Forbes Shire Council Mayor Phyllis Miller has welcomed the doubling in funding for the Roads to Recovery Program. Council will spend $1million improving roads around the Shire this year, and Cr Miller said this was a great opportunity to bring roads suffering from wear and tear back up to scratch.

Roads to be resealed include Wirrinya Road and Oatha North Road, as well as a five-kilometre stretch of West Plains Road. “Our financial assistance grants has had no CPI increase for them, and in lieu of that we’ve had a Roads to Recovery fund which has just about doubled,” Cr Miller said.

Cr Miller said Council had a priority list for future road improvements, and said now that extra funding had come through; Council was able to bring forward a number of projects. She added this happened in line with Council’s assets management plan.

At the most recent Council meeting held last month, Forbes Shire Council also resolved to form a partnership with cancer awareness group ‘CanAssist’. At the most recent Council meeting held last month, Forbes Shire Council also resolved to form a partnership with cancer awareness group ‘CanAssist’.

Council will partner with CanAssist to hold a prostate awareness seminar. Cr Miller said Council would meet with CanAssist and plan this for the second
half of the year. “We’re of the view that there should be free screening for prostate cancer. It is prevalent in society, as is breast cancer, and women have a program where they’re screened free of charge,” she said.

Nearby Parkes hospital has recently increased the frequency of their chemotherapy treatment, in partnership with CanAssist, and Cr Miller said this was a great result for Forbes cancer patients who were either forced to wait longer, or drive all the way to Orange for treatment.

Jemalong Residential Village Volunteers group (previously the Auxiliary, the Carers Group and the Village Hair Ladies) held their first meeting for 2016 last Thursday 25 February.

The group welcomed several new members which brought membership numbers to almost 40 members. This creates a wonderful group of volunteers giving up their time to raise funds to provide village residents with entertainment, bus trips, items for activities, and pampering.

Volunteers at the Village are a key function to the wellbeing and caring of it’s residents, and as well as conducting fundraising activities for the Village, they also keep the residents entertained.

Movies are held on the third Monday of each month at the Forbes Services Club, raising approximately $350 each time. These movies are for the general public to enjoy.
The Village Hair Ladies, all volunteers, raised over $1500 last year. The Village Salon is open every Thursday morning for residents to be pampered and groomed.

Several fundraising events are being organised with a Trivia Night in May and a Christmas in July. Both of these events will be held in the Opal Room at the Village, which enables residents to participate. This works hand in hand with the entertainment of residents as well, as it will keep residents busy at the same time as helping out their own village.

This year will be the first time in many years that the Annual Fete will not be held. Several smaller events and raffles throughout the year will be held instead. The Group sincerely thank all of their supporters for their hard work.

It also wishes to thank the Forbes community for its continuing financial support. Forbes has a wonderful facility for the elderly and their wellbeing needs to be ensured.

Contributed by Frances Higgins, Publicity Officer

Blayney Bike Month will soon be upon us and as the weeks go by decorated bales of hay and art sculptures will begin to pop up along the NAB B2B cycling route in preparation to welcome riders from near and far.

Local residents, schools and community groups are being encouraged to decorate a hay bale or make a hay bale sculpture to be displayed along the route and their artwork will then be judged with the winners announced on 8th April.

First prize can get $250! All sculpture displays need to be in place for the judging by 3rd April. For more information please contact Tamara Miller on 0407 108 159.

For those who want to have a go at the sporting test itself, the B2B Cyclo Sportif Challenge is designed for the elite rider as well as the social one. The courses begin in Blayney and are set over either 110km or 70km of beautiful autumn countryside to Trunkey Creek, Newbridge, Georges Plains, Rockley Mount and Perthville before finishing in Bathurst at the iconic Mount
Panorama. The challenge begins on 10th April and registrations are now open!
For more information contact 6368 3534.

Famed Australian performer Diesel will make an appearance in Forbes at the
Forbes Services Club on Friday, April 8. He will visit Forbes as part of his ‘Pieces of Americano’ album preview solo tour, where he will preview his upcoming album by the same name.

Diesel, whose real name is Mark Lizotte, who is celebrating his 30th year of performing, will be playing songs from his latest album, but will also include some of his older hits.

These include ‘Tip of my Tongue’, ‘Man Alive’, and ‘Never Miss Your Water’.
“The whole show will encompass every record that I’ve made, really, which is about 14,” the 50-year old said. “So there’ll be something from all four
corners of my catalogue that the crowd can enjoy.”

