Liz Jones: Watching movies near the fire. My favourite are Danielle Steele movies – I’ve read most of her books too.
Greg Cox: Sunny days like this and enjoying being outside or going to a park. I don’t like winter, so these days make up for it.
Carol Verstegen: Curl up on the lounge watching movies with my kids. My favourite are thrillers.
Residents are invited to join Council staff and Central West Lachlan Landcare to take part in Australia’s largest community treeplanting and nature care event this Sunday, 29th July. National Tree Day is a chance for locals to give back to the environment.
Tree planting will commence at 10am at Akuna Road, off Eugowra Road and will conclude with a free barbeque for all participants to enjoy.
Council staff will soon install new Take The Lead signage throughout town as part of the Responsible Dog Ownership campaign launched last week. The signage will serve as a prompt for dog owners about the roles and responsibilities of pet ownership, with the aim of reducing the number of roaming dogs and dog attacks. Residents can pick up a Take The Lead pocket guide from Council’s Administration Centre or Parkes Veterinary Clinic or it can be downloaded from Council’s website.
This weekend Council’s tourism team will travel to Orange to attend the Regional Tourism Awards. Council, Parkes Elvis Festival and Parkes Visitor Information Centre are among 78 leading tourism businesses, events and visitor experiences across Country and Outback NSW nominated as finalists.
Residents and motorists are advised that Council crews will be installing new stormwater pipes and constructing new kerb and guttering along Station Street next week.
The work is expected to take approximately six weeks but will not involve road closures. Instead, traffic control in the form of stop/go signs will be used.
A reminder that applications for Council’s Local Heritage Fund close next Tuesday, 31st July at 5pm. The Fund aims to assists owners and/or lessees of significant land or heritage buildings with funding for projects on a matched dollar for dollar basis. Application forms can be downloaded from Council’s website, and hard copies are available at Council’s Administration Building.
Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.
Cr Ken Keith OAM
Mayor of Parkes Shire
A Cracker Of A Weekend Around The Fire
Over the past decade, Orange has become recognised as one of Australia’s finest culinary regions. The first ever Orange Winter Fire Festival will have the town bursting with great food, drink and cultural events, all with a wintry flavour from 3rd to 5th August. The festival will capitalise on the town’s winemaking status as some of the best local drops are showcased at events inspired by classic Australiana images, such as crackling bonfires and chargrilled feasts.
The festival kicks off on Friday with the nearby village of Millthorpe being transformed into a winter wonderland as country-folk duo Smith and Jones light up the stage and Pym Street bustles with food and wine market stalls. Meanwhile, back in Orange, Ross Hill Wines will host acclaimed chef Michael Manners, who’ll serve up a casual meal of soup and paella by an outdoor fireplace.
The fire theme continues on Saturday. The standout event sees Small Acres Cyder, See Saw wines and Canobolas Dance Hall join forces for a raucous night of ‘wassailing’ by the bonfire in preparation for spring. For the uninitiated, wassailing is an ancient act of chanting to trees, thus ensuring their prosperity. There will be poetry sessions, ‘astronomical journeys’, char grilled feasts and rich red wines under expansive starry night skies, huddling up to a fireplace in a country pub or restaurant for a Sunday roast plus so much more over the festival. A road trip to the Orange Winter Fire Festival would make for a pretty perfect winter weekend.
Orange Winter Fire Festival 2018 will take place from Friday, August 3 to Sunday, August 5. Head to www.orangewinterfirefestival.com.au for event and ticket information.
A Trove Of Beauty
Discover a treasure trove of beautiful crystals, fossils giftware and unique jewellery sourced from around the world. Semi-precious stones of every colour, unusual silver pieces, quality statues and funky costume jewellery. Be tempted by Worldly Treasures in Orange.
Unique Rings And Other Collectables
If you need shelter from the cold, Second Chance Collectables is a good place to go browsing. It is a licenced second-hand dealer for furniture, ceramics, silver and silver plate, glass and crystal, jewellery and watches, metals, kitchenware, artworks, clocks, toys, militaria, books and ephemera, precious objects, religious works, and other goods with age and interest. While most antique items date from before 1900, you will also find more contemporary items including Australian handmade jewellery and Moorcroft ceramics including current open ranges, numbered editions and limited editions. The resizing of jewellery is also available in store. The store, with clients Australia wide, is open seven days a week.
