Community

Bernie O'Brien's wife, Yijun, was the first person to wake to a strange popping sound on Sunday, 6 June. A fire was burning in the office of their home on Gooromon Ponds Road in Wallaroo, on the NSW-ACT border, and there were eight people asleep inside. The next few minutes were a blur as Bernie's daughter and son-in-law, Vanessa and...

Who owns Australia's hardest working dog? It's the question 2021 Cobber Challenge nominees are waiting to find an answer to and Daniel Pumpa from Koorawatha near Young, thinks he's in with a fair chance. He's nominated his five-year-old kelpie Sally for the annual challenge that sees how many kilometres Australia and New Zealand's working dogs clock up each day. Daniel estimates...

Place names that have been used for thousands of years may finally be officially recognised by the NSW Government if a National Parks and Wildlife Service proposal is given the go ahead. Familiar NSW Far South Coast landmarks, such as Mount Dromedary, may soon appear on maps and signage with dual names, officially recognising the names given by First Nations people....

A new coastal walk aims to connect two NSW Far South Coast towns and their communities to its history and environment. The Wharf to Wharf Walk officially opens on 26 June and spans 27km between the historic Merimbula and Tathra wharfs. Once just a series of unconnected tracks that snaked north and south between these two great wharfs, and popular...

Narooma Oyster Festival champion Gerard 'Doody' Dennis has been given a pearler of an opportunity to help shape the future of Australia's sustainable seafood industry by taking part in a national leadership program. The Batemans Bay resident is one of 18 aspiring leaders from the Australian seafood sector chosen to participate in this year’s National Seafood Industry Leadership Program. A key member...

From drug wars on the streets of Cabramatta, in Sydney, to the remote outback town of Brewarrina, Chief Inspector Greg Flood has been stationed all across NSW, but he keeps coming back to the South Coast. Now in charge of the Batemans Bay sector of the South Coast Police District, Chief Inspector Flood was one of 11 NSW Police officers...

Australian Outward Bound’s Tharwa site is on the up and up thanks to a $22,367 grant set to provide a new lease on life to aged firefighting and maintenance equipment. The project is expected to improve the program’s preparedness for future disasters and is just one of over 100 projects throughout Australia to receive financial support from the Foundation for...

The riverside village of Towrang, northeast of Goulburn, will lose its defining isolation with the construction of a new bridge. A gateway to a growing district of tree-changers from Sydney, the Southern Highlands and Canberra, newcomers to the district built weekenders and permanent homes, and learned from resourceful locals how to cope with regular flooding which turns the Wollondilly River...

The gauntlet has been thrown down by NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, who has agreed the September 2021 NSW local government elections should be postponed until a decision on demerging Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council (CGRC) is made public. Mr Barilaro and Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke met with representatives from Gundagai Council in Exile (GCIE) last week and reiterated their personal...

The Far South Coast's Cuttagee Bridge may be saved in its historic timber form for the time being, but there are still plans to replace it in the future. Earlier this year, the NSW Government’s Fixing Country Bridges Program announced it would provide $16.8 million to replace a number of the Bega Valley’s ageing timber bridges - including $7.5 million...

Queanbeyan has been called many things over the years, but when the ABC Canberra team lobbed into town on Tuesday (8 June) to feature the town's many stories, a reporter referred to it as 'Dreambeyan'. While many may see the moniker as a step up from the oft-used Struggletown, Q-banger and Queanbeyhole, the reference has stirred debate about the town that...

The community is invited to help the banks of the Towamba River recover after the devastating Black Summer bushfires. An upcoming Green Shoots day of tree planting, kayaking and environmental education sessions will bring life back to the river in Kiah this month. Bega Valley Shire Council's Council’s environmental education officer Natalie Ryan said the bushfires burnt much of the riverbank trees...

Few things knit a community together more closely than a natural disaster. Shared loss, pain and trauma followed by rebuilding, regeneration and growth brings people out of their everyday lives and into a realisation of the importance of good neighbours, family and friends. Eighteen months after the devastating Black Summer bushfires, the team from the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) Batemans Bay...