Don’t forget it is our cutest event of the year on Saturday 2 November – the Teddy Bears Picnic. Head down to Lions Park from 10am until 1pm to enjoy a fun family day for all.

Don’t forget to bring your teddy so they can go on some fun adventures with you. There will be bandage a bear, you can go on a fire truck and enjoy lots of bear themed craft activities. Throughout the day there will be games, actives, craft, facepainting and a jumping castle.

Another favourite is our very own National BBQ Championships next weekend on the 9 and 10 November. Have you nominated a team? It will be an amazing couple of days with plenty of live music, a bar, food trucks, cooking demonstrations, BBQ stalls and celebrity chef Mat Blak. We have joined up with the Australian Barbecue Alliance and will be inviting volunteer judges to partici­pate on Sunday 10 November. Training will need to be completed on Sunday morning at 8.30am before the event.

While we are talking great Aussie icons have you thought about someone to nomi­nate for the 2025 Australia Day Awards.

Nominations are NOW open. The award categories are Citizen of the Year, Young Citizen of the Year and Senior Citizen of the Year winners will be presented at a gala dinner on Saturday 25 January 2025. Any resident is eligible for Citizen of the Year, while Young Citizen of the Year is open to residents aged 25 or younger. Anyone aged 65 years or older is eligible for Senior Citi­zen of the Year.

This is the perfect opportunity for residents who have displayed excellence, made a sig­nificant contribution to the community or had an outstanding achievement to gain recog­nition in their own community. There are so many remarkable residents in our shire who have helped our community thrive. To nominate go to https://www.forbes.nsw.gov.au/community/our-community/australia-day and download the nomination form. Copies are also available from Forbes Shire Coun­cil’s office at 2 Court Street, Forbes. Forms can be returned to Council by email at com­munity@forbes.nsw.gov.au or by mail to PO Box 333, Forbes NSW 2871.

Award winners will be determined by a judging panel made up of members of the Forbes Shire community.

Until next week
Phyllis Miller, OAM – Forbes Mayor

What are you doing on Saturday? Join us at beautiful Lions Park for a Community Fishing Day. The event has been organ­ised by our Community Recovery Officers in collaboration with the River Dreaming Aboriginal Corporation to celebrate 2024 Gone Fishing Day. It is a reminder for us all to relax and unwind and enjoy the great outdoors.

There are major prize packs to win – you will need to be registered on 123 tix to be eligible and be present when it’s drawn.

Every child attending will receive a special gift, there will be a community BBQ and fishing workshops. No fishing experience needed. Come along and enjoy a fun fam­ily day – throwing in a line or two.

Work continues this week on the Bogan Way constructing a three kilometre footpath to connect north Forbes to the CBD. Part of this project has been installing a footbridge on the Bogan Gate Road between York and Chruchill Streets. Accessible footpaths remain a priority to ensure access to the CBD and around town.

Have you registered your team yet for the National BBQ Championship on 9 and 10 November. There are two days of competi­tion for grilling and smoking this year. It will be an amazing couple of days with plenty of live music, a bar, food trucks, cooking demonstrations, BBQ stalls and celebrity chef at Blak.

I encourage all BBQ enthusiasts to regis­ter their teams and join in the competition.

For those who may not want to compete, we invite you to come out and support the teams – it is great entertainment.

We have joined up with the Australian Barbecue Alliance and will be inviting vol­unteer judges to participate on Sunday 10 November. Training will need to be com­pleted on Sunday morning at 8.30am be­fore the event.

Talking nominations, have you thought about who should be the Forbes Citizen of the Year, Young Citizen and Seniors win­ners. Nomination forms are now available – we can’t wait to celebrate another round of recipients in our amazing community in 2025. You can find details for these events and nomination forms on our website at forbes.nsw.gov.au

Until next week
Phyllis Miller, OAM
Forbes Mayor

It is that time of the year again to nominate some of our outstanding citizens for the 2025 Australia Day Awards. Nominations are NOW open.

