At our last meeting President Marg Dent welcomed 29 members with five apologies. Our hosts Pam and John Baass made us very comfortable, seated under large trees in their beautiful, well estab­lished garden.

After the reports and birthday wishes, extended general busi­ness was discussed. Denise Thurston has organised a bus trip for Thursday 15 May leaving at 9.30am to visit the Tumbling Downs Olive Grove at Bogan Gate where a Devonshire tea will be en­joyed, before proceeding on to Parkes to visit three gardens and a picnic lunch at Cooke Park. At least 30 members will be needed to make this a success and the cost will be $35. Families and friends are all welcome. Money will need to be collected at the April meet­ing in an envelope, or given to Treasurer Lloyd at 7 McMillan Place if you are unable to attend the meeting. Enquiries can be made by calling 0428 540 272 or emailing forbesgardenclub@gmail.com

Our guest speaker was Yvonne Tracey from Orange who spoke on Dahlias. Her collection of different varieties was outstanding and her knowledge takes her overseas as a judge to many coun­tries, although she said Australia has the best dahlias in the world! She provided valuable tips on growing them that were much ap­preciated. Denise presented Yvonne with a thank you gift.

In the flower of the month competition, first went to Denise Thurston (Dahlia), second was Janette Thomas (Rose ‘Bloomfield Abunda’) and third was John Browne (Canna Lily).The raffle was won by Jan Stewart with Lee Sanderson second.

President Marg thanked Pam and John for making their garden available for our meeting. The next meeting will be held at 111 Flint Street at the home of John Browne on Tuesday 22 April and don’t forget a chair, hat and a mug, and flower of the month.

By Green Thumb

Motorists travelling on the Great Western Highway over the Easter and Anzac Day long weekends are urged to plan their trips and allow extra travel time, with high traffic volumes and delays ex­pected.

The Great Western Highway has several known pinch points for travel connecting the Greater Sydney area with the Central West.

Historical traffic data shows the busiest day for westbound travel towards Lithgow will be Friday 18 April and Saturday 19 April, and for those heading east towards Greater Sydney the busiest day will be at the end of the long weekend on Monday 21 April.

Delays are also expected on Friday 25 April (Anzac Day) for mo­torists travelling across the Blue Mountains, with significant traffic volumes also anticipated eastbound on Sunday 27 April as holiday makers return to Sydney.

The Govetts Leap Road intersection at Blackheath can be a pinch point where there are often queues for motorists heading east. Traffic queueing also often extends west from Blackheath to Hartley and beyond.

When queueing begins eastbound at Mount Victoria, a traffic management plan is put in place with motorists held at Hartley to prevent further congestion and a start/stop movement up Victoria Pass. Vehicles are then released in small groups, allowing them to travel up the Pass to prevent further delays in the event of break­downs and to avoid nose-to-tail crashes.

For more details about predicted delays on the Great West­ern Highway see the NSW Holiday and Journey planning web­site. For information, visit https://www.livetraffic.com/incident-de­tails/230828, or download the Live Traffic NSW app.

Don’t miss the opportunity to see an up and coming Brisbane singer-songwriter in the making, Ripley Alexander, right here in the Central West at Frost and Fire in Forbes on Saturday 21June. Ripley describes his mu­sic as “a modern spin on a classic sound”. Ripley’s standout Australian Idol perfor­mance went viral around the world, racking up more than 100 million views on TikTok.

There’s no one like the Wolfe Brothers to warm up a crowd with their high energy per­formance of iconic truly Australian anthems.

The most awarded country rock duo ever, the brothers took away three Golden Guitars at the 2024 Country Music Awards bringing their total to 9 Golden Guitars to date.

Buy Your Frost & Fire Tickets: Tickets are essential. No ticket – no entry! Under 18’s are free entry. Over 18’s are $30 per person. Tickets are available via 123tix.

Book Your Accommodation: Plan your stay in Amazing Forbes with some great ac­commodation options.

Book Your Bus Transfer Tickets To The Event: Don’t forget to pre-purchase bus tickets before the event. Tickets are exclu­sively available via 123tix.

BYO Chair and Warm Winter Clothes: Keep nice and toasty with warm clothes. Enjoy the entertainment in comfort by bring­ing your own chair.

Plan The Rest of your Weekend: Amaz­ing Forbes has an abundance of exciting at­tractions and activities to see and do. Come for the night – stay for a weekend.

Getting to the Event: Frost & Fire is held at the Forbes Ski Dam. During our event there is no public parking onsite, so we have a variety of public transport options to get you and your family and friends here safely.

By Bus: There is a free shuttle bus ser­vice running to and from the event on the day, operating on a continuous loop.

Oxley Group CWA held their annual ‘The Land’ Cookery and Handicraft Day on Tuesday 11 March in Condobolin. The Land Cookery Judge, Ann McIntyre, and Handi­craft Judge, Ruth Hando, found many im­pressive items presented for judging from our local community.

For the cooking section there were en­tries in 10 sections ranging from boiled fruit cakes, butter, sultana and chocolate cakes, slices, biscuits, apricot rolls, sponges, rel­ishes, marmalade and jams.

This year entries were submitted from Forbes CWA and Forbes Evening CWA Branches, Condobolin, Myamley, Parkes, Tullamore and Kiacatoo. The Cooking Of­ficer for Oxley Group CWA, Linda Brang­win commented, “It was wonderful to see all branches in Oxley Group represented.”

The competitor to gain the most points was Ruth Worthington from Kiacatoo and Champion Cake was a sultana cake en­tered by Pat Hurley from Myamley.

In the Handicraft section, entries were received from Forbes, Tullamore and My­amley. The Eight Item Group Competition was won by Tullamore Branch with Emily Hunt of Forbes Branch taking out the high­est score in this section.

Myamley won the Branch Challenge and Myamley Branch member, Janette Man­waring, won ‘The Land’ Champion Article Natural fibres Section 8 with a white child’s dress with navy smocking and trim. Janette also won the Over 80’s section with her smocking. Other successful entrants were Dawn Ible (Forbes) for her Assisi work win­ning the Chairperson’s Award, Zita Carey (Tullamore) taking away the Handicraft Of­ficer’s Award for her striking black, white and red quilt and Marian Gutherie (Myam­ley) for her knitted garment.

Winning entries in Handicraft progress to State and be judged at the CWA State Conference held at Wagga Wagga in May.

Contact your local CWA branch to enter in 2026.