NSW

The Narrandera District Garden Club’s 2022 Camellia Show at the weekend was one of the best ever, with 960 blooms of exceptional quality on display in the Narrandera Ex-servicemen’s Club auditorium. Garden Club Secretary Denise di Dalvia said it was one of the best shows she had seen in years and attracted a very high quality of blooms from visiting and local exhibitors.

Country Women’s Association members from all over NSW and parts of Victoria joined members from surrounding groups for the Barellan CWA centenary celebrations last week. One very active 90 year old member and her husband travelled from the Gold Coast in Queensland to attend ... A beautifully decorated birthday cake was cut by life members Reta Spencer and Val Hawker and served later as sweets.

There has been much said about the Murray-Darling Basin Authority over the 10 years of Basin Plan implementation ... The latest attempt by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to justify the hydraulic land clearing and loss of capacity of the Murray River needs to be called out for what it is – mismanagement in breach of the 2007 Water Act.

Kirstin Nicholson. Leitchville’s Matthew Hawken is part of a new program designed to strengthen the future of regional communities through capacity building and collaboration. The Drought Resilience Leaders Development Program is an initiative of the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund offered in 12 regions around Australia. The Mallee region program includes 25 people working in agriculture, financial service providers, irrigators and self-employed business consultants.

A plan to have community at the forefront of co-design was the feature of Western Murray Land Improvement Group’s (WMLIG) Reconnecting River Country Program (RRCP) Wakool presentation ... During the night, attendees were walked through the RRCP mapping tool. The maps are generated through computer modelling for various flow options from 15,000 megalitres per day up to 40,000ML/D.

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Incitec Pivot Fertilisers (IPF) has announced it has reached an agreement with Yara Australia to acquire the Yara Nipro liquid fertiliser business in Australia. The acquisition is subject to ACCC clearance. Jeanne Jonns, Incitec Pivot Limited (IPL) MD & CEO, said the Yara Nipro business is complementary to IPF’s broader business, and the acquisition of Yara Nipro operations in Moree and Whitton in New South Wales and Boundary Bend in Victoria will provide excellent liquid fertiliser options and enhanced security of supply for farmers across the east coast of Australia.

The Copmanhurst Saddlery Museum has been closed for last 12 months … but it’s reopening this Sunday August 28, from 1pm to 3pm. Spokesperson Leone Roberts said the museum “used to be a saddle shop” 30 years ago ... Ms Roberts said there would be new items on display, including “furniture items from the Copmanhurst Anglican church, which was sold last year”.

Geoff Helisma. The NSW Government has “supported” six of the 28 recommendations made in the 2022 Flood Inquiry, and “supports in principle 22 recommendations, with further work required on implementation”. Meanwhile, the report’s conclusion states, in part, “More damaging floods and other natural disasters will come, and NSW must shake off its ‘rinse and repeat’ disaster thinking.

A new op shop opens on Wednesday, August 24 in Walker St, Casino. In a town with six op shops, St Mark’s Anglican Church will have prime spot ... The space won’t only be an op-shop. It will have the parish and priest’s offices and there will be a drop-in area where people can have a coffee or tea and a chat.

Cane farmer Tony Carusi said time was critical for planting sugarcane. “It takes time to get the ground ready and we have ideal weather conditions,” Mr Carusi said at his farm near Woodburn ... A Primary Producer Grant was announced by the State Government five months ago to help farmers after the floods. The criteria for the grant are still unknown and the grant has stalled. No money has been given to farmers yet.

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Back in those dreary days of 2021 when we were still being locked down, Atlassian announced that its workers would need to attend at the office just four (yes, 4) times per annum ... So why has the NSW Government kicked-in $48.2m to assist in providing an office for… people who won’t be there? Especially when, as Atlassian management states in their latest Shareholder Letter, they are "Running a software company with nearly $3b in revenue".

A chlamydia vaccine for koalas could increase the species’ resistance to the potentially fatal disease in a trial in south-west Sydney, which is part of an almost $1.7 million NSW Koala Strategy investment across the region ... “Chlamydia is a serious issue for koalas, leading to blindness, infections and infertility in this precious species. This disease weakens koalas and can make them more susceptible to dog attacks and other threats,”: Minister for Environment James Griffin

Research led by a Charles Sturt University academic examined the innovative ‘SayBananas!’ app that may assist children with speech sound disorders (SSD) and their parents living in less populated areas ... the effectiveness study examined the usability and rating of ‘SayBananas!’, a Mario-style video-game providing high-dose individualised speech therapy with rural Australian children.

Dorrobbee Grass Reserve is a beautiful reserve that surrounds the large concrete water tank on the hill just north of Dunoon. It is a special place of great cultural significance to the traditional custodians, the Widjabul Wia-bal people. The reserve is a traditional Aboriginal camping and travelling route maintained through cultural land-management practices, including cultural burning. The reserve is also a remnant ‘island’ of fire-dependent grassland and one of the last intact grassland ecosystems within the Big Scrub bioregion .

Bundjalung Nghari - Indigenise. This August, experience original theatre with Bundjalung Nghari (meaning: story), a collection of performed stories, poems and essays, penned by Bundjalung writers ... In September, Love for One Night at The Eltham Hotel is a circle dance of intersecting love stories told in the playful and theatrical style of NORPA’s sell-out shows Railway Wonderland and Dreamland.

In anticipation of the return to a pre-Covid summer, the Australian Lifeguard Service is recruiting new Lifeguards to bolster its team of beach safety professionals ahead of the raising of the flags that signifies the start of the season, taking place in the September school holidays. It presents a fantastic opportunity to engage yourself in a rewarding role which will keep you fit and on the beach across the summer.

We continue with our 'Messy Church' programme which happens on the first Saturday of the month. Messy Church is church for families who may not find other forms of church appealing and who do not yet belong to a church. It is held once a month, and it includes hands-on creative experiences, a celebration, and a meal. It does not prioritise either the needs of children or adults but intentionally welcomes and provides for all ages.

A landmark new initiative will help firefighters and farmers work together to better protect communities in regional and rural NSW from bush fires and grass fires. Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke released a first-of-its-kind Operational Guide for the use of Farm Fire Units.