ENERGY retailers say they’ve been blindsided by reforms promising free electricity to hundreds of thousands of Australians during peak solar power hours. The Solar Sharer program, announced by the federal government last Tuesday, would give consumers free access to electricity for three hours each day as part of the default offer available. Households in NSW, […]

ELEVEN stock horses bred and trained by students at Tocal College have fetched a total of $168,000 in winning bids at the annual Approved Australian Stock Horse (ASH) Sale held over 2 and 3 November. Now in its 17th year, the sale event showcased the strength of Tocal College’s equine training program and dedication of […]

LANDHOLDERS across NSW are being encouraged to take advantage of $850,000 worth of free grain and bait on offer as part of a statewide crackdown on feral pigs. The funding is part of the Government’s Feral Pig and Pest Program with funding from the State’s more than $1 billion biosecurity budget. It is the third […]

STATE government-appointed Return and Earn network provider, Tomra, has rejected a proposal to install a Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) in Paterson. Since March last year, locals have tried to persuade Tomra to install an RVM, similar to those in Dungog. Paterson locals can drive 33km to Dungog, only to find that the machine is not […]

A NEW online tool is available to help NSW farmers better prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters including fire, flood, and drought. The platform, called myStockPlanner, enables farmers to provide details of their farm, risks and resources to access tailored response options to consider and implement with their feed and livestock. Federal […]

The woodchop competition was a centrepiece of the event. Photo: Thomas O’Keefe. RFS volunteers from Karuah and Medowie turned out to help attendees get ready for summer. Photo: Thomas O’Keefe. Stallholders were busy as the crowds rolled in. Photo: Thomas O’Keefe. Tea Gardens Lions kept the people fed with their famous portable barbecue. Photo: Thomas […]

The organising committee at Murrook Culture Centre planning the event. Photo: supplied. THE inaugural Worimi and Birrpai Youth Gathering is being hosted by the Goori-Bugg family later this week at Saltwater, near Old Bar. Activities will include weaving, grass skirt making, emu egg carving, canoe and gunya building, and a Goori song and dance. The […]

RISING temperatures over Antarctica have been a major contributing factor to recent volatile weather along the East Coast, according to new information from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). A “sudden stratospheric warming” (SSW) is to blame. This is a documented weather scenario in which air temperatures high above the South Pole rise by 30 degrees […]

THANKS to grants from the NSW State Government, 2DCR Radio Dungog 107.9FM is moving into new studios. In addition, the community station is now being heard clearly by four times the number of listeners, with a new aerial located on Coorei Hill. Reception has gone from being just in the town of Dungog and immediate […]

THE chance of large-scale flooding in a specific catchment area can increase by as much as 700 percent if widespread deforestation has occurred. That is the finding of a new paper by academics who analysed decades of flooding data from regions in Australia which frequently suffer forest fires. The loss of forest canopy has long […]