Toodyay Herald

The Cuballing Shire Council voted 6-0 in January that Mr Scott was “suitably qualified” for their shire’s highest-paid job.

Shire President Eliza Dowling said her council knew about the adverse finding but Mr Scott was “the stand-out candidate” from a list provided by local government recruitment agency Lo-Go Appointments.

“It is difficult to get job applicants for small country shires like ours,” she said.

“We did thorough background checks.”

President Dowling declined to reveal how much Mr Scott was being paid but said it was within in a State-approved salary range of $128,000-$200,000 for shire CEOs.

She said Mr Scott’s previous 18 years in local government – including seven at Toodyay – had counted in his favour, as well as the two Toodyay referee reports.

Cuballing councillors had signed “confidentiality agreements” which prevented her from naming the referees.

A shire newsletter announcement of Mr Scott’s appointment said he had “recently taken a break from Local Government receiving some well-deserved leave”.

Mr Scott quit as Toodyay shire CEO in the middle of a year-long State-ordered inquiry after taking three month’s sick leave at short notice on the morning of a council meeting.

He was no longer employed by the shire when 15 adverse findings against him were tabled in State Parliament in October 2020.

A new CEO and councillors were required to take action to remedy the deficiencies.

President Dowling said she was not aware that Mr Scott had done any “training or counselling” after the inquiry and had found no reference to him being required to do so.

A WA Government spokesperson said the Minister had no role in council appointments but was planning new measures to “strengthen the oversight and recruitment of CEOs”.

Mr Scott declined to comment.

Two “low impact” diamond drill rigs that did not require vegetation to be cleared have drilled four holes on existing forest tracks.

A further 78 holes had been drilled on private farmland north of the forest.

ASX told appeals ‘unlikely’ to affect drilling

The miner said it was awaiting the outcome of two public appeals against a State Government decision to allow off-track drilling in the forest.

The appeals were “unlikely” to affect the company’s planned drilling program, it told the stock exchange.

“No mechanised clearing is required for off-track activity and trees and significant flora/fauna will be avoided,” Chalice said.

The mineral deposit is wholly within the Shire of Toodyay about 28km west of the townsite and crosses Julimar Road into the conservation park near Keating Road.

The shire said current drilling on existing fire access and recreation tracks was governed by a conservation management plan that prevented vegetation being cleared.

Major access roads remained open, with warning signs for minor track interruptions.

The 280sq/km Julimar Conservation Park was listed by the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions in 2017 as home to one of the state’s “healthiest known populations of western quoll (chuditch)”.

‘Threatened fauna rare or likely to become extinct’

The native mammal is the state’s largest carnivorous marsupial and protected by WA wildlife conservation law as “threatened fauna that is rare or likely to become extinct”.

The shy, solitary, cat-like creatures are largely nocturnal and use highly sensitive vision, hearing and smell to capture prey in a home range that extends up to 15sq/km for males and 3-4sq/km for females.

They live in hollow logs, tree limbs, rocky outcrops and burrows, and eat mostly crickets, scorpions and spiders as well as other small mammals, birds, lizards, frogs and bird and lizard eggs, and sometimes Zamia seed pulp, small fruits and flowers.

Much of the the Shire of Toodyay, including the townsite, was blanket pegged for similar minerals two years ago.

Drilling is currently underway along a 10km strip of a 26km-long deposit (pictured right) covered by an 8000sq/km exploration licence which lies mostly within the Julimar Conservation Park.

The lower part of the map shows ‘Hartog’ where forest drilling began in mid-January.

The company was also granted a State permit to drill beyond existing forest access tracks and told the Australian Stock Exchange that “while a delay is envisaged, the company believes the appeals are unlikely to impact the planned exploration drilling program”.

More drilling in the conservation park is planned further north in the ‘Baudin’ and ‘Jansz’ areas later this year.

Chalice has already drilled hundreds of holes south of Julimar Road on private farmland designated ‘Gonneville’ (shown bottom of map) that it bought two years ago.

The company told a Perth mining conference last month that its Julimar find was “world class” – one of the “largest greenfield discoveries in recent history”.

