Preparations are well underway for the Bedgerabong Picnic Races on Saturday 13th February, which will this year commemorate the late Stuart Brown, who was Australia’s tallest jockey. There will again be a six race program,
with the feature race being race five- the “2016 The Stuart Brown Memorial Bedgerabong Picnic Race Club Cup”.

While weighing just 62 kilograms, Brown stood a whopping 187cm tall. Brown tragically lost his seven month battle with lung cancer in November last year aged 43, but not without making his native community in Bedgerabong proud.

He won more than 200 races in a 20- year career and his biggest thrill came in winning his first Bedgerabong Cup in 2004 on horse ‘Thuntastique’. He would collect two more. The gates will open at 11am on February 13 with the first race to commence at approximately 1pm, and the feature race taking place later in the day.

If you are heading out this way, there are buses being provided from Forbes leaving the Forbes Town Hall from 11.30 am to 3.00 pm and returning back into Forbes from 7 pm to 10.30 pm. Should you wish to drive, you head out the North Condobolin Road for 32 kms. Entry: $15 per person (kids under 15 free) with race books at $5 each.

There are a lot of facilities located on course, and with the entry fee set at just $14.00 per person, this is a great and affordable day out for the family. The children can enjoy a free jumping castle, footraces on the straight after the last race, raffles and a live band – House of Tribes – after the races finish. The public bar will sell a range of beers,
wines, cider, spirits and mixed drinks from 11.30am to 10.30pm. A TAB Van and Bookmakers (Local & Metropolitan) will be on course, as well as various caterers including takeaways, BBQ, coffee & ice cream. Make sure you bring cash with you if you want a bet as there are no ATM facilities on course.

During the day, Fashions on the Field will be judged after Race 5 so if you are interested in participating listen to the announcements on the day to find out how you can be involved. This caters for every age group and every type of fashion. In addition there will be local Bedgerabong hats, caps, stubby holders and bar mats available on the day with an Auction of “Bedgerabong Race Day” merchandise after the footraces.

Rainfall in the last two weeks has seen Forbes record three times its normal rainfall for January, while the month as a whole recorded average temperatures, the Bureau of Meteorology has said. Forbes Airport, where official weather recordings are taken for the town, received 81.4mm of rain, with the average over the last 20 years since the Airport readings were first launched being just 29.2mm.

The month started with two heat waves within the first two weeks, but ended with wetter and cooler conditions in the last fortnight. BOM climatologist Aga Turkey said while the month’s weather was variable it was not unusual.
“It was quite variable. Some of these events were quite significant, but when we compare it to the climate record, it’s not particularly record breaking.” Forbes had a daily average temperature of around 33 degrees, just short of the historical average of around 34 degrees, with the hottest day being 43 degrees on January 13.

Overnight lows stayed right on average at 18 degrees, while the wettest day in town was January 23 when 31.4mm fell. The current El Nino weather pattern, which normally brings warmer and drier conditions but can still cause rain events, is expected to persist through February before declining in early autumn, Ms Turkey said.

She added we could see more rain events as El Nino begins to decline, with neutral weather patterns expected to follow for the rest of the year, bringing good news to local farmers.

“When we have a break down of an El Nino, it’s not unusual for parts of Australia to get some good falls,” she said.
“Our climate outlook for the next three months is for wetter conditions for Central West NSW.”

Work started on the project in 2012 and Mayor Miller said the opening of the new building in January was an exciting milestone for the community. “The refurbishment of Forbes Hospital has been a long time coming and we are very lucky because as much as it has been called a refurbishment, the Forbes community has a brand new hospital,” Mayor Miller said.

“The redevelopment of the ambulatory services is still underway and is expected to be completed in the coming months. “As part of the work, it was also terribly important for the community to keep the facade of the previous hospital. “I can only congratulate the architects on the way they have incorporated it into the new facility.”

Included in the $40.9 million development was a new emergency department, patient unit, birthing suites for maternity services, clinical support services including advanced medical imaging technology, an upgraded ambulatory care unit and expanded renal facilities.

Refurbishments of the ambulatory care unit and renal services are still ongoing, with completion of this expected in the coming months. The new building began use at the end of last year, but was officially opened on January 19 by Premier Mike Baird, Deputy Premier Troy Grant, Health Minister Jillian Skinner and Member for Orange Andrew Gee.

“With the hard work and dedication of not only our medical providers and doctors, but also through the support of the community, we have been able to maintain our services and have a wonderful new facility,” Mayor Miller said.
“The Councillors and I could not be happier. “We have worked very hard to attract doctors and health professionals to town through the building of the Apex Medical Centre, providing subsidised accommodation at the Jemalong Regional Education Centre and supporting Yoorana Gunya. “The number of doctors in Forbes is growing, which is the reverse trend in other rural communities, and it is because of the hardwork and dedication of everyone involved.

“Our new hospital is second to none and it was a very proud moment to be at the opening to see NSW Premier Mike Baird and Health Minister Jillian Skinner officially open the hospital along with NSW Deputy Premier Troy Grant and Orange MP Andrew Gee.” Across the entire Lachlan Health Service, which includes the Forbes and Parkes hospitals, $113.7 million of hospital improvements funding has been spent.

Manager Liz Mitchell has overseen this New Forbes Hospital  “Our ultimate goal is to improve the health
outcomes for our patients,” she said. “We can achieve this with better integration between Parkes and Forbes hospitals using our new and improved facilities and sharing of services.”

