Amy Pilgrim Memorial Round honours community spirit
At the last home game for the season, the Nhill & District Sporting Club hosted the 2025 Amy Pilgrim Memorial Round. Held in front of a strong home crowd, the event honoured Amy's lasting legacy in the club and community.
Brodie and Beatrice are stepping up
Madison Eastmon. Two Riverland firefighters are preparing to ascend 28 floors of Melbourne's Crown Metropol Hotel next month, with the charity climb to raise funds for crisis support services and cancer research … SA Barmera Country Fire Service (CFS) members Brodie Batty, and Beatrice Walladge, will soon be making the trek to the 12th Annual Firefighter Stair Climb…
Expensive locum doctors
The Limestone Coast Local Health Network (LCLHN) claims it is strategically shifting away from depending on expensive locum doctors … But shadow minister for Regional Health Penny Pratt has rejected the network’s claims, saying they did not reflect the reality she hears “almost weekly” from rural communities.
Playbourhoods can create a better childhood if we dare to dream of something more
“This motion is fundamentally about the mental health of our children, it’s about the emotional stability of our children. It is about their cognitive and physical development. It is about their social development. This motion is about PLAY.”
Reaction to unexpected REZ’s expansion: Council’s deep disappointment
Buloke Shire Council has expressed deep disappointment with the State Government's handling of a major expansion to Victoria's REZs, which now push significantly into Buloke communities. The major extension of the Grampians-Wimmera REZ now extends into Buloke's west near Curyo and Wilkur and the NW REZ has shifted closer to the north-east of Charlton.
2025 Victorian Transmission Plan released
VicGrid recently released a long-term strategic plan for the development of Victoria’s renewable energy zones designed to deliver certainty and fairness for communities and industry and keep the lights on as coal-fired power closes down.
Frustration boils over at algae forum
Sarah Herrmann. An Ardrossan commercial fisherman gave state government representatives a piece of his mind at a government-run algal bloom community forum in Minlaton last week, criticising their grant eligibility criteria and calling for action on fish stocks.
Secrets of survival of a business related to agriculture
The hotel business for animals can improve its efficiency if it is more closely connected with agriculture. Here is an inside look at how to do this ... In Kramatorsk, ten miles from the fighting with the Russians, pet hotel services are booming.
Copper Coast Show: vibrant and community driven
Copper Coast Show chair Natasha Westbrook says the 2025 event was one of the most vibrant and community-driven the committee has seen in years, with record crowds, incredible participation, and all run by volunteers. The show was held over the weekend, August 16 and 17, and the Schools Livestock Day on Friday, August 15, had seven schools and 135 students participating with cattle, goats and sheep.
From Dapto to Dunoon – the Dorrough family story
Peter Dorrough. In the 1860's both John and James Dorrough took up land grants on the plateau above Illawarra escarpment, and commenced, once again, land clearing, which was part of the condition of the grant ... in 1867, Matthew leased the property "Kalmar" at Dapto, and took Martha to live with his son James, Mary Ann and children at Kangaloon.
Hay to pioneer NSW’s first CERT program in town with existing ambulance services
NSW Ambulance is considering establishing a groundbreaking Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) pilot program in Hay, marking the first time such an initiative would operate in a NSW town that already has an existing ambulance centre.
‘Teamwork starts at home’: TAFE NSW helps Harkness family build bricklaying dynasty
Many hands make light work – and strong families. Just ask Moss Vale’s Harkness family, which with the help of TAFE NSW, is in the midst of an extraordinary bricklaying dynasty. All three brothers in the family – Bruce, 20, Barry, 18, and Max, 15 – are third-generation bricklayers and work under the guidance of their dad, Jobe, in the family business, J&S Harkness Bricklaying.
On the road with The GOAT
Nathan Lyon has gone on a regional roadshow into New South Wales, back to where it all started, in his childhood community. Growing up in Young, and playing for Goulburn, Canberra, and Wagga Wagga, Nathan wants to give back to his community that has done so much for him. This week he hosted a children’s cricket clinic ...
Winning moments captured in Stay and Play Photography Competition
The Stay and Play Photography Competition, in partnership with Nexus Airlines, invited photographers of all skill levels to enter photos that convey the essence of why families should holiday in Geraldton.
Labor incompetence leads to prolonged shutdown of local train lines: Cleeland
More frustrations are expected for the region’s train users, with passengers on the Seymour and Shepparton train lines set to face almost two months of bus replacements as whole sections of the lines will close for a staggering 55 days between September and November.
Campdrafting? (But not the way you know it)
Last week young students at St Patrick's School were treated to an entertaining session on campdrafting. The idea was to educate and obviously amuse the students in readiness for the Pacific Seeds 88 to Educate Charity Campdraft to be held on 23 and 24 August at the Allora Showgrounds.
Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductee
Allora's Laura Geitz is one of Australian netball's greatest players and most respected leaders, achieving a decade of supremacy with the Queensland Firebirds and Australian Diamonds. Representing the Queensland Firebirds in 169 games, Laura played a significant role as a dominant player and inspirational captain in three championship-winning seasons: in 2011, and back-to-back successes in 2015 and 2016.
Rolls-Royce enthusiasts roll into Maldon
The Rolls-Royce name is imbued with suggestion and symbolism, not all of which is really to do with cars or mechanicals. We live in changing times, and the group of Rolls-Royce (and Bentley) owners who visited Maldon on the weekend were just another bunch of car enthusiasts who were happily chatting about bearings and gearboxes...
Excel Farms supports mental health project
Carolyn Wheeler. What an incredible journey I have had on our Excel Farms regional tour with the Blue Tree Project, focusing on mental health awareness and support! ... Over the course of the tour last week, we travelled more than 1,700km, painted 5 trees blue on farm and in the communities, and hosted two sold out community quiz nights.
School program helping kids through tough times
Just like the ever-changing weather, our feelings experience many elements; stormy and gloomy, sunny and bright, cold and dark, sometimes all at once ... Barham Public School is proud to be running the Seasons for Growth program, a program designed to help provide support to children and young people experiencing uncertainty, change and grief.
Hunter finds his passion in Ag
Coming off a farm at Barham, 14-year-old Hunter Toohey is at school in Ballarat studying as hard as he can to get back there as fast as he can. At the weekend he was on a mate’s property outside Ararat trying to help thin the local fox population before heading back to the boarding house on Sunday night.
War cry
More than 200 residents and concerned citizens from neighbouring municipalities turned up on Sunday at the Corryong Memorial Hall to protest against the redevelopment of the Albury Hospital and to continue the fight to have a new facility built on a greenfield site to meet the future needs of Albury Wodonga and surrounding communities.
