People have already suggested names like Central West Regional Council, Canobolas Regional Council, Caborangney, Coonabooloo and Wiradjuri Country.

 Orange though should be in the name whatever it’s called because it’s nationally recognisable and much easier to market than Cabonne, which outsiders wouldn’t know from a bar of soap.

They certainly wouldn’t know cabonne is an Aboriginal name meaning large and comes from Boree Cabonne, a Cudal property that was once owned by Captain Thomas Raine, an adventurous and enterprising bloke whose family later established the Raine and Horne real estate company. Raine is buried in a lonely fenced grave on a property near Orange.

Boree Cabonne’s name came from a large clump of boree, or myall, trees that were on the property while Boree was the name of the shire based at Cudal until it was merged with Molong and parts of Lyndhurst shires to form Cabonne.

So, what would the unhappy anti-amalgamation Cabonne residents suggest the new council be called?

Maybe Orange Crush Council. Or Octopus Orange. Or Orange Overthrow Council.

But for the rest of us, Orange is the happiest colour and people who drive an orange vehicle are known as fun-loving, talkative, fickle, and trendy.

So we’ll stick with Orange Regional Council.

ORANGE City Council to its credit went ahead after years of delay from previous councils and built the Northern Distributor Road with little government help.

It’s now upgrading the surface with hot mix to fix any break-up problems without disturbing any naturally occurring asbestos under the surface.

The federal government when John Howard was PM made sure everyone knew who was fixing roads by putting up signs saying it was a federally funded road project.

Because Orange ratepayers and not the government are paying for the hot mix upgrade, the council has now put up signs on the distributor’s new hot mix section saying “Orange City Council is building better roads”.

And under the federal government’s “roads to recovery” signs, the council has added “project managed by Orange City Council”.

 A bit cheeky but why not? The NSW government is pouring billions of dollars into new motorways, light rail and rail projects in Sydney and we’re missing our fair share that could go into roadworks like upgrading the distributor.

IT'S good to see our firefighters are keeping themselves fit.

Three of them in shorts and runners set out from the fire station the other morning, jogged around the corner and along Sale Street.

At the intersection with Byng Street they cranked up things, got down on the footpath and started doing push-ups, a basic exercise used in most athletic and sports training.

So next time there’s a big fire, these blokes will be running out their hoses like they’re competing in an Olympic marathon.

THE TV stations have been quick off the mark to feed us cake in the non-ratings period.

The repeats, junk shows and old movie re-runs are well and truly flowing, including boring stuff from New Zilland like Motorway Patrol thet’s about coppers chasing and cetching speeding druvvers around Auckland.

In an episode the other night the cops nabbed a druvver they thought appeared to be tixting on her phone while another had a car cresh in rish hour triffic after skudding in the rain and had to have his nick chicked by the emblance but all was fine.

It’s hardly ruveting stuff.

All our stations are averaging as many as 14 repeat shows each a day, which is absolutely pathetic.

They turn off on us, we should turn off on them.

It’s all very sed.

WE all know road rage is aggressive or angry behaviour by drivers upset at the actions of other drivers and who then make rude gestures and insults or deliberately drive in a threatening manner that can lead to altercations, assaults and collisions.

 But, Orange has pioneered something new: supermarket rage.

There was a case here the other day when a disgruntled customer deliberately rammed a staff member with a shopping trolley.

The supermarket called Orange cops but the outcome is unknown.

What can we expect next?

YOU read it first in this column on September 19, 2013. That’s two years, three months and 26 days ago.

It was a par about Barnaby Joyce that predicted: “It looks as though Nationals leader Warren Truss needs to watch his back as Barnaby Joyce makes his charge up the ladder. He’s clinched the deputy Nationals position and the agriculture portfolio, taking if off our John Cobb, and only Warren Truss stands in front of him becoming deputy prime minister. He’s obviously got his sights on the top job although his ministerial credentials are yet to be tested. What’s the odds?”

That prediction and Barnaby’s dream could soon become true.

Nationals leader Warren Truss is weighing up his future and Barnaby says if he steps down he’ll throw his hat in the ring.

Ho hum. Is anything new under the sun?

THE NSW government is creating more than 70 new Roads and Maritime Services jobs in regional areas but Orange missed out.

Dubbo will get 22 extra jobs and Parkes six while others will go to Wagga and Grafton.

The jobs are apparently to plan the upgrading of bridges and roads across the state.

No doubt it helped that the MP for Dubbo and Parkes is Deputy Premier Troy Grant.

A FRIEND asks a 95-year-old why he’s so happy.

“I broke a mirror,” he says.

“But that means seven years’ bad luck.”

“I know,” the 95-year-old says. ‘Isn’t that wonderful ...”