Diesel has been on a lot of tours to regional Australia over the last 30 years, and said he loves getting out of the city and into the wide open spaces of the country side. “You get the vast feeling of how big it is when you get out there and think ‘oh, we’ve driven four hours and it’s just scrub’.”

“But I love it, and I love the oxygen too. The air is so much better when you get
away from all of the cars.” Tickets are on sale at the Forbes Services Club.

Bedgerabong Public School teacher Helen Corke says the ‘Community Connection’ program at her school has made a difference to participating students.

The program, which serves to improve skills of children such as gross motor, is one of Bedgerabong Public School’s community engagement and support strategies. The program operates every Thursday from 9.30 to 11.00am during school terms at the school. It is run by classroom teacher Mrs Corke along with Bedgerabong Public School Principal Mr Paul Faulkner.

The program brings a wealth of training and experience in early childhood education, which allows it to offer a wide range of exciting and developmental experiences for the zero to five-year old age group of the Bedgerabong district.

The sessions normally begin with gross motor activities, followed by themed activities based on individual children’s needs. Finally, group activities are then run to foster listening, turn taking and social skills. Close consultation with the mums and dads that participate has lead to the ability to arrange for visiting services including dental checks, visits from the community health speech therapist, and visits from the occupational therapist.

The child health family nurse also attends to provide early childhood checks
and parental support. Mrs Corke said the program was the only one of it’s kind in Bedgerabong, and offered a great service for children and their parents.

“The outreach program is a vital connection with the wider community and gives small rural families the opportunity to access services for their children without travelling large distances,” she said. “The support and attendance rates continue to grow each week. This program is providing the connections that families need to the wider community. We always look forward to Thursday mornings and the special visitors to our school.”

Member for Calare John Cobb has paid tribute to Forbes and Parkes after announcing his retirement from politics last Saturday at the Calare electorate reconstitution meeting in Lithgow.

Mr Cobb, aged 66, was first elected into the federal parliament in 2001, and during this time, there have been three boundary changes to his electorate. The shires of Forbes and Parkes have been the only two shires to remain in his electorate in his entire time as member for Calare.

Ironically, this changed on February 25 when the new federal electorate boundaries of NSW were updated, with Forbes and Parkes now being a part of the Riverina electorate. However, representation will not change until members are elected at the next federal election, which is tipped to be at the
end of this year.

Mr Cobb will continue to represent Forbes and Parkes until he officially retires three weeks before the election, which is yet to be announced. He said he would be sad to leave the representation of Forbes and Parkes, as they have been with him throughout his career. “Forbes and Parkes started as being my
eastern boundary. They’re currently my western boundary,” he said with a laugh.

“Forbes and Parkes have been absolutely phenomenal. I look at them as my security blanket in politics, the place that I know I will hear what I need to hear, without fear or favour.”

In his 15 years overseeing Calare, Mr Cobb said a highlight was the Coalition’s
dealing with the 10-year drought throughout the start of the 2000s. “In 2007 I got John Howard [then Prime Minister] and John Anderson [then Deputy
Prime Minister and Nationals party leader] to a station just west of Forbes,” he said. “There was a big gathering there and Mr Howard was in high demand, and I remember saying to him ‘there’s a couple here who want to talk to you, John, about family and the mental side of drought.’”

“They lost a son and they lost a neighbour’, and he said ‘absolutely’, and I took
him away and introduced them to him, and I can still see him walking under a tree with them, with his arm around both of them, and he gave them 15 minutes.”

“That’s a long time for a Prime Minister, and after that he introduced a mental
health package for drought affected farmers.” Mr Cobb was also happy with aged care infrastructure he has been able to bring, and hopes to see a new dam in Central West NSW built before he retires.

Calare pre-selection was opened at the Lithgow meeting with nominations to close on 19 March and voting to take place on 30 April, in Bathurst.

On Tuesday the Forbes Phoenix gave a presentation on a brand new app due to launch across the Central West. Cheryl Newsom, publisher of the Phoenix, delivered the interactive presentation at the Services Club to 20 attendees including Forbes business owners, council members and the Mayor of Forbes.

