Kimberly Grabham, The Riverine Grazier

Balranald Art Gallery welcomed art lovers through its doors on Friday night for the opening of Miniatures in May, with the exhibition's second year already surpassing its debut in both the number of entries and participating artists.

At 21 years old, Luke Foggo is the youngest SES member across several units in the region, but you would never know it from the way he carries himself. He did not join the conventional way.

On May 24, 1876, fourteen men sat down together at the Royal Hotel in Hay and formed a football club. The Riverine Grazier reported it the following week with quiet confidence; the new club had been duly formed, it noted, with "hearty prospects of play this present season."

Steven Eade is not easy to find in Hay. He moves through town quietly, keeps odd hours, and has spent most of his 11 years here trying to take up as little space as possible ... "People say, ‘I didn't know you were still here. Where have you been?'" he said. "And I tell them, I'm hiding under a rock where I belong." He is not entirely joking.

Kimberly Grabham and Tertia Butcher. One Nation's candidate for Farrer, David Farley, firmly denied he falsely claimed to have a degree from prestigious Harvard University. In response to a question from The Riverine Grazier during his visit to Hay last week, Mr Farley said he attended Harvard University three times to deliver a course, not as a student.

There is something quite extraordinary happening at Hay War Memorial High School. In the school grounds, a tiny home is taking shape. It is being built not by tradies, not by developers, but by local kids with tools in their hands, pride in their work, and a future full of possibility.

There’s a piece of industrial archaeology sitting in the river bend just north of where Hay’s bridge crosses the Murrumbidgee. It looks like debris, like something that should have been cleared away decades ago. But that rusting turntable is actually a remnant of an era when the river was a highway, when paddle steamers were the primary means of moving wool and supplies, and when a bridge had to accommodate both road traffic and river commerce.

"I have never experienced fire behaviour like it on the ground," Jarrod said, and the weight of those decades of experience makes the statement hit harder. "The first day we experienced temperatures of about 62 degrees on the top of the hill, 108 kilometre an hour winds."

We see them every year; the friendly, happy, patient people who bring with them the adorable menagerie of cute and cuddly animals. Year after year, they travel over to the Hay Show, so the community's children can enjoy animals they might not always get to see and pat up close.