On Saturday 30th April, six stunning young ladies and their handsome partners took centre stage at the Charity Debutante Ball which they organised to provide support for Forbes CanAssist. The group conducted fundraising barbeques at Woolworths and Bernardi’s as well as drawing the Monster Garden Raffle on the night. Through their fundraising efforts they have raised in excess of $1700 dollars and a cheque presentation will be arranged once profits have been finalised. Rachel Wythes choreographed the groups dance and their performance delighted their family and friends.

Sophie Nash and Lewis Little were the perfect Flower girl and Page boy as they led Tahlia Nash & Warren Baxter, Grace Quirk & Hamish Coles, Isobelle Herbert & Daniel Ashcroft, Jessy-Lea Byrnes & Nicholas Mulligan, Finnlay Bennett & Issac Carlisle and Chelsea Turner & Cody Banks for the presentation ceremony to Damian Byrne.

Finnlay Bennett drew the raffle with Karen Norris winning first prize. Grace Quirk spoke on behalf of the group and thanked all of the people who helped to make the night so memorable. She spoke of the origins of their chosen charity, CanAssist, and the support that the Forbes branch provides to local cancer patients and their families.

It may be happening three weeks after the actual event, but Forbes will be celebrating NSW Youth Week next week with three massive events for the town’s youth. The real NSW Youth Week run from April 8 to April 17, however in Forbes, that particular week clashed with exams at Forbes High School and Red Bend College.

With the following two weeks being the school holidays in between terms one and two, Forbes Shire Council decided to push its Youth Week events backwards, to next week.

Events will be taking place on May 4, 5 and 7, with each day providing a different range of activities to celebrate the young people of Forbes. Forbes Shire Council Youth Development Assistant Clarissa Stewart, who is the main organiser of each Youth Week activity, said holding each event next week was the best way to ensure Forbes’ youth could get involved. “The actual week of NSW Youth Week was at the same time as the exams period, and then there were the school holidays after that, which lots of people go away for, so we decided to bring it back three weeks,” she said.

“We thought this would be the best way to get the town involved, plus the schools will also be involved, so it needed to be at a time they could do that.” The week’s activities will kick-off at Forbes High School next Wednesday with the ‘Super Mega Fun Day’, which will be held at the school between 1pm and 3pm.

Activities will include a bungy run, a bucking bull ride, and a gladiator ring. The bungy run involves two people racing against one another on a jumping castle, while being restrained by a bungy rope. Competitors must fight against the rope, and the first to reach the end of the jumping castle is declared the winner.

The gladiator ring involves competitors standing on inflatable platforms, in an inflatable ring, and using a padded stick, they must fight one another until one falls off their platform. The last one standing is declared the winner.

Various providers of youth services will also be on deck to give information. The Youth Awards Night will be held at Town Hall from 5.30pm next Thursday night, while ‘Youth Fest’ will be staged at Nelson Park the following Saturday.

Australian country musician Adam Harvey says he is looking forward to heading out to Forbes again to play for fans he labels as “loyal”. Harvey is currently out on his ‘Harvey’s Bar’ tour, to promote his album of the same name he literally recorded in his back yard. He will play in Forbes at the Forbes Services Memorial Club on Friday, May 13 at 8pm. Tickets are currently for sale at the club.

Mr Harvey said a while ago he decided to build his own bar in his backyard on the NSW Central Coast, and ended up recording an album there. “I put up photos on Facebook of my bar and when I was playing in it, and I’d say that I wrote songs in my bar as well, and people would often then say to me ‘god I’d
love to spend a night in that bar of yours’,” he said.

“So I thought ‘why don’t I record an album in the bar’ and invite everyone around to make it like a live album, and then when people play it, they will get a taste of what a night in my bar is all about.” “I’ve got a double brick garage that we weren’t using, so I just put floors and walls in, and the bar, and a big screen TV. For my shows we’ve got an exact replica of that bar as well so when people come to the shows they feel like they’ve come for a drink and a jam.”

The album was on the ARIA Country charts at number one for seven weeks when it was released. Mr Harvey said he would be playing a mixture of classic country, his older songs as well as songs from his new album. He will be on stage for around two hours.

Since 1981, Forbes local Dianne Decker has been organising the annual Forbes Special Sports Day, and despite the event almost ceasing in 1984, it will celebrate its 35th birthday on Wednesday. The event will be held at the Red Bend College gymnasium, starting at 9.30am with a morning tea, before progressing to a team march-past behind local bagpiper Brian Tisdell.

After this, sports such as walking races, relays, dressing races and three-legged races will begin, culminating to a game of musical chairs at the end of the day, and if people still have energy to expend, there may even be some dancing.