“This includes the hospital’s Inpatient and Ambulatory Care services (Ambulatory Care includes Community Health, Physiotherapy, Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Services, Renal and Dental Services) and the hospital and other community health providers such as General Practitioners and non-government organisations.”

Ms Mitchell said the people of Forbes could now access the highest level of care, whereas in the past this was not always guaranteed. She added the new facilities and technology would provide an improved patient flow, and more open and brighter spaces. “Now that the new building at Forbes is complete, work has commenced on the refurbishment of our Renal and Ambulatory Care units,” she said.

“With new and improved Ambulatory Care facilities at Forbes, we hope patients will see Forbes Hospital as a place that can help them stay healthy and live well, not just a place to visit when you are sick.”

Red Bend Catholic College principal Br Michael Flanagan says the implementation of a number of programs this year should see his school succeed academically once again.

His school achieved great results in last year’s HSC, with 12 students picking up 22 band sixes (a mark of above 90) across 14 separate courses, while 52 students collected 150 band fives (a mark between 80 and 90) in 27 courses.

While Br Michael said the programs he would implement this year aimed at maintaining high results, he stressed the most important aspect was each student getting the best out of themselves. “Our normal goal is to offer an environment here where kids can learn, to be challenged to learn more, and each is encouraged to do their best,” he said.

“They don’t have to get extraordinary results, but they have to get results that are good for them. That’s what we want.” Programs in use at Red Bend this year include teacher educator, blocking students in ability groups, FastforWord, and the parent French course.

The blocking students in ability groups system brings students of similar ability into one class, which Br Michael said
would create extra but smaller classes for his school. He believes the blocking students in ability groups system will bring the best out of students who are excelling and those who are developing.

“We believe if we can put kids of similar ability together they’ll learn better and people can focus their education of strategies more at one group of kids rather than trying to find a middle all the time when you’ve got a big range of kids,” he said. “It’s particularly important for those who are really bright, but for those who really struggle it’s also important.”

“They can move up and down classes as well. They’re not stuck where they are forever.” The FastforWord program, based on neurological science, is computer based, and targets particular areas in students that need intense development. For the first time a teacher educator has been appointed at Red Bend College, a move Br Michael said will improve teacher performance, and as a consequence, student performance.

It’s a continual professional development if you like,” he said.

Forbes Sport and Recreation Club manager Norm Cook says he was impressed by the turnout at the first ever ‘All Roads Lead Back to Forbes’ event. Around 500 people from across Australia, including Queensland, northern NSW and Tasmania, came back to their hometown of Forbes to celebrate the event held between Friday January 22 and Sunday January 24.

Mr Cook, who coordinated the event, said he hoped it would be just as big when it runs again in two years time. “It was a magnificent success. We were talking about one for next year but that probably won’t happen, it’ll probably be two years down the track.” “We had a lot of people come from the Gold Coast, as well as from the NSW coast like Coffs Harbour, Ballina and Sydney, and as far south as Batemans Bay, Albury and Wagga.”

The event was organised with the purpose of reuniting current and former Forbes residents, with Facebook being the main mode of communication to invite people to the event.

“Social media played a big part. There’s a Facebook page called ‘We come from Forbes and we’re proud of it’, so that was obviously the main thing,” he said. The three-day event involved a meet and greet on the Friday night, live entertainment and the official reunion on the Saturday night, and a BBQ brunch on the Sunday morning.

The two main bands, the ‘Echoettes’ and ‘Freight’ were a highlight on the Saturday night, with both groups playing music from the 1970s including the Bee Gees, The Shadows and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Mr Cook said the band members were reuniting on a musical level just as everyone else was reuniting on a social level.

“These bands played in Forbes pubs back in the 70s, so that was the original idea, to get all the boys back together, and all of the original members were there,” he said. Mr Cook said the auctions originally planned were not able to take place, but will be run at a later date by the Forbes Diggers Swimming Club with proceeds going to the soon-to-be established Prostate Awareness Committee, to be based in Forbes from February.

Forbes’ Darcy Morrison and Dylan Gunn have taken out the 2016 Ben Hall Gifts in the open womens and mens divisions respectively. Morrison just nudged out sister Nicole by a mere 0.17 seconds, finishing with a time of 13.74 seconds, while Gunn ran an impressive time of 11.53 seconds, 0.25 seconds ahead of runner-up Ozzie Toole.

Gunn, a former regular runner, said after his race win he may now consider getting back in to sprinting after surprising himself with how well he ran. “I used to run for the school quite a bit when I was still in high school, and I used to do Little Athletics” he said. “But I haven’t really done much running in the last year or so.”

Both athletes took home $600 prize money, with runners-up taking $200. Forbes Shire Council says it hopes to increase money for the Gift in the years to come. Gunn said with his win coming on Australia Day, he was very grateful to have made his achievement on such a significant occasion. “It’s great seeing everyone come around [to watch]. In the past I’ve competed up in Sydney where there’s no one you know,” he said.

“It’s good on Australia Day. Everyone’s down amongst it, and it’s great for the community.” The other divisions that ran in the Gift on Australia Day were under 10s boys, 10-14 boys, junior girls, junior rugby league 14s, junior rugby league 16s, celebrity, rugby union v rugby league, 15-17 years girls and 15-17 years boys.

In respective order the winners were Jonah Little, Coby Ryan, Annie O’Connor, Coby Ryan, Charlie Staines, Scott Toole, Ozzie Toole, Nicole Morrison, and Ozzie Toole again.