Businesses in Forbes Town Centre have been undergoing improvement works, with at least three shops improving their facilities for customers. Gunn’s Menswear on Rankin Street is undergoing major renovations, and Eyewear

Specs down the road opened for business just this week after renovating their shop. Cint on Rankin Street re-opened on Tuesday after closing while their renovations took place, while the work at Gunn’s have recently started.

Owner of Gunn’s Menswear, Greg Gunn, said renovations at his store would take at least six weeks. “We’re revamping the floors, and the walls are going to go back to their original brick work appearance,” he said.

Mr Gunn also plans to rearrange the items in his store by bringing surf wear from the back to the front right hand side, while work wear and hats will be shifted to the back.

All school wear and embroidery will be moved upstairs, while all mens wear will be located at the front left of the shop, which is the first section currently under renovations. Mr Gunn said he looked forward to seeing the end of the renovations.

“It will be a minimum of six weeks, but there’s every chance it could still be longer, but it will all be worth it at the end of the day,” he said. Eyewear Specs owner Fiona Hayward officially opened her new store on Rankin Street after spending the past few weeks preparing the store.

She said it was great knowing that her store was just one of a handful in Forbes making improvements. “I know Gunn’s and Cint next door are also undergoing renovations, and it’s great to see local businesses making improvements for their local customers,” she said.

“I’m very excited to have opened, but the support of other businesses has been great too.”

Local Red Bend College Teacher, Tony O’Connell has been running for a cause.
With only five weeks remaining in his challenge Tony has been surprised and inspired by the people who have been getting behind the cause and donating money and offering encouragement.

Thirty seven weeks ago Tony began running 42km per week with the aim of repeating this for 42 weeks. So far he has raised $2500 but would love to be able to reach the $4200 mark to help the Royal Far West continue their great work.

Royal Far West is a non-government organisation that has been providing health services to children living in rural and remote New South Wales since 1924. They work in partnership with families and their local health and education providers to complement existing services within the community.

Every year, thousands of country children who have non-acute developmental, behavioural, learning, emotional and mental health disorders benefit from the integrated clinical and educational care provided by the Royal Far West.

Royal Far West’s team of specialist clinicians work together to deliver a comprehensive range of healthcare services. These services, combined with the educational facilities through the Royal Far West School and accommodation facilities at Drummond House, ensure that we offer children an integrated model of care and the highest level of individual support.

Ongoing communication with families and rural service providers builds on this to support long-term change and best outcomes for the children. For children with special needs a respite program is conducted every January. The
week-long program enables the children and their families to have a supported
‘holiday by the sea’.

Help Tony and the Royal Far West close the gap between health outcomes and
children from rural and remote areas by donating online at http://run.gofundraise.com.au/page/42in42.

Bedgerabong Picnic Races vice president Russell Constable hailed last Saturday’s race meet a huge success, with around 2500 people turning out in support of the late Stuart Brown.

Mr Brown lost his battle with cancer last November. He was a Bedgerabong local, and was the tallest jockey in Australian racing history, and worked tirelessly to keep his weight in the 60 kilo range.

He was a successful jockey in his 20-year career, bagging more than 200 race wins, including three at his home Bedgerabong Cup. His first home win came in 2004. This year’s Bedgerabong Cup was renamed ‘The Stuart Brown Memorial Bedgerabong Picnic Race Club Cup’ in Mr Brown’s honour, and was solely sponsored by the Picnic Race Club instead of being offered to an independent sponsor, as it had been in the past.

A delegate of Mr Brown’s family was present in a marquee on the day to represent the late local. Mr Constable said the day was emotional, but one to remember with tight results in most of the six races. “The Bedgerabong Cup was Stuart’s favourite race, being a Bedgerabong boy, so it was for the committee and his family for him not to be there,” he said. “It was quite emotional at the Cup, but we expected it to be.”

“But each race went well. We had great horse numbers, the races were good, the track was fantastic, and the fields were good. We can only race a maximum of 10 horses per race, and we had a couple with the full ten and others with eight.”

“These numbers were very good for a little Cup meeting.” This year’s Cup winner was third favourite Financial Gain, ridden by Billy Owen and trained by Kelly Milliner. The nine-year old bay gelding came in just 0.8 seconds ahead of runner-up Two Naughty, and won it’s second successive Bedgerabong Cup.

It was also its second win in consecutive weekends, after winning in Gilgandra with previous weekend. Mr Constable said the tight racing on the day made for a great spectacle for all 2500 people at the ground, and thanked them all for braving the hot weather. “The patrons braved the heat and they stayed there. It was up by a little bit on last year’s crowd which is great. We had a lot of
people in the fashions on the field as well,” he said.