The award categories are Citizen of the Year, Young Citizen of the Year and Senior Citizen of the Year winners will be present­ed at a gala dinner on Saturday 25 January 2025.

Any resident is eligible for Citizen of the Year, while Young Citizen of the Year is open to residents aged 25 or younger. Any­one aged 65 years or older is eligible for Senior Citizen of the Year.

This is the perfect opportunity for resi­dents who have displayed excellence, made a significant contribution to the com­munity or had an outstanding achievement to gain recognition in their own community.

There are so many remarkable residents in our shire who have helped our commu­nity thrive and there is no better to time to share their story and celebrate them than on Australia Day.

To nominate go to https://www.forbes.

nsw.gov.au/community/our-community/australia-day and download the nomina­tion form. Copies are also available from Forbes Shire Council’s office at 2 Court Street, Forbes.

Forms can be returned to Council by email at community@forbes.nsw.gov.au or by mail to PO Box 333, Forbes NSW 2871.

Award winners will be determined by a judging panel made up of members of the Forbes Shire community.

Don’t forget it is our cutest event of the year on Saturday – the Teddy Bears Picnic.

Head down to Lions Park from 10am until 1pm to enjoy a fun family day for all – don’t forget to bring your teddy so they can go on some fun adventures with you. There will be bandage a bear, you can go on a fire truck and enjoy lots of bear themed craft activities.

Throughout the day there will be games, actives, craft, facepainting and a jumping castle. Children are invited to bring along their favourite teddy bear and participate in the Teddy Bear Parade.

Until next week
Phyllis Miller,
OAMForbes Mayor

There is still time to apply for the 2025 Traineeship Program, applications do not close until Monday 21 October to study and learn. Start your future now with Forbes Shire Council.

Have you reserved your ticket yet to the Sculpture Down the Lachlan official open­ing on Saturday? Since 2011, the sculpture project has been an objective of the Forbes Art Society to develop a permanent inland public art trail stretching for 100 kilometres between Forbes and Condobolin.

Council has partnered with FAS since 2014 – launching the acquisition prize of Ingrid Morley’s Shadows on the Landing now located at Wheogo Park. It was also in October 2014 that we all got to glimpse the first red letter a – which has now become the community’s own signature for Amaz­ing Forbes. In August this year, Brett Gar­ling’s latest sculpture Brumbies Run was installed at Waroo marking the completion of this very significant destination project.

It really has been an ‘amazing’ project and will continue to be the reason many people travel to Forbes. So let’s all cele­brate on Saturday – to acknowledge more than a decade of work to establish this trail, tireless (and sometimes contentious) com­munity support, the birth of a major region­al event Grazing Down the Lachlan to raise funds for the trail and other art and cultural initiatives.

Everyone in the Forbes and surround­ing districts are invited to attend the official opening on Saturday 12 October – starting at 9.45am until 11.30am at the site of the Sonata and Brumbies Run Sculptures. We hope to see you there.

As students head back into term four, it is time for our little people to enjoy the ever popular Teddy Bears Picnic on Saturday 19 October at Lions Park – there will plenty of activities for the whole family. Don’t forget to bring your teddy, so you can be a part of the Teddy Bear’s Parade.

Another fun family event will be the Com­munity Fishing Day, being held on the beautiful Lake Forbes – Lions Park, prizes, learn to fish lessons and so much more.

See our website for details.

Until next week
Phyllis Miller, OAM
Forbes Mayor

Our new Council has been declared and on Wednesday afternoon Councillors took the oath and affirmation to fulfil our duties in the best interests of the people of Forbes and to fulfil functions, powers, authorities and dis­cretions to best of our ability and judgement.

Congratulations to our new Council­lors Aidan Clarke, Steve Karaitiana, Jenny Webb, Marg Duggan, Chris Roylance, Michele Herbert, Brian Mattiske and Sarahl­ee Sweeney. I look forward to working with you all over the next four years to continue to build on the success and growth of our community.

