ARTISTS living in the Dungog, Muswellbrook, Singleton and Upper Hunter Shires can now enter this year’s Viola Bromley Art Prize. The Viola Bromley is a celebration of local art across the disciplines of painting, works on paper, sculpture and photography, with artists of all backgrounds and identities strongly encouraged to participate. Viola was part of […]
The Perseids: nature’s most dazzling night show
EVERY year around mid-August, the sky puts on one of its most spectacular performances – the Perseid meteor shower. A favourite for stargazers and amateur astronomers alike, the Perseids are famous for their brilliance, speed, and sheer number of meteors. This isn’t just a quiet trickle of falling stars – it’s a fireworks show written […]
Increased rate of NSW adults getting sunburnt
ALMOST one million adults across the state were sunburnt at least once over a four-week period, according to a new report from the Cancer Institute NSW. The “Sun Protection Behaviours Report”, released last week, shows 15 percent of people surveyed reported being sunburnt, up from 12 percent in the previous report. The research analyses data […]

Grants open for projects which improve young lives in NSW
THE Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) and Vincent Fairfax Foundation (VFFF) are inviting applications for grants of $50,000 from individuals to develop innovative ideas that enhance the lives of young people (aged 12-30) in remote, rural, and regional NSW. The grants are available through the Backing the Future program. In NSW, the program […]

Roadblocks abound en route to decarbonisation of Australia’s freight industry
Transport engineering expert, Dr Elnaz Irannezhad from UNSW’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The freight industry is under growing pressure as it struggles to align with Australia’s sustainability targets. Photo: NSW Government. FREIGHT is critical to Australia’s economy but a University of NSW (UON) expert is warning the industry is falling behind on the […]
The first astronomers: Australia’s Indigenous stargazers
LONG before observatories dotted the land and satellites blinked overhead, the First Peoples of Australia were reading the stars. For over 65,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have looked to the sky – not for abstraction, but for connection, direction, and survival. Theirs is the oldest continuous astronomical tradition on Earth. To these […]
Leadership competition invites young leaders to life-changing Power Trip in Canberra
YOUNG rural women and non-binary students in Years 10 to 12 from across Australia will have the opportunity to win a once-in-a-lifetime ‘Power Trip’ to the nation’s capital. Country to Canberra’s (C2C) prestigious Leadership Competition launched on Monday, opening the door for young rural leaders to embark on a four-day leadership experience designed to help […]

Estimated thousands trapped in Australian farm slavery
A BACKPACKER hoping for a memorable working holiday on an Australian farm finds himself crammed into a house with 17 people, eating dry bread and deprived of sunshine and fresh air. After arriving on a visa from China, the young man had headed to a small town on the NSW coast in 2024 to pick […]
Clarence Town’s most highly decorated soldier
SGT Leslie Spurgeon Holmes in Egypt, 1917. Photo: Mr LG Holmes. Major Martin Holmes CSM (retired) pictured at the War Memorial at Clarence Town on Anzac Day. SGT Leslie Spurgeon Holmes was Martin’s great-grand uncle. THE most highly decorated soldier memorialised on the Clarence Town War Memorial is SGT Leslie (Les) Spurgeon […]
Election signs in the firing line as Lyne campaign heats up
CANDIDATES from across the political spectrum have complained of campaign signs being damaged and defaced during a tense campaign for the seat of Lyne. Earlier this month, Libertarian candidate Mark Hornshaw told NOTA his campaign banner on the Pacific Highway at Herons Creek had been vandalised. The banner featured images of Mr Hornshaw and Libertarian […]