Last year did not get off to the best start with Moree experiencing one of its hottest ever summers and a record-breaking 51 days of maximum temperatures above 35 degrees.

Cr Humphries said the run of hot weather was a big challenge for the whole community.

Another challenge which seemed to dominate much of last year was ongoing issues with crime - break-ins, assaults, armed robberies, ransacks, rock-throwing, vandalism, arson and more.

“Law and order is an ongoing challenge,” Cr Humphries said.

“We had a rough trot last year and this year hasn’t started off any better.

“As a community we have to stand up for the good majority in our community.”

While Cr Humphries didn’t want to dwell on last year, she said some of the big highlights of the year was the announcement that Orica Agriculture will be building a multi-million dollar fertilising manufactoring plant in Moree, as well as the ongoing funding of the Inland Rail which is set to provide a massive boost to the local economy.

This year, there’s lots to look forward to including the arrival of a new, permanent magistrate for Moree – Michael Dakin – who Cr Humphries hopes will be able to restore law and order to the town.

Magistrate Dakin is expected to arrive at the end of this month.

Cr Humphries is also hoping this year will be a good one for the district’s farmers.

“We have an enormous cotton crop planted and I’d love to see that come to fruition this year and the continued good times for farmers and graziers,” she said.

“We started this year well with good lamb prices.

“But Mother Nature has a say in how good or bad a season is going to be. Hopefully we get some serious rain here shortly.”

In terms of council goals for the year, Cr Humphries will be pushing for more road funding to upgrade some of the particularly bad roads in the shire such as the Boomi-Mungindi road.

“Road funding is my first option, my second option, my third option … we have got to get our share of grant funding and Fixing Country Roads funding,” Cr Humphries said.

“We have 2,000km of gravel road in our shire, we need a lot of funding opportunities to upgrade our roads and bring them up to the year 2018.

“This is the year that I would like to see produce given as much attention as population.”