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The town is divided over the NT Government’s new measures to tackle youth crime which will see young people who breach bail locked up. The automatic revocation of bail will apply to young people who reoffend while on bail, breach curfew or fail to attend court, for example. Police will have extended powers to use electronic monitoring on young people and powers to breath test youth who are behind the wheel of a car.

The star-gazing project at Mallanganee Lookout is exciting and ambitious. With expansive views across the Richmond Range, Mallanganee National Park and Hogarth Range Nature Reserve, the under-used lookout has the potential to attract thousands of visitors of the star-gazing kind.

The 1959 All Saints Church in Old Bonalbo is preparing to hold its final service. Jill Gorry said she felt sad about the church going. “But we’re not left without a church, there is one in Bonalbo,” she said. The Anglican church will be deconsecrated on April 13 by Bishop Murray from Grafton.

A beautiful soaking rain has fallen around the district this week. Falls from 15 to 30mm have been recorded and the timing couldn’t be better as farmers are busy sowing pasture and preparing for winter crop cereal plantings. The chorus of birds and life in the forest has also been rejoicing, there is nothing quite like the gentle patter of rain through the tree canopy. Irrigators will be keeping a watchful eye on storages as inflows are on the rise. With huge rains in the floodplain harvesting regions of northern NSW it will be interesting to see the volumes of unlicenced and unmetered water intercepted. Member for Murray, Helen Dalton, posted this week, “It was 117 years ago that poet Dorothea Mackellar proclaimed Australia as the ‘land of drought and flooding rains.’ “I wonder if, in the next 100 years, we might start expecting and planning for them?” We live in hope!

The annual Murrabit Cod Challenge was held over the weekend of March 19-21, an event run each year by the Murrabit Football and Netball Club to raise funds for their club. The event has been running since 2009 and is run 100% by local volunteers. Entries for the competition were capped at 300 adult tickets and sold out in just over a week, proving to be a very popular event. There were also 39 enthusiastic junior competitors entered, who were all lucky enough to take home an assortment of prizes donated by Hookem Fishing.

Kendall Jennings. Jaydyn Coggins is a former student from Barham Primary School. The school had cups and that is where Jaydyn first tried sport stacking. At this moment the world changed for Jaydyn, his family moved to Adelaide after he completed year one. Then, at nine years old, Jaydyn rediscovered the sport on YouTube, but it would also be the start of an obsession with sport stacking. With the support of his family, at 15, Jaydyn quickly became the fastest cup stacker in Australia, with a dream to travel overseas to the World Sport Stacking Championships. As a young man with Autism, Jaydyn has had his hurdles to overcome throughout the years and so, when he found a sport that he not only loved, but excelled in, there was no turning back.

Unequipped and unsafe health facilities in the Murrumbidgee region, lack of funding and available services and minimal staffing leading to burnout have all been the focus of regional submissions to a NSW Upper House inquiry ... “The reality is however, throughout rural NSW hospital operating theatres stand unused, no babies are being delivered and regularly there is no doctor available to attend emergency wards” : Narrandera Shire general manager, George Cowan.

Rockhampton Regional Council aren’t taking any rubbish when it comes to polluting our waterways. Last year Council installed a device known as a ‘Baffle Box’ on the riverbank, opposite the Pilbeam Theatre. Baffle Boxes are underground structures made up of different chambers that trap gross pollutants such as debris, trash, and other pollutants from stormwater that flows off streets and into storm drains after heavy rain.

Geoff Helisma. There’s a sign on the outside wall of the Bak’d Hot Bread (formerly Yamba Street Bakery) announcing that it accepts Bitcoin; the Independent spoke with proprietor Will Trevithick about the cryptocurrency, which was last week valued at $74,500 AUD. The bitcoin.org website asks on its FAQ page, Is Bitcoin really used by people? The answer is yes and, while it’s an apparent rarity among on-street shops, one Yamba business accepts the digital currency.

Emma Pritchard. With areas of bushland and forestation cleared following the bushfires, cane toads have hopped their way south along the Summerland Way and breeched the southern containment line, the Clarence River, within the past 12 months.

At the November 2020 Council meeting, following the presentation of the 2020-21 Plant Replacement Report, Cloncurry Councillors voted to purchase a new grader. In partnership with Hastings Deering, part of the machine was painted blue to help raise awareness for men’s mental health.

This turtle nesting season, Sunshine Coast TurtleCare volunteers have been gifted with three separate visits from a special tagged (K90712) loggerhead turtle known as Mystify, who has laid her eggs at Buddina beach. Volunteers suspect that she lives close to the Sunshine Coast as she returns frequently to lay eggs – the normal or expected interval is four years, but Mystify returns every one or two years.

Flights between Geraldton and Perth are on the rise with the City of Greater Geraldton and Qantas remaining committed to enhancing the flight schedule. Qantas has now increased the number of weekly return services from seven to 12, allowing same day return on weekdays.

The Bells Line of Road, which provides the alternative route over the Blue Mountains to the Central West from Sydney, will be closed indefinitely due to landslides caused by the recent heavy rains. This is a timely reminder of the many years of inaction on building the long overdue Bells Line Expressway ... One of the last roles held by the the recently departed former Leader of the National Party in NSW, Ian Armstrong, was as Chairman of the Bells Line Expressway Action Group. As Mr. Armstrong said in 2010 - "the road was built for a previous age".

A scare campaign driven by the Cairns Post to deter tourists from visiting Cape York will fall flat after Traditional Owners said they did not want to close the Tip to southern visitors. However, tourism operators are asking for strong leadership on the matter to make sure that both the Tip is kept open and that better facilities are created to cater for the growth in visitor numbers.

Confidence is growing that Aurukun’s bauxite deposit will one day be mined after Glencore last week struck a significant deal with Mitsubishi ­Development. Under the agreement, Mitsubishi will acquire a 30 per cent interest in the project, with the remaining interest retained by Glencore.