Education & training

I feel 2025 has been one of the most instructive leadership years I can remember. We have seen plenty of leadership lessons and styles on the world stage, much of it on what not to do! Many regional and rural businesses have faced uncertainty, skill shortages, rising expectations from staff, rapid shifts in technology, and the everyday pressures of running operations that never stop. Yet it has also been a year where I’ve watched extraordinary leadership rise from ordinary circumstances.

A study tracking not only the forces that drive drought but the damage it leaves behind has revealed that droughts have lasted longer in Australia in recent decades, especially in areas with the most people and farms. UNSW researchers analysed drought trends across Australia between 1911 and 2020 based on rainfall shortages and falling river and dam levels.

Gratitude may seem small, but in the hands of an authentic leader it becomes a powerful force that strengthens trust, lifts performance, and keeps regional teams connected, committed, and thriving.

When Shayne Sutherland and his partner Courtney Ann started Surf Camp Down Under, they had the goal of becoming the best surf school in Australia, and on Saturday night their ambitions were realised. Surf Camp Down Under was awarded the Surf School of the Year award at the 2025 Australian Surfing Awards...

Terry Collins. It's been a huge week for Gosford, with the opening of the long-awaited Archibald Precinct on the site of the former Union Hotel and a hugely successful open day at the new Gosford campus of The University of Newcastle, which is set to open next year. Business NSW Central Coast Regional Director Scott Goold said with more major developments in the CBD well underway, the longed-for reactivation of the regional capital was finally becoming a reality.

A huge honour for Allora local pianist Oscar Briggs who has been accepted into the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University in Brisbane. At the age of 3 years Oscar started learning and playing the piano with music teacher Lesley Telford. Now aged 18 years Oscar is living the dream...

This quiz is so simple you should be able to get through it before the kettle's boiled. Honest ... 1. In Buddhism, what is the...

With just enough sleep, and coffee, you just might score a PB with this one. 1. Who was Australia's first Catholic saint?2. What was...

Now that you've recovered from your last quizzical encounter, stay steady, here comes another. 1. What is the freezing point of water on the Fahrenheit...

The world’s farms could become one of the most powerful tools in the fight against climate change according to a new international study led by QUT. Published in Plant Physiology, the paper lays out a framework to assess how plant agriculture and synthetic biology innovations can help mitigate climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon storage.

Cambooya State School students were treated to an unforgettable musical experience recently when internationally acclaimed performer Adrian Fabila Tjupurrula – known as Tjupurru – visited the school. A proud descendant of the Djabera Djabera people of the WA Kimberley region, Tjupurru has earned a global reputation for his innovative fusion of ancient culture, modern technology and extraordinary musicianship.

Kids’ sport should be a classroom for life — but when parents and coaches cross the line from supportive to suffocating, the game stops being fun and starts causing real harm ... Junior country sport relies on the army of volunteer parents who coach, manage, supervise, and oversee children’s sport. Coaches are a powerful influence on a child’s confidence...

The ambitious trial to reintroduce native marsupial species into Sturt National Park is on track, say Wild Deserts conservationists. Western quolls, bilbies and golden bandicoots are slowly taking back a ‘low-cat’ area of the desert – the massive Wild Training Zone of more than 100km2 in Sturt National Park in NSW.

Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster has released the views of over 5,300 Mallee voters showing strong opposition to Labor’s energy policies and highlighting that her advocacy is consistently in harmony with what Mallee voters believe ... Mallee’s Biggest Survey was circulated within Mallee to every letterbox and online in the wake of the May election and took months to receive, manually process and analyse over 5,300 responses.

The National Schools Food and Fibre Education Strategy was launched today, marking an unprecedented collaboration between 15 rural research and development corporations to transform how Australian students learn about the nation’s $80 billion food and fibre sector.

Walwa Primary School may be small in size but last Friday it proved once again that it continues to 'punch above its weight'. Hosting the F–2 Cluster Day, Walwa PS proudly showcased the hard work, learning and progress its students have made across the year - much of it centred around their impressive Food and Fibre program.

As hundreds of Year 12 students celebrate their final weeks of schooling, Rockhampton Regional Council’s lead economic development agency, Advance Rockhampton, has launched a range of resources to encourage the next generation to explore the wealth of career and education pathways in their own backyard.

Cattle producers in Northern Australia face unique challenges when adapting tools like virtual fences on their properties, but new research from Charles Darwin University (CDU) is set to break down the barriers to this technology. Virtual fences remotely map and control livestock such as cows by fitting the animal with a GPS collar that delivers audio cues and electric pulses to the animal if they approach a pre-set boundary.  

"Without continual growth and progress, words such as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning" said Benjamin Franklin. Of all the things that can boost team morale, the number one is progress (and the feeling it generates). A sense of progress requires deliberate intent by a leader, not platitudes.

Austinn Lane. Central Yorke School, Maitland, year 11 student Rhys Heinrich recently returned from Switzerland, where he represented Australia as part of the Movember Youth Action Council. Rhys was selected at short notice to attend a four-day conference at the World Health Organization headquarters ... "I feel it is important to voice the issue of men's mental health on Yorke Peninsula and in South Australia and this opportunity has helped do that."

For the first time, a contingent of Nepali fire and forest management professionals have visited Victoria to learn from our fire experience. The visitors were hosted in Victoria by the Australian Himalayan Foundation through the Australia Awards Fellowships program.