The Editor

A tribute to Marion Bolton and her vital role, alongside her husband W.R.F. (Bill) Bolton, in establishing the Lionel Lindsay Gallery and Library Collection in 1959. The Lindsay Collection has been housed at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery since 1994. Exhibition on display 20 March - 11 July.

ArtSouthWA is delighted to be inviting the artists and craftspeople of the greater southern region of WA to make their applications to be part of the 2021 Southern Art and Craft Trail Event. The 2 week event takes place during the September October School holidays.

The Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale has welcomed two recent announcements which show bipartisan support to grow the region’s local tourism industry ... “We welcome these funding commitments from the major political parties as we work to grow and enhance our local trails and tourism industry, together,” Cr Rich said. “Domestic tourism has never been more important, with Western Australians looking to their own backyards for holiday ideas.

Planting has finished with round one of Maitland City Council’s Community Street Tree Planting Program seeing 136 trees installed during February. Expressions of interest were called from residents in September 2020, and the positive level of response received highlighted people’s interest in environmentally driven projects and green spaces in Maitland.

The NFF say today’s release of the much-anticipated National Agriculture Workforce Strategy comes as farmers seek immediate and longer-term answers to crippling worker shortages. NFF CEO Tony Mahar said the strategy unfortunately did not provide a silver bullet but outlined wide-ranging practical measures that if implemented, could increase agriculture's labour pool for the future.

In yet another blow to the state’s intensifying harvest labour crisis, NSW has missed an opportunity to be part of a DFAT-run program that enables seasonal workers from Fiji and Vanuatu to work on local farms. National fruit and vegetable crop losses resulting from the workforce conundrum now exceed $50 million, and the outcomes of today’s National Cabinet meeting confirm NSW is lagging behind other states and territories in developing a short-term solution.

“In the past, land-owners needed vehicle registration details to apply for a pre-approved class 3 livestock permit. They usually don’t know vehicle registration details before engaging a carrier so it was always the carrier’s job to obtain the permit. It can take up to 28 days to obtain a permit that could only be used by one carrier on one job. We don’t have time to wait and it is pointless gathering dozens of single use permits,” Mr Beer said.

Roper Gulf Regional Council would like to thank everyone who was involved in the emergency evacuation of the Jilkminggan community on Thursday 25 February 2021. The decision was made by the Local Emergency Committee to evacuate 211 people from Jilkminggan as flood waters continued to rise and surround the community.