I had the honour of officially launching the Binaal Billa Domestic Violence month activities on Tuesday, there was a good crowd at Victoria Park to honour the victims of Domestic Violence and to take a moment to consider the harrowing statistics of DV across our nation. I also took the opportunity to again call for our community’s need for 24 hour policing. There will be more activities over the month of October, including busi­nesses being encouraged to wear purple to work on Tuesday 15 October to help spread awareness, like the little purple hands dot­ted around our CBD.

October is also Small Business Month and the Forbes Business Chamber got off to a great start on Tuesday night with a Learning and Networking event. The speak­ers were Paige Thomas from Service NSW and Dr Belinda Mawhinney a leadership and executive coach. Matt Armstrong from NBN was also on hand to talk communica­tions and the upcoming fibre optic updates starting in Forbes next month. It was a really good night for business owners to connect and learn, the chamber is hoping to host these quarterly – keep an eye out for the next event.

October is filled with events so make sure you find out the details on Council’s website or social pages for Council’s Traineeship info night on Thursday 10 October, the of­ficial opening of the Sculpture Down the La­chlan at Warroo on 12 October now the final sculpture has been installed and the ever popular Teddy Bears Picnic on 19 October.

There are several Community Recovery Events including Women’s Wellbeing Work­shops and a Community Fishing Day on 26 October.

Hope to see many of you there.

Until next week
Phyllis Miller, OAM – Forbes Mayor

What are you doing to celebrate the end of the school term? There is a family fun movie night at Bedgerabong Public School on Friday 27 September. Starting at 4pm, families can enjoy playing soccer darts, a jumping castle and a giant slide before the movie the Bad Guys starts at 7pm. Bring your own chairs and blankets to enjoy the outdoor movie screening.

There are plenty of holiday activities on as usual, check the Forbes Youth Action Team facebook page for details.

Do you own or work in a small business in Forbes? Have you booked your free ticket to the Forbes Business Chamber’s Small Business Network Night on Tuesday, 1st October at Club Forbes?

October is NSW Small Business Month, it includes a month program for small busi­nesses across New South Wales to attend events aligned to their individual business interests. This program has been designed to provide small businesses with quality opportunities to network, develop skills and gain knowledge.

The Forbes Business Chamber is host­ing and supporting events through the month, starting with the networking and learning event. Beginning at 6pm and fin­ishing at 8pm the night includes guest speakers, including leadership consultant and executive coach Belinda Mawhinney, then attendees can network with other businesses, managers and staff from the Forbes business community.

It is free to attend the event, you can re­serve a ticket at 123TIX. This event is for all Small Businesses in the community, members and non-members of the Busi­ness Chamber.

Until next week
Phyllis Miller, OAM – Forbes Mayor

It is another busy weeked in town with the Forbes and District Lions Club hosting the 2024 District Convention at the Forbes Golf Club. Welcome to the 150 Lions members who are in town attending the convention on Saturday and Sunday. Lions Clubs have been supporting communities in Australia for 77 years.

It is now the largest service club in Aus­tralia, here in Forbes we have first hand experience of the community service and commitment to helping others that the Lions Club are renowned for. The few, however very active members of the Forbes and Dis­trict Lions Club are familiar faces in the post flood recovery, manning the Driver Reviver Van and everyone loves a Lions Club BBQ.

Thank you to the Forbes and District Lions Club for all that you do for our town.

Tonight I will be welcoming around 200 Bushtracker Caravan Owners as they host their annual muster here in Forbes. Sev­eral members of this wonderful committee arrived earlier in the week to set up camp for the muster. The group hosts in-house markets, a camp oven cook off and a pho­tography competition. The members plan an active itinerary to enjoy the many sights and attractions our community has to offer.

Forbes Shire Council hosted the Net­waste Regional Waste Forum this week.

The event included a tour of our waste fa­cility and then the regional update, learning and forum agenda. Netwaste is a voluntary waste group formed in 1995 to enable coun­cils to collaborate the approach to waste and resource management. Now covering almost 40% of the state, there are currently 25 member councils in regional NSW. Net­Waste is funded through the NSW Environ­ment Protection Authority (EPA).

