NO SURPRISE HERE

A survey of internal tourists by the NSW government has revealed that visitors to Sydney ranked Parramatta as equal top location with Bondi Beach. More than half of the respondents had visited Parramatta and one in three nominated Parramatta as a place to visit in Sydney. One in five put Parramatta on top for "events and festivals" and one in three rated our city highly in "shopping and fashion".

Of course such a result for Parramatta is newsworthy for those in the east and great for us here in the west; but of course we already knew.

It does show though that the work put in by the Council and the local business community, with help from the State government has paid off. It has taken a while to achieve and taken just a bit longer for the "secret" to get out; an effort and results of which any city would be proud.

It means of course that we can't rest on our laurels and we have to maintain our position; a challenge Parramatta is obviously well up to.

And for Rugby League fans a nice bit of icing on the cake; we beat Manly in the voting.

Trevor Oldfield AM JP

PRESIDENT