Maggi Barnard

The Scrap Bin Lamp created by Deb Jones. She won the Herb Clarke Memorial Award.

Several creations from the Parkes Shire did very well at the regional Waste 2 Art exhibition with four winners and seven highly commended entries. The regional exhibition is currently running at the Outback Arts Creative Centre in Coonamble until 3rd September. The Parkes winners are: Deb Jones, who won The Herb Clarke Memorial Award for her Scrap Bin Lamp, Middleton Public School is the winner of Building/Sculpture 3D for their entry called Barugil, Rex Veal is the winner of Building Sculpture/Functional for his Chook RV, and Trundle Central School, School to Work is the Winner of High School Functional for Time in Chain.

The seven highly commend-ed entries were from Kelsey Finnegan, Blake McMahon, Hayley, Charlotte, Milla and El-odie Ballantyne, Meredith Bar-ber, Ian Row, Elsie Mahon and Helen Standen.

Parkes Shire Manager Cultural, Education and Library Services Kerryn Jones thanked everyone for entering saying it was a wonderful exhibition. The theme for next year is soft plastics. “So put your thinking caps on, we can’t wait to see what you come up with!” Kerryn said.

Six lanes of testing at the former Bunnings site in Orange last week during the stay-at-home lockdown meant cars were in and out in under one hour at the peak of testing. (Photo: Orange City Council)

While the stay-at-home order for communities of Orange, Blayney and Cabonne ceased at midnight on Tuesday, NSW Health encouraged people to keep on getting tested at the first sign of even mild symptoms.

“As there has been a case recently in the community, and the ongoing outbreak continues across Sydney, it is vital people come forward for testing,” said WNSWLHD Chief Executive Scott McLachlan.

Member for Orange Philip Donato expressed his appreciation to the community for their patience and cooperation in response to the sudden and unexpected stay-at-home health order issued by the NSW Health Minister in response to a positive local COVID-19 case the previous week.

“This precautionary measure was to prevent our country communities from experiencing the situation we’ve seen unfold in Sydney, where a delayed and passive response to an initial breakout of Delta is still yet to be harnessed more than five weeks into the State capital’s health crisis.”

“I want to congratulate the communities of each the Orange, Cabonne and Blayney Local Government areas for cooperating with the health order, and I wish to extend my appreciation for their patience and understanding.”

“I realise many local businesses and workers have suffered a financial impact, though that impact may have been more substantial if COVID were to spread, such as we’ve seen in Sydney.”

Phil said more than 10,000 COVID tests were done during the lockdown, as well as sewerage testing, which had all returned negative tests.

“I would also like to thank those essential workers who kept the lights on, and all those who facilitated the COVID testing sites and subsequent pathology testing.

“It’s important that we do not become complacent, and maintain our proactive regime of QR check-ins, social distancing, wearing masks and sanitising.”

We ran a guessing competition for Paint The Town REaD this month and there were a lot of good guesses. It seems like the mystery person was a bit too mysterious… but Lorraine Chambers was drawn as the winner. Pictured is her little granddaughter Elly Lewis enjoying the book prize. Read next week’s issue when we will reveal the identity of the mystery person, and some more news about the new format for the Community Reading Day this year.