Lloyd Polkinghorne, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper

A picturesque barbie boat ride almost turned to tragedy for mother of 3, Leitchville dairy farmer Stephanie Dehne ... Their plan was to boat upstream from Murrabit and enjoy lunch at the Royal Hotel Barham before a lazy afternoon return journey, but things quickly escalated into a life-or-death race against the clock.

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Australia's largest water reform, the Murray Darling Basin Plan, was sold to communities as a balanced, adaptable plan, with a triple bottom line of communities, agriculture, and the environment, and supposedly based on the best available science. Unfortunately, nothing appeared further from the truth.

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The generosity of locals has been on display over the past week as truckloads of hay have been donated, stockpiled and delivered to fire-affected regions within Victoria.

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Barham's state-of-the-art bowls greens have drawn bowlers from all over the world in recent months, but at Christmas, it was our chance to export some. Four intrepid adventurers from the Barham Bowling Club, President Steve Wilson, Glenn Faul, Damien Paterson and Dave 'Harry' Potter competed on the world stage at the 2025 Tin Ding Sin China Lawn Bowls Open in Qiantang district, Hangzhou, China.

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There may have been no wheel or cheese, or the 'flipper', but by god, there was some first-class bowling action for the World Bowls Series Finals in Barham. 24 of the world's best bowlers from eight countries showed us, mere mortals, why they play on the world stage.