News

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.

Cape York’s tourism season has officially begun after the Peninsula Developmental Road was opened to travellers at 4pm on Friday. Businesses all over the Cape, from Laura to Weipa, Portland Roads to Bramwell Station and the Archer River to Punsand Bay are expecting 2021 to be the busiest season on record.

Kirstin Nicholson. Cohuna business, AWMA, opened its doors to the public last month providing an insight into what the business does ... Fish exclusion screens, penstocks, water control gates and trash screens are just some of AWMA’s products, each of which, is unique. Each is designed, engineered and manufactured specifically for the customer, the site, and for each application, in-house, in the industrial estate right here in Cohuna.

Kirstin Nicholson. It has been a flurry of turtle activity around the district over the past couple of months as broad-shelled turtles nest, and eggs hatch. Graham Stockfeld from Turtles Australia returned to the area recently to record data on turtle sightings, nest locations and condition ... Barapa Country Elders were actively involved in locating turtle nests in the Gunbower Forest on this visit.

The ACCC has been touring the basin disseminating their findings from reviews into the now nearly $2 billion unregulated water trading scheme. The ACCC stated that water trading has its origins in informal arrangements between neighbouring farmers, where one farmer’s excess water could be transferred to a neighbour. This does seem like a logical arrangement, trading between farmers in existing irrigation districts. The same historical irrigation districts that were regulated within a similar geographical footprint.

Narrandera, Lockhart and Temora shires are among the hot button areas in regional NSW for rural dryland property with prices reaching a staggering $12,000 per hectare. According to the Rural Bank’s overview of 2021 Australian farmland values released on Tuesday, cropping land in the Riverina is highly sought after.

Sunita is an emerging writer from Lismore with a passion for helping people tell their stories. She works with post-disability arts company RealArtWorks and in the past 12 months has started writing poetry. The Kyogle Writers Festival competition is the first competition Sunita has entered.

It was their day. There were tears, statements from the heart and jubilation at the Federal Court hearing that determined native title on 52 parcels of land in the Richmond Valley. His Honour Justice Steven Rares presided over a makeshift courtroom in a marquee on Stan Payne Oval at Evans Head on Friday.

Seven years ago the Josephs and other residents fought against coal seam gas mining in the Bentley valley. When the movement spread to Bentley from earlier activism at Glenugie and Doubtful Creek, the community far and wide was mobilised to take action and the decision to mine was eventually reversed ... Members of the renamed Bentley - Our Sustainable Future group know they can “do it again” and stop the expansion of the basalt quarry.

Yamba Buccaneers rugby player Kyah Foster has been selected in the NSW Country Junior Girls Rugby Union U14s team after the NSW Country Junior Rugby titles at Kiama last weekend. Playing for the Mid North Coast Tomahawks, Foster was selected after strong performances against Central Coast and Central West.

Geoff Helisma. Clarence Valley Council (CVC) raised its debt ceiling from $131m to $197m at the Tuesday April 27 council meeting. Councillors unanimously adopted general manager Ashley Lindsay’s recommendation to “update its loan borrowing policy to reflect the increased sustainable debt level of $197m, as outlined in the EY [Ernst & Young] March 2021 debt review update” – Cr Karen Toms declared an interest and did not participate.

Emma Pritchard. He spoke so passionately about his work with Clarence Valley youths, Jeremy Jablonski had to pause several times as the emotion of the occasion overwhelmed him. Mr Jablonski, a youth hub coordinator with the New School of Arts Neighbourhood Centre Inc, was among a small crowd which gathered at Fisher Park in Grafton on April 28 to welcome The Honourable Bronnie Taylor, Minister for Mental Health, Regional Youth and Woman, and Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis as they officially launched the Clarence Valley Youth Hubs, made possible through Round 3 of the Stronger Country Communities Fund.

Agricultural commodity prices continue to perform well for Australian producers with cattle prices the most compelling after the benchmark Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI) surpassed a record 900c/kg in April. The NAB Rural Commodities Wrap, released today, reports trends in global grain markets point to encouraging news for Australian grain growers, while wool prices continue their upward trend.

Armidale producer Bill Mitchell has won the 2021 Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) Producer Innovation Award for his remote cattle weighing system, Optiweigh, that enables in-paddock weighing and monitoring. Mr Mitchell was presented the award last night at the Rabobank Beef Industry Awards presented by Queensland Country Life, at Beef Australia 2021 in Rockhampton. Optiweigh is a fully portable in-paddock weighing system that works in all environments, does not require animal training, and does not require installation of additional infrastructure.