Make A Statement With Cinnabar Clothing
Winter does not need to be dull. Head into Cinnabar for an eclectic, funky mix of random goodies including clothes from Ruby Yaya, Boom Shankar, Lola Soul and many other great brands. There are scarves for every day of the year. It’s hard not to want everything in the shop. It’s a great place to be with lots to look at.
Dinner, Damper And Dessert With Poetry
Head to Molong on Saturday, 4th August when the Freemasons Hotel hosts a Winter Fire Festival event from 7pm. Enjoy a night of original contemporary Australian poetry and music provided by renowned storyteller, Frank Povah. Frank is an experienced character that will leave you captivated and in laughter. He will sing, tell stories and much more while you enjoy a camp oven dinner, damper and dessert. Call the Freemasons Hotel to book on 6366 8512. Tickets $30 pp. The Freemasons Hotel and Accolades Restaurant are located at 1 Bank Street Molong.
We can have a beautiful and sensational piece of art, but if it is not displayed properly it will not be appreciated accordingly.
An art collection can express your personality and give your home a sense of drama and excitement. Here are my five simple and easy rules to follow when hanging your artwork or treasured family photos.
1. Choose a wall that is the focal point of the room to ensure the art takes centre stage. If possible add feature lighting to really showcase it.
2. Artworks needs to be hung at eye level to demand attention. A general rule of thumb is to have the artwork’s centre at approximately 1.5 to 1.6m from the floor.
3. Consider the size of your artwork and select a wall that is in scale to its proportions. Never put small pictures on large walls. I do love it when an oversized picture dominates a wall to create drama. If your artwork is smaller consider displaying groups of your favourite pieces that will draw your attention upon entering the room.
4. If you are positioning your art near or above furniture consider its size and scale as this will interact with the art. If you place your canvas above a sofa or buffet for example, it can’t extend over the length of these pieces to work visually.
5. Try grouping family photos in either random patterns or symmetrical to make an artistic design statement. For an eclectic look use a collection of antiqued and embossed frames to create a more relaxed feel. Alternatively, you can use the same frame for a modern and contemporary feel. For guaranteed success lay your pattern on the floor before you begin.
By Karen Creith
Currajong Disability Services (CDS) has again felt the generosity of the community with the Parkes Painting Group making a donation.
The group donated $1,000 raised from their exhibition held in late April this year. Kim Chambers and Helen Huntly, whose grandson Blake is at Currajong, handed the cheque to Currajong Chairman, Neil Unger.
“We continue to be overwhelmed and appreciative of the kindness of the Parkes business community,” said Neil. It is quite unbelievable to amount of donations and generosity we have received in the last six months.”
More than 40 care packages were distributed to drought affected farmers following the initiative of a Parkes woman asking for donations.
“It has been pretty amazing,” said Karen White who created a Facebook page last month to ask people to donate items to make up care packages.
She said many people made up smoko packages, one woman donated $100 worth of dog biscuits and the Rural Fire Service at Forbes arrived with a vehicle loaded with everyday items, such as rice, pasta and sugar.
“We did not have enough room to fit everything in for the first drop off.” Karen teamed up with the NSW Farmers Association’s representative in Parkes and she took all the packages to the central distribution point in Cobar.
They have already received very good feedback from farmers. A couple who had received a package with home made fruit cakes sent a message saying, “It gave us a lift when we thought the world was against us.”
According to Karen the greatest need is drinking water as many farmers’ household tanks are running low. She said large water jugs or slabs of water bottles would be most welcome to farmers at this stage. “I am happy to keep going as long as there are donations,” Karen said.
Go to the Facebook page Central West Drought Care Packages for more information, or drop off donations at 172 London Road or at Kadina B & B at 22 Mengarvie Street.
Patricia Smith
How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here?
I have lived in Parkes all my 68 years. The friendships made and the community spirit is what I most like about it.
Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I am serving my 10th year as a Councillor, and I just love working with different organisations in the community and watching the town prosper and grow.
