Media Release

Lismore City Mayor Steve Krieg has opened the new Tucki Creek Bridge at Tucki Tucki which was replaced due to safety issues. Our specialist Bridge Crew replaced the ageing wooden bridge with a new 12.1m x 4.8m single span concrete structure. This new structure founded on concrete driven piles has been designed and constructed to achieve a 100-year design life while improving its flood immunity and safety for local farmers and truck drivers.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has raised concerns that the Commonwealth Government is rewriting history in an attempt to buyback and deliver water to South Australia under the Murray Darling Basin Plan. VFF Water Council Chair Andrew Leahy said the response from Water Minister Tanya Plibersek to South Australian MP Rebekha Sharkie’s question in Parliament this week ignored the history behind the 450 GL up-water target.

NSW Farmers members called out a lack of fairness in the energy transition during debate at the organisation's annual conference ... “You cannot simply build infrastructure to benefit substantially city users without addressing the impact on regions and rural landowners who have invested in their biodiversity and production capacity,”: NSW Farmers Energy Transition Working Group Chair, Reg Kidd

A significant aspect of Closing the Gap in East Arnhem Land is the creation of new industry, jobs and business on country. Announced  over the Garma Weekend, the Territory Labor Government has  released  the East Arnhem Regional Economic Growth Plan – a collaborative 10 year plan which sets ambitious goals for economic and jobs growth  across  the  33,000 square kilometres of the region.

The Crocodile Management Independent Expert Evaluation Committee – chaired by Queensland’s Chief Scientist, Professor Hugh Possingham – made 22 recommendations for improving estuarine crocodile management in Queensland ... The department has accepted each of the committee’s recommendations, with several recommendations already being implemented.

The Ultimate Festival of Wheels, Red CentreNATS returns to the stunning heart of Australia in September, and this year’s program takes things up another notch with the inclusion of a Thursday evening qualifying program at Alice Springs Inland Dragway (ASID). The additional evening is to cater for the ever-growing program, and will see ASID open for qualifying for both Round 1 of the 2022/2023 Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship and Top Doorslammer Australia. This means the fastest cars on earth will be heading to the Red Centre.

NT Farmers Association is pleased to announce that they will be holding a North Australia Food Futures Regional Roadshow in Mareeba from the 30th to the 31st of August 2022. The roadshow provides an exciting opportunity to learn about what is happening in agriculture in Northern Australia.

The latest quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, has shown a continuing rise in Australian food price inflation, with June 2022 quarter food prices increasing 5.9 per cent compared with the June quarter last year. Rabobank senior food retail analyst Michael Harvey said this was the highest year-on-year increase seen in food prices in the CPI since the September quarter 2011, when yearly food price inflation had peaked at 6.4 per cent.

Given the high escalation in the price of pedigree pups, pay rises are certainly well overdue for dogs who are renowned for being the hardest workers. A Working Dog Auction being held at the 2022 Rabobank Expo & Ram Sale should help push up purchase prices ... Known as the largest Merino event in Western Australia with over forty studs on display, the addition of a working sheepdog auction will boost visitor numbers to the annual show.

Pilbara Ports Authority and Yara have signed a collaboration agreement for a feasibility study into ammonia bunkering in the Pilbara ... an important step on the path towards a net zero shipping industry and will assess potential demand, feasibility, infrastructure requirements, safety considerations and the establishment of ammonia bunkering guidelines.

A small central Queensland state school now has a secure drinking water supply, after six years of dry taps and plastic bottles. Australia’s most trusted rural charity, Rural Aid, has facilitated the installation of a SOURCE Hydropanel array at Valkyrie State School and believes that this technology could help facilitate drinking water security for other struggling schools.

Australia will need to both consume and export more avocados as the nation’s growers navigate a period of soaring production growth over the coming five years, specialist agribusiness bank Rabobank says in a new report. This year alone, ‘per capita (person) supply’ of avocados is estimated to be up 26 per cent on the previous 12 months to 4.8 kilogram – equating to 22 avocados per Australian.

After taking a Covid-forced hiatus for the past two years, the Laidley Spring Festival is back for 2022, with a raft of new and exciting events set to make their Festival debut. The theme for the 2022 Laidley Spring Festival is ‘Swing into Spring’ and Lockyer Valley Mayor, Cr Tanya Milligan said Council, and the community, were excited to welcome the event back come September.

Blueberry and avocado growers on the Coffs Coast are concerned about the arrival of Varroa mite in the region. Local NSW Farmers Coffs Harbour Branch Chair Paul Shoker said Varroa mite had been detected in hives near Nana Glen, and were linked to the Newcastle outbreak. “It’s a bit of a worry for our farmers as we approach pollination time, without bees we can’t produce avocados or blueberries, or a lot of other crops for that matter,” Mr Shoker said.

The countdown to the historic 140th anniversary edition of the Birdsville Races is on, with just over five weeks until the ‘Melbourne Cup of the outback’ reignites the tiny desert town on the edge of the Simpson Desert with thousands of revellers for an outback party and race carnival like no other ... From the Birdsville Cup’s’ first ever female winners and ambassadors to race-stopping outback deluges, horse flus, Prime Minister visits and a global pandemic – here are some memorable moments from 140 years of the Birdsville Races.

From live open-mic zine-readings through to learning the basics of zine-making and meeting some of the biggest names in the industry, all this and more is outlined in the official Mildura Zine Fair program, which is now available. Zines – short for magazines or fanzines – are small-circulation, self-published works of text and images, which at times have been hugely popular over many decades.

A 12 month trial on a cotton farm just outside the rural town of Goondiwindi Queensland in Australia has shown it’s possible to divert large amounts of cotton textile waste at end of life from landfill with no harm done to soil health or cotton yields. Project collaborators are confident that with a solid business plan and more research, returning shredded cotton products to cotton fields could soon offer benefits to soil health, and a scalable solution to the massive global problem of textile waste.

Residents and visitors are benefiting from the transformational Cohuna Waterfront Project, with the last section of this important project recently completed. Gannawarra Shire Council oversaw $3.4 million worth of works across a two-year period, focusing on Apex Park, Garden Park and King George Street.