Lloyd Polkinghorne, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper
781 POSTS
That dog don’t hunt
‘The Weekly Times’ water reporter, Peter Hunt, appears to be off the scent. Mr Hunt attempted to downplay the Darling’s historical contributions to South Australia’s allocations. The article that appeared in the March 24 edition reported that ‘a 20-year-old, one-off calculation is being used by opponents of flood plain harvesting to exaggerate the value of the Darling River’s flow to Murray River communities.’
Strange sighting
Stunned fishermen have had a close encounter with what they described as a ‘Sand Slug’. Once thought to be a tale of folklore, the mythical creature rose to public awareness after a Sand Slug was reported to have caused the blocking of the Barmah Choke.
Rain delights
A beautiful soaking rain has fallen around the district this week. Falls from 15 to 30mm have been recorded and the timing couldn’t be better as farmers are busy sowing pasture and preparing for winter crop cereal plantings. The chorus of birds and life in the forest has also been rejoicing, there is nothing quite like the gentle patter of rain through the tree canopy. Irrigators will be keeping a watchful eye on storages as inflows are on the rise. With huge rains in the floodplain harvesting regions of northern NSW it will be interesting to see the volumes of unlicenced and unmetered water intercepted. Member for Murray, Helen Dalton, posted this week, “It was 117 years ago that poet Dorothea Mackellar proclaimed Australia as the ‘land of drought and flooding rains.’ “I wonder if, in the next 100 years, we might start expecting and planning for them?” We live in hope!
Murrabit Cod Challenge
The annual Murrabit Cod Challenge was held over the weekend of March 19-21, an event run each year by the Murrabit Football and Netball Club to raise funds for their club. The event has been running since 2009 and is run 100% by local volunteers. Entries for the competition were capped at 300 adult tickets and sold out in just over a week, proving to be a very popular event. There were also 39 enthusiastic junior competitors entered, who were all lucky enough to take home an assortment of prizes donated by Hookem Fishing.
A real stack o’ fun
Kendall Jennings. Jaydyn Coggins is a former student from Barham Primary School. The school had cups and that is where Jaydyn first tried sport stacking. At this moment the world changed for Jaydyn, his family moved to Adelaide after he completed year one. Then, at nine years old, Jaydyn rediscovered the sport on YouTube, but it would also be the start of an obsession with sport stacking. With the support of his family, at 15, Jaydyn quickly became the fastest cup stacker in Australia, with a dream to travel overseas to the World Sport Stacking Championships. As a young man with Autism, Jaydyn has had his hurdles to overcome throughout the years and so, when he found a sport that he not only loved, but excelled in, there was no turning back.
A message to MP Pitt from Dr Peter Barker, OAM, Cohuna
"You are surrounded by the passionate custodians of the southern Murray Darling Basin. I deal with these ladies, gentleman, and their kids on a daily basis and when they are sad or vulnerable, I hear the stories. So, what is it that is driving some to want to sell the farm as a best counselled option after weeks of therapy as opposed to the suicide planned when the wife brings her husband in the night at the point of desperation. I’m going to talk about some of the straws that are breaking backs and what follows is extracted from many conversations I have had with troubled farmers when they see a problem with no solution, they can influence ..."
Huge success
Kirstin Nicholson. Organisers of Sunday’s AWMA Water Control Solutions 28th Cohuna Bridge to Bridge are thrilled with the day. Cooler weather presented ideal conditions for entrants who competed in seven running and cycling events from as early as 8am ... Entrants travelled from across Victoria and New South Wales to participate, with many staying overnight and injecting cash into local businesses. With events catering for all ages and abilities, participants ranged from serious runners and cyclists to those out for a leisurely Sunday walk, with many ex-locals returning for the event.
Not sheepish
The Wakool Show was back with a fantastic flurry of fun, food, music and entertainment. This year’s show was rolled into one action packed evening and the community support was fantastic with families coming from Wakool, Moulamein, Koondrook-Barham and Deniliquin.
