Special Interests Archives - Page 32 of 118

2 Princess Street – Historic Forbes

November 23, 2023 by Roxane Manley

For More information on the purchase of this historic forbes home contact Johnstons Rural Group.

Forbes based property specialists Johnston Rural Group are pleased to be able to offer 2 Princess Street, Forbes to the market. This historic Forbes home is spacious and light filled with a functional, open plan design – this is a home built for entertaining extended family and friends.

This well-maintained and welcoming residential property enjoys a prime location only 2.2km from the Forbes town centre and is within walking distance from stunning Lake Forbes and the Forbes Ski Dam.

The commanding 4-bedroom brick home was built in 2008 by Forbes master builder Bernie Horan and boasts a functional open plan living design with great integration between its indoor and outdoor living areas.

The property characterises the ‘ideal family home’ with its large bedrooms that features built-in wardrobes, master bedroom with ensuite / walk-in robe, study / nursery, theatre room, games room, and an oversized two car garage.

The additional improvements which are set within the low maintenance lawns and garden include a 3 bay lockup garage, small garden shed, services & utilities area and children’s playset.

The Vendors Ken and Jann Sly have decided to sell the property which they have now called home for the past 15 years to downsize, and the new house that they are currently building in Forbes is nearing completion.

Marketing agent Sam Johnston stated that “So far we have received enquiries from retiring farmers, people seeking a larger home in anticipation of a growing family, and from people looking for a robust long term residential investment.”

\Sam Johston of Johnston Rural Group commenting that “This property would also suit families who are wanting to relocate to a vibrant country town that has strong future growth prospects and job opportunities”.

2 Princess Street is being offered for sale by Expressions of Interest (EOI) with expressions closing at 12 noon AEDT Tuesday the 12th of December 2023. A detailed brochure and price guide is available upon request with inspections by appointments only. 0412 896 602 sam@johnstongroup.com.au

Funding Boost For Rural Roads

November 23, 2023 by Roxane Manley

The National Farmers’ Federation has welcomed news the Federal Government will double the Roads to Recovery funding program, providing a much needed shot in the arm to dilapidated regional roads.

Minister Catherine King said the Government would gradually increase funding for the Roads to Recovery program from $500 million to a $1 billion program over the next four years.

NFF President David Jochinke said this increased funding would provide key resources to local government to maintain local road networks.

“Flooding in 2021 and 2022 significantly deteriorated critical road infrastructure across Australia and the systemic underfunding of the regional road network has slowed road repairs.

“Local roads make up about 85% of the nation’s road network but they just have not been given the attention they deserve.”

Mr Jochinke said the poor state of local roads had been a handbrake on productivity, holding back regional development and undermining safety and welfare for all road users.

“Poor roads impede overall freight efficiency and slow the movement of freight but they also restrict high-productivity freight vehicles accessing ‘first and last mile’ roads essential for getting agricultural products from farm to market.

“Many rural councils are at a breaking point with large road networks to manage and low populations.

“The average cost of maintaining a kilometre of local government road in metropolitan councils is typically shared between 175 people, while in rural and remote council areas the cost is shared between less than five people.”

Finns Store a New Beginning

November 16, 2023 by Roxane Manley

13 years ago Jackie and Geoff Yeo the owners and restorers of Finns Store Canowindra embarked on a folly which turned into a love of Canowindra and country. It was 2010 NSW was gripped in drought, Canowindra was struggling, the main street was desolate having seen better days. Knowing that drought always breaks and though there being little optimism they could see the enormous potential of the region, the town, the bendy main street and most of all the grand old lady “Finns”. Purchasing and restoring the old building whilst pioneering the new retail concept mixing wine, food, coffee, art, clothing, jewellery, furniture and giftware the store quickly became unmatched in the central west. Other businesses in the main street quickly followed suit, and new retail and cafe businesses opened.

It is with a heavy heart Jackie and Geoff have announced that the building and business is for sale either as a going concern or vacant possession. Jackie, still full of vitality, has a new passion: Grandchildren.

Geoffrey wants to spend more time on his bike and more time managing the burgeoning legal practice Peacockes Solicitors.

For the month of November the store will be conducting a progressive closing down sale with plenty of bargains to be had culminating with a Clearing Sale and Auction conducted by Elders Emms Mooney Saturday 2nd December.