It was “positioned to become a globally significant and strategic source of battery and hydrogen green metals”.

The deposit contained “world class” amounts of platinum, palladium, nickel, cobalt and copper “needed to decarbonise the global economy and address climate change”.

Ukraine invasion puts Julimar ‘in spotlight’

Chalice said palladium was in short supply in a market dominated by Russia.

The miner tweeted after last month’s Ukraine invasion that Russia supplied 40 per cent of global demand for the rare metal, with prices at near-record levels of $3303 an ounce “on the back of Russian supply concerns”.

“Julimar project is in the spotlight as it hosts one of few major undeveloped projects,” Chalice tweeted.

Platinum was dominated by South Africa “with significant political and operational challenges”.

Nickel and cobalt were “key battery cathode materials in electric vehicles (EV)” with demand forecast to increase 19 times by 2040 and a “significant forecast supply shortage” due to a lack of new discoveries.

Copper was “used extensively in the green energy industry, including in renewables, energy storage and EVs in a market forecast to remain in deficit until 2026” due to a lack of new large-scale discoveries worldwide.

Chalice described itself as a “well-funded, high-performance team with an excellent track record” with “proven ability to discover and define mines and a track record of returning capital to shareholders”.

The company said it had raised $74 million in cash and investments and had delivered a 5000 per cent return to shareholders since the success of its first Julimar hole in March 2020.

Chalice bought Avalon Homestead in Julimar Road last year to establish a local base with overnight accommodation and has provided donations, sponsorships and in-kind support to several Toodyay community organisations.

They include the Toodyay Bowling Club whose members now wear Chalice-branded competition shirts, the Toodyay Agricultural Society’s annual Show, $20,000 to revamp a Toodyay District High School playground and $13,000 to buy an inflatable water slide at Toodyay’s new swimming pool.

Toodyay Shire President Rosemary Madacsi said the shire was holding regular monthly meetings with Chalice to discuss progress updates.

The outbreak of war in the region has already had a significant effect on shipping in and out of the region.

Russia and nearby Belarus produce a large amount of the world’s fertilisers, some imported directly into Western Australia.

Supply and pricing will be affected by new trade sanctions imposed by Western nations on those two countries.

The likely effect on local farmers will be an increase in cost of fertilisers, fuel and some herbicides.

The interruption to production and export shipping caused by the hostilities will lead to increase in prices, for wheat particularly.

Some international market commentators suggest it could be as much as 30 per cent.

Canola prices are already at near-record highs, will likely remain strong and also have the potential to rise further.

The Black Sea ports also export canola, although on a lesser scale than for wheat and corn.

Meanwhile, local farmers are now busy with paddock preparation and livestock husbandry duties.

Most producers managed to squeeze a few weeks away from their farms in January.
Harvest finished very late last year, with many farmers finishing their harvest in January for the first time in decades.

The ideal time to finish is the week before Christmas, which avoids all the non-work days between Christmas and New Year.

Last year’s harvest was a record for Western Australia, easily exceeding 20,000,000 tonnes of grain.

This record production was a result of a wet growing season and a very mild Spring which allowed crops to mature without heat or drought stress.

Toodyay farmers also enjoyed a very good harvest, although waterlogging was very evident in parts which generally reduced yields from the many record yielding crops in areas of the state further north and east.

Prices for sheep and cattle continue at record levels.

Consistent high prices are now becoming the norm.

Continuing export demand and grazier re-stocking have driven prices to new levels, to prices that many industry insiders suggest will be the new norm.

The software was purchased by a previous council in 2018 from a New Zealand supplier with limited knowledge of WA local government finance reporting needs.

Its only other WA client at the time was the Shire of Manjimup which had experienced similar difficulties.

The Toodyay installation started in December 2019 – six months before Ms Haslehurst was appointed new CEO – and was due to be fully operational by last December.

The roll-out for shire income and expenditure occurred over several months but the new system was found to be unable to produce adequate financial reports.

“The original change management plan for a project of this scale was flawed,” Ms Haslehurst said.

