Parkes Phoenix Editor

Ridgehaven Poll Dorset Stud is owned and run by the Legge Family – Jessie, Ruth, Floyd and Isabele.

Their focus is to produce rams with genetics that assist commercial lamb producers to be more efficient and profitable.

The long term breeding program concentrates on high growth rates and early maturity for on-farm efficiency and marketing options, together with well-defined carcase shape and adequate fat coverage for premium carcase quality and higher yields.

Animal management advantages are also a priority, with smooth shoulder settings for ease of lambing, correct leg and foot conformation for ram mobility and functionality, and tight downs wool for a higher skin  value.

The Poll Dorset breed is well known for their fast growth and high yielding carcase.

Dorset-cross lambs are highly sought after by the meat processors and regularly attract a premium price due to the quality and consistency of the product. This has made the Poll Dorset breed the No.1 terminal sire for prime lamb production in Australia.

The Ridgehaven 2019 Annual Ram Sale will be held on property at Cudal on Thursday 12th September. On offer will be 10 specially selected stud rams and 130 flock rams. All rams are quality assured and will be catalogued with ASBV’s and Stockscan data. A delicious lunch is provided, and all are welcome to the sale day.

Selling agents are Kevin Miller Whitty Lennon (KMWL) and McCarron Cullinane Chudleigh. Enquiries and inspections prior to the sale are welcome.

For further information visit www.ridgehaven. net.au or call Floyd 0402 185 727.

A huge get-together of Fitzgerald descendants will converge on Burcher and Forbes on September 14 2019 to celebrate the proud pioneering heritage of their family.

Edward aka Thomas Fitzgerald came from Dublin to Sydney on the Tyne as a 15-yearold convict in 1819 and was buried in the Forbes cemetery in 1878.

Thomas Fitzgerald’s surviving children with wife Mary Gorman were Ann, Margaret, Richard and Mark.

“Mark Fitzgerald was my great-grandfather,” said Beth Thomas of Parkes who is looking forward to the reunion. “He was a pioneer of note in the Forbes District, building the first timber bridge over the Lachlan River on the Newell Highway and later opening the hotel at Moonbi in the roaring days when two Cobb and Co coaches travelled daily from Condobolin to Forbes via Moonbi,” said Beth.

“He was a thorough bushman,” added Beth’s sister, Susan Harvey of Gosford, “After following the gold diggings of Bathurst, Grenfell and Forbes he selected his property, Uplands, of Wamboyne and was instrumental in the development of not only the district, but the state.”

Mark married Annabella Thorpe, who was the first schoolteacher of a school in Parkes, and they had 16 children, three of whom drowned one tragic sunny day in the care of their nursemaid, whilst their mother was confined in late pregnancy with a son who died a year after. The children are buried on a property along the Lachlan west of Jemalong. Mark and Annabella’s daughter Isabel refrained from going in the boat that fateful day and grew up to become the first schoolteacher of the Wamboyne district.

The immediate descendants of Mark and Annabella were Harrisons of Condobolin, Rileys of Gooloogong, Andersons of Clear Ridge, Joneses of Girral, and Fitzgeralds of Wamboyne and Sydney.

A very large number of the descendants of these families are expected to get together at the upcoming reunion.

Offer and acceptance is the critical factor when considering what is a valid contract.

If person A offers to do something and person B unconditionally accepts that offer and communicates the acceptance to A, then there is a concluded agreement. However, if A makes an offer and B responds with a counter-offer, there is no agreement and neither party is bound.

Every day we enter such simple contracts at the supermarket or newsagency or on the internet. Most contracts are not written but are verbal. There are some contracts which, by law, must be in writing (such as an agreement for the sale of land), but agreements can, in certain circumstances, be oral as well as written. An additional facet is what is called “part performance,” which is where one party performs or partly performs an agreement, and the other party accepts those actions. In this case there is a contract. Some essential ingredients of a contract are:

• a concluded agreement between the parties
• an intention that the agreement be legally binding
• some benefit must be given by one party to the other (this is called consideration)
• the consent of the parties must be genuine, that is not mistaken nor under duress
• the parties must be legally capable of entering into the agreement
• the purpose of the contract must be legal.

Generally, anyone over 18 has legal capacity to enter into a contract, but there are limitations regarding people with intellectual disability or mental illness. Credit contracts and agreements regarding land must, by law, be written. Otherwise, valid verbal agreements will be enforced by the Courts. Contact us at Matthews Williams on this or any other legal matter.

The Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) is currently looking at options for the delivery of maternity services at the Lachlan Health Service.

Expressions of interest were called for recently, inviting parents who have recently used, or expect to use, maternity services in Parkes and Forbes to participate in focus groups. The broader community is also being invited to have their say through a survey  hat can be done online or submitted by mail or email.

Parkes and Forbes combined currently have less than 250 births occurring each year. In spite of repeated attempts to recruit doctors with training in obstetrics and anaesthetics – both of which are required to offer a full medical maternity service – vacancies have led to births currently only being available at Forbes hospital.

While these recruitment issues persist, the WNSWLHD is encouraging the community to consider other models which could continue to see births occurring at both facilities, potentially with one hospital accepting low-risk births that could be performed under the supervision of a trained midwife.

Several options are outlined in the community consultation survey, with the community invited to consider the current circumstances and have their say on these models of service.

The WNSWLHD Board is due to consider plans for Lachlan maternity services, including the feedback provided by the community and consumers, before the end of 2019.

Links to the online survey, and to a printable version that can be emailed or mailed, can be found on the WNSWLHD website at www.wnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au The consultation will close at 5pm on Friday 23 August, 2019.