Today’s Long Lunch with Jim Maxwell at the Emus Rugby Club was a great success with the legendary sports commentator entertaining guests, speaking for over an hour about his life and times covering Australian cricket and other sports for ABC radio around the world.

Jim Maxwell was brought to Orange by Put Orange First, a group of like minded, local business people who are keen to contribute to the future progress of our great city.

The lunch was held to support the charity Gotcha4Life and radio and reality TV presenter Gus Worland spoke about the mental health charity.

Amanda Spalding from Put Orange First opened proceedings by explaining that the goal is to bring the major players in the advancement of Orange together so that more impact can be made through collaboration than all acting separately.

Amanda said – ‘Put Orange First came into being as the community project for 2019 of Orange City Life magazine proprietor Bob Holland and has met weekly for the whole year. We aim to build a stronger relationship between our local businesses and consumers by building a stronger sense of a connected community where people can see the benefits of keeping their money local.

We strive to build a stronger relationship between local business and local people, so the whole community can share in the benefits of a flourishing, vibrant and connected economy.

We stand for a strong Orange for all - thriving business, thriving community, thriving city!’

The aim of supporting and encouraging small business owners and retailers has captured the imagination. There have been two public forums and putorangefirst@outlook.com

Council has just approved its local purchasing policy for consultation.

‘Yesterday we had a significant achievement receiving Council approval and will now go ahead with 30 Put Orange First flags flying in Summer Street early next year to welcome people to Orange and promote its businesses. I would like to thank Jack Evans and Daniel McGregor for making this happen and thank them both for their social media wizardry’.

This week Put Orange First member businesses met with the NSW Legislative Assembly Committee investigating drought affected communities, and will make a submission to the investigation.

‘Other projects in the Put Orange First strategic plan include having a CBD Place Manager to work with businesses and Council to encourage events to bring more customers here, and CBD improvements that contribute to a thriving CBD. Put Orange First also aims to bring all the stakeholders in Orange together to have transparency over the costs of doing business here and to ensure we’re going in the same direction. We will be making a submission for next year’s Council budget as we did for 2019/20.

Amanda thanked Richard Hattersley of Put Orange First for organising the event. Richard also spoke, thanking Jim Maxwell and Gus Worland for making the Long Lunch such a great event. He also thanked Edwena Mitchell for catering and Angullong for providing wine.

Gus Worland is one of the hosts of the Triple M Sydney breakfast radio show The Grill Team and a well known reality TV series host. Gus talked about the charity Gotcha 4 Life including telling a personal story of a friend who seemed to have a very successful life and committed suicide. Stephen Smith accompanied Gus on many visits to school during his recent suspension from playing cricket to talk about how to be a ‘tomorrow man’ or ‘tomorrow woman’.

Jim Maxwell regaled the audience with funny stories from his early days as a cricket commentator for ABC radio through to more recent times. He then answered many questions from the audience and said that it is a privilege to be a broadcaster.

Put Orange First meets every Thursday morning at 8.30 at the Coffee Shop in the Orange Ex-Services Club, and people interested in its objectives are always very welcome.

For more information contact Amanda Spalding on 0417 288 246 or Richard Hattersley on 0402 662 541.