WA

Open winners: Ken Atherton – Ramulam Punch, Open Utility; Nigel Armstrong – Tumutvalley Roy, Open Yard.

A free community stargazing event at Cunderdin on 29 October 2021.

Patricia Gill. Psychologist Jackie Ormsby has been elected unopposed for the Kent/Nornalup Ward while eight candidates will vie for five vacant seats on the Denmark Shire Council. Five people have nominated for three vacant seats in the Scotsdale/Shadforth Ward including deputy shire president Mark Allen and sitting councillor, Jan Lewis. Businessman Nathan Devenport, WA College of Agriculture Denmark residential manager Kelli Gillies – a former deputy shire president – and wildlife conservation organisation director Clare Campbell have also nominated. ... A former ministerial policy adviser, Ms Ormsby was surprised to be elected unopposed.

Denmark's first Classic Boat Show will run alongside the Great Southern Classic Car Show with the boats on the Denmark River at Berridge Park on Sunday, September 26 from 10am-3pm. The classic boats on show will range from some built in the 1920s to retro boats built recently.

Serena Kirby. The WA College of Agriculture Denmark showcased a wide range of activities this month at its annual open day ... From machinery maintenance and aquaculture to forestry and calf rearing, students and staff demonstrated the farm-based programs run by the school.

A popular East Kimberley event held in May this year, and supported by the McGowan Government, injected around $6 million into the local economy and recorded its highest-ever ticket sales.

A nationwide operation has been launched aiming to bolster the supply of local workers to help deliver this year’s bumper grains harvest and relieve pressure on farming communities. Retired and former ADF servicemen and women are being motivated and mobilised under Operation Grain Harvest Assist, to answer the call-up and work on grain farms stationed throughout Australia.

Expressions of interest are now being called for the McGowan Government's inaugural Animal Welfare Advisory Committee.

Magic will be in the air at this year’s Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival featuring yet another stellar line-up of local and West Australian authors, illustrators, storytellers, poets and musicians.

Back for its highly anticipated second year,  Strings Attached: The West  Australian Guitar Festival  is bringing together players, makers and enthusiasts of the stringed-persuasion for a weekend of guitar-fuelled entertainment in Margaret River, WA.

Yesterday  Yanchep News Online  reported Opposition Transport spokesman Shane Love had called for the McGowan Government to answer legitimate questions about whether the Yanchep rail extension was on budget and on time. Today in his first Budget as Treasurer the Premier Mark McGowan said as well as the Yanchep rail extension being deferred one year the Joondalup Light Auto Workshop had also been deferred one year with completion now expected in mid‑2024.

Gingin trainer Sue Olive says her plan is for Mystical View to go the Black Hart Bart Stakes in a fortnight after tackling the Seacorp Handicap (1200m) at Belmont Park on Saturday 11 September.

Port Hedland Council has endorsed a proposal from Aviair to provide financial support to continue operating four return weekly inter-regional flights from Port Hedland, connecting the port city with Karratha, Newman and Broome over the next five years.

Macquarie has sold its 105,000 hectare Lawson Grains portfolio for more than half a billion dollars to Sydney-based New Forests and Canada’s Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo). The portfolio comprises more than 70 assets – or 10 aggregations – across Western Australia and New South Wales that Macquarie Agriculture had collected since the fund’s launch in 2012.

“The IFA/AFG is concerned that professional forest scientists, researchers and managers do not appear to have been consulted to inform this decision, and also questions whether the views and aspirations of Traditional Owners have been considered,” IFA/ AFG VP Dr Freeman said. “This thought-bubble policy is out of step with the rest of the world, which views well-regulated, sustainable native forest management and biodiverse plantings as the preferred source of timber, because of their positive contribution to climate change mitigation, biodiversity and forest resilience."

Surf Life Saving WA's (SLSWA) shark mitigation services begin for another season this weekend - with the McGowan Government providing longer term certainty for the program with funding in the State Budget until 2024-25.

Shire of Gingin brigades will join City of Wanneroo brigades in having access to their own thermal imaging cameras this bushfire season ... The cameras help firefighters identify hotspots in bushfires, enabling them to target specific areas and deploy their resources accordingly. They are also an important tool to detect fires burning underground, which are a common threat in Western Australia and can cause bushfires to reignite after they have been extinguished.

The York Agricultural Society was founded in 1840 in York, Western Australia’s first inland town... These days the Society's primary focus is the annual York Agricultural Show, held on the first Saturday of September each year as a celebration of all things agricultural and the York community.

Following months of record rainfall and vegetation growth residents are urged to start preparing their families and properties for the coming bushfire season. City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said a well prepared home and property is more likely to survive a bush fire and can also be easier to defend.