It has been said toys are children’s words and play is their language, but the battle of finding the right balance of toys versus the cost of buying is one every parent is fighting.

Parkes parents no longer have to stress as there is a perfect solution. The Parkes Toy Library, run by the St George’s Anglican Church for the community, is just like a regular library except you can borrow toys. There are more than 700 items to choose from, and items can be borrowed for two weeks at a time.

“The toy library not only offers a sustainable, eco friendly and cost saving approach for families, but also reduces clutter at home and the kids have something different to play with every two weeks,” said Christine Holmes, one of two volunteers who run the library.

“New members are always very excited about the variety we have on offer, which includes books, DVDs and board games too,” said Christine.

The library has the latest trendy toys, as well as old favourites. “We have Octonauts, Paw Patrol, Thunderbirds, a Batman robot, as well as Thomas the Tank Engine and a wooden dolls house,” said Kate Anderson, the other volunteer.

According to Kate the trendy toys are very popular and they do have a waiting list to make sure everyone gets a turn. “We are not too strict on the two weeks borrowing time for the less popular toys, and families can borrow as many as they like.”

The library accepts donations of toys still in a good condition. They plan to buy new toys for older kids very soon.

“When toys come back broken, it is not a hassle. We make up new sets or create new toys where possible.” She said the only requirement was that toys had to be wiped and cleaned before returning them.

One member was very happy on Monday. “This dinosaur set is the best toy ever,” said Kim Thomas. “My kids played with it all week.”

Kim said the library was a brilliant idea. “It saves money, the variety is good and the kids can play with toys they don’t have.”

The Parkes Toy Library is open every Monday from 3:30 – 6pm during school terms and is situated in the lower hall of the Anglican Church. Find them on Facebook or call 6862 1868. Membership is $35 per year. Enter the competition on page 8; to win one of three memberships to the Parkes Toy Library.

As Maria Montessori said: “Play is the work of the child.” Why not make your child’s play fun, interesting, sustainable and full of variety by joining this excellent community service, and saving money at the same time.

By Maggi Barnard

Parliamentary Secretary for Western NSW is definitely in the Parkes Library’s good books after he came bearing a $2.2 million cheque last Thursday. Rick Colless announced the biggest grant for a community building in Parkes for renovations to the library. “The library team started dreaming in 2015 and our dream came true today,” said a very excited Shellie Buckle, Manager Cultural, Education and Library Services.

Parkes Shire Mayor, Councillor Ken Keith OAM thanked Shellie and her library team, as well as the grants team for a professional application well done. “This is a significant investment towards supporting our community’s vision to establish a strong cultural identity.”

The expansion plans include a new technology-enabled exhibition pavilion to be built in the front garden opposite the Coventry room, as well as new areas for children’s programs, meetings, quiet study, connecting with technology, and green space.

The original architects from Sydney will be on board for the extensions, which Shellie hoped would be completed by mid-2019. The Parkes Library moved into its current premises in July 2000 and has become a popular public space with over 1,000 people using it every week with 1,500 items being borrowed per week. “People just love coming here as they feel comfortable and can spend quality time with their kids, or find a quiet spot to read,” said Shellie. “We have also become known as an exhibition space and are booked out until next year. With the new space we would be able to do so much more.”

By Maggi Barnard

You might be staying up late watching the French Open in Paris, but this week the ‘Parkes East Open’ was in full swing featuring Australian tennis star John Fitzgerald. Parkes East was picked as one of 30 schools in Australia for the ANZ Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow. The team from Tennis Australia will hand out 30,000 racquets to Kindergarten students over six weeks.

On Monday it was the turn of Parkes East students to serve up a volley of questions when Fitzy, as he is known, talked to them about his tennis career and showed his Davis Cup shirt and copy of the trophy around. During his career Fitzy has won six toplevel singles titles and 30 tour doubles titles, including 7 Grand Slam doubles titles, and a career men’s doubles Grand Slam.

He reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking in 1991. He was a member of the Australian team which won the Davis Cup in 1983 and 1986. Fitzy is passionate about Hot Shots,  which is an entry level tennis program for five to 12-year-old children. “This program uses modified equipment so the kids can play from the first day and they can play anywhere. This gives them a taste of tennis and they have fun, which is the most important.”

“Tennis has been my life,” said Fitzy, “but a highlight for me is still that cheesy smile I get every time we hand out a racquet to a child.”

By Maggi Barnard

A seven-day-old moon was hanging in a gloriously clear sky when 35 people observed it through telescopes and binoculars for ten minutes with the blue dish as a beautiful backdrop. On very short notice, the Parkes Radio Telescope took part in the national stargazing event last Wednesday and helped to set a new Guiness World Record with over 40,000 Australians who observed the moon at more than 285 venues at the same time.

While the final number of participants is still being processed, the turnout far exceeded expectations making a vast improvement on the previous record of the Australian National University of 7,960 people. Before the official event on the lawns of the CSIRO Parkes Observatory’s Visitors Centre, people observed the moon, Jupiter rising behind the dish and several other stars with the Central West Astronomical Society (CWAS) telescopes. Les Dalrymple’s 18-inch behemoth, which he built himself, was a big hit with everyone.

