Topsoil Organics employees with the Small Business Award at the awards night were (L-R) Kylie Martin, Siobhan Ber-mingham, Lan Nicholson, Dan Nicholson, Stephanie Crowe and Eloise Clayton.

An innovative and young Forbes business took out the Small Business award at the 2022 Western NSW Business Awards held at Taronga Western Plains Zoo recently. 

First time entrants Top Soil Organics shocked and surprised themselves by winning the most competitive category on the night. 

“We are very excited about this award,” said Director Dan Nicholson. “It’s been very tough as a new business through COVID, but this award gives us a feeling that we must be on the right path. It gives us reassurance for the future.” 

After exponential growth over the past 12 months for the composting making business and the staff compliment growing from two full-time employees to 19, Dan said he foresaw business tripling in size over the next three years. 

He said the company had four vacancies at the moment, and if winning the award made them stand out to attract good employees, it would be a further win. 

Topsoil’s composting facility opened last year and provides an environmentally compliant facility for the receival and reuse of food and green waste. The facility processes food and green waste from supermarkets in metropolitan areas, mainly Sydney, into compost that is sold to farmers in the Central West as fertiliser. 

“There is a massive demand for the end product, and as food waste needs to be diverted from landfill, there is an opportunity to keep growing,” said Dan. He is looking to expand his processing capacity from 30,000 tons to 150,000 tons. 

“We are looking at equipment from Europe to depackage the plastic on food products. Once we’ve found an end market for the plastic, we will complete the circular economy loop from supermarket to farmer and the farmer’s produce back to the supermarket. 

“We are very proud where we’ve come from,” said Dan. 

By Maggi Barnard

Board members at Forbes Rotary’s 75th Annual presentation dinner (L – R) David Rhodes (treasurer), Greahame Uphill (secretary), Chris Finkel (president), Gary Pymont (immediate past president), Ross Williams (youth director), Chrissie Hawke (bulletin editor) and Peter Norris (vocational director). Absent: Michael Jelbart and John Zannes.

As the Rotary Club of Forbes held its 75th annual presentation dinner recently it also launched a project to assist the people of Ukraine. 

The club is raising funds through the sales of sunflower seeds – the sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower. Little blue and yellow packets of sunflower seeds for Ukraine have been placed at local businesses for the public to support the project. 

A few dollars as a donation for these seeds will help Rotary International fund much needed assistance for the war-torn people in Ukraine to regain their independence and freedom. 

“Planting the seeds in your garden will not only provide a colourful display in the streets of our town but will provide much needed support for those impacted by war in Ukraine,” said club president Chris Finkel. 

“It’s one more way Rotary is supporting communities both here and abroad – as a group of faithful Forbes volunteers has now been doing for three quarters of a century.” 

Forbes has two Rotary Clubs, and next year the Rotary club of Forbes Ipomoea will be celebrating 20 years of service. Forbes Ipomoea was chartered in 2003 and meets once a month on a Tuesday at 7am, while the 

The two Forbes Rotary clubs are encouraging more people to join them “to do good in our world, to do good in Australia and do good in our region”. 

President Chris Finkel, his board and Rotary members would love to welcome more people to join them. 

If you’re looking for something incredible to be part of, Rotary is a good place to start. Contact Chris on 0429 661 358 to talk about provisional membership if you’d like to try it out first. 

“I’ve made many friends through the world… involving myself in humanitarian Rotary projects and I invite members of our community to join our Rotary club and share the enjoyment and satisfaction one receives in pursuit of helping others,” he said. 

An artist’s impression of the pergolas to be installed in the CBD this weekend.

The CBD is going to look very different after the weekend with the installation of pergolas this weekend. Forbes Shire Council reported on Wednesday that earthworks had started in preparation for the pergolas, which is part of the CBD masterplan and funded by the Australian Government’s Building Better Regions Fund. 

The installation of the pergolas will take place over the weekend to minimise the disruption to business and traffic. Traffic controls will be in place and the plan is to only close one end of the street at a time. Take care near the works and follow all signs to ensure your own safety and the safety of the crews. 

Some of the women at the Knit ‘n Natter event held at the Craft Corner last week. Holding the rugs are Rosemary Mitchell and Rhonda Redenbach from the Craft Corner and Dianne Percy from Orange.

There was a lot of catching up to be done after two years of ‘silence’ at the Knit ‘n Natter event at Craft Corner last week.

About 40 women from Orange and Bathurst joined locals from Parkes and surrounds to not only natter over a cuppa and cake, but also knit squares for the Wrap with Love project that provide warm wraps to vulnerable people all over the world.

“We donate wraps to overseas charities, but also donate to 12 local charities including to the women’s refuge, nursing homes, oncology department and more,” said Dianne Percy, co-ordinator of Wrap with Love in Orange.

