There were so many wonderful stories from our communities during 2025. Take a look back at the stories that made us a smile (or maybe shed a tear or two) – and see if you can guess what was our most popular read.
18. Horses lead the way to healing in the Snowy Mountains
by Edwina Mason
Former Army officer Ali Coulton has married her military experience with her understanding of horses to help others heal. Photo: Ali Coulton.
When Ali Colton talks about the power of horses, she speaks from experience.
“I always felt better around horses as a teenager,” she said, “but it wasn’t until Tilt, my first horse as an adult, that I really understood how much they could support my mental health.”
Little did she know that Tilt would literally shift her life in a direction that is now a far cry from her days serving as an adjutant at Royal Military College Duntroon.
17. Vale Robin Innes: ‘Not only was she our mum … she truly was the matriarch of Batemans Bay’
by Jodie O’Sullivan
Batemans Bay businesswoman and tourism trailblazer Robin Innes, 87, died at her beloved Oceanview guesthouse on 14 October 2025. Photo: Supplied.
The legacy left by Batemans Bay matriarch Robin Innes will be one of enduring love for her family and community.
The 87-year-old tourism trailblazer, businesswoman, and “Grandma to all” passed away on 14 October at her beloved ‘Oceanview’ home in the arms of extended family.
16. The ex-cop from Young who hunted the truth in her own bloodline
by Edwina Mason
Kelly Slater (left) with Johnny Regan’s de facto wife Margaret Yates and journalist Matthew Condon. Photo: Supplied by Kelly Slater.
He was known as “The Magician”, a nickname he gained from making people disappear, but his real name was Stewart Regan. Now, his cousin from Thuddungra, a former police officer, is delving into his life from a whole new angle.
15. Back on track: Stockinbingal’s railway past meets its future
by Edwina Mason
As hundreds of Inland Rail workers prepare to move into temporary accommodation just outside Stockinbingal, remnants of history still stand as a reminder of the town’s booming railway days. Photo: Visit NSW.
Once a booming, bustling railway hub, the tiny village of Stockinbingal is enjoying a population resurgence thanks to the Inland Rail project.
14. South Coast dentist pulls a ‘Big Tooth’ for April Fool’s Day
by James Coleman
Don’t let the facts get in the way of the Big Tooth. Photo: Screenshot, Tidy Tooth Dental, Facebook.
Australia’s collection of big things is about to grow … um, bigger and whiter, with the announcement of a ‘Big Tooth’ coming to the new roundabout outside Broulee on the South Coast.
The giant concrete tooth is said to stand more than 14 metres high, and not only promote oral hygiene but also – thanks to inbuilt nesting sites – serve as a sanctuary for “native endangered species”. Just kidding. This was on 1 April.
13. Verna, wartime baby who climbed to the front of crowded classes
by John Thistleton
Our Lady of Mercy College high school pupils in 1960. The boarders in their jackets are seated, while the day students are standing. Verna Taylor is back row third on the right with a cheeky smile. Photo: Taylor family collection.
While disappointed her teaching career was cut short, Verna Taylor estimates she taught about 1000 little children how to read, a wonderful reward with long-lasting benefits.
12. Remembering a quiet country boy who joined global highfliers
by John Thistleton
In a dusting of snow, Graeme Frazer and his younger brother Norman about to leave their property for Yarra Public School about 1965-66 when Yarra was a railway-stop settlement with two service stations straddling the Hume Highway, just south of Goulburn. Photo: Frazer family collection.
Goulburn High School’s class of 1976 are remembering their classmate Norman Frazer for his gentle ways and inspirational achievements.
Norman died in Melbourne after a five-year battle with melanoma. An aeronautical engineer with British Aerospace, he worked up until three weeks before his death, aged 66.
11. 25 km feral-proof fence safeguards threatened species
by Marion Williams
The group at the opening of the Nungatta feral predator-free area in South-East Forest National Park. Photo: David Rogers Photography.
The 2000-hectare Nungatta feral predator-free area in South-East Forest National Park is complete, protecting more than 13 threatened species.
The NSW Government announced the South Coast’s first feral predator-free area on World Environment Day (6 June).
It provides a safe haven for some of NSW’s most vulnerable native species including the eastern pygmy possum, yellow-bellied glider and powerful owl, as well as allows the introduction of up to nine locally extinct mammals.
10. Wartime bunkers reveal Moruya’s place in ‘one big jigsaw puzzle’
by Claire Sams
This is one of the “little igloos” built on the NSW South Coast during the war. Photo: Gary Traynor.
Moruya’s military history will soon be on display as the country marks a major anniversary.
Four structures were built by the Royal Australian Air Force (the RAAF) during the Second World War, linking to other coastal defences and the nearby Moruya airbase amid invasion fears.
