Bob Bensley says he was born into a community which could get things done.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
He has spent years doing exactly that, and has been recognised with an Order of Australia Medal in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to the Inverell community.
"The culture was 'don't worry about whether we can do it or not through governments and things like that, we'll do it ourselves if necessary'," Mr Bensley said.
"I've grown up, I suppose, right through my adult life believing that the Inverell community could always do whatever it needed to do to improve things."
READ MORE:
He said examples included the construction of Copeton Dam to guarantee the town's water supply, the creation of the sports council to manage sporting facilities, and even further back, the town's swimming pool was opened following a massive fundraising effort in town.
"I suppose I just became a member of a community that did those sorts of things," he said.
For more than half a century he has been actively involved in making Inverell a better place.
It started when he joined Apex, continued in the late 1960s when he helped form the Inverell Sports Council, then through much of the 1970s and into the 80s he was a councillor, serving as deputy mayor twice.
For the last 20 years he was a strong advocate for our hospital, and played a key role encouraging our leaders to improve health services.
That particular issue became important for Mr Bensely following a couple of events in 2001.
When Hunter New England Health downgraded both the maternity ward and the children's ward at the hospital that year, Mr Bensley said the health service became unpopular in the local community because they would not listen to objections.
"That got me involved, plus Hunter New England Health said to the shire council in 2001 that if Inverell thought it was likely to get a new hospital, it was dreaming."
Over the years, he never stopped dreaming. And he never stopped raising the issue with politicians.
After Adam Marshall was elected to state parliament in the 2013 byelection, he soon had Bob on his case about the hospital, and it worked, with stage one of the hospital's redevelopment officially completed last month.
Mr Bensely was first elected to Inverell Municipal Council in February 1973, and went to become deputy mayor in both in the late 1970s. He would be that council's last deputy mayor.
Queen's Birthday Honours: Locals named on the 2020 Honours List
Following the amalgamation of Inverell, Ashford and Macintyre shires, he was deputy mayor for Inverell Shire in the early 1980s.
Then in 1983 he decided not to stand for council again, when the council terms changed from three years to four.
"I was looking down the barrel of another four years, and I had enough on my plate to feel as though the pressure would be too great to go another four years," he recalled.
He became a columnist for The Inverell Times in the early 2000s, where he continued to comment on local issues for almost a decade.
Looking back at his years of community involvement, Mr Bensley paid tribute to his late wife Pam, who was a wonderful support in everything he was involved in.
"In many cases, if Pam had not been there, it would not have happened," he said.