At 8:25 PM (AEST) precisely, the record attempt began. Dr Alan Duffy, who featured at Parkes for the Stargazing Live programme on ABC TV the previous night, officiated as the prime time-keeper. His assistant was Chris Green, as the second time-keeper, while Tricia Trim of the Visitors Centre was the witness and John Sarkissian acted as steward ensuring everyone kept their optical devices at the moon, for the entire ten minutes.

Each participant who took part in the record-breaking attempt will receive an official Guinness World Record participation certificate.

Close to 400 little faces lit up with amazement, excitement and wonder as local fire fighters put their skills on display at the annual open day of Fire & Rescue NSW in Parkes last Saturday.

The station came alive as some of the 18 retained fire fighters in Parkes demonstrated fire safety in the kitchen and how to cut open a wreck, while the kids could hold a fire hose blasting out a stream of water, climb into a fire truck, colour in or get face paint.

Organiser Simon King said they were taken by surprise with the turnout which had doubled from previous years with approximately 600 people attending.

“There is a lot of interest in the new fire station to be built.” The NSW Government announced in March a state-of-the-art fire station will be built on the block just behind the current station. Simon emphasised the main focus of the
day was to highlight fire safety in the home. Craig Buckle and Nicole Varcoe demonstrated how easy a fire could start in the kitchen when you are not “looking when you’re cooking”. When a pan on the stove starts burning, the most important thing to remember is to not try and put it out with water, but to smother it with a fire blanket. Simon said all home fire safety equipment were available at hardware stores, and he encouraged home owners to acquire fire blankets and fire extinguishers, and install and maintain smoke alarms.

The Parkes Fire Station receives between 250 and 300 calls per year, including rescue incidents, of which 60% are late at night. Fire & Rescue NSW fire fighters are trained to handle and assist with chemical spills, car accidents and natural disasters to prevention, education and humanitarian relief.

According to Simon fire fighters are “prepared for anything and ready to help anyone, anywhere and at any time”.

By Maggi Barnard

There was huge excitement in the world of astronomy on Tuesday when the Parkes Radio Telescope installed the world’s first and only ultra-wide band receiver that will let the telescope do different jobs at the same time.

“I cannot stress enough how amazing this technology is,” said Dr Jane Kaczmarek, who moved to Parkes six weeks ago and will be working on the commissioning of the receiver. “It is like a Swiss army knife, it can do everything. We are so excited as we really don’t know what we are going to find. It is a huge day for astronomy.”

Astronomers use a receiver to catch radio waves and turn them into electrical signals for analysis. CSIRO astronomer Dr George Hobbs described it as “stars and galaxies sing with different voices, some high and some low. It’s like a choir out there.” A receiver determines which radio frequency the telescope can hear.

“Until now we’ve had receivers that heard just one part of the choir at a time. This new one lets us listen to the whole choir at once, enabling us to see the whole picture, which is phenomenal!”

It took a long time to build the $2.5million cutting edge instrument, developed by CSIRO and a consortium of Australian universities led by Swinburne University of Technology.

With this groundbreaking technology the 57-year-old Parkes telescope will continue to lead the way with new discoveries. The Dish is one of the world’s most productive telescopes, and holds the world record for finding more pulsars than all the other radio telescopes put together, and most of the fast radio bursts that still mystify astronomers. “It is a really exciting day science will benefit from,” said Parkes Operations Scientist John Sarkissian. For Jane, who studies galaxies other than the Milky Way, it means she will be able to form a better picture by getting continuous light from them, which was not possible before.

The very powerful computing system of the receiver means astronomers would work with much higher data volumes. “That is what makes this technology so exciting is the unknown factor. We will be able to search data in ways we haven’t done before. I study pulsars and my dream is to find a pulsar going around a black hole.”

For CSIRO Fellow Dr Richard Manchester, who joined the Parkes telescope in 1968, it was an emotional day as he was involved with building the old receiver, as well as the new one. “They are like my children. It is a special day to be here.”

By Maggi Barnard

Parkes was a political hot spot last Friday when Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro put the Inland Rail project on the right track by signing a landmark bilateral agreement.

The Intergovernmental Agreement between the Federal and NSW Governments was signed at the Parkes Railway Station and makes way for the commencement of works on the multi-billion dollar Inland Rail project in NSW.

NSW is the second state after Victoria to sign up to the significant project providing consent for the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) to deliver Inland Rail in NSW.

Deputy Prime Minister said it was a landmark moment for the project and a significant day for Parkes destined to become a major hub on the 1,700km long line. “Henry Parkes, after which this town was named, had a vision for the nation and Inland Rail is sharing in that vision.”

He said 60% or 1,050km of the line will be in NSW linking up the ports of Melbourne and Brisbane boosting the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) to $2.6 billion per year.