Call in to wish Jackie and Geoff all the best, grab a bargain, have one of those amazing iced chocolates or spiders, a coffee from the latte lawyer, or experience the warm and quirky ambience of the store one more time.

If interested in the clearing sale please feel free to make inquiry at Finns or contact Peter Bromley on 0404 037 729

Forbes Christmas Promotion And Christmas Carnival Will Bring Fun, Laughter And Happiness To All

November 16, 2023 by Roxane Manley

The Trees are out. Each participating business will have a wonderful timberChristmas Tree out the front of their business or close to their front door.

Aaron Acheson said “We are so pleased to be able to offer $20,000 in prizes this year. It has been a tough year so the Forbes Business Chamber is delighted to have kept the draws to encourage local shopping”.

The draws began on November 13th.“All you need to do is scan the QR Code in store and fill in the details. If you don’t have a phone each store will have a manual sheet. We want to make sure that everyone has a fair turn,” said Aaron Acheson. $500 draws will be held on Thursday afternoons on the 16, 23 and 30th November, 7, 14 and 21 December. 5 x $500 draws will take place at the AMAZING Forbes Christmas Carnival on the 8 December. The remaining draws for the 23 December are 6 x $500, 1 x $1500, 2 x $2500 and 1 x $5000 giving a total funding pool of $20000.

Participating businesses offering support for the Find It In AMAZING Forbes This Christmas. The businesses Acheson’s Mitre 10, AgriWest, Allure On Main, Bernardis, Blue Sky Outdoors, Blush Organic Beauty, Bowns Sports Power, Cahills Footwear Forbes, Chapter Two Boutique, C&D Floorcovering, Euphoria Road, Flannery’s Pharmacy, Forbes Automotive Services and ARB, Forbes Business Chamber Inc., Forbes Central Butchery, Forbes Shire Council, Forbes Small Engines, Graces Hair Studio, Gunns Menswear and Embroidery, HozPots Garden Centre, Isabel’s Café, Jessica’s Beauty, Life Pharmacy, Little Extras Lifestyle, Loomzys FishNFix, News On Rankin, MD Steel, Phillip Wells Optometrist, Robbs Jewellers, Steel Technology, Terry Bros Carpet Court, The Bakehouse, The Book Dispensary, Turners Furniture One, Undercover Sleepwear and Lingerie and WA Knights Cranes, Walkers AgNVet.

Get Involved In The Khub Wishing Tree Appeal

November 16, 2023 by Roxane Manley

IMAGE: L-R Salvation Army Rep, Wendy Broome Salvation Army, Jessica Storm Khub Store Manager, Taylah Mackinnon Assistant Store Manager, Annabelle Cole-macindoe, Aleesha saville, Tracey little, Katie O’malley.

Khub Forbes have Launched their annual Kmart wishing tree appeal in conjunction with the Salvation Army. Many families are doing it tough – which is why we’re asking our community to come together and support those who need it most.

The Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal is Australia’s largest and longest-running gift collection drive. It has been helping assist those in need in local communities at Christmas and beyond for over 30 years. Working with the Salvation Army, and with the generous support of our customers, Kmart have donated over $5.6 million and 10 million in gifts distributed to those in need at Christmas. There are six wishing tree champions in every Kmart store – that is over 1300 team members that are dedicated to helping support local communities.

The Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal supports children, adults, seniors and families who are unable to afford gifts at Christmas and beyond Christmas.

With more than 760,000 children currently living in poverty, Kmart alongside The Salvation Army are working together to give hope to Australians who may be struggling with homelessness, illness or family crisis.

Kmart along with The Salvation Army are coming together for the 36th year to help support those doing it tough. We encourage you to embrace the spirit of giving this year by supporting the Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal, by making a cash contribution in store, or online, or giving a gift in store. The Appeal runs from 13- 24 December 2023.

Forbes Khub Store Manager wants the local communities to know that “these donations stay local as we work alongside the parkes/forbes salvation army to distribute these gifts”.

Call To Action: ACCC Must Investigate Supermarket Meat Prices

November 16, 2023 by Roxane Manley

IMAGE: Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Agriculture Minister David Littleproud pictured at rams sales.

Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Agriculture Minister David Littleproud is calling on Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Agriculture Minister Murray Watt to investigate supermarket meat sale prices.

