It Takes a Village campaign saw change in Ulmarra

Ulmarra Progress Association president Steve Pickering pays tribute to the Examiner and their help in making the village safer

UNITED: Anne Loyd and Steve Pickering along with the Tyndale and Ulmarra Progress Associations welcomed the council's move to lobby for an Eight Mile Lane upgrade.

The Ulmarra community's relationship with The Daily Examiner has been a long one, having been there from the start. My relationship however is much more recent. As a business owner, President of Ulmarra Village Inc, the Ulmarra Progress Association, and also as a campaigner for local issues, I have had many interactions with The Daily Examiner newspaper.

On the first of April 2017 I was preparing to open my new business, the Coldstream Gallery, in Ulmarra. It was a mad house trying to get all the small jobs finished and in the middle of it all Caitlan approached me asking for an interview and some photos. I obliged and then the next day discovered that we were on the front page. The support for my new business helped set the future direction.

Having the Pacific Highway passing through the centre of the Ulmarra village definitely had its challenges. The community got together and formed It Takes a Village, a campaign to lobby for traffic safety improvements.

After a truck crashed through a resident's home late at night The Daily Examiner came on board with the Fix Ulmarra's Black Spot campaign. Initially the community were told that Ulmarra wasn't a black spot, didn't have vehicles speeding through the village, didn't require safety barriers, didn't require extra streetlights on the dangerous bends and definitely did not need a speed camera.

The Fix Ulmarra's Black Spot campaign raised national awareness and eventually led to a roadside barrier and the second most profitable speed camera in NSW. We thank The Daily Examiner for their support and look forward to their continued reporting of community issues into the future.

Originally published as