Maggi Barnard

Jenn Donovan not only created a Facebook group, but a whole community to support businesses in rural Australia.

In one year a Facebook group has helped over 20 small businesses in the Parkes Shire and changed over 285,000 lives in rural Australia.

Buy From a Bush Business was created by Jenn Donovan a year ago with the online community growing to almost 300,000 with hundreds still joining every week.

“The page is a great idea to promote country businesses doing it tough with the drought, bushfires and now COVID,” said Glen Harbidge, who used the page to promote his photography business. “It has certainly helped us to get our business out there by way of post shares.”

Glen said he had posted about six times on the group and would make up to 15 sales each time and his post would be shared up to 12 times.

According to Jenn more than 20 businesses from Parkes and Peak Hill have made use of the page over the past year.

Another Parkes resident has described the business she had received from the
page as phenomenal.

During COVID online shopping increased markedly with many businesses in the group experiencing a vast rise in sales.

Jenn, a farmer’s wife and marketing thought leader from the Riverina, was driving home from a marketing tour in October last year when she came up with the idea of a Facebook group to support rural small business owners.

“Some people who posted didn’t even have a business yet, just a hobby, but soon found themselves with a community of brand new buyers, from all over the country, wanting their goods”.

Little did Jenn know she would also create connection: she connected people; she connected the city with the country; she created a community that, even if they couldn’t afford to spend money with businesses, they helped in other ways like sharing a post, liking a post or giving the business owner encouragement or a compliment.

Debbie Horder with some of the kittens she is looking after at the moment.

Spring is a time of renewal, beautiful flowers and lots of cute little baby animals.

The sad reality is that many households end up with unwanted litters of kittens and many of them end up being dumped on the side of the road, in a paddock or left at the pound.

Debbie Horder, who ran a pet shelter in Western Australia, saw an opportunity when she moved to Parkes some years ago and decided to help abandoned animals.

She takes in any animal that needs help, but mostly looks after kittens. She works with Pet Rescue, Australia’s largest online pet adoption platform, and Pets Haven, a pro-life animal shelter in Victoria.

She is also affiliated with the vets in Parkes and Forbes, and she works with the Parkes pound.

“I usually take in animals for about four weeks to get to know them. That helps me to find the best fit from the applications I had received from people wishing to adopt a pet. I can get up to 40 applications per kitten.”

All the animals she gives up for adoption have been desexed, vaccinated, treated for fleas and registered and the new owner pays $350 to cover the vet costs.

She said she had 15 kittens over the past two months. “We have a huge feral problem in town, and unfortunately there is a high occurrence of feline aids and leukemia among them.”

Debbie said it would be fantastic if Council could organise a cheap desex day for pet owners. “Something similar to the free microchip day. It would mean a lot less abandoned kittens in town as a female cat can have three litters per year with four or more kittens per litter.

Make sure to contact Debbie on debhorder@gmail.com if you need to rehome a pet or are looking at adopting.

There are positive signs that the NSW economy is getting back on track. The quarterly Business Conditions Survey of Business NSW has revealed the first bounce in business confidence in a year.

The survey shows business perceptions about the performance of the NSW economy rebounded strongly from the record low in June. “The outlook has also improved, with businesses expecting further lifts in the economy for the remainder of 2020,” said Business NSW, Regional Manager – Western NSW, Vicki Seccombe.

“The strong bounce in business confidence is a welcome boost and gives a big tick to government decisions that have backed a business-led recovery.”

“In Western NSW, the pick-up in the agricultural sector due to easing drought conditions and the increased tourism across the region have continued to bolster the local business outlook.”

“However, our businesses are experiencing some the of highest skills shortages that we have seen for some time, with over 47% Western NSW businesses responding they have not been able to find suitably skilled people,” said Vicki.

The survey also examined some of the factors common to businesses most affected by COVID-19. “While business services, hospitality and tourism businesses are heavily impacted overall, business performance in these industries varies dramatically depending on location and type of customers serviced.”

“Businesses located in a CBD (regional or metro) and reliant on foot traffic, for example, are among the most vulnerable, as are those reliant on international visitors.”

“While many businesses are about to enter a difficult period as support measures are tapered back, it’s promising to see a strong foundation for recovery emerging in NSW and in particular Western NSW,” Vicki said.

Early work has started on the Parkes bypass to enable the construction of the bypass, which will realign the Newell Highway two kilometres west of Parkes.

The early works include upgrading Nock Road to a bitumen surface and closing the road from direct access to the Newell Highway by making it a cul-de-sac. A number of utility relocations will also be completed, including upgrading water mains along the length of the footprint of the bypass.

“The bypass will reduce travel time by up to 10 minutes and increase safety by removing more than 1,200 trucks a day from the town of Parkes,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Michael McCormack.

NSW for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole said the early work would be delivered by Parkes Shire Council and supported 20 council and contractor jobs.

Further work will involve:
• construction of a new bitumen road between Thomas Street and Mitchell Street;
• construction of a new bitumen road between Condobolin Road and Back Trundle Road to replace Moulden Street; and
• construction of a new section of road between Brolgan Road and Hartigan

For more information visit https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/newell-highway/parkes/index.html

Rural Aid is asking school students to lift the spirits of farmers around the nation by creating homemade cards with a special and personal message.

CEO of Rural Aid, John Walters said that in addition to the anguish caused by the COVID pandemic, farmers have endured years of record-breaking droughts, devastating floods and catastrophic bushfires. “After such a difficult year, we want to put a smile on the faces of Aussie farmers. Students can make this possible by getting their school involved in our Christmas Cards 4 Farmers initiative.”

“The reality is that if you eat food or wear clothes, you’re a partner in Australian farming. From fruit and vegetables to bread, meat, cotton and wool, our farmers are central to our everyday life.” John said the Christmas Cards 4 Farmers campaign had been influential in previous years. “In the past, the letters that school children have written to our farmers have had an incredible impact on the farmers’ mental health. In one special case, a schoolgirl named Matilda wrote a letter to a farmer in need which helped save his life.”

Help Rural Aid continue this tradition by creating your homemade card and sending it in before 19th November. Place all cards in a bigger envelope and mail them to Rural Aid at PO Box 1342, Sunnybank Hills QLD 4109. Rural Aid will put the card in envelopes and send them to Aussie farmers. Visit: www.ruralaid.org.au/christmascards4farmers/