During the talk, Cheryl spoke of understanding change and the opportunity it presents. “With this app you can instantly share deals, competitions or coupons to your client base, or as a consumer you can know what your favourite restaurant or shop has on special that day,” she said. After the
presentation those present were invited to trial the app for a month to get used to it and were offered one-on-one training at a later date from iluvlocal representatives, Roselea Buttigieg and Casey Evans.

 

The Red Cross Blood Service Mobile Unit was in Forbes during the week as part of a campaign to attract more donors. The Blood Service launched their year long campaign at Forbes’ Victoria Park, in an effort to try to attract an additional 115,000 new blood donors during 2016.

The service says it needs to bolster its donor ranks to help combat seasonal donor shortages around long-weekends and cold and flu outbreaks throughout the year.

It also states an estimated nine million Australians are eligible to give blood but only 500,000 actively do so, which is why it is reaching out to those who have never donated before.

The Service’s Mobile Unit was in Forbes between 9:40am and 2:50pm each day between Monday and Thursday this week, with residents lining up to donate their blood.

Blood Service spokesperson Erin Lagoudakis said it hoped the other 8.5 million Australians they estimate could give their blood would jump on board and help out. “Blood donation has been a proud Australian tradition for 87 years and was born out of a need for lifesaving transfusions,” Ms Lagoudakis said.

“The delivery of blood was time critical, and despite many advances that is still the case today, with some critical components unable to be stored longer than one week. “Because there are times when donor numbers are traditionally low, such as long-weekends and cold and flu outbreaks, we need additional donors to come on board between now and the end of the year to continue helping the one in three Australians who will need donated blood in their lifetime.”

Ms Lagoudakis said common tragedies such as cancer diagnoses, road trauma
and blood loss during childbirth were among the regular uses of blood.
“To ensure blood is there when you or a love one needs it, we need more people to sign-up as blood donors. “If more people give blood, then it’s more
likely to be there when you or a loved one needs it later.”

To make blood donations in 2016, call 13 14 95 or visit donateblood.com.au.

Evolution Mining is calling on the community to put forward ideas for Shared Value Projects that will deliver long-term community benefits.

An outline of the initiative was presented to Forbes Shire Council and the Forbes Business Chamber to start a conversation about potential projects. Shared Value Projects are community led initiatives that will continue to benefit the community beyond the life of the mine.

Whilst Evolution may provide funds, skills or equipment to help establish a project, it’s important that any initiative is self-sustaining and not reliant on the mine for ongoing support.

A successful project could take between 1 and 5 years to implement, and must deliver a broad community benefit, rather than only benefiting a small interest group.

A single pool of funds is available across Evolution’s seven operations (approximately $1M/fiscal year but may vary). Money will be granted to projects that deliver the best outcomes for the community and must be based on the community’s needs, not “wants/wish list”. The initiative will operate
in addition to sponsorships and donations (Cowal Partnering Program).

The program has already delivered successful outcomes at Evolution’s Mt Carlton operation through their partnership with Gudjuda Aboriginal Reference Group in Home Hill, QLD. The Shared Value Project to establish a market garden and native plant nursery has created new Indigenous jobs, enabled Gudjuda to deliver new training programs, and generates much needed revenue to grow their training arm. The native plant nursery will also give Evolution access to a local supplier for its regeneration projects.

For more information about Shared Value Projects contact the Cowal Community Relations Department on (02) 6975 3454.

The Forbes PA and H Association will introduce lawnmower racing to this year’s Forbes Show for the first time. The decision to introduce the novelty
event was made at the Association’s recent AGM and Awards ceremony at the Vandenberg Hotel.

Association publicity officer Lucy Pearce said the new event should add a great atmosphere to this year’s show. “It should be plenty of fun for the crowd,
and be something new for Forbes locals to watch, and potentially take part in,” she said.

The event will be titled ‘Show Mow Lawnmower Racing’, and is hoped to be one of the main attractions at this year’s show, which will run on September 9 and 10. The meeting also saw the Association elect their committee and present their annual awards.

‘M & A Dent’ took out the CB Mahlo Shield for Championship Wheat, while ‘Bogabigal Pastoral Co’ won the I Sweeney Shield for the Canola Crop Competition. ‘T & C Morrison Partnership’ won the Greenwood Shield for the Barley Crop Competition, and ‘PM & NG Cronin’ won the Glamis Shield for 1st Cross Ewes.

All other popular activities that have run in the past will also be on show at this year’s Forbes Show, with agriculture, rides, performances and pavilion displays all adding to what is tipped to be a great show this year.