“The rates module was quite complex and required greater understanding by the developers than they had envisaged.

“We went live with payroll and payments to creditors in July 2020.

“It includes security-level checks and balances to prevent fraud and misuse of funds – from that perspective, the system is robust.

“However, the ability to generate reports in the format required does not exist.

“What would normally take a day or two at the most is taking hundreds of hours of staff time to produce manually.

“That is why we are unable to produce a final accurate cost for the recreation centre.
“We have held weekly meetings with the software developers for several months and shire staff speak to their people every day.

“Thousands of hours have been spent on this – the company is paying to fix it up.

Ms Haslehurst told councillors last month that an interim audit by the State Auditor-General was likely to raise the shire’s failure to produce statements of financial activity last July and August as a breach of local government law.

She said the WA Local Government Department was aware that the shire was undergoing a complex and difficult transition to its new accounting software.

“Officers will liaise with the department regarding the consequences of this breach,” Ms Haslehurst said.

Cr McKeown said he looked forward to his questions being answered next month.

Patrons sitting on bar stools was a “grey area” for mask wearing, pub owners said.

Proof of vaccination is not required to enter the town’s IGA supermarket because it is classed as an essential service, but the new rules require shoppers to wear masks.

Mandatory vaccination and mask requirements do not apply to people with officially approved medical exemptions.

Infected staff and workplace contacts are required to isolate for 14 days, which could cause some businesses to close, but this measure is expected to ease soon.

Both Toodyay hotels reported downturns at the start of this month, and the bakery is now shut on Mondays due a staff shortage caused by workplace vaccination rules.

The new measures coincide with shortages of essential goods after floods cut interstate rail services until at least February 12.

IGA store owner Dean Carter said 30km of rail freight every week had been halted, causing retailers to switch to interstate trucking to maintain supplies.

“We use independent supply chains and have enough to get by if people don’t panic,” Mr Carter said.

Freemasons Hotel owner John Pearce said a minority of pub customers had objected to being required to show proof of vaccination.

The first week under new rules was “an education process”.

“Everyone needs to just suck it up and get on with it,” he said.

“Like everybody else, we’re just following the law because that’s what we are required to do.”

Local police say they will conduct random checks around the town ensure the new public health measures are being observed.

Toodyay District High School Principal David Ball said all Year 7 to 10 students are required to wear masks indoors unless they had a medical exemption.

Other students did not need to wear masks, and masks were not required outdoors.

All school staff are double vaccinated.

The State Government says people concerned that vaccination may affect their health can seek a medical exemption.

However, this does not apply “to an objection based on personal belief” or “vaccine hesitancy and related fears and anxiety”, for which health provider advice should be sought.

Former Cr Bell also figured in several legal battles with former shire CEO Stan Scott after posting strident criticism of Mr Scott’s performance on Facebook.

The former CEO was later named in 14 of 23 adverse findings against the shire and its former council after the results of a year-long State Government inquiry were tabled in the WA Parliament in 2020.

Former Cr Bell gave no official reason for his January 15 departure, though there was growing speculation based on his frequent absences that he might not stay.

A discussion last year to cut the size of the council from nine to seven members was deferred pending the October 2021 poll.

The 2021 elections completed a four-year transition to allow all voters to vote for all candidates regardless of geographical area.

The reform included the introduction of postal ballots which caused a big increase in voter participation after years of low turn-outs at little-known shire polling stations.

York, Chittering, Goomalling and Victoria Plains all have seven councillors – a move favoured by the State Government.

Reducing the Toodyay Shire Council’s size to seven members would save ratepayers about $23,000 a year in councillor allowances.

It would also save a further $22,000 by avoiding a fresh council election so soon after the last poll three months ago.

A special meeting this month voted 5-1 (Cr Mick McKeown against) to seek WA Electoral Commission permission to leave the seat vacant, pending an expected Ministerial move to introduce smaller councils at the October 2023 poll.

A council of eight elected members with one vacancy still needs an absolute majority of five councillors to pass important decisions such as budgets regardless of the president’s casting (second) vote because it is still officially a nine-member council.