Based in Orange in the Central West, Daryl Lawrence is the Group Leader Property Management and responsible for working with communities across 12 local government areas from Lithgow to Lake Cargelligo.

Daryl and his team of five look after all things relating to Crown land in the area. Their main activities include support for CLMs, leases and licences, road closures/access and development proposals.

He finds the job very rewarding and enjoys the interaction with people from all walks of life. “You never know who you are going to meet,” he said.

“I get to deal with councils on a range of matters, as well as lots of community members who have the care and control of more than 600 Crown reserves across our district.

“We help a lot of CLMs with advice on managing their reserves or granting licences for events, as well as their applications for funding under the Crown Reserves Improvement Fund.

“Dealing with CLMs is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.

“Mostly they are local volunteers helping their communities and they are passionate about what they do. They love showing us what they have done to improve their reserves, and we enjoy seeing them putting new projects in place to make the reserves more valuable to the wider community,” he said.

“They are supporting their Crown reserves which are the focal point for local communities, whether it’s their showground, hall, or even their tennis courts or cricket oval. You’d be amazed at how many concrete cricket pitches there are on Crown reserves in the Central West,” Daryl said.

Most of the requests for advice or assistance are pretty straight forward. However, there are always interesting proposals for managing Crown land.

“Apart from applications for pistol ranges, child care centres and primitive camping sites, I recently received an enquiry about building an astronomical observatory on a Crown reserve,” he said.

So, if you need help or advice on anything to do with Crown reserves in the Central West contact orange.crownlands@crownland.nsw.gov.au.