9. Weighing the tea and sugar at McLaughlins Store, North Goulburn
by John Thistleton
Best known for their grocery store in Union Street, Goulburn, the McLaughlin family, from left, back row, Percy, Kitty, Neville, Laurie, Jean and Ray. Front row, from left, Rita, Irene, Billy, Bill and Keith. Photo: McLaughlin family collection.
A self-contained village with butcher shop, two grocery shops, schools and hotel, North Goulburn was bustling with growing families between the world wars, and almost everyone knew the McLaughlins.
8. From Cowcumbla to Westminster: The extraordinary life of Patricia Richards
by Edwina Mason
Patricia’s life took quite the turn when she met the Earl of Jersey. Photos: Trove.
In the summer of 1931, a young woman who’d been raised amid the dusty paddocks outside Cootamundra stepped into a London ballroom and into the orbit of an English earl.
Patricia Richards, daughter of a Riverina grazier, spent her early years on Cowcumbla — a station better known for Merino wool than for making international headlines.
Within months, she would become the Countess of Jersey.
7. Archie’s rise from bin 59 to Christmas dinner and national fame
by John Thistleton
Archie Hancock appeared on Christmas postcards in Goulburn about the time he became a national celebrity, appearing on 60 Minutes and the Ray Martin Midday Show, after his election at the age of 80. Photo: Supplied by Helen Hawkins..
In moth-eaten clothes done up with safety pins that he called ”bachelor’s buttons”, Archie Hancock became an unlikely hero in Goulburn in the early 1980s when he was elected to the city council on his fourth attempt.
Archie is best remembered for walking from his cottage at North Goulburn into town every day with a potato sack over his shoulder and rifling through garbage bins in the streets and parks.
His election to the council at age 80 outraged some people. An editorial in the local paper warned of the council being turned into a circus.
6. An architectural icon has a rosy future thanks to new owners revitalising Braidwood’s big pink pub
by Tenele Conway
Braidwood’s big pink pub, the Braidwood Hotel, is recognised for its significant Georgian facade. Photos: Tenele Conway.
Recognised by Visit NSW as the finest example of an original Georgian-style hotel still operating in Australia, the Braidwood Hotel is under new ownership and this dynamic duo has big plans for the big pink pub.
5. In a town of 72 people, the Nerriga Hotel punches above its weight with a recipe for classic country hospitality
by Tenele Conway
A real bush pub experience awaits at the Nerriga Hotel. Photo: Tenele Conway.
The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town of Nerriga only has one commercial business. It’s the pub, post office and cafe all in one, and it’s punching above its weight when it comes to serving its community.
4. Bermagui loses part of its fishing history with loss of fishing vessel Volition
by Marion Williams
Built in 1972, Volition had been owned by two of Bermagui’s most well-known fishing families – Jubb and Puglisi. Photo: Bermagui Historical Society.
When the fishing vessel Volition broke up on the night of 27 February after running aground very early that day, Bermagui lost a piece of its history.
Rocky Lagana, CEO of the Bermagui Fishermen’s Co-operative, said the boat had been working in the tuna longline industry from Bermagui for the past 20 years.
3. Old walls offer new beginnings as old convent’s transformed into a home of healing
by Edwina Mason
The former Sisters of St Joseph convent at Taralga will now serve as a transition house for graduates of The Farm at Galong. Photo: Trip Advisor.
A Taralga convent has become the new home for women rebuilding their lives.
It marks an important expansion for a faith-based therapeutic community, which has spent nearly a decade helping women recover from trauma, addiction and the systemic disadvantages that often accompany generational poverty and family separation.
2. Streets full of families came to rely on Jepsen’s corner store
by John Thistleton
Greg Jepsen outside the former family corner store on the corner of Cowper and Clifford streets, Goulburn. The family slept in three bedrooms upstairs including the boys’ bedroom on the open balcony with a large blind (now enclosed, at right). Susie remembers the boys hanging their socks through chicken wire to air at night. One freezing winter’s morning they discovered the socks were frozen stiff. Photo: John Thistleton.
Big families, baked dinners and twopenny bungers blowing jam tins sky high to celebrate the Queens birthday created unforgettable memories for anyone growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. At the heart of all the action was the corner store.
Reeking of freshly baked bread and bundles of unwrapped newspapers, family-run corner stores in Goulburn once served their neighbourhoods as if they were an extended family.
1. Sun sets on Moruya’s legendary Texas Dave
by Chris Johnson
South Coast community and music legend Texas Dave McGarry has passed away. Photo: Facebook.
Moruya identity and champion of musicians everywhere, Texas Dave McGarry, passed away surrounded by family at his South Coast home on 26 September.
To describe Texas Dave as a loveable character would be a massive understatement.
A character he was, and most certainly loved by all those who knew him, but the word “legend” is perhaps even more fitting.
