Parkes Phoenix Editor

Maggi Barnard has been with the Forbes Phoenix since 2021 and loves writing about her community.

Snippets…

August 22, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

Bernardi’s Forbes: Are so excited to announce the new beneficiaries for the second round of the Building Better Communities
Program! Forbes Junior Platypi Rugby Club, Forbes FINS Swimming Club and St Laurence’s Parish School P&F. Make sure you grab a token next time you’re shopping at Bernardi’s and support one of these great organisations!

Do you love to write stories? The Forbes Phoenix are currently looking for a locally based reporter/editor for the paper each week. Hours are flexible to suit the right candidate. Come and join our amazing local team and deliver the good news to Forbes each week. If you are interested please call Sarah on 6344 1846 or email publisher@phoenixnewspapers.com.au

Forbes Youth Action Team: Are you aged between 13-25 years and want to be a part of the Forbes Youth Action Team? The
Youth Action Team has been established to give young people in Forbes a voice to issues they feel are important and an opportunity to participate in developing activities to meet their needs. The Team meets regularly at the Youth and Community Centre. It’s a great way to make new friends and make magic happen around town. Contact Council’s Youth Officer, Sarah Williams on 6850 2300 for more information.

Contributions: If you have a Thumbs Up/Down, Snippet, Be Seen Photo, Stork News, Wedding Bell or Catch of the Week we would love to hear from you! Simply email editor@forbesphoenix.com.au we love all contributions!

Bedgerabong Race Club AGM Results: On the 31st July, Bedgerabong Picnic Race Club held their Annual General Meeting. The Executive Team are Nathan Clarke – President, Tim Currey, Andrew McKeller and Russ Constable – Vice Presidents, Michelle Whiley – Secretary, Nelly Dukes – Treasurer, and Greg Hodges – Assistant Treasurer. Mark Saturday 15th February 2020 on your calendar for next year’s races.

It’s Showtime: The Forbes Show is only weeks away so enter our competition on www.forbesphoenix.com.au and you could
win 1 of 3 Family Passes for 2 adults and 3 children. The competition will be drawn on 2nd September at 2pm.

Way Back When: Have you got an old photograph of a local person or a photograph of Forbes way back when? If so we would love to see it for our new feature ‘Way Back When’, simply email your photo and information to editor@forbesphoenix.com.au

Croquet Results

August 22, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

Golf Croquet Tuesday 13th August

It was hard to see each other in a very thick fog but that didn’t deter 31 players who took to the field happy to be back after the cancellation on Saturday.

Vice President, John Cole welcomed Elvy Quirk and John Browne back after their European Cruise looking well after a break.

John hadn’t lost his skill as he was one of the winners of 3 games also Lorraine Todd, Bob Murray, Mal Smith and Kevin Rubie.

Congratulations Lorraine as you do a splendid job in the kitchen making sure we have enough sultana bread for morning tea and a supply of lollies to keep up our energy.

Aussie Croquet Saturday 17th August

Geoff Coles brought his daughter Kathy and her partner Robert along for a game and with his coaching they didn’t take long to make their mark on the scoreboard! A great field of players saw 31 taking to the field on a lovely day of sunshine after the fog lifted.

The winners of 3 games were Kevin Rubie, Bruce Field, Barry White and Neville Spry. Kevin is almost always a winner and is seen practising his shots as soon as he arrives. Jill Rubie has also done a great job keeping the finances in order.

By Colleen Liebich

Our Gal -Nadika Vidler-Mckeown

August 22, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

How long have you lived in or around Forbes and what is the best thing about living here? I’ve lived in between Forbes and Parkes my whole life. Forbes has great places to take kids, we especially love the park by the Pre-School.

Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I’m a stay-at-home Mum at the moment. I don’t think anything could be as challenging yet rewarding at the same time. It really is the best job.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? Get out and about with my son and partner! We love going to different community events.

What makes you proud? Watching my son learn new things! Every new word or gesture is something to celebrate.

What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? The Lion King, it reminds me of my childhood and it makes me smile and laugh and cry all at the same time!

What is on your bucket list? Snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef! Especially since it is quickly deteriorating.

What are you really good at? I can make a really good chicken carbonara!

What makes your day? When Jye gets home from work, my little boy is always so excited to see him and kick the footy together.

Tell us an interesting fact about yourself? I’m due to have a baby in the next few weeks!

Felix Rams Efficient And Profitable

August 22, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

Felix Rams has a singular focus on producing efficient and profitable prime lambs by breeding high performance, structurally sound meat sheep rams. The commitment to collecting good accurate performance data is in the DNA and is embedded as the fundamental approach to the way Felix Rams breed sheep.

However you look at it, 25,800 lambs weighed within 12 hours of birth, 20,900 weaning weights, 17,500 scans with weights for postweaning fat and muscle, 4,400 individual worm egg counts is a lot of data, and it all contributes to the accuracy of the asbvs on the rams you buy.

At Felix Rams, sheep are selected for quick early growth, and maturity, grown in the paddock, not maximum adult ram size. Almost all of the selection is done at 6.5 to 7 months of age, reflecting the age most lambs are sold. Felix Rams will efficiently produce a 22-28kg lamb. Early maturity also means the suckers have the best chance of hitting the target year in year out, while the attention to the “right” amount of fat means that you will almost always have finish on your lambs at market weights.

As usual this year’s sale rams are paddock grown and finished, not pumped up or grown out on a grain feeder.

Felix Rams will offer 140 Poll Dorset and 50 White Suffolk rams at their 21st annual on-property sale at Greenethorpe on September 3rd at 1pm.

