The shire had earlier agreed to a WHN request for a three-week delay in publicly announcing the shock closure while its Northam-based CEO was on leave.

Next month’s removal of GP services in Toodyay means local physiotherapy and pathology services will also cease.

Local patients will instead have to travel to Northam or Midland to see a GP or access other medical services such as blood tests.

The shire has been unable to find new doctors in time to keep the busy centre open.

It had provided WHN with free rent worth $38,500 a year and also paid for medical centre power, water and other costs.

The shire had also paid for fit-out expenses when WHN started leasing the ratepayer-owned medical centre in 2012.

Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst reported to last month’s council meeting that WHN would retain patient records but had agreed to transfer them free of charge to new GPs.

She said one GP had contacted the shire about operating locally as a private business “with significant support from the shire”.

Two others living in Toodyay had also said they would be interested in working locally.

The shire had been contacted by allied health service providers, including for physiotherapy treatment.

The Wheatbelt Primary Health Network had offered to help the shire assess GP credentials and proposals.

Ms Haslehurst said the shire’s previous 2012 contract with WHN did not fit any of the four business models provided by medical support agency Rural Health West.

Most remote WA local government authorities owned their own general practices which were operated by a principal GP.

The Shire of York did not provide any subsidy or support for local GP services, while Northam and Chittering provided minimal support in the form of a rental subsidy.

A report to last month’s council meeting said that a suitable GP business model for Toodyay had yet to be decided.

Ms Haslehurst told The Herald later that it would take at least four months for the shire to advertise and establish a new GP clinic in Toodyay.

The shire was currently in the process of drafting documents and advertising tenders based on professional health services advice.

It was also continuing to lobby Federal and State Governments to raise awareness of the “increasing impost on regional local governments to provide GP and allied health services”.

The council had not budgeted this year to fund new GP services beyond the existing subsidy provided to WHN.

Any additional cost may require the council to consider amending its recent 2021-22 budget which was adopted in August.

Ms Haslehurst said any significant subsidy to attract new doctors to Toodyay may require rate rises.

If this was the case, she recommended that ratepayers should first be consulted to determine if they wanted to pay more to keep local doctors and other health services operating in Toodyay.

Toodyay relies on agriculture to sustain its local economy.

Most grain grown in the Central Wheatbelt is trucked to local receival depots, shifted to Northam and railed to Kwinana for shipment to overseas markets.

Buyers are offering $50 a tonne more to ship grain from newer, faster grain handling facilities in Esperance and Geraldton.

Local farmers blame grain handler CBH and the state government for failure to modernise local grain handling networks.

Large amounts of bulk grain stored under tarpaulins at Northam are from last year’s harvest – some of it already triple-handled.

CBH’s Kwinana Zone – which has 72 receival sites stretching from Coorow to Dalwallinu, Lake King and Williams, including Northam – produces about half the state’s grain harvest.

Most of it – not just wheat – is exported through the port of Kwinana to Asian countries including Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and the Philippines.

Less than 10 per cent of the harvest is sold to the WA domestic market.

Esperance has only six receival sites but these were built in the 1980s and are far more modern and can handle bigger trucks than those in the Kwinana Zone, which were built 60 to 80 years ago.

Annual WA crop sizes have grown significantly in the last 10 years, from 12-14 million tonnes to more than 20 million tonnes in just the past two years.

Many farmers believe the added strain will overwhelm WA’s outdated grain handling facilities and cause them to fail.

They say it is absurd that local grain is highly sought after by overseas buyers but can’t reach the port fast enough to meet demand.

It highlighted the urgent need for concerted action by government and industry to build better truck and rail access to the port.

Farmers say while WA has enough space to store grain, it can’t be shifted fast enough and ends up clogging the system.

They say fixing this logistical problem is of paramount importance for regional WA and the state economy.

WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said two big harvests in a row had caused major logistical challenges in delivering grain to the port.

However, they needed to be seen in perspective, she said.

Rail networks were being upgraded and the Minister said she was confident local farmers would again get good returns for this year’s crop.

CBH has a comprehensive plan to deal with the surge,” she said.

“Projects to upgrade the Kwinana Zone rail network will start rolling out later this year.

“There will always be logistical problems with such big increases – we get that,” she said.

“It won’t be optimal but capability is being increased.

“Our focus is on getting it out.”

A CBH spokesperson said the company had added 2.4 million tonnes of temporary storage to its network in preparation for this year’s harvest.

A further 300,000 tonnes of permanent storage had also been added.

À total of 3.3 million tonnes was currently stored in the network and this level was falling as out-loading continued.

“Farmers are best placed to make informed decisions for their business,” the spokesperson said.

“However, they will not be forced by CBH to tip their grain on the ground.”

The same roads are used by local farmers to transport hundreds of tonnes of grain for the shire’s annual harvest and to cart bulk hay, wool and livestock to market.

Councillors voted 8-0 in May to adopt the new mining rate in this year’s shire budget and sought State approval on July 15.

The shire was still reponding to queries from State officials on August 10 when councillors voted 6-0 to adopt a new 2022-23 shire budget that required miners to pay $200,000 a year to cover road repair costs.

It was not until September 3 – more than six weeks after the initial shire request and a week after an August 31 statutory budget deadline – that officials rejected the new rate.

Based on legal advice, councillors then voted 6-0 at a Special Council Meeting on September 28 to ask the State Administrative Tribunal to quash the rejected rate from this year’s budget.

They agreed to postpone the new rate until next year’s budget.

Ms Haslehurst said the shire was currently reviewing its 2022-23 budget and talking to Chalice about road maintenance contributions.

“They’re being receptive,” she said.

WA Local Government Executive Director Tim Fraser said the shire needed to “re-arrange” its rates in a way that did not require ministerial approval.

The shire will become the centre’s new owner and transfer its staff to local government jobs at the new shire-owned site.

Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst said $107,000 a year in federal money paid to the centre’s previous volunteer management to run the centre would be transferred to the shire.

Federal money supported than 100 community resource centres in WA, of which 14 were run by local government councils.

Councillors were told that the TCRC’s August closure had placed significant extra demand on shire staff and resources at the Toodyay Public library.

The library had only one public computer and could not meet increased local demand for public internet access and other services.

The closure meant also that after-school activities were no longer available for younger people living in the shire.

Councillors agreed to cover the centre’s current financial liabilities up to a total of $47,500 and amend the new shire budget in a mid-year review.

A proposed new TCRC business model would be presented to the November council meeting.

Former TCRC manager Nicole Coleman has started a new role as voluntary secretary at the Toodyay Club, which re-opened its doors last month with a series of events after closing in July due to ongoing financial losses.

The Club has re-opened with no paid staff, only volunteers.