Walcha Council will proceed to formally change Walcha Oval, Fitzroy Street Bridge and Middle Street Bridge names

Following its August ordinary meeting, last week Council will formally complete the process to rename Walcha Oval to Peter Fenwicke Oval; Fitzroy Street Bridge to Blue Hogan Bridge; and Middle Street Bridge will now be called the Shirley Davison Bridge 

In Council’s May ordinary meeting  Mayor Eric Noakes tabled the idea to rename the Walcha Oval, Fitzroy Street Bridge and Middle Street Bridge and Council resolved to advertise its intention to rename these Walcha everyday landmarks and call for public input. 

Following this, Council shortlisted the suggestions they had received from the community and circulated them requesting residents vote on the final candidates. The intention was the name that received the highest votes would be used for the Fitzroy Street Bridge while the next most popular name would be used for the Middle Street Bridge.

In a separate vote, the public was requested to select from two candidates to have the oval named after them. 

Voting closed on August 22, and there were 140 votes for the  Andrew Laurie Oval submitted but the winner was the Peter Fenwicke Oval ( in recognition of the longtime Walcha Rams captain and former Wallabies captain) with 332 votes. 

The renaming of the bridges received a total of 921 votes. 

Blue Hogan Bridge (in honour of a former Walcha News editor) received 312 votes while 257 residents voted for the Shirley Davison Bridge in memory of the much loved local Aboriginal elder and Order of Australia recipient. The Cleve Gibson Bridge received 173 votes; the Michael Fussell Bridge received 105 votes, and 74 people voted for the Rex Turton Bridge.

Walcha Council has now resolved to complete the process and submit the oval name change to the Geographical Names Board and submit the two bridges name change to the RMS for approval.