Twenty-five teams of firefighters from across NSW will converge on Forbes
this weekend for the Regional Firefighter Championships. The event will be held at Stephan Field between 8am and 3pm on Saturday, and 8am and 1pm on Sunday.

Each team will compete in 11 different events across the two days of competition, with each event designed to simulate a real-life firefighting exercise. Teams will be timed in each event, with the fastest time to be declared the winner.

Ten local firefighters from Forbes will compete, with two teams featuring five
members each, and an invitational team from the Parkes Rural Fire Service will also join in, even though the event is normally just for the NSW Fire and Rescue Service.

It won’t just be local firies competing though, with others coming from as far as Bega, Nowra, Port Macquarie, Broken Hill, Dubbo and Tamworth. Forbes fire fighter Andrew Rousell said an example of an event that would be held
over the weekend would be the ‘breathing apparatus’ event, where competitors would simulate a house fire.

“Two fireman put breathing apparatus on, while another two go to work and put a stand pipe into the hydrant, and get water coming out of the hose on the pumper, and the two with the breathing apparatus run the hose out as if they’re going into a house fire,” he said.

“We’ve only got 2000 litres of water in a fire truck, so if you get the hoses going hard, that sucks it up pretty quick, so you’ve got to look for a hydrant to supplement your water supply.”

Mr Rousell said the championship events actually helped with real-life firefighting training, and that the Forbes squadron was looking forward to the event.

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.