Business

Australia’s peak farming body supports today’s announcements on the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, hoping the action will give the Code the teeth it needs to fix a system failing consumers and farmers ... “We need to get to the bottom of why there’s a growing gap between what farmers get paid and what produce is being sold for on supermarket shelves": NFF President David Jochinke.

Holidaymakers have flocked to the Clarence Valley for the 2023-2024 summer holidays with businesses reporting increased trade compared to last year, delivering a welcome economic boost in the current tough financial climate.

“Visitors are welcome to our gallery where you can purchase paintings and learn more about the history of Papunya and its artists.” This message is on the Papunya Tjupi  website  and Yuendumu’s Warlukurlangu Artists  have a similar one. Meanwhile the plodding preparations continue for the bombastically named National Aboriginal Arts Gallery (NAAG) in Alice Springs.

Gippsland's hardwood industry is now largely gone, with harvesting of timber from native forests on Crown land no longer permitted. Gippsland's native forest is part of the vast swathe of forest that stretches along the Great Dividing Range from the Dandenongs to behind Brisbane. It’s integral to Australia having the seventh biggest forest estate in the world ...

Suzie Christensen. The first summer helicopter winch operation has concluded, with the Helitreck helicopter departing the Island Sunday, 10 December ... LHIB staff and external contractors successfully completed over 2,000 person hours of priority Weed Eradication Program...

Pia Funch & Trina Shepherd. It has been a busy year for Lord Howe Tourism! Lord Howe Island received a lot of media coverage through our familiarisation program in 2023.  

This is the very personal life-story of a charismatic Welsh seaman who moved to Australia for love and once there became a captain of industry. The work is ‘as told to’ by Paul Simons to the writer Terry Larder and contains many anecdotes that illuminate aspects of life in wartime Britain and in postwar Australia ... Most of the book is concerned with Paul's life and career, enlivened with some quite racy anecdotes and more serious reflections on the way of the world. Paul has a sense of humour but also a strong moral sense.

Is this really how harvested forests are left? Australian Rural & Regional News looks into recent statements that highlight continuing conflicting and confusing information in the public domain about connections between forestry operations and bushfires and whether prescribed burns reduce bushfire risk.

Alison Bennett Taylor. Local beer and festive cheer were flowing when the Denmark Hotel reopened for trading under new ownership recently. More than 400 locals filled the 100-year-old building for free drinks put on by the new owners in November before the doors were closed for a quick refit in time for the summer crowds.

If ever you needed convincing that a long history of family experience in horse breeding was necessary for success then a close look at the successful larger studs and their family backgrounds will most certainly convince you.

One of the key steps ahead of construction of the new Toowoomba Hospital build is now complete, with enabling works recently concluding. Darling Downs Health Chief Executive, Annette Scott PSM said the completion of the $20 million enabling works package ... is an important milestone.

A tunnel boring machine (TBM) working on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project is operational again, 12 months after getting stuck in soft ground creating a large sinkhole above it.

As the school year comes to an end the careers team at Corryong College have been very busy finalising opportunities for their students for next year in the form of School Based Apprenticeships & Traineeships (SBAT).

The thing that should be worrying farmers is not just the fact that the government has claimed the credit (and credits) for itself of not allowing landholders to clear land to help make the 2030 target, but they are now banking on farmers burying the emissions of the rest of the nation in their soil to help reach the unachievable 2050 target ... don’t sign up to any soil carbon contract until you are sure you won’t need those credits yourself when the inevitable carbon taxes arrive.

Federal Member for Indi Helen Haines has backed recommendations for the federal government to review its funding to local government on road maintenance to improve rural roads following natural disasters.

The NSW Government has made exempt development for outdoor dining permanent on private land for cafes, clubs, and restaurants. Venues can continue to operate outdoor dining in locations including private laneways, bowling greens and car parks without planning approval, providing they meet safety rules.

Sukhvinder Pal (SP) Singh. Floodwater is known to be a carrier of biological, chemical and physical hazards affecting food safety during production and processing of fresh horticultural produce. Runoff from livestock, industrial, residential and sewage treatment areas into waterways and their overflow can contaminate water sources, production fields and postharvest processing facilities.

Taking on board feedback from members of the local community Southern Downs Regional Council has approved repairs to the Allora Community Hall, which has been out of action since structural problems were identified early in 2022.

A commercial airline pilot in his 30s and his five-year-old son were killed when their kit plane clipped powerlines along the Clarence River at Lilydale, about 45km northwest of Grafton last Tuesday and plummeted to the ground, bursting into flames.