Media Release

A new Qantas flight schedule and the addition of one extra return flight per week to the Bendigo to Sydney route starts from Monday October 30. Following feedback provided to the airline, the new schedule allows passengers to travel Bendigo to Sydney return in a day, Monday to Friday.

A plan that sets out to protect, conserve and enhance The Bluff has been adopted by the City of Victor Harbor. The Bluff Master Plan was developed in collaboration with community over the past 18 months.

More than 120 members of the Rochester community attended Campaspe Shire Council’s flood recovery community information session held at the Rochester Shire Hall ... Campaspe Shire Mayor Cr Rob Amos opened the event which brought together major stakeholders involved in the flood recovery process ... This is the first large-scale community information session organised by Campaspe Shire Council’s new Flood Recovery Team ...

Tenants have moved in to eight new tiny homes in Gympie, delivered to help ease housing pressures in the region. The factory-built homes were installed at GRAP, which was a joint project between the Queensland Government and Gympie Regional Council after floods devastated the town.

Housing, health, education, training and employment pathways, infrastructure, economic diversification, and the Q2032 Procurement Strategy will be part of the conversation for the members of the Darling Downs South West Queensland Regional Community Forum who meet at Charleville ...

Shadow Minister for Emergency Services and Member for Hammond, Adrian Pederick, together with Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Nicola Centofanti, are standing with local farmers and Grain Producers SA in opposing the proposed changes to the Grain Harvesting Code of Practice. The changes put forward by the CFS seek to reduce the Grassland Fire Danger Index (GFDI) cease harvest number to 40 at 10 metres...

South-East Asia presents a "bright spot" for Australian and New Zealand dairy exporters in an "increasingly lethargic global economy", Rabobank says in a recently-released sector report. The specialist agribusiness bank says "better times lie ahead" for the dairy markets of the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam...

Victoria Police wants to take officers from one-person police stations in 98 small towns and roster them into regional centres and cities to fill police shortages. The rostering change is due to more than 800 police vacancies across the state ... Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, said the move is alarming.

The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA) are pushing for urgent solutions to the Tasmanian regional housing crisis. The matter is of significant concern to the Tasmanian farming sector which has made a real contribution to the states economic growth and expansion.

Citizen Scientists have helped to develop better understanding of regional biodiversity by taking part in an initiative to record local fungi and lichen species. FungiQuest is a national event that encourages citizen scientists to share their fungi sightings via a smartphone app.

Bonza takes a bite out of the ‘Apple Isle’ as it reveals Launceston as its newest destination with the first ever year round direct service from the Gold Coast* starting this November. Flights from just $79 per person (one way) are on sale today [24 August 2023] via the Fly Bonza app.  

AMA NSW President Dr Michael Bonning has slammed the NSW Government for announcing a Special Commission of Inquiry focused on cuts to hospital care.  

The native hardwood industry welcomed announcement by Minister Tierney to offer additional support for workers, contractors, communities and new regional businesses but was disappointed that the mill exit package  doubly punished those businesses that had acted in good faith, said Deb Kerr, CEO of the Victorian Forest Products Association (VFPA).  

Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud says the Palaszczuk Government has sold out Queensland communities by signing up to Federal Labor’s latest Murray-Darling Basin plan. The Albanese Government  has announced it would tear up Labor’s original policy on the additional 450 gigalitres of the Murray-Darling Basin plan and ignore the social and economic neutrality test, protecting communities from water buybacks.

Yarning Circle on agriculture, water and economies brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous speakers on how together we can care for our land and water ... The workshop was facilitated by Oral McGuire, a Whadjuk/Ballardong Nyungar man from WA ... decades of experience in land management and the application of Cultural Fire burning.

Chlamydia is a significant and widespread threat to the koala, impacting their reproductive health and causing infertility. This project will trial a new vaccine implant which would allow for koalas to receive their ‘booster’ dose of vaccine via the implant.

The Albanese Labor Government has struck an historic agreement to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full, including 450 gigalitres of water for the environment. The agreement, made between the Federal, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory governments...

Senators Matthew Canavan and Slade Brockman, have expressed their disgust in the cowardly decision of the National Australia Bank to close its Waroona branch just one week after a Senate inquiry on regional banking was in the region. NAB has announced that they will be closing their Waroona branch on 17 November this year, leaving the town without a bank.

Farmers have rallied against reckless renewables outside Queensland Parliament House, urging Labor to rethink its plans to destroy prime agricultural land and pristine rainforest and animal habitat throughout Queensland ... Federal Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said Labor’s reckless race to achieve 82 per cent renewables by 2030 needed a Senate Inquiry.