Articles Archives - Page 224 of 424

Men’s Shed On The Home Stretch

September 18, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

Treasurer Peter Norris and President Norm Haley have worked tirelessly to see the new facility complete.

The new Forbes Men’s Shed is in its final stages of completion since its inception in May 2018. Members were able to move into the new shed on Monday, 3 August 2020 however they are still working on improvements for the facility.

The new facility, which is self-sufficient with water and run partially by solar power, can now comfortably host 50 people in their new dining room. Along with workshops, cards, and health programs, the space will also be used for relaxation with a small library in the works.

Since the start, some 13 years ago, membership has steadily grown however, COVID-19 restrictions which limited activities of the organisation saw numbers decrease this year. President Norm Haley predicts numbers will rise again and is also encouraging younger residents of Forbes to join, with the shed accepting members from ages 12 and up. “It’s here for anyone wanting to join,” Norm says.

The new Shed is well equipped to be utilised by its members for a variety of activities. “It’s expanded our foresight for work related jobs, with room to adapt new health programs which will hopefully be an enormous asset to men in Forbes,” said Norm.

The Men’s Shed members are currently working on a number of repair and construction jobs for the Forbes community and are always up for a challenge.

By encouraging mateship and open communication about both physical and mental health, the Men’s Shed is an invaluable community resource.

New Collaboration To Tackle Mental Health In Forbes

September 18, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

Di Gill, Tom Norris, Mayor Phyllis Miller, Claire Nicholson, Mayor Ken Keith, Ross Williams and Marg Applebee. Photo: Jenny Kingham

An exciting new collaboration between Gotcha4Life, Landcare NSW, the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) and Surf Lifesaving NSW has led to the opportunity to bring new programs to the Parkes and Forbes Shires with a focus on building mental fitness.

The four organisations saw the opportunity to work together in regional, rural, and coastal areas in NSW by delivering workshops and training focussed on the concept of ‘prevention through connection’.

Forbes Shire Mayor, Cr Phyllis Miller and Parkes Shire Mayor, Cr Ken Keith OAM have expressed the support of both Councils for the outlay of programs. After several years of drought and then COVID-19, now is the time to continue working on these important aspects of our community health.

Gotcha4Life is a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to connecting corporate Australia, government, community and NFP to help prevent and reduce instances of poor mental health in Australia.

Founder of Gotcha4Life and television and radio personality, Gus Worland said:
“Our vision at Gotcha4Life is a world where people are open, honest and supportive in their relationships and comfortable to express themselves when they are not ok. We envisage a society in which everyone has a Gotcha4Life mate who they can open-up to and rely on no matter what.”

Marg Applebee, Coordinator for Central West Lachlan Landcare, and Di Gill, RAHMHP Consultant are pleased to be working with Gotcha4Life to help activate these programs in the Parkes and Forbes Shires.

The RAMHP currently has 20 Coordinators who live and work across NSW who connect people to local services and information.

RAMHP Manager Tessa Caton said continuing to find new ways of building mental fitness and capacity in rural communities was absolutely essential after the challenges 2020 has brought.

For guidelines on safe media reporting about suicide, mental ill-health and alcohol and other drugs, head to Mindframe on https://mindframe.org.au/

Forbes Gets Its Scrap Together

September 18, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

Forbes residents will be the best in NSW when it comes to recycling their food waste with a new education campaign being piloted by Forbes Shire Council.

Mayor Phyllis Miller OAM said Forbes Shire Council volunteered to test the Let’s Get Our Scrap Together campaign, to get more food waste out of the red lid bin and into the green.

“Having a kerbside food waste recycling service already makes us among the best recyclers in NSW,” Phyllis said.

“This new education campaign will help us to be even better.”

The campaign was developed by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to support its kerbside collection program under Waste Less, Recycle More. It follows research that showed on average, only half the available food waste was being correctly disposed of in the green lid FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) bin.

EPA spokesperson Amanda Kane said the campaign is being piloted in Clarence Valley, Kempsey Shire and Forbes Shire council areas, with each council tailoring it to their own community. It will be delivered over the next three months, telling the story of how the green lid bin recycling benefits local farms, how it can take all types of food waste and is something everyone can do.

Forbes Shire Council will be distributing it through its Facebook page as well as letterbox drops, local media advertising and radio ads.

The results of bin audits conducted before and after the program will be compared to determine the success of the campaign. The ambitious goal will be to get all the food that is currently being wasted in the red lid bin disposed of in the green bin instead.

Return Of A Beautiful Curse

September 11, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

Beautiful but deadly Paterson’s Curse has exploded around the Ski Dam in Forbes.

Residents and regular Ski Dam walkers in Forbes will have no doubt noticed the beautiful sprawling weed around the Ski Dam and around paddocks in the Shire, the beautiful purple hue reminiscent of the picturesque lavender fields of Provence, France. However, this local version must not be mistaken for such.

