IT WAS only fitting that on the day of the official opening of Bowraville Dam - the single biggest infrastructure project in the history of Nambucca Shire - that the honours were done by the person holding the highest political office in the land.
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No, Prime Minister Tony Abbott was not a surprise guest, neither had he been been Malcolm Turnbulled overnight. Rather it befell to a special friend of Nambucca, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, to unveil the plaque.
But on this finest of days for the shire, Mr Truss was in fact Acting Prime Minister as Mr Abbott was on a short tour of New Zealand.
Around 300 people gathered on the banks of the $56 million Bowra Dam - an off-river water storage that will be fed by an aquifer and have a capacity to store 4640 megalitres. In essence, the dam will provide a secure and reliable drinking supply for Nambucca years into the future.
While the engineering of the project is a marvel, it was a light and celebratory mood at the opening as residents walked the wall or traversed it in shuttle buses while local Lions club members sold soft drinks and hustled snags about a grill plate.
The bonhomie extended to the political arena as it was acknowledged that this had been a project shouldered by local, State and Federal governments, and one which had drawn cross-party support.
Uncle Martin Ballangarry, who together with Benelong Carroll and youngster Chayse Biggs entertained the crowd with traditional dance, continued the light hearted theme when he said: "I can put my spear down, there's no fish in there yet".
After Raylene Ballangarry gave a Welcome to Country, community leaders reflected on the enormity of the project.
"I'd like to thank Mr Paul Sekfy, who was very helpful and instrumental initially some years ago when the Labor Government was in power to secure the $10 million from the Commonwealth. I'm very proud and pleased to say that the current government upheld that promise. It's actually been a wonderful project from the point of view of the bipartisan support that we've received from all levels of government and I think that's something to be remarked upon because it doesn't happen all that often," Nambucca mayor Rhonda Hoban said.
She said the "large hole in the ground" represented a project that had tested council and experts alike.
"It was a partnership at a local level between the council and its community. On a regular basis the whole of the council used to traipse down here to the dam and meet with Public Works who were project managing and GHD who were the designers and Haslin who were the contruction company," Cr Hoban said.
"When you build a project of this size it never runs smoothly. There were lots of issue along the way - not all negatives, there were often suggestions where the construction company said 'there's a better way, or an easier way, or a financially sound way of doing this'."
Input by the State Government - who kicked in $14 million and were represented by Nationals Oxley aspirant Melinda Pavey - and the Federal, who were represented by Mr Truss and local MP Luke Hartsuyker, was crucial as the bill for the build couldn't be footed alone by the shire.
Mr Hartsuyker said the dam was a "huge undertaking for a small council".
"Future generations who want to live in the Nambucca will not be precluded from doing so because of lack of water," the Member for Cowper said.
"A project such as this can have tremendous downsides if things go wrong, but it's been well run, it's come in very much on budget, and it's a credit to all concerned."
Mr Truss, who was lately in Nambucca Heads to announce Federal funding for the reconstruction of Riverside Dr, said while he was pleased to announce the start of projects in the Valley, it was particularly delightful to proclaim the completion of one.
"Dams are often controversial and I'm sure there would have been a good deal of discussion about this project too, over some generations," Mr Truss said.
"It's often said that we haven't built a new dam in Australia for 30 years. Well, we can't say that anymore now, can we, because there's one here. I don't think the statement's entirely truthful anyhow because there are a couple of dams that have been built around Australia over that period, but it is true that there hasn't been a substantial, a really large dam, built anywhere in our country for a long period of time.
"So what you're doing here I hope will be an example to communities in other parts of the country."
From a strictly local perspective, the new dam also received the thumbs up from Melissa Woodward and youngster Abbey Pade who were among those touring the facility.
"It looks like they've done a very good job," Melissa said, "but Abbey just wants to know where the fish are, while dad was pretty impressed by the boat ramp!"