Long serving committee member Bill Brown also received a life membership to the club.

The Forbes Rodeo Committee are hard at work preparing for the Forbes Rodeo to be held at the Forbes Showground on Saturday 9th April 2016. In direct response to public feedback the program has been amended to be more family friendly with the Main Event, featuring some of the top riders in Australia, commencing at 3pm instead of the usual 6pm of the previous years.

Gates will open at 10am on the day with events to start at 11am with Junior and Timed Events such as Barrel Racing, Steer Wrestling, Café Roping, Team Roping, Breakaway Roping and Steer Un-decorating. Last year more than 300 entries were received for the day and Shaun Read, of the Forbes Rodeo Committee, is confident that they will reach this number or have increased
numbers this year.

The Main Event part of the program, including the Local Poddy Calf Ride, the
Saddle Bronc Ride, Bareback Bronc Ride and Bull Ride, will feature both Novice and Open divisions and there will be no shortage of top class competitors and entertainment for the whole family. The Forbes Rodeo is a sanctioned event with the Australian Bushmens Campdraft & Rodeo Association (ABCRA) and riders will be doing their best to earn points to improve their National standing. The ABCRA season starts at the beginning of December each year and runs through until the end of November with the cowboy and cowgirl with the most points claiming the National Title.

Not only will the top horse men and women be on display but Australian Saddle Bronc of the Year – Moves Like Jagger, Australian Bareback Bronc of the Year – Little Egypt and Australian Bucking Bull of the Year – Eye Candy will also be trying to maintain their claims to fame challenging the skills of the riders at all times.

GET YOUR BUSINESS MOBILE
If you are one of those businesses who are wondering how you can get your business onto mobiles cost effectively, then you need to come along and find out more about our iluvlocal Mobile App. Started in Sweden two years ago, this app is now part of many local businesses in Scandinavia. Costs sometimes
are prohibitive for smaller businesses to be part of this wave, however iluvlocal is not only very affordable, and easy to use, it also takes less than 3 minutes for you to create ads, campaigns and competitions for your business.

Latest research shows that 51% of all people who spent time with digital media spent it on their mobile phones. The implications are clear – if you’re not
able to reach your audience through mobile search or display, or you’re not providing a satisfactory mobile experience you will miss out compared to competitors who are.

Be at the Forbes Services Club at 6pm on Tuesday lst March to see how you can be involved. Call now to reserve a seat with Casey on 0400 279 984.

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating
the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender
parity.
International Women’s Day (IWD) has been observed since in
the early 1900’s – a time of great expansion and turbulence in
the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and
the rise of radical ideologies. International Women’s Day is a collective
day of global celebration and a call for gender parity. No
one government, NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution,
women’s network or media hub is solely responsible for International
Women’s Day. Many organizations declare an annual IWD
theme that supports their specific agenda or cause, and some of
these are adopted more widely with relevance than others.
The theme for this year’s event is #PledgeforParity and International
Womens Day will be celebrated locally at the Forbes Services
Club on Friday 11th March and will include a two course lunch
catered by the Services Club, and special guest speaker Tara
Scott, an Ambassador from One Girl, the charity we are supporting.
This charity is committed to educating 1 million girls across
Africa by 2020.
The event would not be possible without all of the wonderful
sponsors that have come on board. The Forbes Services Club,
Ray White Rural and the Central West Credit Union have each
donated their valuable services to make it possible. This will go a
long way to supporting One Girl in their quest to educate 1 million
less fortunate African girls within the next four years.
Catering at the Services Club will include a two course lunch,
and $5 per ticket sold will be donated to One Girl to help them in
their African girls education mission.
Tickets are $45.00 per person and can be purchased from the
Forbes Phoenix. Grab your friends and come and enjoy a fantastic
days with lots of goodies to be won.

Local showgirl competitor Stacey Clarke will be competing in the zone six judging event in Parkes this weekend. She will be assessed on how she presents herself during the day, which includes an interview in the morning, riding on horse back during the day, and another on stage interview at a gala dinner in the evening. She will be judged by a panel of three judges.

“They judge us on confidence, rural knowledge, community knowledge, what
you do in the community, and other things like that,” said Ms Clarke. She competes mostly at local shows and charity events, and also judges fashions on the field from time to time.

The first Regional Firefighter Championships of 2016 will be held in Forbes on the weekend of the 12th and 13th of March at Stephen Field. Firefighters compete in eight Regional Championships over a two year period in preparation for the State Championships held every two years.