Echium Plantagineum, more commonly known as Paterson’s Curse, Riverina Bluebell and Purple Viper’s-Bugloss is an invasive weed which is extremely harmful to livestock. Rumoured to have been named after the Paterson family of Cumberoona, NSW who planted it in their garden in the 1880’s, only to watch in horror as it spread across pastoral and agricultural land. Paterson’s Curse’s poisoning symptoms range from loss of appetite, abdominal swelling, weight loss, diarrhea, constipation, and sleepiness, to more severe symptoms that can result in death due to liver damage.

While livestock tend to ignore Paterson’s Curse, contaminated hay bales or feed is more often to blame for the consumption of this toxic weed. In 1988 and 1994, the CSIRO released moth, root weevils, flea beetles and two more types of beetles in South Australia which is said to have significantly contributed to the decline in the abundance of the weed as both the moth and beetle species can kill the plant before it flowers. In human’s the plant can cause skin irritation so please give this smiling assassin a wide-berth if and when you might come across it.

Grants To Support Youth

September 11, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

Member for Riverina and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack

Member for Riverina and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack is encouraging individuals and organisations supporting young people to consider applying for funding of up to $20,000 through the Youth Action Projects Grant Scheme.

“Young people are our future and at this most difficult time in our history it is vital we give them as much support as possible to ensure they continue to have a bright future,” Michael said.

“A small boost for a youngster might just be enough for them to realise their dreams down the track and this will benefit not just them as individuals but our community as well because we are all enriched when even one person succeeds.”

As part of the program, grants of between $5,000 and $20,000 are available for projects which respond to the social challenges facing those aged 15 to 24.

Projects need to be either new initiatives that recognise and respond to the hardship young people face now and will face in the future, or existing initiatives which already provide a valuable on-going service to young people, but which need further funding to continue.

Funds can be used to pay for any type of project including but not limited to staffing, equipment purchase, consumables or marketing.

While grants will be used for projects which support young people in a variety of ways, there will be a particular focus on employment, transportation, mental health and the impacts of COVID-19 and last summer’s bushfires. Successful grant recipients are expected to deliver projects over the 2020-21 financial year.

The grant round closes Wednesday, 7 October 2020. For more information and to download the application form, visit the website www.fya.org.au/yapgs

Well Deserved Award For Mayor

September 11, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

Sam Farraway presented the Award to Mayor Phyllis Miller in Victoria Park on Tuesday. (Credit Sam Farraway Facebook)

On Tuesday, Nationals Member Sam Farraway visited Forbes to Officially present Forbes Shire Council Mayor Cr Phyllis Miller OAM with the Ministers Award in Local Government-Elected Representative Award for Rural and Regional NSW. Sam, who has worked extensively with Phyllis in supporting many projects throughout the Shire, said the award was “very well deserved.”

Phyllis received the Award virtually, via a live ceremony on Youtube at the end of August, for which she said she was “incredibly honoured” before acknowledging and thanking her fellow Councillors and Council’s General Manager Steve Loane.

Council staff and family were there to share in the excitement. (credit: Sam Farraway Facebook)

Snippets…

September 11, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

Margaret Girot will have a stall full of new season tomato plants this month at the Rotary Ipomoea Markets.

Market Makes Its Comeback: Saturday, 12 September will see Rotary Ipomoea’s first market since the COVID-19 break at Forbes Lion’s Park, starting at 8am and concluding at 12.30pm.

There will be a Rotary Ipomoea market, all being well, every second Saturday of the month for the rest of the year including a special Christmas market on the second Saturday of December.

Rotary Ipomoea members are so excited to be able to conduct a market again with social distancing in place. So many regular stall holders have replied to invitations to attend as well as many new stall holders.

Margaret Girot would normally be selling her plants at the Forbes Show but since its cancellation, she will have all her new season tomato plants, vegetable seedlings and fowls at the market this month. Forbes Rotary Ipomoea will have a seasonal produce raffle, eggs, oranges, lemons, limes, books, plants, and pumpkins for sale on their mega Rotary stall. Funds raised by Rotary Ipomoea support local projects.

Forbes North Public School will have a stall offering a variety of handmade calico shopping bags, cards, video games, books, toys, and produce from the school garden.

There will be hand-made clothes, home cooking, soap, antiques and the chance to sample a Rotary egg and bacon roll from the Rotary breakfast van, or you may like to grab a coffee from the ladies’ in the super coffee outlet at Lion’s Park.

Spring Photo Competition: It is that time of year again. The Forbes Phoenix is running its annual Spring Photo Competition where we are looking for your best and brightest Spring snaps taken in and around beautiful Forbes. This year, Sarah Hodge from Essjay Photography is sponsoring the competition. Sarah is a storytelling genius who loves adventure and finds great joy in capturing special moments. Sarah’s clients are treated more like friends and sessions are laid back in order to capture authentic and unique moments.

