Business

Meet Lionel Marr, a proud Bunuba man, who always felt a calling to return from the city back to his childhood home of Fitzroy Crossing. He wanted to know more about his country, his people and his culture and became a trainee ranger with the Parks and Wildlife Service, earning a coxswain skippers ticket. Lionel’s efforts during the Kimberley floods of January 2023, despite losing his family home, and his commitment to his job, earned him special recognition.

With the 2023 harvest now underway truck drivers are being urged to slow down to 70km/h to help preserve the condition of unsealed rural roads in the Midwest. Corrugations, or washboard effect, caused by acceleration and deceleration pose the greatest risk to drivers and their vehicles.

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has published new analysis of the broader market conditions and economic contribution of the red meat industry in the latest State of the Industry Report 2023. The report produced by MLA provides an overview of Australia’s red meat and livestock industry from the prior calendar year.

An important step to rebuilding essential health services across regional and rural NSW has been taken by the state government with the establishment of a Regional Health Ministerial Advisory Panel, but there are no local representatives advocating for the Northern Rivers region ... panel is to focus on building the regional health workforce, strengthening community engagement, and improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Harvest is fast approaching and Nhill Free Press and Kaniva Times contacted Graincorp for an update about Nhill, Kaniva, Lillimur and the Wimmera regions in the lead up to harvest, and this harvest, GrainCorp is excited to introduce remote tailgate operation for trucks equipped with compliant air-operated tailgates ... The initiative is aimed at optimising truck turnaround times while upholding the highest safety standards in the industry.

Over the past six months I have travelled to every State and Territory conducting a series of Business and Community Leader Consultations. Whilst every region has their own unique issues and challenges to address, what impressed me most was the passion and commitment leaders had for their community, and in particular the next generation coming through. A key recurring message was the importance of being able to lead oneself! ... Having a personal leadership charter is important.

The Rural Bank Australian Farmland Values Report has tracked every farmland sale annually for almost three decades and is the longest running analysis of the farmland market in Australia.  This special edition, supplemented by farmland sales data from DAS (Digital Agriculture Services), is a mid-year market update to inform vendors and purchasers about movements in transaction volumes and sale prices around Australia since the issue of the annual edition in May 2023.

After three consecutive strong harvests, Australian grain and oilseed production is set to return to more modest totals for the current season as drier growing conditions ‘hit home’, Rabobank says in its just-released 2023/24 Australian Winter Crop Forecast. The bank says Australia is on track to harvest a total winter crop of 48.72 million tonnes for the current season.

Quill. Who said Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky? It certainly wasn’t for Donald’s Annual P & A Show, which opened its gates on Friday for two days of fun for the whole family ... Of particular interest, and new to the Donald Show was Stewart Bryant’s literally cracking performance.

Port Broughton’s ornately decorated hotel and its stately Norfolk Island pines, the Alford Institute Hall, churches at Bute and a farmhouse at Mundoora are among 46 sites which could be heritage listed by Barunga West Council ... Council has proposed new planning rules to protect the area’s local heritage, which would make it the first council to utilise South Australia’s code amendment process for this purpose.

Mandurah, Western Australia’s largest regional city, has been named a finalist in the 9th annual international City Nation Place Awards alongside Fiji, Cape Town, Iceland, London, Switzerland, and others. The only Australian city named in the category for Best Communication Strategy – Tourism, Mandurah is one of eleven finalists in recognition for its outstanding 'BIG reasons to visit Mandurah this summer' campaign in 2022/23.

The 22nd Limestone Coast Wine Show ... a panel of 16 expert critics led by new chief of judges Philip Rich will begin tasting nearly 450 of the Limestone Coast’s best wines in the heart of terra rossa country at the Coonawarra Soldiers Memorial Hall. This year’s guest international judge, Sweden-based wine consultant Madeleine Stenwreth, is among those relishing the role of sampling so many quality entries over the coming days.

Timber harvesting was not a concern of Gippsland Indigenous groups, who overwhelmingly want to be involved in direct management of forests before, during and after bushfires, the RFA Major Event Review of the 2019-20 bushfires found ... “Traditional Owners seek to be managing fire directly, with their own crews and equipment. They see themselves as fire givers, not firefighters.”

The Northern Territory Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kerala State Government, India to develop further economic, social and cultural relationships between our two regions. This is the first MOU the Northern Territory Government has entered into with an Indian state, and formalises and reinforces the relationships between the two jurisdictions.

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has told the Federal Government it opposes a new biosecurity levy on farmers, saying the proposed levy may erode farmer confidence in the entire levy system. In the NFF’s submission to the Introduction of the Biosecurity Protection Levy: Consultation Paper, Chief Executive Tony Mahar said while the peak farming body supports ongoing efforts to ensure Australia’s biosecurity system is well resourced, it does not support this policy.

South Australia’s lucrative renewable hydrogen and defence industries will be championed across Europe, following the appointment of a new trade and investment manager in Germany ... Having a presence in Frankfurt – Germany’s financial hub – will help South Australia establish stronger ties across continental Europe and take advantage of changing trade and investment opportunities when the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement is finalised.

The current housing crisis is not just a statistic or a news headline, it's a current reality that affects countless individuals and families in Lismore and beyond ... In response to this crisis, Lismore City Council has developed the Lismore Housing Expo, demonstrating Council's commitment to providing access to the knowledge and resources needed to find a safe and secure place to live.

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has sent a clear message to the Albanese Government: The Closing Loopholes Bill is fraught with issues that will make it harder and more expensive than ever to create employment opportunities in farming. The NFF Workforce Committee Chair Tony York told the Senate Committee responsible for the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill would only add layers of complexity to the industrial relations system, push up costs and make doing business more difficult than ever before.

Back in 2021, the Birchip Cemetery Trust received $22,000 from the Department of Health’s Cemetery Sector Governance Support Program to upgrade the original lawn cemetery and a further $18,000 from the “Cargill Cares Cropping for the Birchip Community” program ... concrete plinths could be installed in all six rows of the initial lawn cemetery to rehouse the plaques that used to sit on individual concrete blocks or directly on the lawn.