Peak Hill is the latest stop in the public art trail of the Parkes Shire with a series of artworks by a local resident unveiled at the new Community Wall this week. The six panels featuring constellations of Wiradjuri stories in the night sky by Scott “Sauce” Towney include beautiful drawings of The Mighty Yarran Tree, The Eagle’s Nest, Cockatoos, The Seven Sisters, The Celestial Emu and The Great Creator.

“I am very humbled to be acknowledged by the people I grew up with. It is the pinnacle of my career,” said Sauce, who has been a finalist in the NSW Premier’s Indigenous Art Awards and has completed many commissions. He mentioned that his depiction of the Celestial Emu would be featured on a commemorative $5 coin next year.

Sauce specialises in drawing and pyrography and experiments with a variety of materials for his contemporary style of indigenous art. Chair of the Parkes Shire Cultural Advisory Committee, Councillor Barbara Newton said: “The development of public art in Peak Hill expands and complements the public art trail created in Parkes last year and is a great way of people meeting and greeting, while engaging the interest of visitors and adding to the colour and feel of the main street”.

The public art space, a concept designed by Parkes artist Jac Clark, will be expanded to each village in the shire to enhance the public art trail and the vibrancy of each community.

By Maggi Barnard

Black leather at the height of summer would normally not be recommended, except when it is January and you are in Parkes for the 2018 Elvis Festival! Celebrating 50 years since the ’68 Comeback Special, the Parkes Elvis Festival promises to be even bigger and better with black leather, white suits and lots of pomade set to take centre stage from 10th to 14th January.

To add more glamour to the festival that has put Parkes on the international map, will be Australian rock legends Phil and Tommy Emmanuel, who went to school in Parkes. “We still have wonderful friends here, Parkes is a very important part of our lives,” said Tommy at the launch of the festival at Hotel Gracelands on Monday.

The two brothers, who have more than 50 albums to their name and plenty of other accolades, will be inducted to the Wall of Fame on 10th January – a very fitting honour as Tommy said he believed Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock was one of the greatest recordings ever.

The 2018 festival promises to be a fitting 50th celebration according to Festival Director Cathy Treasure with lots of new and exciting additions to the five-day program including a midnight show, dancing in the Coles car park, performances in the Little Theatre and more 5pm shows. A second train, the Blue Suede Express will arrive shortly after the Elvis Express, while a special Priscilla Plane will also be in operation for the first time.

By Maggi Barnard

From early next year Parkes will not only boast a Premier, but also a King! A statue of Elvis will go on permanent display in Cooke Park to ensure his legacy will forever live on in Parkes. Council has partnered with the Elvis Revival Inc (ERI) committee to commission a statue.

To tie in with the theme of existing public art, Terrance Plowright has been commissioned to construct the new statue – the same artist who sculpted Henry Parkes. Parkes Shire Mayor Ken Keith said: “The statue will be a fitting dedication to our hard-working Elvis Festival volunteer committee, and serve as a lasting legacy and recognition of their work to make the Parkes Elvis Festival what it is today.”

This project has been a long time in planning, with the ERI and Council working together for a number of years to bring Elvis to life. The President of ERI Nola Short said: “We are excited to see this project come to fruition as a thank you to our community for its support of the festival over the last 25 years.”

“We hope the statue will itself become a tourist attraction for Parkes, drawing visitors into the Cooke Park precinct not just during the Elvis Festival, but all year round.” Terrance has begun sculpting the statue in bronze, with the Elvis Revival Inc planning to hold the official unveiling during the 2018 Parkes Elvis Festival.

Hundreds of people flocked to the 2017 Parkes Show this week to continue making it a true community event for the 137th year! “Well done Parkes!” said Member for Riverina and Minister for Small Business, Michael McCormack at the official opening on Tuesday. “To reach 137 is truly amazing! A show like this brings out the best in people.”

For Maisie Morrow, 2017 The Land NSW Showgirl and judge in the Showgirl competition, “shows let communities shine, and Parkes is a wonderful example”. She was very impressed and delighted by the encouragement young people received to be part of the show.

Show President Gary O’Brien attributed the show’s continued success to its “passionate committee and volunteers who work together to ensure all the elements come together seamlessly”.

The warmth of friendship and books can turn a freezing day into a memorable one. This is what about 500 pre-school and primary school children experienced last Friday at the annual reading day with the theme Paint Parkes REad with Friends.

“It was a fantastic day with a very good turnout,” said co-ordinator Pietta Bridge of Neighbourhood Central. “We had nine schools attending that includes all the primary and pre-schools in Parkes.” The Reading Bug invited his friends and was joined by Ruby Roo from Penrith and Billy Booksie from the Blue Mountains. Billy jumped out of the big parcel he arrived in much to the delight and surprise of the children.

The release of pigeons with nine of them carrying messages written by the Reading Bug for each of the participating schools, was another highlight and a first for the event. “This is how messages were sent before the arrival of mobile phones,” said one of the organisers.

The main message of Paint the Town REad, which was developed in Parkes in the 1990s and has since spread to more than 50 locations across Australia, is the importance of reading, singing and talking to your baby from birth.
“This day is always so exciting,” said Sherree Rosser, committee member and one of the original instigators of the event. “The message is getting through, as we now get high school students who remember the reading days and take time to read to their nieces and nephews.”

By Maggi Barnard

It should no longer be a rocky road for Parke Shire Council’s maintenance teams with the state-of-the-art roadworks mainstay, a CAT RM500B Road Reclaimer, arriving in Parkes last week.

The new road mixer is the first of this series to be sold in Australia. The big selling point of the $673,900 mixer is that it reclaims materials when fixing existing roads cutting out the need for any new material. The new mixer will
significantly improve Council’s operations by reducing costs, providing a superior, stronger and durable road base, and allowing rehabilitation of works to be undertaken in a more expedient and environmentally friendly manner.

