The Forbes Diggers Swimming Club has a very busy schedule for the next month starting on Tuesday with the Annual Australia Day Family Community Swim commencing at 10.00am at the Forbes Town Pool. Swimmers of all ages and abilities are encouraged to come along and compete for the coveted Tom Drane Memorial Trophy.

Swimmers must nominate a time for the 30m and 50m events and the winner is the person who swims closest to their nominated times. The margins between 1st, 2nd & 3rd placings, in previous years has been extremely close and it is anticipated that this year will be no different. The club will host the Forbes Australia Day Ambassador, Actor and TV Presenter, Tracy Mann, for a delicious lunch and call upon her to present the trophies to the winners at the conclusion. It is hoped that Tracy may even partake in the Ladies scratch event and enjoy the wonderful facilities Forbes has to offer.

Forbes Shire Council are now partners in the event and the small, but hard working committee are most grateful for their generous support. The next event on the clubs busy schedule is the Western Districts Air & Infantry Forces (AIF) Carnival which will be held on Sunday 14th February. Nominations for this event are already coming in as many visiting swimmers are planning to make a weekend of it attending the Bedgerabong races the day before. The venue for this carnival is rotated amongst the 8 – 10 clubs who generally support this event. The events, in the true spirit of Diggers swimming are handicapped as normal and entry is open to all interested swimmers. The AIF carnival will commence at 9am and registrations will be taken on the day.

The Tim Baass Memorial Swim on the 28th February will be the last major event for the club for this season. The family swim is a fundraising event to support local charities in memory of a member who was tragically killed in a farm accident 23 years ago.

Construction work started for the new public amenities at Stephan Field on Tuesday, in a move Forbes Mayor Phyllis Miller said was well overdue. The old building was demolished on Tuesday morning and temporary amenities will be available until the installation of the pre-fabricated block is completed at the end of February.

The construction of the new public amenities block is stage two of the work being completed at Stephan Field. Stage one was creating an extension to the canteen area for the Forbes Netball Association to use as an office and storeroom. Mayor Phyllis Miller said the new public amenities would be fantastic. “The block was definitely due for an upgrade and we are pleased to be able to provide a brand new facility to the community and the Forbes Netball Association,” Mayor Miller said.

Once complete, the amenities will include one accessible unisex toilet, one ambulant unisex toilet, one female toilet and one men’s urinal for public use and six unisex toilets for use by the Forbes Netball Association or other high demand events requiring higher toilet facilities. The public toilets will be accessible 24 hours and will face back towards Woolworths.

Walgett was the last place local girl, Eliza Woods, thought she would be this year when she took on some holiday employment as a pickup driver for Australian hang gliders Len Paton, Bill Schroder, Guy Hubbard and Neil Halshall.

However Woods picked up her crew from Tullibigeal, Lake Cargelligo, Budda Budah, Molong and Walgett, which was a recordbreaking day. She amassed more than 900km of driving and over 10 hours of travel in her journeys.
Pickup destinations were unknown to her until the briefing was held each morning of the eight day competition, highlighting her incredible commitment to the team. Members of her team did very well across the competition, with Len Paton coming in at second place on the last day, but it was Jon Durand, from the Gold Coast, who was the overall winner.

On the first and last day of the competition hang gliders completed a diamond and a triangular course that began and finished at the Forbes Aerodrome, even though the course was in excess of 100km in distance. Daily destinations were announced each morning after natural factors such as wind direction and weather conditions were considered, with a couple of days cancelled due to rain.

The hang gliders receive points each day based on their results with the aim to go the furthest distance in the shortest amount of time. Briefing each day commenced at 10am with start times ranging from 11.45am to 12.30pm.
Hang gliders had a staggered start and many caught up to and even overtook each other as the race progressed.

This is the second year Eliza has been a pickup driver for the championships and has thoroughly enjoyed the experience both times and is keen to sign up again next year if study commitments allow.

The Forbes dragon Boat Club, which began in 2011 has been steadily been growing their membership, currently 38 members from both Forbes and Parkes. This will give them good access to the lake and protect the boat for the elements and vandalism.

The club were very excited about winning the grant and Andrew Gee congratulated the club and told members that this was the third largest grant given out. This money will be used to build a shed to house their two boats on the western end of the Sport & Rec Club bowling green. This will give the Club very good access to the lake and
protect the boat from the elements and also from vandalism. Mr.Gee said,”he was excited that this grant will help the Club achieve even greater deeds on the water.’

On Saturday 22nd November many of our local ladies made their way to Canberra to challenge themselves and raise valuable funds for the Jane McGrath Foundation, Breast Cancer Awareness and Treatment Charity, in the 2015 Miss Muddy.

Miss Muddy is a female only obstacle and mud festival with a course of up to 5km for participants aged 13 years and over. It includes mud, colour, climbing crawling, slipping and sliding. This is an untimed event which is all about women supporting women in a fun and non-threatening environment. There are no expectations or judgements just lots of fun.

Three of our local ladies, Carmen Walsh, Tracey Reid and Kathy Ward, were amongst the many women who took the
challenge last weekend. This was the first event of this type for the three ladies who thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are claiming it to be a warm up for their next challenge the Dubbo mud run in April next year.

Eventually the trio would like to complete the Tough Mudder NSW event which was also held over the weekend at Glenworth Valley on the Central Coast. Forbes and Parkes were well represented at this challenge with at least two teams from Parkes and a combined Forbes, Bathurst and Gunnedah team of 9 all completing the course. Tough Mudder is an 10-20km obstacle course which promotes teamwork and comradery while raising funds for the Soldier On Foundation.

Soldier On is about Australians coming together to show their support for our physically and psychologically wounded and raise money to help improve the lives of thousands of soldiers who have recently returned from the conflicts after 1990.