Street looks very different, depending on how fast you walk by, and how much light there is. 

Send us Fan Mail The mayor was delighted with the 'big-picture' approval this week for the proposed new sports precinct. Meanwhile, residents brought their questions along to find out if Orange will have enough water to provide for an even larger population. And we find out about local efforts to protect a rare and endangered plant.

Send us Fan Mail After years of negotiations, the State Government has agreed to return more than 80 hectares of crown land to the local Land Council.  It happened after Orange City Council and the Orange Local Aboriginal Lands Council sat around the negotiating table with officials from the Crown Lands Dept representing the state Government. The government’s new approach was designed to avoid the...

Send us Fan Mail if you happen to take a stroll around the inner city laneways of Orange in the next few days you might be surprised by  the sight of doors and windows that weren't there before.  It’s the work of an artist , Catherine O’Donnell, the latest step in the FutureCity upgrade of Orange's CBD.  And, it could be sometime before the final approvals are granted to build a new spor...

Send us Fan Mail This week a new strategy was unveiled to help guide the future development of housing in Orange for the next 20years. Among its wide-ranging findings, there’s evidence about the biggest sector of home buyers in Orange, and why the market just isn’t building what would suit them the best. And, we find out about a new solution to the very real problem of how a brand new business get...

Send us Fan Mail An Orange business, Badlands Brewery, is the latest to take up the opportunity offered by Orange City Council's decision to change zoning regulations to let niche food & drink makers move into inner-city retail areas. And when a council office burnt down in a fire two years ago, the staff who are about to move in didn't know that the replacement building would set ne...

Send us Fan Mail Orange's newest set of festoon lights, hung over over a car park, are being tested on Friday night (17 Sept) for the first time. The McNamara Street upgrade project is the first stage of Orange's FutureCity program. And we’ll hear from the director of Orange’s regional gallery Brad Hammond to discover why the new gallery extension has him so excited.

Send us Fan Mail This week we find out an engineer keeps local business operators onside as he digs up the footpath and roads outside their stores: An update on the upgrade of Lord Place and Byng St. And, last year’s 'Retail Recovery' campaign that gave away a thousand fifty-dollar EFTPOS cards is coming back this year for a second round of much-needed retail therapy, but this time you c...

Send us Fan Mail Despite some popular outdoor locations being out-of-bounds during the lockdown, Orange residents are discovering how many other parks and open spaces are there to be enjoyed.  This week how warmer Springtime temperatures are keeping the Orange City Council's parks & gardens crew busy. And why the Orange Regional Museum is making it's next Mondays at the Museum event...

Send us Fan Mail The routine services Orange City Council provides every week, are being discovered in new ways while the local community is in lockdown. Already worked your way through the entire line-up of movies on Netflix or Stan?  Did you know that a membership with  the Orange City Library gives you FREE access to hundreds of movies through two streaming services? And even more families conc...

Send us Fan Mail There’s a crew at Orange City Council whose work goes completely unnoticed, until you turn on a tap or flush a toilet. But then this week, in the midst of a COVOD pandemic, their work made the news.  And we find out what happens next after the first trees are removed, as work finally begins to build a new sporting precinct.  The proposed precinct will be developed in a park-like s...

Send us Fan Mail With the return of wet weather, pot-holes have returned to the streets of Orange in big numbers. And with them has come a seasonal jump social media discussion with various theories about what they are there. In this episode we hear from Orange City Council's Works Manager who reveals, the tough truth that pot-holes are inevitable. Also in this episode, Orange feels the impac...

Send us Fan Mail This week,  we’ll find out how you can have your say as we think about whether or not the inner city of Orange should have it’s own 'East Street'.  And, we’re inching closer to water flowing over the dam wall at Suma Park dam. How far away is milestone and how excited are some water managers....

Send us Fan Mail How can Orange businesses tap into the multi-million dollar online spending by locals? This week,  we’ll find out how Orange City Council has planted 18 thousand trees. We'll discover why the council wants to pay bands to play music in your local CBD venue. And we'll learn some tips to help you go cold turkey in Plastic free July. 

Send us Fan Mail After the milestone decision at a council meeting this week to remove trees from the site of a proposed new sport precinct, there are still many questions about what happens next.   And, all going well the Orange Readers and Writers Festival aims to be back better than ever  this year.  The program has just been released for event to be held over two days, July 30 and 31, in the H...

Send us Fan Mail A major milestone in Orange's recovery from the drought as our dam's hit 80% of capacity.  We’ll find out how some of our accommodation providers are going on the front foot to make contact with customers who might be heading this way from a COVID hot spot.  We’ll learn about the themes behind the latest of our city’s murals in McNamara Street..

Send us Fan Mail There’s been a key development in the local debate in Orange over whether or not to build a new sporting precinct alongside the Jack Brabham sports grounds. A date has been set for the extra council meeting when the decision will be taken about whether to remove trees on  the site.  Now in a late development , the decision will be about only removing trees on parts of the site. Al...

Send us Fan Mail In Orange to help launch the new help agency, former Royal Commissioner,  Robert Fitzgerald was keen to talk about how many thousands of elder abuse cases are coming to light and which age-groups are the most at risk. Also, a City Councillor gives her top tips on the best way to lobby a councillor.  And how the addition of a website can transform the customer base of regional smal...

Send us Fan Mail Orange City Council is trying hard to upgrade the City’s CBD, but what about some of the high-profile  buildings and shop fronts that are privately owned? This week's council meeting gave the go-ahead for the first four grants to be given to local building owners to help them restore  the font of their stores. The problem of elder abuse is getting bigger. In response a new co...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever worked in a toxic work environment or felt like you're workload was so great you burnt out? Orange City Council staff have been involved in a number of workshops focused on workplace culture. Also this week, community engagement training was on the cards for the communications team. And we hear from Council's CEO Dave Waddell for a wrap of the week.

Send us Fan Mail When was the last time you visited a library? Thousands do every week, but what if you could access the Orange City Library by reaching into your back pocket and pulling out your mobile phone? Also this week, how a couple of major council facilities in Orange don’t need electricity off the grid in daylight hours.  And, why one of Orange’s newest murals, part of our public art proj...

Send us Fan Mail Orange is famous for its has beautiful street trees, but how do you prevent a tree damaging surrounding infrastructure lie footpath and roads? In a first for Orange, new underground cells are being installed to let trees grow to be healthy without tree roots impacting the neighbourhood. Also today's Orange's tourism marketing arm, Orange360, makes use of data harvested f...