The annual even at Craft Corner, going for more than 14 years, is a great way of bringing people together, but members of the public are knitting at their homes and with friends right through the year for the project.

“One rug is made up of 28 squares, and we have 604 completed so far this year,” said Dianne. All the knitted squares from the Central West go to Orange and since the start of the project a total of 7,000 rugs have been made so far.

Wrap with Love was started in Melbourne in 1992 and donations have been sent to people in more than 75 countries.

Craft Corner members and anyone else keen on knitting are encouraged to drop off their knitted squares at the Craft Corner in Parkes. The squares should be 25cm square, knitted in 8 ply yarn with no. 8 (4mm) needles in garter stitch all plain rows.

If you have any 8 ply yarn lying around at home, feel free to drop that off at the Craft Corner too.

Dianne’s group meets at the Orange City Library every Thursday from 9 to 12 in the morning. She said the group also made beanies for homeless people, twiddle muffs for people with dementia and children with disabilities, outfits for stillborn babies and trauma teddies for hospitals.

By Maggi Barnard

Forbes North Public School is committed to ‘creating futures with education changing lives’ as a true reflection on what our school believes while celebrating the theme for Education Week 2022. 

Throughout Education Week and across the month of August our school is offering multiple opportunities for wider community including parents, carers, and extended family to visit the school, enjoy meaningful celebrations and acknowledge the importance of public education. 

Starting this week by celebrating ‘100 Days of School’, our 30 Kindergarten students dressed as if they were 100 years old to celebrate 100 days of primary school with parents and grandparents coming to school for a picnic in the sun on the common green area with a special cake cutting ceremony. 

NAIDOC 2022 was celebrated with a cultural immersion inviting local Aboriginal cultural group ‘River Spirit’ onto our grounds for a full day of authentic cultural activities. 

Next week during Education Week on Tuesday 2 August our school is open to our families from 10.00am until 3.30pm as our community comes to school at a time suitable to them to enjoy the playground sports and games, have lunch at the canteen, visit our classrooms and see first-hand what a day in public education really looks like. 

Our students will also commence a unique sports program including golf and squash at Forbes Golf Club, lawn bowls at Forbes Bowling Club and cycling around Lake Forbes. 

During August our senior students are attending an Eco Day in Parkes, hosting ‘Reading Up North’ previously known as Reading Downtown and Northparkes Mine are installing 20 roosting boxes in our mature trees allowing our students to observe and monitor breeding native birds including the Grass Parrot, Eastern Rosella, Currawong, Honey Eaters, other species and, we are hoping to attract rare birds such as the Swift Parrot to our playground. 

Parents and carers will also have the opportunity to attend Mathematics workshops over two evenings as our staff are currently focusing on place value and whole number as an area of interest and improvement across Kindergarten to Year 6 numeracy. 

Forbes North is also celebrating Education Week in August with a massive book sale combining the love of reading and the annual book week celebrations around the theme ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open’. Education changes lives and every student at Forbes North will have the opportunity to proudly celebrate public education in the coming weeks. 

The collection of cafes in Forbes is further expanding this weekend with the opening of the new Courthouse Café inside the Vandenberg Hotel. The opening hours will be 8am to 12pm on Saturday and Sunday. See you there!

U3A Forbes Members enjoying a Taste of Forbes earlier this year.

A busy, fun and informative first half of the year has come to an end for Forbes U3A (University of the Third Age) members with a wide range of activities. 

We’ve had some excellent presenters in our “My Brilliant Career” series, a lesson on how to prune roses, a grand tour of local restaurants in our “A Taste of Forbes” series for lunch and “Show and Tell” a fun series where members bring precious, historic or unusual objects to talk about. Our regular activities set to keep the brain working and the body moving are croquet, Tai Chi, Scrabble, and our wonderful choir which continues across the year. 

Our members enjoy trips to the theatre in Orange, as well as a two-day trip to Goulburn, Australia’s first Inland city with a host of historical features. 

As we are preparing for our next range of activities over the next five months, new members are very welcome and can come along to our next general meeting on Tuesday, 9th August at 1:30pm in the Uniting Church Hall for a presentation on the next half year’s courses and activities. For further information please call Anne Stewart, secretary on 0403 874 855.

By Anne Stewart 

Universities of the Third Age, or U3As are voluntary, non-profit organisations which aim to offer older people low-cost educational opportunities which operate in a pleasant, supportive social setting. There are no formal entry requirements, no examinations and no “awards”. U3As are basically self-help groups built on the premise that collectively older people have the skills and knowledge to provide learning opportunities (education) for themselves. After all, “experts” of all kinds in all fields eventually retire! In fact the word “university” in the title is used in its earliest sense – a community of scholars who get together to help each other in a learning/social experience.