Mr Littleproud said Treasurer Chalmers and Minister Watt must urgently direct the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to hold a price inquiry.

“According to Meat and Livestock Australia, some sheep and lamb categories have fallen by up to 70 per cent in the saleyards in the last 12 months,” Mr Littleproud said.

“Lamb prices have drastically reduced and cattle prices have fallen by about 60 per cent. Yet families at the supermarkets have barely noticed a difference in prices.”

While a farmer’s payment for cattle (eastern young cattle indicator) has fallen from $10.21 per kilo to just $3.65 per kilo over the past 12 months, at the supermarket it still costs around $36 per kilo for grass-fed rump steak, $25 per kilo for beef rump roast and $19 for a kilo of grass-fed beef mince.

A farmer’s payment for lamb (national trade price) has fallen from $8.39 per kilo to $4.82 per kilo, yet families at the supermarket are paying $27 for a kilo of grass-fed graze lamb boneless shoulder roast, $18 for one kilo of lamb loin chops and $8 per kilo of lamb leg roast.

A competition task force recently established by Labor, to conduct a review of competition policy settings over a two-year period, failed to provide the urgent response that families and farmers required.

“This is impacting family budgets right now. It needs an urgent response because families and farmers can’t afford to wait potentially two years for answers.

“Many families are struggling to afford their grocery bill each week so it’s important the government acts swiftly to ensure there’s transparency in meat prices.”

Dr Draper Sacrificed His Retirement To Rebuild Practice For Local Community

November 9, 2023 by Roxane Manley

IMAGE: Dr Draper hopes to use his struggles through COVID and the recent flood event in Fobes to advocate for GP’s to be included in national and state emergency response plans.

Forbes Medicine & Mind is a multi-disciplinary family practice in Forbes that was Opened in 2018 after a full and complete refurbishment of the 12 Cross st address to transform it into a medical practice.

Managing Director Courtney Hodges said “After 12 months of trading, COVID-19 hit. We went straight into COVID then for three years and we pretty much came up for air and then Forbes flooded”.

During the November 2022 floods the practice had water enter the property and rise 40cm inside, just enough to ruin everything, electrical, cabling, floors, All the gyprock needed to come out, so the building was going to need a full repaint.

“We had literally fully refurbished this place in 2018, spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars fitting it out, for it to all need to be redone four years later. It was a massive blow and displaced us for six months, during that time we operated from the Boys to the Bush building here. They were really generous and had some rooms available that they let us move into while we renovated” said Courtney.

Dr Richard Draper was recently awarded the RACGP GP of the Year award. The award is great as it recognises Dr Draper’s contribution to the local community during the floods, but Courtney says “for us it’s bigger than that, Richard is a born and bred, Parkes local, he has practiced for 30 years in the Central West as a solo practitioner, he is so dedicated to his community that he worked from his kitchen bench during the floods”. Richard is hoping to use the recognition from the award to “shine a light on the massive blind spot that our government has around primary care, because general practitioners are funded by the federal government, but natural disasters are state funded, so for GP’s there has been no support” , said Courtney.

“We are in a rural community where we can’t attract doctors to our town, the doctors that are here are really on the edge of burnout, and we’ve had to pull money out of our Superannuations so that we can rebuild and go again, so that we can deliver a community service, because we are a private organisation, there was/is no support”

So far the practice has only been able to access the same $50,000 business grant that was available to all other businesses affected during the flood, but shockingly, no further support. Dr Draper said “I basically pumped my retirement into rebuilding this place. I’d really love for the government to realise that we are an essential service to Forbes and put my super back, and Courtney’s super too”.

Dr Draper had no idea he had been nominated for the GP of the Year award and said he was “Genuinely stunned”, and is hoping in the next 12 months to use his recognition as GP of the Year recipient to say “this is not good enough”.

The flooding event of Nov 2022 saw water slowly rise and then completely take over the Forbes Medicine & Mind practice.

Once the water receded it was time to get the clean up started so that renovations could begin and it was all hands on deck.

Forbes Medicine & Mind reopened at 12 Cross St on the 16th of April this year after the devastating 2022 floods destroyed their practice.

Dr Richard Draper and Medicine & Mind Managing Director Courtney Hodges celebrating Dr Drapers recent GP of the Year award.