The Special Sports Day is an annual event that provides activities for people of all disabilities to get involved in. The event is not just for Forbes-based competitors either, with people from Dubbo, Orange, Condobolin, Parkes and Young expected to make the trip. Intellectual disabilities are normally well represented at the event, and Mrs Decker said it was this that kept the event alive back in the 1980s.

“When we started we held a lot of wheel chair events, but once wheel chair events became officially recognised as a professional sport, a lot of competitors went to other events,” she said. “But the intellectual disability groups really wanted us to keep going with the event, and it’s been going ever since…we now run sports for all disabilities.”

The official march of all competing teams will also be judged, with Red Bend Principal Br Michael Flanagan and Forbes Mayor Phyllis Miller to be joined by other local personalities to judge the winner for the best march. Mrs Decker said that while the event gave an opportunity for people with disabilities to compete in selected sports, the most important thing was the social aspect of it.

“It’s a great chance for people to renew friendships and just get together and have fun,” she said. Mrs Decker said she had also written to Prince Harry, a well-known advocate for disability sports, to invite him to the event. She said she received a response from him, and while the Prince stated he will not be able to make it to the event this year, he stated he would like to keep receiving invites, and would endeavor to attend the event in the future.

As part of Forbes Heritage 2016, two Interpretive Panels in the series will be unveiled at the Forbes Medical Centre. “Our practice has been working on this project for close to four years and I’m pleased these panels will be unveiled as part of Forbes Heritage 2016. We are committed to acknowledging the lives, work and dedication of former doctors who served our town.

The panels give the Forbes community an insight into the men who were the town’s doctors.” said Dr Neale Somes. This year’s panels explore lives of two doctors who enlisted in the Army Medical Corps. Dr Edward McDonnell practised in Forbes at the beginning of the 20th Century and served in both the Boer War and World War I. Dr Edward Palmer who practised for 15 years in Forbes was a Lieutenant Colonel in Rabaul, New Guinea during World War II.

The Forbes Medical Centre acknowledges the military record of these doctors and in keeping with this theme has asked current Forbes Medical Centre University of Wollongong medical student and army reservist Tristan Scott to say a few words. “These were two extraordinary doctors with unique stories. As I am keen about all facets of the history of Forbes, I’m excited with the prospect of revealing yet another layer of the town’s history. Members of Dr Palmer’s family will be attending. We are attempting to locate descendants of Dr McDonnell, unsuccessfully so far”, said Dr Somes.

Dr Somes and his colleague doctors extend an invitation to the Forbes Community for this unveiling. The Interpretive Panels will be unveiled on Monday, 2 May at 6.30 pm at the Forbes Medical Centre where light refreshments will be served.

If you would like to attend please contact Forbes Shire Council on 6850 2300. Numbers are limited and bookings close on Thursday, 28 April.

Forbes will be doing all it can to make sure the ANZAC spirit is alive on Monday, with a full day’s worth of events taking place on Monday. Two marches will take place on the day, with each one starting at the Forbes Services Memorial Club and finishing at the Cenotaph in Victoria Park.

The first march will take place just prior to the dawn service at 5.20am, while the second one will start at 10.15am before the mid morning service. Each service will include a wreath laying ceremony, hymns, and speeches from Forbes Mayor Phyllis Miller, the Salvation Army, local schools, and Forbes RSL subbranch President Michael Walker, amongst others.

The Reveille and Last Post tunes will also be played at the services. Breakfast will be available after the dawn service at the Services Club, while a luncheon
will be held at the Services Club after the morning service. ‘Two Up’ will start in the Services Club auditorium from 2.30pm, and the day will end with the lowering of the flag at the Cenotaph at 5pm.

Forbes RSL sub-branch Secretary Trevor Currey said the day would be a big one. “I’ve been organising ANZAC Day here in Forbes for the last 14 years, and I can tell you, ANZAC Day really starts in January,” he said with a laugh. “It’s always a great day in Forbes, and an opportunity for us to reflect on the sacrifices our service men and women have made for us.”

Most members of the local RSL are expected to march. Of the 75 members, 16 are World War II veterans, while the rest are made up of Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

Preschool children in Parkes and Forbes will have an exciting opportunity to learn another language this year using play-based mobile tablet apps. “I’m delighted to announce that the Forbes Learning Ladder, Parkes Bluebird Early Education Centre and Victoria Street Children’s Centre in Parkes have been successful in obtaining a place in the Coalition Government’s Early Learning Languages Australia programme,” Federal Member for Calare, the Hon John Cobb said today.

“This means our local children will have the opportunity to experience Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, French or Arabic languages through apps which are being delivered in selected preschools across Australia. The Parkes Bluebird Early Education Centre was one of the 41 preschools who participated in the trial last year.

