What does it take to save a town?  Coober Pedy’s entire Waterworks Department, despondent and oppressed, resigned and resigning!

Firstly I would like wish the community of Coober Pedy a very Happy Christmas, and at the same time register support for the entire Waterworks Department at Coober Pedy who have reluctantly tendered their resignations, or else resignations are imminent.

Rarely does anyone hear of an entire department resigning. What is so odd about the mass resignations is that in or around 2010/11 Coober Pedy council was facing a serious crisis with eligible workers abandoning their council jobs and their town in favour of the big bucks at Prominent Hill and other nearby mines.

The exodus would have soon crippled Coober Pedy’s town services for lack of skilled workers if the CEO at that time Trevor McLeod hadn’t acted swiftly and negotiated a range of measures that would encourage workers to stay and work for the council.

Despite wages and salaries are not as good in Coober Pedy as they are at the local mines, a loyal team of workers have stayed to provide service to our town to this day.

Sadly rumour-mongers are suggesting that the workers have allegedly resigned due to them losing a court case where they have tried to sue the council.  This is not correct and you will realise from the above facts that the reason for the resignations of the Waterworks Department IS NOT money.

Christmas Day is not the time to discuss why our workers can no longer bear to work in what is being called a hostile and oppressive environment, so we will resume this conversation in a few days.

In the meantime it may be wise to start filling up your tanks and all available water containers, as after the last person has resigned there may be only 6 days of water left in storage.   At this stage we are not hearing that there is anyone sufficiently qualified or trained to make potable, desalinated water fit to pump into our homes!

Margaret Mackay, Editor