WA

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The 2023/24 National Pony Racing Series reaches its peak with a thrilling final at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse ... Young riders, aged 9 to 15 years, representing Pony Clubs nationwide, will vie for victory ...

Betheney A’Vard. The Department of Transport provides an update on the upgrades to the Two Rocks marina, including those due to be undertaken in phase two. Reporter Betheney A’Vard spoke to Cameron Smith from the Department of Transport’s maritime section who said the marina mainly catered to the fishing and boat servicing industries but also the charter industry and recreational boating.

A new exhibition at the State Library of Western Australia follows the trail of cameleers who left a significant cultural and economic legacy in Western Australia. Camels and those who cared for them were a familiar sight along the tracks connecting Australia's outback to the coast 150 years ago.

Some rough numbers: 18 million hectares make up Western Australia’s freehold grain belt. Back in 1970 we had 20,000 growers and farms averaged about 1500ha in size, today we have 4000 broadacre farmers with the average farm about 3000ha ... While we may think our version of the family farm will be here forever, think again. The mega global family farms are on the march and so are the corporates.

Notice how there is a deathly silence by the big foreign pension and sovereign investment funds on the merits of the Government's planned end to the live export trade. These are the foreign entities that have been quietly buying up millions of acres of Australian  farmland.

On the last day of abalone fishing this season reporter Chris Van Der Merwe visited Yanchep Lagoon while the Yanchep Surf Life Saving Club was patrolling the beach. As well as keeping people safe the club performs rescues and educates the community.

Williams Gateway Expo

Salt River Road, by WA award winning author Molly Schmidt, is definitely a book with a difference.   Written with a mixture of prose and poetry, it tells the story of the rurally-based Tetley family in the aftermath of the loss of their mother ... Australian Regional and Rural News interviewer, Serena Kirby, chatted with Molly to find out more about the unique and beautiful techniques she used in the book and the personal experiences that shaped her writing.  

When I started as a young forester in the late 1980s, I yearned for the opportunity to work in our native forests. While assessing a coupe to plan for a tree harvesting operation, I knew I was inheriting a forest structure that benefited from silvicultural practices adopted by foresters a few generations before me. Foresters aim to make the forest more productive by applying scientific principles to aid in the regeneration of the next crop of trees and to encourage the best growth of the retained trees. My responsibility was to continue that tradition for foresters a few generations ahead of me.

Serena Kirby. Local winemaker Mike Garland was one of 50 cyclists who stopped in at Denmark Senior High School as part of WA’s annual Ride For Youth fundraiser. The cyclists joined 150 students from years eight and nine to talk about youth mental health.

Patricia Gill. Business developer and founder of Denmark-based Acare WA Marie Redman has proposed that the Shire of Denmark buildings be vacated to make way for seniors’ accommodation. Her suggestion, which would involve the Shire moving into the site of Supa IGA and a new big supermarket being built elsewhere, was met with applause at last Thursday’s meeting at the Riverside Club.

About 150 people gathered at Nornalup on March 23 to protest about the State Government’s plan to burn 80ha of nearby mostly-unlogged tingle forest. Nornalup community members are angry about the planned burn which environmentalists say is counter-productive to fire mitigation and destructive to the environment.

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First, there was a ban on climbing Ayers Rock, gasp - what did he call it… where are the name police when you need them, or the indoctrinated millennials, I am referring to the rock you know as Uluru, and believe it or not, once upon a time your parents were allowed to climb it. Now the hunt is on to ban the Kimberley's Horizontal Falls experience, no doubt accompanied by a name change to the Garaan-ngaddim Non-Experience ... Are we heading back to the dark ages in Europe when the local lord charged you to cross his land and only the wealthy could hunt and fish on it? You bet we are.

Kerry Munns, whose happy abstract art adorns people as well as walls, moved with her family to Cowalla from Beacon about 10 years ago ... As well as turning her paintings into wearable art, Mrs Munns sells her original artworks, opens up her art studio for abstract painting workshops and holds plein air painting classes on her property, alongside the Moore River.

A Two Rocks man has been fined more than $11,000 and has been prohibited from having a recreational marron fishing licence or possessing marron or marron fishing gear for three years, after being charged for illegal fishing offences last year. The 33-year-old man was caught during a joint overnight patrol by DPIRD fisheries officers and WA Police, three weeks after the 2023 marron season closed.

The Balingup Small Farm Field Day is being held on Saturday April 6th 9am til 3.30pm on Balingup Town Oval. It is the largest of its kind in the area and has been running every year since 1991 except for COVID cancellations. Farm visits run on 6th and 7th April.

You could easily say that Leanne McKenzie is a high flyer - but not in the traditional sense of the word.   Leanne is a pilot but she’s also President of her local aero club in Albany WA and she’s one of less than a handful of females to hold such a position. But Leanne has another venture underway and it’s one that her aero club is actually famous for as the Albany Aero Club was once a global hub for self-built planes.

Established in 1954, the 2024 Festival marks the 70th Anniversary of this important Donnybrook community event. Following the success of the immersive, “Street Festival” approach in 2023, the Apple Festival will again be held throughout the main street of Donnybrook from the Amphitheatre at one end of town to Egan Park incorporating Ayers Garden, Station Square, Apple Fun Park, Pump Track and part of Collins Street.

The Nationals WA have opposed Labor’s contentious Firearms Bill 2024 as the full impact on WA’s health system and individual licence holders was revealed during debate this week. Nationals Leader Shane Love MLA said a months-old briefing note from WA Police, which was only provided to Parliament this week, laid bare the scope of the new mandatory health assessments which WA’s 90,000 licensed firearms holders will soon be subject to.

Serena Kirby. The Denmark Men’s Shed now has more women than men using its facilities. Every Tuesday and Friday the shed is taken over by Women’s Shed members and there’s been no shortage of women wanting to get on the tools to build, repair and repurpose a wide range of items.