What do you do in your spare time and on weekends? I enjoy gardening, reading and watching movies.
What are you really good at? Towing the caravan and being a grandmother.
If you could have a superpower what would it be? Healing sick kids.
What is your pet hate? People using phones in eating places.
Tell us about your best holiday. I have enjoyed many caravan holidays, but my best would be the Indian Pacific to Perth.
The discovery of pulsars was announced fifty years ago and it has since become a major field of astronomical research, especially at the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope. As the Parkes telescope has discovered more pulsars than every other radio telescope in the world, combined it was only fitting that the keynote speaker at the 15th annual CWAS AstroFest last weekend was the discoverer of pulsars.
Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell said she was very excited to visit the Parkes Radio Telescope for the first time. “It is one of the major cutting edge telescopes in the world doing very important work.”
It was whilst spending endless hours analysing reams of paper chart recordings as a young research assistant at Cambridge University in 1967, where Jocelyn was helping to build a large radio telescope, that she noticed what she referred to as ‘scruff’ in the recordings.
This scruff was a pulsating radio source which reappeared exactly one Earth rotation later every day making it unmistakably a sign of a celestial object. Jocelyn had discovered a rapidly spinning neutron star, later termed a pulsar.
The discovery, hailed as “one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century”, was recognised by the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics to her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish. Another highlight of the AstroFest is the David Malin Awards for astrophotography presented by world-renowned astrophotographer, Dr David Malin, himself. This competition has become the premier event of its kind in Australia with 260 entries this year.
“Two categories had some of the best images I have ever seen,” said David at the prize giving ceremony. The overall winner was Luke Tscharke with his entry titled Crescent Moon at Lake Oberon entered in the Night Scapes category.
An array of international and local guest speakers filled up the programme for the rest of the event attended by over 100 people.
There is something special sitting around a campfire, but sharing the experience with Australia’s country superstar could be extraordinary. This is exactly what Parkes residents will encounter tonight when Kasey Chambers is at the Parkes Services Club with her Campfire tour.
The Aussie country icon is just over halfway touring the country since the release of her 12th studio album in April. “I haven’t been to Parkes for a long time and is really looking forward to the show,” Kasey told The Phoenix earlier this week.
“We are mostly doing old songs and including new ones form the album.” She said the audience should expect a real
campfire atmosphere as she and her band, The Fire Side Disciples, use acoustic instruments. “A lot of my songs work acoustically, so it was not a huge stretch to make the change. That is how they all started any way,” she said.
Making the tour extra special for Kasey is her dad Bill Chambers, a Golden Guitar Award songwriter, who also plays in the band. “He gave me an unusual childhood growing up around campfires and was the inspiration for the album. We share so many stories.”
Kasey grew up on the Nullarbor Plain and the tiny fishing village of Southend, South Australia. They were touring as a family band, The Dead Ringer Band. With the 20th anniversary of her debut album The Captain Turns coming up next year, Kasey said she always wanted to make this record and it was the right time to strip back to the sounds she grew up with.
She realised another dream on the Campfire album doing a duet with her childhood idol Emmylou Harris. “She is probably the voice I heard the most growing up. She has been a great influence on me and doing a duet with her on my album made me so happy. It is so incredible that I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many of my idols. It is such a thrill.”
Living such a busy life, the campfire is a place where Kasey feels she can be present in the moment. “Sitting around a
campfire is one of those places where you never wish you were somewhere else. It is the perfect place to be in the moment.
“This is what we are creating with this gig and I hope everyone will enjoy it like they would sitting around a campfire.”
By Maggi Barnard
Where do you like to go shopping?
Bronte Wildman (7) from Blaxland: I like Target because of the clothes and toys.
Luca Wildman (6) from Winmalee: I love toy cars and Target has lots of good cars and other toys.
Leilani Lavaka and Emma Langley from
Parkes: Leilani: I like the Roasted Combi Café (used to be Café ‘n Ate). The food is good and it’s a great place to hang out with your friends.
Emma: I like Target because of the big range of good clothes available.
John and Sue Truscott from Ungarie: Aldi is a good shop because its got lots of bargains, quality food especially the fruit and vegetables, and cheap beer!