Manny Pottinger, an icon of Conargo Shire and surrounding districts, has been honoured in a renewable energy project.

Pottinger Wind Farm (Someva/AGL) was recently announced as one of the two projects which have been granted access under the South West Renewable Energy Zone Access Rights Scheme. 

This article was originally published in The Riverine Grazier to celebrate the naming after a district icon.

The information used to create this article was sourced from the websites of Liesl Malan Landscape Artists, Edward River Council, and Someva website.

Someva Renewables, a specialist renewable energy developer operating in Australia, has named its local project Pottinger Energy Park. 

Someva quotes on its website interesting views of the time windmills were new technology, ‘Without this vision to embrace a new technology of the time it would have been little short of murder to turn sheep loose into those paddocks’ - Terry McGoverne, the Wool Barons. 

It is a touching connection and acknowledgment of the area in which the project is occurring, to name their local project Pottinger after the Pottinger family and the district windmill prodigy Manny Pottinger, who, over two generations, installed and maintained windmills in the region from the early 1900s till 1982. 

Pottinger Park in Conargo provides a history of the windmill in the region and its importance to growing the Merino industry. 

The erection of this windmill was a project of Edward River Council. 

The importance of Manny Pottinger in supporting livelihoods in the region and how it will continue through the proposed Pottinger Energy Park. 

Manny’s real name was Lionel, but he preferred to go by Manny. 

A quiet, modest man who went about his business with a minimum of fuss, his windmill repair skills were known throughout the Riverina. 

Manny was working for the Falkiner family at Zara station when Les Falkiner said to him, ‘You want to get yourself a utility. I’ll keep you in work’. 

So, Manny bought a Chevrolet in 1927 for 205 pounds. 

He remained with the Falkiner family for 20 years before going out on his own. 

Manny started working on windmills in 1903, and continued to work on them almost until the day he died in 1986, at the age of 82. Manny’s great grandparents owned both the original Conargo Inn and the Billabong Hotel. 

In later years, his father closed the Conargo, and renamed the Billabong, The Conargo Hotel. 

The peppercorn trees on the site were planted over a hundred years ago by Manny’s mother Flora, outside the original Conargo Inn. 

Manny and Jean Pottinger were married in 1927. They lived in the house near the Conargo Church for 58 years. Manny and Jean were both widely known and respected. 

They quietly got on with what was needed. Jean cared for the church most of her life. Manny restored the Drop Log stables, where he and a mate had once earned a shilling a week for rounding up horses for the stage coach journey between Jerilderie and Deniliquin.