Forbes Garden Club Report

November 9, 2023 by Green Thumb

IMAGE: Forbes Garden Club will be having a break and will be looking forward to the next meeting which will be our AGM in February 2024.

Our final Garden Club meeting for the year was held in the garden at the home of Kingsley and Helen Green. A beautiful garden of trees shrubs and more recently sculptures made by Kingsley Helen gave us an outline of years spent experimenting with different gardens and plants to suit the climate and over the years have seen many changes President Elvy welcomed 23 members to the meeting as well as visitors Angela Dent and Lorraine Everest Therese Davis read the minutes of the previous meeting Correspondence was a thank you from the Arts Society.

Annie Mooy gave us a comprehensive treasurers report announcing she will not be nominating for the position next year. Elvy said she was “delighted with the two day open gardens recently held with eight gardens open for inspection”. There were many visitors who came from local and regional towns and enjoyed the opportunity to wander around. Each raising money for their designated charity.

Our members were encouraged to vote for a charity. as it was decided to donate the $3000 to different charities following such a successful year.

This Saturday November 11th at 12pm we will be celebrating 70 years of the Forbes Garden Club at the Town Hall Members will be enjoying a 2 course dinner with a special guest Sue Mowle from Gardening Australia catered for by Eat Your Greens We hope you have all bought your tickets for this special event

Green Thumb

George No. One

November 9, 2023 by Roxane Manley

George Barnes has been named the number one worker who has organised and run the greatest number craft groups in Australia. Working locally to implement the Bunnings Community Involvement Program, George has been guiding, instructing and entertaining multiple craft groups from Forbes, Parkes, Eugowra, West Wyalong, Peak Hill and Lake Cargelligo. He visits these groups once a month bringing with him all the tools and equipment necessary to make a crafty project.

Mr Barnes commented that “over the last year I have instructed thirteen groups per month”. This number, approximately 3 groups per week, makes him number one in the country for providing the most activities and inspiring community groups to get busy.

Groups at the local HAC centres, CWA and numerous other community groups in these communities have benefitted greatly from his commitment and passion He has provided the opportunity for members to experience the making of different craft projects such as making teddy bears, wooden toy trucks and cars, designing art and drawings, wooden jewellery boxes, tips on planting and how to looking after various flowers and herbs, dot art and much more. His enthusiasm for this type of community involvement makes the learning experience and social outings for many people an event to look forward to.

George said, “It is a privilege to run these groups as I not only get to meet different people, but I also gets to do something fun and rewarding.”

Sustainability groups at the local Pre-schools and Public Schools, where students learn about the environment and how to look after it, is also part of the Community Involvement Program which George implements.

Free Online Child Car Seat Safety Workshops

November 9, 2023 by Roxane Manley

IMAGE: The workshops are being conducted by Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan Shire Councils in partnership with Transport for NSW West Region.

Parents, carers and grandparents of young children are invited to attend one of two free online workshops being held to provide important safety information about child car seats.

The workshops will be held via MS Teams, Wednesday 22 November at 10am and again at 7pm.

The Council’s Road Safety and Injury Prevention Officer, Melanie Suitor, said the correct selection, installation and adjustment of child car seats is vital in ensuring children’s safety when travelling in vehicles.

“The workshop will cover the National Child Restraint Laws, types of child car seats available, correct installation and adjustment, when to move to the next car seat, accessories, tips for secondhand car seats and much more”.

“It will be a great refresher for grandparents, as child car seats and the rules have changed a lot since they had their children, but also for parents and carers as they are navigating their way through their child or children’s growth”.

“The results of our local checking day events show that around 80% of the child car seats that were checked were incorrectly installed. Transport for NSW research shows that children who are not restrained correctly are seven times more likely to sustain life- threatening injuries in a crash than those who are properly secured. It is so important to ensure your precious cargo is safe” Ms Suitor said.

These online workshops were the first of their kind when they were trialed in May 2023.

“There were almost 20 families that took part in the May workshops. Participants rated the workshop 4.75 out of 5, said they would be very likely to recommend it to a friend or family member and were glad they had attended” Ms Suitor said.

To book your place use this link: https:// bit.ly/NovemberWorkshops2023 or call on (02) 6861 2364.

Subscribe