Centre Manger Rachael Westcott said the children responded to the new way of learning wonderfully. “The children not only practice their words at the centre during their time on the iPads but also continue using the greetings and familiar words at home with their families”. Mr Cobb said, “The ELLA programme is a great opportunity for our preschoolers to make an early start on becoming familiar with another language and I commend the three providers in Calare for committing to the programme and giving our children this opportunity.

The Coalition Government has invested $9.8 million in the languages app to help to revive language study in Australia’s early education centres, schools and universities. Following the success of the ELLA programme and Polyglots apps, the Coalition Government has committed $6 million through the National Science and Innovation Agenda to the development of a similar app focused on inspiring students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics.

For more information about the ELLA programme visit: www.education.gov.au/earlylearning-languages-australia

Lines will be marked and sandbags will be placed around the crossing at the corner of Templar and Rankin Streets next week as part of the Forbes Shire Council’s plan to upgrade the pedestrian crossing there. Council’s plan will involve bringing the kerbs on either side of the crossing further out into the street.

Council may also decide to raise the crossing in order to slow traffic down driving over it, but this is yet to be confirmed. Under the plan, Council also hopes to add three extra car parking spaces near the crossing by bringing the red ‘no parking’ sign further up the street. A State Government grant will fund the project, which has been quoted at $21,850, and must be spent before the end of the current financial year.

However the plan came as a surprise to local businesses on Rankin Street, which received a letter just two days prior to Council initially wanting to start work on the project, which was Monday this week. Cahill’s Footwear owner Martin Cahill, whose store is near the crossing on Rankin Street, arranged a meeting between businesses and Council on Tuesday evening, with about 20 people attending.

As a result Council decided to place sandbags as a way of physically marking on the street what they planned to do so local businesses could get a grasp of it, and a follow-up meeting will be held at 5.30pm on Monday May 2.

Mr Cahill and Chapter Two staff member Kim Sly said concerns were held mostly for the lack of communication from Council over the matter, but also on the kerb widening making the street too narrow for traffic. Council Acting General Manager Max Kershaw apologised for giving businesses just two days notice, adding it was “unacceptable”.

The Forbes Business Chamber is currently working with the Forbes Shire Council on a 15-year plan to improve the town’s CBD. Chamber President Stuart Thomas said areas such as the CBD’s streetscape, shared zones, shade improvements as well as other ideas to improve the shopping experience in Forbes would be considered.

Mr Thomas said the overall goal was to make Forbes a “vibrant shopping space”. “We’ve got a goal with the view that we’ll end up with a vibrant shopping district, but also more than that, an area where the community will enjoy having a meal and a chat, and do their shopping,” he said.

“It would have a combined effect of social benefits for the community, but also
economic benefits, and the retailers would benefit.” “Retailers are effected by things like online shopping now, so they need to create a point of difference so more people will walk into the store. It’ll be about the shopping experience.”
Mr Thomas said the process would be long, but one that would see input by not just the Chamber and Council, but also businesses themselves and the community.

He said a revamp of the CBD and changes to the streets were not out of the question, and this was something Council had considered in the past, but remodeling the town would take a lengthy process of consultations.

“The concept is going to involve business input but also community input. You need something that people want rather than something that is forced into place,” he said. Mr Thomas added there were also benefits from businesses investing within themselves. “Tradesmen benefit from the work, and that brings money into the local economy, and it creates a new feel and freshens things up,” he said.

New Forbes Medical Centre registrar Dr Chen-yi Lo has already lived in a number of places in Australia, but says she is enjoying the friendly lifestyle Forbes has to offer. Dr Lo started working at the Forbes Medical Centre this year, along with fellow newcomers Dr Maria Rasool and Dr Farrah Yasmin.

It is her first permanent position in a General Practitioners clinic, with her previous work being in hospitals, apart from a brief three-month period. Dr Lo was born in Taiwan, and spent her school years in Singapore before relocating
to Melbourne in 2002, where she spent six years at the University of Melbourne in medical studies.

Before she moved to Forbes this year, she worked at the Ballarat Hospital in Victoria, and prior to that, she spent seven years working at hospitals in South Australia, where she first started work as a doctor. She is currently in a 12 month rotating working arrangement, and as such, she will move on to another, yet-to-be-determined, medical practice next year.

She said she was enjoying the friendly and easy lifestyle Forbes provided. “Forbes is very different from where I have been before. It’s a long way from the nearest major cities,” she said. “I have worked in rural communities before, so Forbes isn’t really that different in that way, but the distance from the nearest city is what is new for me.”

“The environment in Forbes is really enjoyable, and the people here are really friendly, so it hasn’t been too difficult getting used to living here.” Having worked mostly in cities, such as Adelaide and Ballarat, Dr Lo said there were differences in the environment of working in either setting.

“You get to know your patients a lot better working in a rural GP clinic than a city hospital, as the people will normally always come to see the same doctor,” she said.

By Joshua Matic