NSW

The red dust at Barellan is a long way from the sparkling water of a pool but former Olympic swimming champion Shane Gould was taking a keen interest in the sound of a single furrow plough slicing through the clay at the Barellan Good Old Days Festival at the weekend ... She was a keen spectator at the single furrow ploughing completion on Sunday at Barellan, drawing heavy horse and bullock teams.

Narrandera hosted the Annual Big Country Hoedown Line Dance Competitions recently at the Narrandera Ex-servicemen’s Club, which is one of the event’s major sponsors since it transferred to Narrandera in 2017. These annual events started off with a fabulous Welcome Social at the Exies.

Lockhart Picnic Races made a return to racing after a three year hiatus with horses once again gracing the track last week. Racegoers gathered from as far as Melbourne to attend the event with around 1000 people filling the venue.

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New blood has been selected to steer Clarence Valley Council for the next 12 months with Cr Peter Johnstone elected Mayor and Jeff Smith Deputy Mayor, both candidates securing their positions by a single vote. In a surprise move, both incumbents, former Mayor Ian Tiley, and his Deputy Mayor Greg Clancy, did not nominate for election at the September 26 council meeting at the Grafton chambers.

Three Palmers Island prawn farms at the centre of the White Spot outbreak in the Clarence River have entered the final stage of decontamination as part of the NSW Department of Primary Industries DPI eradication response ... The extension of the Control Order was a devastating blow for the Clarence prawn trawl industry and trawler operators like Dean Opalniuk, who received no income from prawns this year, where he would usually average $3000 a week in season, leaving him with a business that was worth more than $200,000, now being worthless.

A DA for a 36-lot subdivision at Orion Drive, Yamba, over an area that is predominantly water, has been deferred for one month by Clarence Valley Council to allow consultation with the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation ... this was the second time the DA had been on public exhibition ... the initial DA was lodged in September 2020.

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Lismore City Mayor Steve Krieg has welcomed the return of volunteer organisation, BlazeAid, to assist local farmers with clearing and rebuilding fences ... Following the 2019 North Coast bushfires, BlazeAid set up operations near Casino to help local farmers get their paddocks re-fenced.

Carcoar P.A. & H Society

Casino Show Society

Known as the biggest gathering of teamsters in the nation, the 2023 Good Old Days Festival drew 6000 visitors for the unique working heritage display of blade shearing, chaff cutting, harvesting, ploughing, log snigging, log obstacle course, shoeing, blacksmithing, butter churning, Furphy rebarrelling, working yard dogs, whip cracking, dog jumping, billy boiling and the Australia Light Horse display.

Evans Head locals have captured pictures of the dramatic fiery sky as flames light up the darkness. This evidence of  554 hectares of national park burning south of Evans Head is worrying. Fortunately, the fire continues to travel south which is good news for the seaside town.

Richmond Valley Council has refused the development application at 59 Rileys Hill Road, Broadwater ... “This  development  is not in the public interest and is not suitable for development due to flood risk”: Jemma Donnelly. During the floods in February–March last year, the site was underwater.

Ian Hutton. Since 1978 the Lord Howe Island Museum has acquired many valuable artefacts reflecting the long human history story of the Island ... Libby Baker, regular visitor to the Island and the Museum, has arranged for her family foundation the KEDJE Foundation to sponsor an Island resident to carry out this project putting the LHI Museum artefacts on eHive Lord Howe Island Museum.

Suzie Christensen. The Checkpoint program conducted in July 2023 has found no sign of rats or mice on Lord Howe Island for over two years, signalling a significant milestone in the Rodent Eradication Project ... More than 950 detection device checks were undertaken using 140 tracking tunnels, 32 trail cameras, and 300 wax tags and chew cards, along with sweeps with detection dogs.

Rod Harding. On R U OK? Day (the second Thursday in September), fifteen people gathered on the veranda at the Coral Caf̩, most of whom were hearing about the R U OK? movement for the first time. Amongst them were two tourists, Glenys and me Рthe rest were islanders.

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The fact that an El Nino has finally been declared might seem a distant problem to many horse people. While the natural weather pattern originating in the Pacific Ocean does not necessarily lead to drought, parts of the country such as Gippsland and in NSW near Dubbo have been experiencing very dry conditions for some time.

Two 50-year time capsules buried beneath Murwillumbah library are now available for public viewing before they are retrieved in the coming weeks. The capsules were buried in 1973 at the start of the construction of the Murwillumbah Civic and Cultural Centre, which includes the library.