Life

Visitors and locals were thrilled with the offerings at the Border Flywheelers Club and Heritage Museum 24th Vintage Engine and Machinery Rally. “You could spend weeks in there,” was a repeated comment from visitors. The shear volume and variety of local history that has been amassed is a credit to everyone involved.

Farmers are being urged to touch base with a Rural Aid counsellor for a mental wellbeing check-in, as mouse plagues continue to ravage rural communities. Rural Aid CEO John Warlters has urged primary producers to get in touch with Rural Aid. “Rural Aid can help farmers with a range of measures including financial, fodder and mental wellbeing assistance,” Mr Warlters said.

Narrandera could potentially become the centre in the Riverina for cycling enthusiasts with a $600,000 Rocky Waterholes Mountain Bike Park mooted. The idea was conceived by the Mountain Bike Trail Narrandera Group whose members want to see the informal trails in the Rocky Waterholes hill transformed into a formal mountain bike trail.

The thirtieth Noosa Festival of Surf is being held between 15th and 23rd May. The festival organisers expect up to 400 competitors – one of the biggest turnouts in the event’s history and with eleven different age divisions, six open divisions, a team challenge, family challenge, standup paddleboard surfing, and the crowd-pleasing dog surfing championships, the event promises to be one of the most exciting yet.

Emma Pritchard. Earlier this year, the Clarence River Historical Society was contacted by the curator of a Newcastle museum, citing a topic which may be of interest to them. An old brass bell had appeared in a Hunter Valley op shop, and it was suspected it had a strong link to Grafton, and the Clarence River. The evidence was boldly engraved across the front of the brass bell. It read, SS Induna, 1891, Aberdeen.

Emma Pritchard. Since the early 1900’s it has stood on the hill, welcoming parishioners and offering them a safe and sacred place of worship. But now, the 106-year-old Church of the Holy Apostles in Copmanhurst is being permanently closed and sold as part of a wider restructuring plan for Anglican mission and ministry on the North Coast ... There have been no services at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Copmanhurst since March 2020, due to restrictions enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic ... "prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, an average of three or four people were attending Sunday services there."

Residents will be able to be active at night under light from May 17 up to the start of daylight savings on September 25 as part of a pilot Lighting Up Ewing Park activation project by the City of Greater Bendigo. Through the initiative the City will turn on the new Ewing Park LED training lights from 6 pm to 8pm seven days per week to provide opportunities for residents to be active at the reserve at night under light.

Despite 43% of organisations experiencing an increase in demand for services, further data from the ABS reveals that in the last 12 months, only 3.6% Australians started to take part in unpaid voluntary work, while just under one in five (17%) volunteers have continued donating their time. “This National Volunteer Week, we will celebrate the significant contribution made by almost six million Australians. This includes community sport coaches and managers, volunteer programs across hospitals and aged care, and volunteers supporting disaster response and recovery. We encourage everyone to reconnect with what is important by giving our time to help others and ourselves.” says Mark Pearce, CEO of Volunteering Australia.

Cape York residents are being encouraged to help clean up the Peninsula’s beaches this year as Tangaroa Blue celebrates 10 years working in the region. Since 2011, the Tangaroa Blue Foundation has run annual beach clean-ups, with the first ever held at Chilli Beach, north of Lockhart River.

The annual Burrandowan Picnic Races have been a highlight on the South Burnett region calendar for 99 years, and the 2021 event augurs well for an historic centenary in 2022.

As part of the ongoing partnership between Audi Foundation and Country Education Foundation of Australia (CEF), 14 regional students will receive much needed financial support to undertake STEM related study in 2021. Each scholarship is worth $5,000.

Kirstin Nicholson. “I have a special interest in the work that’s gone on in Victorian health, particularly around the ‘Safer Care Victoria’, and I think that’s moving all of us in a much better and safer direction. Also, I like that the governing bodies are really local. They know their patients, they know their people and they know the community needs. And then they hold us to account to deliver it," Bernadette Loughnane, the new CEO of Cohuna District Hospital.

Penny Bird. It is wonderful to be back on deck in 2021 with our spectacular Autumn Show at the Maclean Bowls Club. There were 21 exhibitors and a variety of 214 beautiful exhibits.

This year the Honey Festival is with us again. Much more space this time so expect this to be something special. There will be talks, demonstrations, competitions and special activities for children. An amazing programme once again - There will be dance – the Wadumbah Aboriginal Dance Group and also the Mad Tatters with their Morris dancing and fantastic costumes. There are camel rides , pony rides and the Dinosaur train. The Mounted Games will be on in the arena again. There will be Goats, Sheep, cattle and, of course, the Alpaca Show and Sale. The Bullsbrook Poultry Club will be having a young birds show.

Janene Carey. A record-breaking number of people poured through the gates of the Bellingen Agricultural Show on the weekend of May 8-9. Show Society President Gillian Anderson said this year’s COVID-safe requirements were also an opportunity to make the administrative side of the show more efficient by moving ticket sales and entries online.

Mark Berg has fished all over the world and been to most parts of Australia – including Cape York – but he’d somehow skipped Weipa. His life changed last week when he returned from a fishing trip with Far North Fishing as part of his television series, Mark Berg’s Fishing Addiction ... “It’s got to be the best place in Australia for fishing offshore with light tackle ... if not the world.

Weipa residents will enjoy a public holiday on Friday, September 3 after the date was able to be changed to accommodate the Weipa Fishing Classic. The annual event will be held from September 3 to 5, with the expectation that the fishing days will be Friday and Saturday in a small change to the format.

Hundreds of mourners turned out to farewell iconic local, Denise Goddard on Tuesday. While the funeral was held at St Mary’s Cathedral in Darwin, Tennant Creek was well represented, with current priest, Father John and former priest, Father Joseph from Christ the King Catholic Parish amongst those officiating at the service. Denise, whose Aboriginal heritage is Kaytetye, was born and raised in Tennant Creek although ongoing health problems took her away from the town she loved for years at a time.

We select a wine, in a restaurant, a bottleshop, or - so as to not show my age – online. In making this choice one considers variety, region, vintage, style as well as reputation of the brand, price, medal stickers on the bottle and personal preferences – just to name a few ... Winemakers like to pick grapes at what they consider to be optimum ripeness, a balance of sugars, acid and flavour development which best suits the wine they wish to make.

The 20th Ord Valley Muster, from 21 to 29 May 2021, features an outstanding line-up of over 30 events across nine exciting days including two nights of side splitting comedy, a real county rodeo, fringe shows, cultural experiences and performances, a traditional Corroboree, a secret suppers series, Art in the Park, music, early morning bliss with floating yoga boats and a family-friendly closing party that includes a diamond dig.