“This means the world for Parkes and all of Australia’s farmers and small businesses taking our products from farm gate to Asian plate.” Deputy Premier Barilaro congratulated Parkes on its vision, saying as a logistics centre for Inland Rail, the town would become an inland port. “Parkes is going to be a very different place because of Inland Rail.” He said the project would not only grow regional communities and bring additional government services, but also reduce congestion on roads. “Inland Rail has the potential to completely reinvigorate parts of regional NSW, well beyond the thousands of jobs that will be created in the construction phase,” he said.

Construction on the Inland Rail project is due to commence within six months on the Parkes to Narromine section with 14,000 tonnes of steel rail delivered at Peak Hill in January. The project will create a direct rail freight connection between Melbourne and Brisbane capable of moving double stacked freight containers of up to 1.8km long at speeds of up to 120km/h. Once operational, Inland Rail will attract more freight to rail, diverting traffic from the Newell, Hume and Pacific Highways, and in turn freeing up space in the Sydney Metro area for more passenger services.

The 2018 St Georges Flower Show was a miracle to behold. “The prayer for rain is yet to be answered, but the flowers on display last Saturday were remarkable,” said organiser Norma Garment. The Anglican ladies served more than
150 people morning and afternoon teas surrounded by six tables filled with top quality flowers.

With about 100 entries, the system of people’s choice voting made it easy to pick the winners. Chris Krute’s pink Spider Gerbera got the highest number of votes with Tony and Heather Horsington’s roses coming second. Marg Klien donated the prizes. Roses also stole the day with Ray Knight’s entry receiving many votes, as well as an amazing White Gerbera entered by Joan Rauchlie – each receiving gifts for best single specimen.

Councilor Bill Jayett, who presented the prizes, was delighted to see so many entries. He presented a Bill Jayett Award to a big pink double Gerbera entered by Joan Rauchlie.

According to Norma a lot of fun was had guessing the weight of the pudding donated by Shirley Edwards, with Hazel Quary taking home the 2.5kg pudding. Guests could guess Shirley Westgarth favourite teddy bear, and Bev Bokye is the new proud owner.

The day started off with the Parkes Shire Concert Band playing some flowery tunes. “We are absolutely delighted,” said Norma and explained the money raised would go towards installing air conditioning for the church hall to make it more comfortable for the different groups using it.

When an individual takes that step to reach out for help and is met not by thin air, but by a human, the connection can be life changing. Sometimes all it takes is a warm welcome, a smiling face, and an ear that doesn’t judge. We know the power of the simplest connection.

Neighbourhood Centre Week, happening 30th April – 6th May 2018, is a nationwide initiative to celebrate the role of neighbourhood centres in the community. A common thread running through every Centre is their inclusive nature; anyone and everyone is welcome. This makes Neighbourhood Centres real hubs of their community, places where friendships are formed and nurtured, and where people of all ages and all walks of life can really feel that they belong.

Neighbourhood Central belongs to a nationwide network offering activities, programs and services that support social inclusion and address factors that can lead to social exclusion. The organisation is community-based, is funded by local, state and federal government, and covers many areas of service including; families and youth, meal services, home modification and maintenance, social support, home care packages, community transport, Indigenous support, NDIS disability support services and community visitor’s services; all delivered with a client centered approach.

Neighbourhood Central “connects the disconnected” because it creates opportunities for people, normally isolated or marginalised through life circumstances, to come together and build stronger bonds with the broader community.

This is achieved through volunteering, participating in an activity, being part of the leadership team or just making new friends. These social connections create the building blocks for strong, resilient communities that can handle community crises or support the most vulnerable families and children.

Last Saturday, over 2,000 people flocked to Parkes Regional Airport to watch the amazing air displays organised by the Parkes Aero Club to celebrate their 70th anniversary.

There was some slight concern for the weather after the dust storm on the Friday evening, however Saturday turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day, if only a little too windy at times. “We were very fortunate, the gods were with us,” said Warwick Tom, club member and one of the event organisers.

“We are tickled pink, it was such a good crowd,” said Warwick. “The flying displays were great.” The flying program opened with a parachute jump conveying the Australian flag, then the RAAF Roulettes performed formation aerobatics, wowing the audience with their daring and polished flying feats. Further aerobatic displays in a variety of aircraft continued until 2.30pm, including Paul Bennet in the Wolf Pitts Pro.

Aside from the air shows, there were also on-ground displays of antique cars and aircraft, as well as information booths, food stalls and attractions for children including a jumping castle. The HARS Museum was a popular attraction for families, community groups and aircraft aficionados, with a variety of historic aircraft set up in the field beside the hangar, allowing people to board and inspect them.

“We had lots of support. The event went well because of the number of supporters, including the Royal Australian Air Force Roulettes, Paul Bennet Airshows, the Parkes Aviation Museum & Historical Aircraft Restoration Society, as well as the cooperation of the Parkes Shire Council and other event partners,” said Erik Lensson, President of the Club.

If you’re interested in learning to fly an aeroplane, contact the Parkes Aero Club to discuss the possibility of trying a Trial Instructional Flight. Visit the website at http://www.parkesaero.com.au/ or check out the Facebook group.