NSW

From humble beginnings working out of an old cow bail in 1971 to featuring at Tweed Regional Gallery, the Murwillumbah Potters have reason to celebrate their 50th year.

NSW Farmers has developed a five-point-plan to tackle an acute seasonal labour shortage in the agricultural sector and avoid an impending shortage of fresh fruit and vegetables. The plan focuses on lowering quarantine costs, a workable visa approval process, state control of arrival caps, increased incentives for Australian workers and labour mobility across state borders.

Racing NSW today announced prizemoney increases of some $20 million annually and the creation of a new $100,000 Midway Race to be added to metropolitan Saturday race meetings. This announcement is highlighted by almost $9 million of increases in prizemoney for country race meetings to be applied across all sectors of country racing including non-TAB and Picnic races.

Kirstin Nicholson. This week we introduce you to Mark Bishop and Clancy Graham from Sunbury who, along with their four children, Isabella, Connor, Henry and Beau, aged four to ten, now call Cohuna home. Mark and Clancy purchased a house on the edge of Cohuna and moved in last month.

Speak Up Campaign chair Lachlan Marshall said removing policy makers out of regional centres and locating them in city offices has resulted in isolated decision making, where local knowledge is disregarded. He described the Snowy Hydro Scheme as “a great example of the disconnect between the southern food bowl and the city decision-makers”, and is concerned that under the latest water strategy the NSW Murray would “miss out again”.

Mary took photos of the devastation and has collated the images into two books that are available at the Casino Library. The books are a chronicle of how the fire disrupted their lives. She photographed the twisted metal and remains of their home, the misshapen cutlery burned into a mass, the black sewing machine and the burnt-out cars Danny was fixing.

The Casino Food Co-op is expanding its operations with a new $5 million retail facility on the Summerland Way that has been approved by Richmond Valley Council. The development application for a building to replace a smaller facility means the co-op can increase its output of meat products for Coles, Woolworths and Aldi.

About 100 people were stranded for five days last week at Green Pigeon by the floodwaters of Fawcetts Creek. The usual wooden bridge access was gone. Matthews Bridge, known as Burgess Bridge by locals, was pulled down because Kyogle Council was building a new one in its place.

Geoff Helisma. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic came close to stopping the Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League (NRRRL) from holding its competitions and, as a result, the Lower Clarence Magpies didn't field first grade, reserve grade and U18 teams in the shortened season. This year, head coach Carl Press says his "main aim is to get competitive teams on the park".

Geoff Helisma. It was a particularly sad day for Brooms Head resident Steve Otton when he discovered an emu he had been following and photographing had been killed crossing Brooms Head Road at about 6pm on February 19 near Tailem Drive ... "On top of this, not one but three NPWS Emu warning signs have been yet again ripped from their stakes overnight ... After finding the signs down late Saturday I then spotted, with delight and horror, a pair of emus about to cross the road. I waved down this red car as to the action ahead as the pair of emus tip-toed across the road at the 'Emu Crossing' half way along the horror 100km overtaking straight."

Geoff Helisma. “Sama-Sama (Together) is a small event to convey to our community that during COVID-19, Sama-Sama we are strong and Sama-Sama we can see this difficult time through,” says Lower Clarence Multicultural Committee (LCMC) member Bobby McCaughey.

The University of Newcastle has released an economic impact assessment and environmental benefit analysis of the Great Koala National Park proposed for the mid north coast of New South Wales. ARR.News has received a critical analysis of the report to which the University has responded. Over to you.

Race caller Col Hodges chats with Fiona Fox about a good day at the races.

Michelle Whiley, BPRC reporting. After a sceptical start, 24mls on the track overnight and a very tense track inspection, we were declared able to race ...

Last year it was difficult to deal with the bombardment of bad news that came from COVID-19. So, hearing about the great year that the McNaul family’s paddock-to-plate agribusiness, ‘Outback Harvest’, has had was a refreshing change ... Teff is an ancient grain of Ethiopia – which offers a gluten-free, healthy alternative to the plain flours currently out there ...

Kirstin Nicholson. Former Cohuna Consolidated School pupil, Kathryn Wilson, has returned to the school she attended as a child, but this time in a teaching capacity.

Federal government of both sides have presided over a plan to save the Murray Darling Basin. It is the biggest water reform since Federation, based on political deception, ignorance, scientific perjury, greed, corruption and the raping of our countryside. And all this is from the information publicly available. The Darling, the Murray, the Murrumbidgee, all a mess, but for very different reasons ...

Ahead of an event to encourage women to become councillors, we ask three current councillors about their experiences. Four of the nine Kyogle councillors are female. Richmond Valley Council has two out of seven.