Business

The Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) are pleased to announce the expansion of their free energy saving program, Energy Southern Queensland (EnergySQ), to the Toowoomba and Western Downs regional council areas ... The expansion of the program will now give access to farms in all four regional councils areas supported to develop an Energy and Carbon Action Plan specific to their operation.

With spring in full swing, the weeds are up and about. Rotor Solutions Australia (RSA), operating out of Albury, has been busy in the Upper Murray spraying winter and spring weeds over the past few months, not only from the helicopter but also using a drone.

Ambulance Victoria (AV) is looking for more recruits to join the Ambulance Community Officer (ACO) team in Corryong. ACOs are First Responders, who are employed on a casual basis to work ‘on call’ in rural and remote communities where the ambulance caseload is low and the ambulance branch is not staffed by multiple paramedics on a full-time basis.

A draft strategic plan to bolster the Hume and Hovell Track has been released ... [following] consultations and workshops with tourism groups, community members, local councils, Aboriginal organisations, and agencies including the National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW Forestry Corporation.

The red dust at Barellan is a long way from the sparkling water of a pool but former Olympic swimming champion Shane Gould was taking a keen interest in the sound of a single furrow plough slicing through the clay at the Barellan Good Old Days Festival at the weekend ... She was a keen spectator at the single furrow ploughing completion on Sunday at Barellan, drawing heavy horse and bullock teams.

Narrandera hosted the Annual Big Country Hoedown Line Dance Competitions recently at the Narrandera Ex-servicemen’s Club, which is one of the event’s major sponsors since it transferred to Narrandera in 2017. These annual events started off with a fabulous Welcome Social at the Exies.

Lockhart Picnic Races made a return to racing after a three year hiatus with horses once again gracing the track last week. Racegoers gathered from as far as Melbourne to attend the event with around 1000 people filling the venue.

Michelle Daw. The RAA is set to install its second electric vehicle charging station on Yorke Peninsula, part of a planned total of eight within the region. Barunga West Council has accepted an offer by the RAA to replace its two existing Teslabranded chargers on Harvey Street, next to the Port Broughton council chambers by the end of the year.

Will Hunter. It is feared a historic crane located on an allotment listed for sale as part of a Department for Infrastructure and Transport land disposal in Port Wakefield may be at risk. The allotments … were listed for sale with Ray White Yorke Peninsula after Wakefield Regional Council advised DIT it had no interest in acquiring any of the land identified for disposal.

Who will ever forget the image of the Allora Golf Course voluntary groundsman Hethe Ramus mowing the first fairway by hand back in March 2022 ... Those days will be a distant memory for Hethe with the Golf Club today taking delivery of a brand new Kubota Baroness Gang Mower ...

With three captivating seasons firmly under its belt, full of candid stories from farmers and rural locals across the Wimmera and Southern Mallee, a new season of podcast series ‘Farmer Wants a Healthy Life’ is here.

The 2022 official audit of VicForests has found an average 96 per cent compliance with the state's forestry environmental standards ... This audit was conducted according to four themes: environmental values in State forests, conservation of biodiversity, operational planning and record keeping, and coupe infrastructure for timber harvesting operations.

Australia’s sheep, cattle and goat markets are being impacted by very high production numbers, compounded by already large volumes of meat in congested supply chains, according to agricultural analysts at Rabobank. For the sheep sector particularly, there is effectively a "mountain of supply at the moment" following two "extremely good seasons"...

Known as the biggest gathering of teamsters in the nation, the 2023 Good Old Days Festival drew 6000 visitors for the unique working heritage display of blade shearing, chaff cutting, harvesting, ploughing, log snigging, log obstacle course, shoeing, blacksmithing, butter churning, Furphy rebarrelling, working yard dogs, whip cracking, dog jumping, billy boiling and the Australia Light Horse display.

Imagine building half of Perth in three years because that's what's needed to accommodate the nearly one million people that are expected to arrive between 2022 and 2025 ... No doubt, some will trek inland to the smaller country towns but don't expect them to stay long as the Federal government has recently moved to introduce new visa rights making it easier for migrants who have taken one of the regional work visas to bail from the bush and retreat to the big cities, leaving the businesses that sponsored them in the lurch.

Ian Hutton. Since 1978 the Lord Howe Island Museum has acquired many valuable artefacts reflecting the long human history story of the Island ... Libby Baker, regular visitor to the Island and the Museum, has arranged for her family foundation the KEDJE Foundation to sponsor an Island resident to carry out this project putting the LHI Museum artefacts on eHive Lord Howe Island Museum.

The Mildura region could soon boast its first community battery following the launch of an innovative regional project. The Regional Greenhouse Alliance Neighbourhood Battery Investigation Project aims to develop investment-ready business cases for single community batteries at 18 locations across regional Victoria, including Mildura.

In an impressive feat, Roper Gulf Regional Council has successfully lead a ground breaking feral pig management and removal program in the communities of Numbulwar and Ngukurr last month. This initiative underscores the solid commitment to the health and well-being of all residents, particularly in addressing the significant health risks associated with feral pigs, including the threat of Japanese encephalitis.

The Bureau of Meteorology has declared that an El Nino is underway for most of regional and rural Australia, which will lead to a warmer and drier Spring and Summer, increasing the risk of extreme temperature shifts. This will test all of us, as drought, bushfires, and sustained hot weather will impact many communities. Importantly this will also be a leadership moment of truth for parents, employers, and community groups.

Mark McHenry is a physicist, an innovator and an explorer of clean energy solutions. He’s worked on research projects in America, the Philippines and Mozambique and is an Associate Professor at Murdoch Uni’s Harry Butler Institute ... Mark is currently putting his physics knowledge into numerous food and energy projects and one of his studies involves truffles.

With a move to animal manures as natural soil conditioners, the increased demand for reliable manure spreaders was in the spotlight at the 2023 Henty Machinery Field Days. The E-Series Manure Spreader was launched to the Australian market at the field days by Canadian manufacturer JBS Equipment and Australian importer Atlas Ag on September 20.