The Championships will showcase the skills and expertise a modern firefighter uses everyday when attacking a fire or responding to a hazard or major emergency or accident. Teams of firefighters compete against each other in a range of events designed to hone their fire fighting skills. The events
emulate real life challenges which give the competitors an opportunity to showcase their firefighting, team work, leadership and problem solving skills on land, on water and in the air.

Andrew Rousell, a firefighter with the Forbes Brigade, is encouraging everyone
to come along to see the best of the best volunteers from across NSW battle it out for Championship points and have a great day out for the whole family.

The Forbes Aquatic area was a buzz with activity this weekend when more than thirty competitors took to the water to test their skills in the NSW Barefoot Skiing Club sanctioned event. Marcus Morrison, event committee member, said competitor numbers were similar to that of the inaugural event last year. He was also very pleased with the number of spectators who lined the foreshores over the two days of competition to watch these talented athletes tear up the water.

The competition consisted of two parts – each part judged and scored by three judges who ride in the boat. The skiers are also recorded on video, which can be viewed in the event that judges or competitors need clarification on the points awarded. The Slalom is the first part and skiers must cross the wake created by the boat as many times as possible in 15 seconds on two feet, one foot, forward or backward.

They are given two runs and are penalised if they complete both runs in the forward position. The second part is the Trick Run and competitors must perform a start trick and perform as many tricks as they can during the 15 second trick pass area. Tricks that are repeated in the second run do not receive a point.

Competitors hailed from all over the state and organisers were pleased that about half of them were from the local area. The Forbes event attracted some excellent junior competitors including Connor Rogers and Teejay Russo who are the current NSW Leaders in the sub junior class and who are ranked 3 and 4 respectively in the World rankings. Local boy, Tom Morrison is ranked 28 which is a fantastic effort considering the short time he has been barefooting. Tom attributes his success to the encouragement and support of Jim Cronin who has been the driving force behind the barefoot competition being held in Forbes.

Two of our young hopefuls, Jenna Redfern and Lockie Miller, were thrilled when Elaina McClung from Branxton had her photo taken with them. Elaina is the current Australian U/14 Girls Champion and is ranked 7th in the World Under 18 Juniors. She will be travelling to America in August to represent Australia in the World Titles. Both Jenna
and Lockie attended the coaching clinic on Friday which was very well attended to the delight of Jim Cronin and his committee.

Jim was grateful for the experienced coaches who attended the sessions and volunteer their time to promote the sport and encourage more participation by people of all ages but in particular the juniors. Sue Russo, from the NSW Barefoot Club and Chief Judge for the weekend, was amazed by the number of spectators who came to watch the competition. “Forbes’ one day competition attracted a larger crowd than the National Titles held in Liverpool,” she said. The barefoot season runs from September through to April and skiers have the opportunity to compete in eight competitions including the State and National Titles held at Liverpool. Even though the Forbes course is just over 600m in length in comparison to the normal length of 800m, it is a great course, Sue added.

Member for Orange, Andrew Gee visited Forbes on Tuesday to officially seal a time capsule at Forbes Hospital to celebrate the new building as part of the $113.7 million Lachlan Health Service project.

The creation of the time capsule follows the official opening ceremony that was attended by Mr Gee, NSW Premier Mike Baird, Deputy Premier, Troy Grant and Minister for Health Jillian Skinner on Tuesday 19 January 2016.
The time capsule, which will be buried near the main entry of the new building, provides a unique opportunity to preserve a significant period of time in Forbes Hospital’s history for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.

The items selected for the time capsule depicting what Forbes Hospital is like today, including items relating to the planning and construction process, were selected by the Lachlan Culture and Arts Working Group in consultation with Mr Gee.

The items chosen for the time capsule were:
• Lachlan Health Service 2013/ 2014 Annual Report.
• A bound document featuring:
• Photos of the new hospital building and the different stages of the redevelopment
• Project newsletters
• Copies of the sketches made by local Wiradjuri artist, Stephen Ferguson–the guga design features on the
main entry doors.
• News articles relating to the construction of the new hospital
• List of project team members
• Signatures of attendees at the official opening ceremony.
• Overview of the Lachlan Health Council.
• Construction plans of the new building at Forbes Hospital.
• Hard drive with videos and photos of the redevelopment.
The new building at Forbes Hospital is part of the $113.7M Lachlan Health Service project which included the construction of the new Parkes Hospital (completed in October 2015).

Now that the new building at Forbes Hospital is complete, work has commenced on the refurbishment of the Renal and Ambulatory Care units and work is scheduled to be completed in mid 2016.