According to Parkes Shire Council’s Director Works and Services, Ben Howard, gravel supply and carriage is a major cost of road maintenance, while roads are the largest budget expenditure item each year with in excess of 2,000km of sealed and gravel roads across the region managed and maintained by Council.

“Roads are significant to the community as we use them every day,” said Ben. “It is very exciting, as we will not only avoid using contractors, but in time will be able to rent the mixer to other councils.”

Bassem Ibrahim of CAT in Melbourne said Indonesia had purchased 14 of the mixers since its launch in 2015 and there had been no problems so far. Six Council employees will be trained by specialist CAT staff from the US to operate the new mixer and carry out critical functions.

The Parkes Shire Council’s communication efforts to keep the community in the loop was rewarded in Sydney last week. The council won the RH Dougherty Award for Excellence in Communication (Division A) at the 2017 Local Government Awards for the development of its corporate website and social media channels.

Parkes Shire Mayor, Cr Ken Keith OAM said: “We are delighted to have received this award. We completely transformed our communications methods and platforms, including rebuilding our corporate website and social media channels.”

In 2016, a survey found Council’s corporate website and social media presence were in need of significant improvement. “This project was a whole community effort, with feedback from residents and stakeholders forming the foundations of the design and function of the new website to make it more accessible, engaging and easily understandable,” said Council’s Brand and Marketing Manager, Katrina Dwyer.

“Since we launched the new website and social media platforms in December 2016, we have recorded a significant increase in community engagement with communications regarding Council works, services, initiatives and events.

“Most notably, earlier this year Council’s Facebook page received 186 new followers in 24 hours and reached over 15,000 people with one post regarding the flash flooding event in March. This shows that our residents are moving online to receive road closure updates and emergency information.”

The RH Dougherty awards are held annually during Local Government Week, and are judged by leading experts in the communications field.

The household of the previous century was a vastly different place compared to our modern kitchens with all its amenities and gadgets. The Parkes Historical Society has been offering local and out of town students a peek back in time with a fascinating display of more than 200 different household items.

Through the society’s education programme with Australian Charities and Notfor- profits Commission (ACNC) status, students are able to visit the Henry Parkes Museum. This year the focus is on grandma’s daily chores. The first school to visit was Holy Family Primary School who spent a day discovering the many treasures at the museum with staff.

“They walked to the museum via Bushmans Hill,” said Yvonne Hutton, President of the Parkes Historical Society.
Students visited the machinery area where they could run around, climb on and sit in the driver’s seat of the old tractors and trucks, while the Silver City Comet carriage and Big Four were very popular too.

After lunch they sat down to learn more about the households of yester year. “Many of the objects shown were a complete mystery to them, while some objects they remembered grandma having one of them,” said Yvonne. “In those days there were no stoves or washing machines, let alone microwave ovens.”

“It was a very happy and enjoyable day for the museum staff, teachers and students.” Following on the success of the Holy Family day, the next visit came all the way from St Raphael’s School Cowra. According to Yvonne the next group due to visit is Parkes Public School with the other primary schools to hopefully follow.

The museum’s education program also caters for two Parkes High Year 12 students who visit once per week to help out.

Two logistics giants have joined forces in Parkes to simplify the supply chain for importers and exporters and attract more business to the town. To celebrate its tenth anniversary in Parkes, SCT Logistics teamed up with DP World Australia to present a joint capabilities initiative. The two companies will work together to service regional trains providing importers and exporters direct access to the dock at DP World Australia’s terminal in Sydney.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to connect Parkes and the Central West with the port,” said Mark Hulme, DP World Australia’s Chief Operating Officer Logistics. “When we have empty containers at the port, we can rail them to Parkes, load them up and get them straight back to the port.”

According to SCT Managing Director, Geoff Smith the joint initiative would help his company get trucks off the road and improve environmental outcomes. “We currently move freight from Perth to Sydney via Parkes. We are well positioned to expand these services to include exports into Port Botany to meet vessel cut offs.”

He added that the 324 hectares available would be ideal for importers and exporters to situate themselves in the strategic Parkes rail hub. Parkes Mayor Ken Keith commended both parties for diversifying their operations to maximise the potential of the Parkes Logistics Hub.

The two companies held an information session on Wednesday to interested parties to give them an insight into opportunities available within the supply chain.

By Maggi Barnard

The stars were shining on Sunday, as members of the Central West Astronomical Society calibrated their telescopes for a day-time astronomy event. They were joined by some of the stars of the political firmament, with a special visit by the Deputy Premier, John Barilaro and the Parliamentary Secretary for Western NSW Rick Colless.

Their visit just happened to coincide with AstroFest, which provided a dazzling backdrop for Parkes part of the electorate-wide tour. Mayor Ken Keith, Deputy Mayor Barbara Newton joined locals in welcoming the state politicians at an informal lunch at the Dish Café. Not only did the ministers get to see the opening of the David Malin Astrophotography Awards, they were treated to a special tour of the dish by expert guide, CSIRO’s John Sarkissian.

It was the perfect opportunity to showcase the strengths of our town, and perfectly complemented the Deputy Premier’s tour, promoting the government’s Regional Growth Fund. “The government’s in a really good position financially,” John Barilaro said. “There’s a lot of money available in our Regional Growth fund, especially for councils to build local amenity – it might be sporting infrastructure, cultural infrastructure or playgrounds,” he said.

“Right now, we’ve actually got a real opportunity to make a difference in rural New South Wales and leave a legacy of opportunity,” John said. “I want to make sure our kids in regional NSW can grow up here, study here, and remain here.” “One of our core businesses should be about opportunities for young people,” he said.

By Raen Fraser