The shire’s new contract with Dr Lawal includes a resumption of ancillary medical services delivered by other health providers.

Toodyay Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said a lease for the premises would be signed and the keys handed over when interior repairs were completed.

This included patching holes, gouges and chips in plaster walls and on passageway corners, re-painting damaged areas and checks on electrical wiring and plumbing.

It was understood at the time of publication that this would take at least another two weeks from the start of May because of the amount of work involved.

Much of the centre’s furnishings, including chairs and beds, are already in place.

Ms Haslehurst said the shire was installing a new computer server to connect existing workstations, printers and other equipment.

Dr Lawal, who will engage his own computer specialist to link the equipment and connect it to the internet, was unable to be contacted by The Herald for comment.

However, Ms Haslehurst said Dr Lawal had told the shire that he wanted to make the medical centre a “more inviting space” for local patients.

They stayed initially in Canning when most settlers were still living under canvas before moving to Middle Swan and finally settling at Barn Elms in West Toodyay, where Sandy Ferguson built a mudbrick family cottage.

Sandy Ferguson was a blacksmith who charged an English pound for shoeing horses.

He died in 1858 age 53 and was the first person to be buried in Nardie Cemetery.

Christiana Ferguson died 12 years later age 64 and is buried next to her husband.

Their second child Thomas (1826-1892) married Jane Morley (1829-1919) and the couple lived near Guildford before also moving to Toodyay, from where the local pioneering family grew and spread.

Information provided by Ferguson family member Leanne Rowe and historical records.

The large shire-owned structure needs a new roof at an estimated cost of at least $100,000, and repairs are needed also for other track facilities such as the jockeys’ changerooms and commercial kitchen.

Toodyay Race Club Chair John Prater told The Herald last month that he didn’t know if this year’s races would be run.

It would mean that Toodyay has held its traditional annual picnic race day only once in the last four years – in 2021 – after COVID-19 halted all racing the year before.

Mr Prater said the shire should have repaired the undercroft roof in 2018.

However , the previous shire administration and former councillors decided instead to upgrade the undercroft floor, Mr Prater said.

“I was told there was money in forward planning but it never made it into the budget,” he said.

“You’d think it would make sense to fix the roof first but that didn’t happen.

“Last year we lost a brand new TV to water damage.

“I really don’t know if there will be races this year, it depends on what the shire comes back with.”

Mr Prater said he met shire representatives earlier this year after an engineer’s report commissioned by the shire found significant structural deficiencies.

“Local businesses want racing to continue because it brings spending to the town,” Mr Prater said.

“It benefits local hotels, cafes and accommodation providers, and helps to showcase the town.”

Mr Prater said Racing and Wagering WA – the State Government agency that manages WA’s horse racing industry– supported Toodyay racing to continue with only one event each year.

However, The Herald understands some Toodyay councillors object to spending a large amount of ratepayers’ money on repairing a costly shire-owned facility that gets used only once every 12 months.

Toodyay Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said she had received a risk assessment report on the racetrack’s condition from the shire’s insurer at the end of last month.

It would be examined and presented to councillors to decide what to do.

An inspection by The Herald last month found the main jockey’s changerooms to be in a dilapidated condition with only one shower, holes in the main undercroft roof and electrical wiring dangling (pictured above) from metal girders above the bookies’ stand.

The large number of females jockeys now riding on country race tracks means facilities for both genders may need to be upgraded.

Current exploration drilling in the conservation park is limited by State Government restrictions backed by the Shire of Toodyay and conservationist groups.

The nearby farmland find is estimated to be worth billions of dollars at today’s prices.

Chalice told the Australian Stock Exchange last month that it had started seeking business partners to enter into formal agreements to mine and process millions of tonnes of Julimar ore over the next few decades.

The company’s share prices rose by nearly 17 per cent to $7.49 at the close of trading at the end of last month after rising steadily from $5.96 over the previous fortnight.

The stock exchange granted Chalice’s request for a share trading halt on Monday March 27 pending the company’s announcement next day.

The Chalice statement said that drilling on private farmland south of Julimar Road had increased the size of its known deposit to three million tonnes.

A further 27km of forest north of Julimar Road was “effectively untested” due to low-impact drilling constraints imposed by the State Government last year.

The three-year-old discovery consists of palladium, platinum and gold which sell for up to US$1800 an ounce on the world market, and nickel, copper and cobalt worth US$10,500 to US$72,000 per ton.

Chalice is touting it’s discovery as a leading new global supply of “green metals” to power electric vehicles and reduce carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.

The discovery will also generate millions of dollars in aditional State revenue from mining royalties in what the company describes as a “long-life” project.

Chalice told the stock exchange there was “enormous growth potential” on the private farmland it now owns – and in the Julimar State Forest further north.

More than 1000 sampling holes had been drilled to a depth of 800m on Chalice-owned private farms south of Julimar Road.

A further 100 test holes had been drilled on a 10km stretch of State forest on the northern side of Julimar Road.

Chalice told the stock exchange that only seven per cent of the ore body is located on private farmland to the south, while the rest – which is largely untested – stretches 27km north through the forest to Dewars Pool.

“While we already have a tier-1 scale deposit which has the potential to underpin a world-class, long-life green metals project, the resource base is expected to grow,” Chalice said.

“Our multi-pronged exploration campaign will therefore continue over the coming months as we work to unlock the full potential of the 30km-long Julimar complex.”

“The Julimar project is favourably located with access to established road, rail port and high-voltage power infrastructure nearby, plus access to a significant drive-in drive-out mining workforce in the Perth surrounds.”

In a separate statement to The Herald, a Chalice spokesperson said that “any mining will require strict government approvals and will consider environmental and social impacts”.

The statement referred to “decades of mining” with “open pit and underground mining scenarios continuing to be considered”.

“Low-impact exploration drilling is continuing within the southern portion of the State Forest,” the spokesperson said.

“While initial results have confirmed the prospectivity of the region at depth, no economic deposit has yet been identified in the area, and there is no certainty that mining will ever occur in the forest.”

Conservationists have been lobbying the WA Government to upgrade the forest from conservation park to national park status to protect it from mining.

Concerns have also been raised about the large volumes of ground water likely to be needed to mine and process millions of tonnes of ore in the coming decades, as well as the environmental impact of large-scale industrial air pollution and noise.