The year flies past so quickly, sometimes it’s difficult to remember what made the news – so here are some of our most popular stories for you to revisit.
12. Snowy stores key power components in massive Goulburn warehouse
by John Thistleton
Work continues inside the transformer hall of the underground power station which is under construction at Lobs Hole in the Snowy Mountains. Equipment for the power station is being stored in Goulburn. Photo: Snowy 2.0.
Electricity generator Snowy Hydro is leasing a huge warehouse on Goulburn’s southern outskirts to store electrical and mechanical equipment for an underground power station.
The new leasing deal for the former Coles distribution centre, which closed in 2022, will create up to 30 jobs. Coles’ decision to consolidate its logistics operation in Sydney’s west saw more than 200 Goulburn people lose their jobs at the end of 2021.
Snowy Hydro is leasing the entire 48,000-sqm warehouse which stands on 16.25 hectares at Lillkar Road near the Run-O-Waters rural residential estate for the equipment being stored.
11. Historic Ardlethan and Bumbaldry mines poised to lead clean energy mineral boom
by Edwina Mason
Ardlethan Tin Mine has been identified as one of 28 mines in the state with resources vital to clean energy technologies. Photo: Australian Tin Resources.
Two historic mines in southern NSW – the Ardlethan Tin Mine and the Broula King (Bumbaldry) Gold Mine – are poised not only for revival but also to become crucial suppliers of critical minerals essential for clean energy technologies.
Cutting-edge research has revealed valuable resources hidden in their old waste, positioning these sites, among a generous handful across regional NSW, to play an important role in the global transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles.
10. Rare marsupial spotted in Kosciuszko National Park, raising hope for species recovery
by Edwina Mason
As DCCEEW staff pored through thousands of surveillance photos taken in the remote Byadbo Wilderness in Kosciuszko National Park, they spotted a unique and extremely rare visitor to that part of the woods in this little long-footed potoroo. Photo: NSW NPWS.
A long-footed potoroo – one of Australia’s rarest marsupials – has been photographed in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), a discovery that has ecologists excited about the secretive species’ survival in NSW.
Dr Doug Mills, senior ecologist with the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), said the long-footed potoroo (Potorous longipes) was an adorable small marsupial, usually weighing 1.5 to 2.5 kilograms and often likened in size to a bettong or bandicoot.
9. ‘Deeply disappointing and devastating’: Moruya reacts to suspicious blaze
by Claire Sams
Much of the Vulcan Street building, including the roof, was damaged in the fire on 4 September. Photo: Fire and Rescue NSW.
Moruya residents and businesses are coming to terms with the news of an alleged arson attack in their town.
Emergency services were called to Vulcan Street just after 2:40 am on 4 September.
It took multiple NSW Fire and Rescue and NSW RFS units several hours to extinguish the fire, which destroyed two business premises, including real estate agency LJ Hooker Moruya’s office.
8. Goulburn’s main street under water in new era of flood planning
by John Thistleton
Goulburn’s Lower Sterne Street on 9 August, 2020. More than 83 mm of rain fell that day. Photo: Leon Oberg.
Hard as it is to imagine Goulburn’s main street under two metres of floodwater, recent flooding on Australia’s eastern coastline and inland has reminded planners and government agencies to never say never.
A civil engineer in Goulburn with surveyors and planners Premise, Paul Johnson, has seen a different mindset emerge about flooding because of the amount of unprecedented rainfall recorded these days.
He says across NSW, councils including Goulburn Mulwaree are updating their most recent flood studies because of the bigger emphasis on climate change and climate change drivers, which can influence the frequencies and additional rainfall that we can’t predict.
7. Regional principal headed for Canberra school
by Claire Sams
Jacqueline Heffernan is swapping coastal NSW for a Canberra school. Photo: Carroll College, Broulee Facebook.
A beloved South Coast principal is moving interstate to take up a different position in the new year.
Jacqueline Heffernan has been a familiar face to students and families at Carroll College in Broulee, in Eurobodalla Shire, since 2019.
From 2026, she will be taking the helm of St Mary MacKillop College in Canberra as its principal.
6. ‘No favourites’ promise not binding: Court rules on inheritance dispute over $20 million Riverina farm
by Oliver Jacques
The large farming property is near the small town of Barmedman. Photo: Wikipedia.
The Supreme Court has dismissed an accountant’s claim for a greater share of his deceased father’s $20 million Riverina farming estate, after the final will left the vast majority of his wealth to his other son.
However, the judge made provision for a third sibling and only daughter in the family to get an extra $300,000 out of the estate.
5. Eurobodalla Shire councillors divided over Batemans Bay Master Plan
by Marion Williams
There are five key gateway and landmark sites in the Batemans Bay Master Plan. Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council website.
The concept of 100-metre-high buildings seemed a bit too steep for some councillors when they debated releasing the Batemans Bay Master Plan for public exhibition.
The debate took up a fair amount of the almost four-hour meeting on 25 March.
The plan says Batemans Bay is “in a position where significant change needs to occur to realise the full potential of the locality”.
4. Decades-long legal stoush between Granties Maze and Kiama Council ends with destruction order
by Zoe Cartwright
The owner of Granties Maze has been ordered to demolish 27 of the attractions at the park. Photo: Google Maps.
Granties Maze owner John Grant has butted heads with Kiama Council since the 1980s – he’s now been ordered to demolish a number of unapproved rides and attractions on his Foxground property.
3. Bay dredging work may help replenish embattled Surfside beaches
by Kim Treasure
Beach scraping at Surfside’s East Beach saw sand from the tidal zone pushed up onto the dunes. Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council.
A four-week dredging operation in Batemans Bay aimed to support navigation for commercial and recreational vessels and hopefully give some respite to Surfside homes threatened by coastal erosion.
The dredging aims to maintain a navigable channel about 40 metres wide and to a depth of -2.6 metres Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT).
2. ‘It has corrected a wrong’: Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act repeal passes NSW Government’s Lower House
by Jarryd Rowley
Member for Wagga Dr Joe McGirr said the NSW Legislative Council’s decision to approve The Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Repeal Bill 2025 was a step to right a wrong made when the original bill was introduced in 2018. Photo: Supplied.
A bill to repeal the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act has officially passed the NSW Legislative Assembly.
According to the MP who introduced the bill, Member for Wagga Dr Joe McGirr, it aims to repeal protections granted to feral horses on the Kosciuszko reserve under the existing Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act in hopes of protecting the national park.
1. Bega Valley couple facing homelessness as council insists their tiny home on wheels needs a DA
by Marion Williams
Josh Heins and Manu Bohn and their tiny home on wheels. Photo: Supplied.
A young couple living in a tiny home on a trailer on a friend’s farm has been issued with a compliance order from Bega Valley Shire Council. It tells them to remove or demolish the house. Failure to comply could make the landowners liable for $1 million in costs.
Josh Heins and his partner Manu Bohn wanted to settle down in the Bermagui/Cobargo area.
“We thought about a tiny home as an option because the rental market was so tight,” Mr Heins said. “We wanted to live on the land, so instead of renting a property, we thought we could get a little bit of land or find a supportive landowner.”