Catalogues are available at www.felixrams. com.au from August 25th, or call Rodney 0417 499 204, Isaac 0437 493 407 or the selling agents, Allan Gray and Co Cowra 6342 2377.

Mayors Notes

August 22, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

Another dry week has passed unfortunately, it’s a real worry for our farmers.

We have a new small business commissioner, Robyn Hobbs OAM and isn’t she a fantastic person for cutting red tape with government processes. We all know how slow Governments have been in paying their bills, so the State Government has now released a faster payment terms policy as part of their commitment to small business to enable better cash flow. The main changes compared to the previous payment of accounts policy are if after 1st December 2018, payments must be made within 20 calendar days, the new policy
states; if after 31st December 2019, payments must be made within 5 business days. Eligible and registered small businesses that invoice up to $1 million will be paid in this time.

We all know how Essential Energy can hold up a project and development. If you have any examples please email us your story forbes@forbes.nsw.gov.au.

The Camp Street Bridge work commences this weekend. It will be a bit of an inconvenience for about a year but it will be well worth it when Roads and Maritime Services complete the work.

I attended a Multicultural Morning Tea this week. It was interesting and also a great way for our new residents from other countries to get to know about their community.

The Magpies have four grades in the semi-finals this weekend. Please make an effort to watch them play, they have done so well. Go the Magpies!

Your Mayor
Phyllis Miller

Always Have A Back-Up Plan

August 22, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

The 11th very real, and at times confronting mock crash demonstration held at the Parkes High School last week once again brought home a very important message to about 500 students from three shires.

The mock crash demonstration, aimed at Year 10 students from the Forbes, Parkes and Lachlan shires, shows a realistic scenario
involving a single vehicle accident and response by emergency services. It aims to improve the attitudes and behaviours of young drivers and passengers as particularly red P platers are over represented in crash statistics across the State.

“Locally, a 27% reduction has been recorded in crashes involving young drivers since the program commenced 11 years ago,” said Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan Shire Councils’ Road Safety and Injury Prevention Officer, Belinda Coe.

“We work in partnership with NSW Police, SES, and Ambulance NSW to bring home this important message.”

Central West Police District Crime Prevention Officer, Senior Constable Daniel Greef, said: “It’s vitally important to make these scenarios as realistic as possible because we want to show the young people what actually happens on roads.”

“We based this scenario off actual crashes which have happened involving young people in this area over the years.”

The demonstration starts with establishing scenes to introduce the four characters played by high school students, including Krystle-Lee McMurray from Forbes. The mock crash scenario is set up telling the audience what led to the crash, and then there is a full emergency response.

By Maggi Barnard

Urgent Repairs For Heated Pool

August 22, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

Forbes Shire Council wishes to advise that the Forbes Heated Pool is currently closed to all members for emergency repairs. The Pool will re-open on Sunday 25th August. Council is working with the Heated Pool Committee to undertake repairs to the pool ceiling after it was identified that materials are at risk of dislodging. These repairs are required immediately to rectify the issue and ensure community safety.

Works will include:
• removal of the damaged ceiling;
• reconfiguration of lighting;
• clean-up and;
• water quality testing before the pool is re-opened to the public.

Forbes Shire Council regrets any inconvenience to the public and remains committed to ongoing infrastructure maintenance and working together with community organisation’s such as the Forbes Heated Pool Committee to provide the best possible facilities to our community.

Has Forbes Got The Next Ninja Warrior?

August 22, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

Forbes Shire Council is scoping out possible areas in the Shire that may be suitable for a Ninja Park facility.

As part of this Council is conducting community consultations to find out where the people of Forbes would like the facility located and what equipment they would like to see. Local schools have been visited and a public consultation is scheduled for Saturday 24 August 2019 in front of the Dentists in Rankin Street from 8.45am – 11.30am and at the Forbes Skate Park from 11.30am – 1pm.

“To have a ninja park in Forbes will bring yet another element of fun to the existing portfolio of parks we currently have in the Forbes Shire,” says Forbes Council Mayor, Phyllis Miller OAM. “It will provide a great day out for the whole family with what I imagine will be many challenges set to inspire everyone to get involved. We feel that this could attract regional visitors and maybe more!”

The Forbes Ninja Park is a community project which aims to encourage fitness and fun amongst teenagers and young adults in our rural community. Two areas have been identified as possible contenders for the park, one being next door to the Forbes Youth and Community Centre in Battye St and the other next to the Forbes Skate Park. Council is open to other suggestions and invites the community to have their say.

“We want to give our young people, especially the older ones somewhere to meet and get active,” Mayor Miller continues.

“This demographic makes up to 20% of our population and at the moment there is a lack of activities for them to engage in.” Council will collate community feedback on the Ninja Park and continue to seek funding opportunities to bring it to fruition.

Footy Tipping Results – Round 22

August 21, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

Nominate Now For WRAS 2020 Programs

August 15, 2019 by Maggi Barnard

Athlete nominations are now open for the Western Region Academy of Sport (WRAS) 2020 programs. The WRAS programs provide high performance coaching and training opportunities to up‐skill athletes within the Western Region and assist them in progressing to higher representation within their chosen sport.

Majority of the sports will commence with Orientation in November 2019 and run until the Academy Games in early April 2020.

Athlete nominations that are currently open include:

• AFL (women)
• Basketball
• Golf
• Hockey
• Individual (Lone Star and Para‐Sports)
• Netball
• Swimming

Further program information and how to nominate can be found on the WRAS website www.wras.org.au or by contacting the office on 6338 4821 or via email info@wras.org.au

Parkes Phoenix Editor

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