Finally have you heard the exciting news? London based, New Zealand born celebrity chef Matt Burgess has been announced as our guest chef and presenter at the 2024 National BBQ Championships. This event is going to be bigger and better than ever with two days of competition on Saturday and Sunday 9 and 10 November.

As well as the National BBQ Champion­ships (grilling) we have teamed up with the Australian Barbecue Alliance to include a smoking competition as part of this ma­jor event. Local and national teams will be competing for the titles and $20,000 in prize money.

I was honoured to meet with Member for Orange, Phil Donato, yesterday when he announced that Forbes Shire Council was successful in the 2023 Community Building Partnership grant. The $37,692 grant is for the installation of the shade sails over play equipment at the popular community space along the banks of the lake. Another addi­tion to our beautiful lake precinct.

Great to see the sun will be shining for the annual Forbes Show on Saturday. As always there will be plenty to see and do.

The gates open at 8am and the Grand Pa­rade will be at 2pm – you can fill your day with the many exhibitions, pavilion entries and displays that make a country show great.

Do you know of someone looking to start a new career? Council has launched its 2025 Traineeship campaign to recruit for 15 positions working and training in civil construction, irrigation, horticulture, ag­riculture, business, community projects, surveying and drone operations, sewer plant operations, as well as university level positions for a town planner and building surveyor.

Traineeships are an opportunity for peo­ple, of any age, to begin a new career and earn industry recognised qualifications while on the job. You can find out more de­tails on the Forbes Shire Council website, download the position descriptions and ap­ply. We have had great success with our trainees becoming integral and important members of our Council team.

There are plenty of outstanding women in our community and the NSW Govern­ment is seeking nominations for inspiring and aspirational women and girls in NSW for the 2025 NSW Women of the Year awards. These awards aim to recognise ground-breaking thinkers, everyday he­roes and social reformers. There are many outstanding women working in the local government sector and this is a great op­portunity to recognise their work. The re­cipients of the awards will be announced at the NSW Women of the Year Awards ceremony on Thursday 6 March 2025 as part of NSW Women’s Week, which will run from Sunday 2 March to Saturday 8 March.

Nominations close at 11.59pm on 15 Sep­tember 2024.

Until next week
Phyllis Miller, OAM – Forbes Mayor

The weather seems to be changing and there is just a hint of Spring in the air.

With Spring comes show season and I’d like to first of all congratulate the Bedger­abong Show committee on their wonder­ful event recently. It really is a true country show that showcases agriculture and the talents of locals, and keeps this great little community connected.

Our team attended and were able to have some terrific conversations with locals. I’m looking forward to the same at the upcom­ing Forbes Show.

In the coming months there will be lots of great events for all of us to enjoy – keep an eye out for Taste on Templar, The BBQ Champs and for fun kids events such as the Teddy Bears Picnic. There really is something for everyone!In the last week I’ve also been pleased to host Steph Cooke MP, Shadow Minister for Water and for Crown Lands here in Forbes.

This was another wonderful opportunity to raise issues for our Shire. Rest assured I will continue to put important topics such as the raising of the dam wall in front of our state and federal politicians.

We continue to install the amazing way­finding signage around Lake Forbes. I’m sure you would all agree that this looks ab­solutely fantastic and will be a great asset for locals and visitors alike. The signage is designed to help walkers and cyclists navi­gate the lake and highlight its wonderful features. We are sure that this signage will almost be a tourist attraction in itself with its elegant and professional design that fits nicely in with our lake style. Once again we are so grateful to the NSW Government for funding this and other aspects of the Lake Forbes Activation Plan through the Public Spaces Legacy Fund.

And finally a shoutout to our team un­dertaking all of the mowing, gardening, lin­emarking and weeding in all of our many parks, ovals and lake side open space. A huge amount of work is being done, which really is never ending with this weather.

Once again our town stands out in the re­gion with its beautiful presentation. Forbes really is a wonderful place to live.

Until next week
Phyllis Miller, OAM
Forbes Mayor