Business

Kendall Jennings. Mother nature dealt the Kerang and District Agricultural Society an unfair hand as they prepared for the 136th Kerang Annual Show with rain that made the Kerang Turf Club waterlogged. It was a moment of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, deciding if the event would go ahead or not last week.

Burnie’s Hellyers Road Distillery has been named 2022 Tasmanian Exporter of the Year at a gala event in Hobart ... Hellyers Road took out the title after being named the Small Business Award category winner earlier in the evening.

Lockyer Valley Regional Council says recent quotes attributed to the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) regarding the proposed Inland Rail route through the Lockyer Valley region are both incomplete and misleading. Lockyer Valley Mayor, Cr Tanya Milligan is calling for transparency from the ARTC, saying it is vital they tell the full story so impacted communities have a realistic understanding of the impacts.

Western Australia's resources sector continues to drive the State and national economies, with record sales of $231 billion and the highest-ever employment figures in 2021-22. This is the fourth financial year in a row the sector has delivered record sales, following $151 billion in 2018-19, $172 billion in 2019-20 and $211 billion in 2020-21.

If you think Australian farmers are worried about the availability of spare parts, then spare a thought for Russian farmers who are suffering under the impact of ever tightening sanctions as a direct result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine ... Open the door to Russian ag mechanics ... Is China a parts risk?

Finally, the announcement many workers in Lismore were hoping for – Norco will rebuild its ice cream factory in South Lismore although it will be smaller. The factory was left wrecked and non-operational after the February 28 floods.

After several years testing equipment for companies in a range of industries, from fabrication and chemical plants to aviation, Dirk De Beer used his redundancy payment to settle in Kalgoorlie and realise his dream of owning his own business. A 28 year-old single man, Mr De Beer set up a desk in his home garage and invested in tools and a converted telecoms service ute.

A tour guide, hotel concierge and bar attendant are among the working holiday makers to secure jobs after jetting Down Under as part of the South Australian Tourism Commission’s ‘ £10 flight’ campaign. Launched in April, the campaign attracted global attention as it offered young travellers in the United Kingdom and Ireland return flights to Adelaide for just £10...

With wonderful prizemoney on offer and one of the final chances to gain a place in the $2 Million Big Dance at Randwick on Melbourne Cup day, outstanding nominations have been received for the $200,000 Carlton Dry Port Macquarie Cup at the circuit on Friday. The champion stable of Chris Waller has earmarked five horses for the club’s feature with Quality Time spearheading the team following two strong metropolitan wins by the German import.

The Victorian Labor Government’s promise of jobs with a transition from native forests to plantation forests, announced last week, does not add up, said Forest & Wood Communities Australia (FWCA). As it takes at least 15 years for trees to grow to the minimum harvest age, and the government plans to end native forestry in eight years, timber towns face ruin, with Orbost set to lose 37% of its full-time jobs.

Samuel Davis. Skytrans will take off to new destinations across Cape York and beyond as the airline aims to increase its share in the lucrative tourism and charter markets. Fuelled by optimism within the aviation industry, the company will add two 50-seater Dash 8-300s to its fleet in the coming months with more planes en route in 2023.

Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano said the union is calling on the Federal Government to inquire into the provision of local banking services, particularly in regional areas and supported calls for a moratorium on regional bank closures.

Rex said it had bold plans to grow and transform its latest acquisition into Australia’s premier Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) operator and signalled a major expansion into Queensland and the Northern Territory. This follows the completion of the purchase of National Jet Express (NJE), the Regional Services arm of Cobham Aviation Services Australia, focusing on FIFO activities.

Minister for Agriculture Gayle Tierney has announced the Labor Government is investing $120 million – the single largest investment in plantation establishment in the state’s history – in an agreement with Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP), planting an extra 16 million trees in a new estate.

Nillumbik Friends of the Great Forest have followed with interest the developments in the native forest logging industry, in particular the decision by the Andrews government in 2019 to halt native forest logging in 2030. Victoria is well placed to transition to a 100 % plantation industry as we already have considerable areas of plantation ... The industry has every right to be upset with the government for withholding the funding for a fair and just transition ... ARR.News asks NFGF a few questions.

Following the detection of a rodent on the MV Island Trader on 8th September, the ship was placed into quarantine for 7 days. This unfortunately meant that it missed the tide window and caused a 14-day delay to freight transport at the beginning of the tourist season ... Our newest recruit, Willow, is underway with her training. She visited the children of the LHI Central School ...

A NSW parliamentary inquiry into the granting of a contract to resurface two arenas at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre has found the tender process managed by the Office of Sport was flawed and that “robust probity standards” were not applied.

Regional Australians found themselves as the butt of a nasty joke at weekend, with both the new Federal Government and the Opposition treating them like idiots over the critical issue of bank closures. In the ultimate dodgy trick, the final report in to the Taskforce into Regional Banking was snuck out at 4.52pm on Friday evening before a long weekend by the Albanese Government despite the report being a Coalition document overseen by two shadow ministers (Michael Sukkar and Perin Davey) whose current portfolios have nothing to do with treasury, finance, business or regional Australia.

The Regional Banking Taskforce came together for meetings in Sydney, Orange, Mildura and Canberra to hear and discuss how bank branch closures have impacted individuals and regional communities, and to work collaboratively to identify possible solutions ... The Taskforce’s final report made 7 recommendations ...

The Albanese Government welcomes the Council of Financial Regulators’ paper on potential policy responses to address the problem of de-banking in Australia. De-banking, where a bank declines to offer or withdraws banking services to a customer, can have a devastating impact on businesses and individuals. It can also put a handbrake on competition and innovation in emerging sectors of the economy.

Brett Shepherd. After two years off from showing we went to Adelaide Royal this year with no expectations - just wanting to compare our sheep with fellow breeders and catch up after such a long enforced break. So it was with great excitement and pride when our Poll Dorset ram 21-616 (sired by our own Mullinger Park 17-348) was judged the Champion ram.