Life

Kirstin Nicholson. This week we introduce you to Mark Bishop and Clancy Graham from Sunbury who, along with their four children, Isabella, Connor, Henry and Beau, aged four to ten, now call Cohuna home. Mark and Clancy purchased a house on the edge of Cohuna and moved in last month.

Mary took photos of the devastation and has collated the images into two books that are available at the Casino Library. The books are a chronicle of how the fire disrupted their lives. She photographed the twisted metal and remains of their home, the misshapen cutlery burned into a mass, the black sewing machine and the burnt-out cars Danny was fixing.

Regional Australia has a one in 100-year opportunity to set the agenda for what is needed to achieve a brighter and more prosperous future for the bush. This is the call to action in the National Farmers' Federation-led Regionalisation Agenda paper launched today.

Geoff Helisma. It was a particularly sad day for Brooms Head resident Steve Otton when he discovered an emu he had been following and photographing had been killed crossing Brooms Head Road at about 6pm on February 19 near Tailem Drive ... "On top of this, not one but three NPWS Emu warning signs have been yet again ripped from their stakes overnight ... After finding the signs down late Saturday I then spotted, with delight and horror, a pair of emus about to cross the road. I waved down this red car as to the action ahead as the pair of emus tip-toed across the road at the 'Emu Crossing' half way along the horror 100km overtaking straight."

Geoff Helisma. “Sama-Sama (Together) is a small event to convey to our community that during COVID-19, Sama-Sama we are strong and Sama-Sama we can see this difficult time through,” says Lower Clarence Multicultural Committee (LCMC) member Bobby McCaughey.

Expecting mothers from Weipa and the Western Cape will be able to give birth locally this time next year as work begins on the upgrade of Weipa Hospital. Around $8.86 million worth of upgrades are under way, or about to start, at the Weipa Hospital and scheduled for completion in the coming months.

Kirstin Nicholson. Former Cohuna Consolidated School pupil, Kathryn Wilson, has returned to the school she attended as a child, but this time in a teaching capacity.

Ahead of an event to encourage women to become councillors, we ask three current councillors about their experiences. Four of the nine Kyogle councillors are female. Richmond Valley Council has two out of seven.

The Civic Hall was once the pride and joy of Casino, and a major landmark built at an important time in the town's history, Richmond Valley mayor Robert Mustow said. Now the interior of the hall has been repainted and restored to its glory. Next the drab exterior of the 84-year-old Art Deco hall is to get a lift.

The Tackling Mosquitos Together campaign is a co-operative effort of seven councils located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales - Tweed Shire Council, Ballina Shire Council, Byron Shire Council, Kyogle Council, Clarence Valley Council, Richmond Valley Council, and Lismore City Council - supported by the Department of Local Government.

Emma Pritchard. “I just shared what I have in my head, which is do small things with great love,” Hayley Talbot said. “When we feel overwhelmed by the world, and it’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and disempowered and when I get like that, I just bring it all back down to doing small things with great love and there’s greatness in those moments.”

“Clarence Health Service have recruited medical registrars this year who are completing specialty training, rural generalist, advanced skills and a vocationally registered GP who is updating their skills in emergency medicine through GP proceduralist training program”

Emma Pritchard. After the unfortunate cancellation of the 2020 Grafton Show, only weeks prior to the event, Federal Member for Page, Kevin Hogan visited the iconic T. J. Ford Pavilion at the showground last week and announced a grant of just under $18,000 through the Supporting Agricultural Shows and Field Days Program to reimburse costs for the cancellation of the popular attraction last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Today’s decision by the ANZ Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation to slash the rating for pure, fresh Australian fruit and vegetable juices has failed Australian growers. National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) Chief Executive Tony Mahar described the decision to apply lower Health Star Ratings to fresh juices than those given to chemical-laden diet soft-drinks as baffling.

There will be no risk to public health as a result of water from a lagoon adjacent to a sewerage plant being pumped into Weipa’s Mission River, Rio Tinto says. Last week, the mining company notified local residents that it would be releasing water from the lagoon next to the Awonga Point Sewerage Treatment Plant into the Mission River following heavy rainfall.

Telecommunications are back online in Lockhart River after the Cape York community suffered a 10-day outage to kick off February ... Mayor Wayne Butcher said the community had a long history of communication issues, mostly in the wet season, when they needed these services the most ...

Early in the new year, Southern Cross Care NSW & ACT announced its intention to close Harden's St Lawrence Residential Aged Care Facility. Following the expression of strong concerns and disappointment by the aged care residents, their families and the local Harden community, as well as extensive media coverage, a meeting was convened in Harden on Friday 5 February which included the Hon Michael McCormack MP, ...

On 8th February 2021 the Aged Care Workforce Industry Council launched the Voluntary Industry Code of Practice. The Code is based on seven guiding principles for quality care and is intended to be a transformative tool for Australia’s aged care sector.

Are you a team player? Like helping your community? Want to increase your income? Then maybe you should join Fire Rescue NSW in Barham. From fires to road accidents, the team of dedicated retained fire rescue employees serve our community when people are at their most vulnerable. I recently spent an evening with the crew at Barham as they performed a simulated road accident.

Nathan Dawes is the new energetic publican at the Top Pub in Kyogle. Having lived between Coorabell and Sydney for two decades working in the corporate world, he has changed his lifestyle and taken on the Commercial Hotel. He lives upstairs at the pub.

A proposal to build a large battery to store excess energy from the grid prompted 80 residents to attend an information session at McKees Hill Hall on Wednesday evening. The mood in the hall was tense as Maoneng’s director for Australia Allison Hawke faced a torrent of questions from residents who said they had been kept in the dark about the proposal.

... By bringing Mr Priest to Townsend, they believe it will help raise the profile of the gym and hopefully showcase the long list of professional bodybuilders and athletes that have been raised through Bodyrock. “We’ve had one world champion out of our Townsend gym, we’ve had two ladies that have made it into the top five in the world. We’ve crowdfunded two athletes to Vegas, one who won the world title and one who came fifth in the world…not too bad for a little gym out of Townsend”, the proud gym owner says ...