What a wonderful resource that will hopefully be shared among our community. The strength, resilience and honesty of those men featured in the short film and the booklet is a testimony to the human spirit.

I thank WHAM and SWSLHD for working diligently to create a framework of trust in which these men could share their stories of inspiration.

It is my hope that it will be a catalyst to bring men together and to inspire them further to work collectively to create these safe environments and opportunities for men to know that they are not alone and that more often than not a simple act of reaching out to a mate (male or female) will be met with empathy, understanding and compassion that can make an enormous change in their lives.

Larry Whipper, Community Links Wellbeing

Last week's floods remind me of the floods in Dalby and Brisbane in 1974.

I was the OC of the Downlands Cadet Unit in Toowoomba of more than 300 students. Chevalier College is another of the MSC schools. I bussed the cadets to Dalby to help with the cleanup. Having the organisation of platoons and sections made it easy to allot tasks to houses and streets. These teenagers did a great job. The community and the boys were so proud of themselves. I was sorry to see the old cadet system go. At that time it cost $10 million nationwide. I made a film about student involvement in search and rescue around that time which is in the Australian Film and Sound Archive. https://youtu.be/kpQbCTIIbUw

The cleanup task ahead of communities is huge and every help appreciated. I notice that 500 soldiers have been deployed.

It is with bemusement and not a little pity that I read Larry Whipper and Gordon Markwart's letters to the editor last week (Wednesday, March 24).

To address Larry Whipper's latest letter first, he complains that "your elected representatives were not afforded any natural justice...".

Has Larry Whipper been paying any attention at all to the community's voice of discontent over the last almost nine years?

The number of codes of conduct involving councillors, our council's over-representation in the Land and Environment Court, delayed major DAs that could bring jobs and economic growth, blown-out budgets, the fact that councillors have been admonished and required to undertake 'courses and counselling' in the (forlorn) hope of better behaviour and decision making, the endless stream of letters to the editor of this paper over the years by residents complaining of a multitude of issues; and finally, a notice from the NSW Government to 'improve'.

This view appears devoid of concern for the ones really in need of 'natural justice' who have had to put up with one of the most dysfunctional councils in NSW for almost a decade.

On the other hand, Gordon Markwart, whom it must fairly be recalled has sadly been unwell for the greater part of his term as councillor, displays a somewhat utopian naivety about how local government actually works - particularly in this shire!

Mr Markwart's unawareness seems to extend to basic shire information such as who owns what, for example Bong Bong Street which he wants to close off, is owned by the RMS as a main highway.

Lovely ideas but WSC must apply to the RMS regarding changes to Bong Bong Street!

He mentions the Station Street Upgrade, a flawed mess if ever there was one, presented to us councillors in the 2012-2016, already a decade or so old at that point and totally out of date in terms of traffic management.

There is a far superior 'Bowral Bypass' to be had that does not create the problems and downstream traffic issues that this current mess of a scheme delivers.

Mr Markwart refers to having the benefit of 'council training' which I can, from first-hand experience say was not worth having.

Nor were council briefings.

Material concerning a briefing should be given to councillors a week or two in advance, with an executive summary at the front, so that the 'briefing' session can get straight into Q&A... interrogation of the material to enable fully informed decision making.

Both Whipper and Markwart's letters together appear to uphold support absolute infallibility of councillors, systems, processes and staff.

Many angry, disgruntled residents and business people of the shire truly hope that indeed, 'better' is possible: better decisions, better information and consultation, better systems, processes and outcomes - all under the umbrella of much better leadership.

Dr Adrian Zammit ("There's no vaccine for climate change", March 23) is right to argue that the globally envied Australian Landcare movement with over 6000 groups has a proven track record over 35 years of leading and implementing thousands of successful on the ground restoration projects. Sadly, however, the national Landcare budget was halved under the current government. It should be urgently restored and expanded to help mitigate the increasing environmental damage and species loss arising from climate change.