Business

If you find riding your push bicycle a little arduous these days, you don’t have to leave Maldon for the solution. Glen Ballinger from Maldon Bicycles can convert your loved bicycle into an electric bicycle.

A class action, organised and crowd-funded by Queensland GP Dr Melissa McCann, is taking aim at the Commonwealth government and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), along with a number of senior public servants, alleging negligence, breach of statutory duty and misfeasance in public office. The suit alleges that the respondents approved the vaccines “with no proper or reasonable evidentiary or logical basis to reasonably determine the vaccines to be safe, effective and possessing a positive risk-benefit profile.”

“The decision to cease services was abrupt and without consultation, and it puts our community at risk,” said Dr Peter Barker about Bendigo Radiology’s decision to withdraw its services from Cohuna. Bendigo Radiology withdrew its services from its base at Cohuna District Hospital effective from the end of April, leaving the town without a replacement service, and leaving residents across the region to travel out of town for vital scans.

After smashing records last year with attendance figures increasing an astonishing 28 per cent to 364,775 and generating $22.61 million in direct and incremental spending in Queensland, the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers will this year bloom across all of September, with Toowoomba Region Mayor Paul Antonio launching the 2023 program at long-time Exhibition Garden host, Val Peachey’s garden.

In eight short months an overgrown small acreage block on Breydon Road Hodgson Vale has been transformed into a lush Thai market garden brimming with all the ingredients for authentic Thai cooking ... Chilli Kanon now supplies seven Toowoomba outlets and restaurants with her delicious hand made curry pastes, oils and jams and is a regular at the Cobb & Co Farmer’s Markets ...

The timber mill at Corryong will close by September, once the existing log stock is milled. It will be the end of an era for Walkers Sawmill after 87 years of operation under three generations of the family. Current owner, Graham Walker, was in Corryong on Friday to announce the closure of the mill to its 21 employees.

Natasha Hall. My guitarist and lead vocals Jarron Hall, guest vocals Indiga Hall and bassist and vocals Timothy Marshall played as the group Delicscape at the Wimmera Steampunk Festival.

Australian dairy producers can look forward to another favourable season in 2023/24, with the sector set for its fourth consecutive profitable year, Rabobank says in its recently-released annual Australian Dairy Seasonal Outlook.

You'd be hard-pressed to find someone as passionate and as dedicated to nursing as West Wimmera Health Service’s Rhys Webb. Rhys's love for the nursing profession started back in 2013 after he completed his graduate year as a registered nurse in Warracknabeal before joining the team at West Wimmera Health Service.

Kaniva is celebrating the coronation of King Charles III and all royalists are invited to view Kaniva's royal mob of main street sheep. The crowns are works of art and have been custom-made for this historic royal occasion by Kaniva Puppet Shop proprietor Julie Finch.

Organised by Regina Hunter and Tegan Hinchey last weeks Careers Expo attracted a wide variety of organisations eager to show locals what employment opportunities they had to offer. Danny Lester, Director of Aboriginal Outcomes for the Department of Regional NSW was impressed with the event and had a number of thoughts he wanted to share.

"I remember getting my first teaching position in the outback and just wanting to connect and learn from others as much as I could about what I was heading into ... We want teacher success because teacher success equals student success": Hakea Hustler. ARR.News found out more from Hakea and fellow remote teachers Carl Merrison and Lynette Gordon.

Fin Hansen. A shared path for cycling, walking and running on the Copper Coast has been fully connected. The final stages of Copper Coast Council’s $1.6 million project were completed when the final section from Cornish Terrace to Magazine Road, Wallaroo, was sealed recently. The region’s trail network spans about 25 kilometres and links the Kadina to Wallaroo Copper Rail Trail with the Wallaroo to Moonta Shared Path, which finishes/starts at the Moonta Tourist Office on Blanche Terrace.

Patrick Goldsmith. Five troublesome parcels of unalienated Crown Land within the Yorke Peninsula Council area will stay in the care and control of the state government after discussions regarding the environmental impacts of increased visitation numbers ... Unalienated Crown Land is public land which is owned and managed by the state government, giving council no authority over the activity which takes place on it.

In what will be music to travellers’ ears, Bonza has launched its Melbourne (Tullamarine) to Tamworth route on 2 May 2023. The new route, connecting Australia’s Country Music Capital with its Cuisine Capital, will operate twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays with fares starting from $59 per person (one way).  

Planning is underway for the nation’s largest gathering of harnessed draught animals, The Good Old Days Festival, at Barellan in southern NSW on September 30-October 1, 2023. The committee is putting together a full program of authentic heritage events ... Barellan Working Clydesdale Committee member Bruce Bandy, and Aleks Berzins, of Exeter, will drive a team of over 20 heavy horses pulling a wool wagon around the arena.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has called on the Victorian Government to step in and take over planning of the state’s transmission network following the consultation on the proposed VNI West project. VFF President Emma Germano said the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) had failed to take the impact on agricultural production into account in planning for transmission on behalf of the Victorian Government, and that the government needs to take back control.

The Kimberley’s Ultimate Festival is back in 2023. The Boab Metals Ord Valley Muster will be held 19 - 27 May 2023 in Kununurra, Miriwoong and Gajirrabeng country, in Western Australia’s northwest ... A curated program of special events, from big concerts to lunchtime sessions, station luncheons, comedy, Indigenous culture and arts and family-friendly festivities kick off the East Kimberley’s tourism season.

National Farmers' Federation Chief Executive Officer Tony Mahar said the industry had long called for a purpose-built migration system designed to meet its labour and skills demands, rather than the current mixture of haphazard solutions ... Mr Mahar said there was real concern among industry regarding the review’s recommendation to limit or even scrap the requirement for Working Holiday Makers to work on farm.

Regional South Australia has rocketed toward its 2025 tourism target and a new record-high, hitting almost $4 billion in 2022 – some three years ahead of schedule. Latest data shows regional visitor expenditure hit an all-time high $3.98 billion in 2022, just $200 million shy of its $4.0 billion target set for December 2025.

The ‘Bird in Hand’ gold deposit area at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills has been proclaimed by the Governor at the request of the State Labor Government, protecting it from future mining applications. The land protected under the proclamation is the same area that was subject to a previous development application by Terramin Australia, with the move effectively prohibiting any future applications over the known Bird in Hand gold deposit.