“Wait and see” approach adopted
Wednesday November 19, 2008
While a number of businesses and organisations in Cobar are adopting a “wait and see” approach following the latest retrenchments at Endeavor Mine, local businessman Roger Jackson, principal of Every Day Mine Services and GOS Drilling, said his company has already made a number of changes.
“But that’s not in direct response to the retrenchments last week ,” Mr Jackson said.
“We took a hit back in September from both Endeavor and Perilya with a reduction in work.
“So we have been lucky that we moved into coal and energy four months ago and now have 90 per cent of our drill rigs working in coal and gas,” Mr Jackson said.
“It’s all part of a world wide phenomenon.
“There’s been cut backs in all areas of mining - in zinc, copper and other base metals,” Mr Jackson said.
“We are lucky also that the low Australian dollar is buffering us.
“I’m optimistic that things will go back up and hopefully people will have the confidence to invest in the market again,” he said.
Cobar Business Association president Michael Cox said yesterday that the association was scheduled to meet last night and that the effects of the Endeavor retrenchments would be on the agenda for discussion.
A number of businesses contacted by The Cobar Weekly on Monday declined to comment with many saying “it was too early to tell” how their businesses would be affected.
The three local schools have not yet felt any significant effects on enrolments due to last week’s retrenchments.
Nadine McLeod, secretary at St John’s School said it was hard to tell how the school would be affected by the latest retrenchments.
“At this stage it’s hard to say how many families have been directly affected.
“It’s also hard to determine how many more families will be affected in the flow-on affect of those parents that have jobs that service the mining industry,” Mrs McLeod said.
“We have only lost one family that we are aware of,” Cobar Primary School’s acting principal Jenny Manns said yesterday.
“It did create a lot of tension and anxiety in the school last week with a lot of the children not sure if their fathers would lose their jobs.”
Cobar High School principal Peter Cochrane said they haven’t seen any changes to enrolments at the school this early stage.
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