Essjay Photography is located in Forbes and has been operating for over ten years. The business is ever expanding and offers family, weddings, business, and personal photography. Winners of the Spring Photo Competition will win a $200 voucher from Essjay Photography. Submissions can be made on the Forbes Phoenix Facebook page, or emailed to sales@forbesphoenix.com.au. The Forbes Phoenix will accept entries until the end of October 2020.

Azalea in bloom by Elvy Quirk.

My COVID Test

September 11, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

The drive-through testing clinic is the quickest and most convenient means of being tested.

It was 10:02am as I pulled up behind a line of 14 cars in front of the Vandenberg Hotel, and within a few minutes there were more cars in line behind me. I felt a wave of relief wash over me to see so many others waiting to be tested for COVID-19, although this was not my first test.

Two months earlier I presented myself at Forbes Hospital with what I knew to be an all too familiar case of tonsillitis, I was given a mask and told very assertively by the receptionist to “step back!” from the marked line I was already standing behind. When the only other patient in the waiting room saw me, she slouched back and used her collar to cover her mouth. Thankfully, the nurse who took the swab was friendly and patient with my dramatic display of discomfort during that infamous nasopharyngeal swab which has since been replaced by a much gentler nasal swab.

The first time I was tested I was sure that I did not have COVID-19. However, this time upon hearing about last week’s case in Parkes, I wondered if this cough of mine was due to a change in season or a mild case of COVID. If it was the dreaded COVID, how many of my friends, contacts and family members would be forced to self-isolate? How many people did I, at best, inconvenience greatly or, at worst, put at risk? Would I be lynched? Word spreads quickly in small towns and it would not take long before I became the hottest topic in town.

These fears of mine were eased in seeing so many others in line to be tested on Monday, and while it meant that I had to wait over half an hour to be tested it will be a relief to have a negative result back.

The drive-through process was easy enough, firstly a man came to hand out information about registering to receive a text message for a negative result. Secondly, a woman came to take my details before placing the paperwork on my windscreen for the nurses in the final pathology gazebo. Finally, the nurses took my temperature, swabbed my mouth; so far so good, and took a nasal swab, which was thoroughly unpleasant but over in just a few seconds.

By Alexandria Irvine

There’s More To Say After R U OK?

September 11, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

WNSWLHD Director of Mental Health Drug and Alcohol, Jason Crisp is urging all to feel comfortable in asking and answering R U OK?

In the steady wind down for the year, mental health issues can catch up to those of us who have been on autopilot for the past six months, ignoring or downplaying feelings of isolation and despair. Some have said that it is as though 2020 has been the fastest, slowest, smallest, and biggest year they have ever experienced. The Get Up and Go Garema gathering, which took place in February, set the many attendees up for good mental health practices in a year like no other, by encouraging people to speak up when they don’t feel okay.

R U OK? Day took place on Thursday, 10 September, and The Western NSW Local Health District supports this national mental health initiative by urging everyone to feel comfortable and confident to ask, “are you ok?” every day, because more meaningful conversations reduce feelings of isolation and increase a sense of communal belonging.

Director of Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol, Jason Crisp said, “You don’t have to be an expert to support someone going through a tough time, you just need to be there, be able to listen without judgement, and take the time to follow up.”

“We want everyone to feel confident they know the signs someone might need support by listening to what they’re saying, seeing what they’re doing or knowing what’s going on in their life. Whenever you notice a change, no matter how small, we want you to trust your gut and start an R U OK? conversation,” Jason said.

Lachlan Health Council Seeking Members From Forbes

September 11, 2020 by Maggi Barnard

The Lachlan Health Council, which represents both the Forbes and Parkes communities, is looking to fill a vacancy and is seeking community members from all ages and backgrounds who are not only passionate about health and wellbeing, but also willing to speak on behalf of their community when it comes to health issues.

Lachlan Health Council Chair Carolyn Rice said, “The Health Council provides an opportunity to bring health issues from both the Parkes and Forbes communities to the attention of Lachlan Health Service and to Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD).”

“Health Council members are committed to giving both Forbes and Parkes communities a voice on health issues.”

“Our local knowledge and experience is valued by the Health Service when we work with managers and clinical staff in the planning and delivering of services for our community.”

“The Health Council has a strong community voice and we are encouraging people from all backgrounds to nominate so we can continue to represent everyone’s interests. We would like to particularly encourage young people and Aboriginal community members to apply,” said Carolyn.

At a minimum, membership requires attendance at monthly meetings of the Health Council, but there are also opportunities for wider participation on committees and workshops in areas of personal interest. The Health Council meetings alternate between Forbes and Parkes locations and there is the option to phone or video call into meetings if you are not able to attend in person.

Application kits can be obtained by contacting Kylie Higgins, Senior Admin Support on (02) 6850 7103 or via email Kylie. Higgins@health.nsw.gov.au. Applications close on Friday, 25 September so be sure to get in quickly for the chance to give the community a voice where it counts.

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