Maggi Barnard

Maggi Barnard has been with the Parkes Phoenix since it was established in March 2016 and loves writing about her community.

Record Wool Auction For Charity

April 6, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

More than 60 guests were at the Parkes Services Club last Thursday to toast the success of Quality Wool’s recent charity wool auction for Ronald McDonald House Westmead. The auction raised $77,000 to assist seriously ill children and their families.

Quality’s New South Wales Operations Manager Chris Scott said the company was thrilled with the result and thanked all grow- ers who donated wool for the auction from the Riverina to the Central and Western re- gions.

“Our wool drive for Ronald McDonald House Westmead was again well supported and with the delayed auction timing this year, it was great to see a number of new growers donating wool,’’ Chris said.

“We had donations from our stores in Parkes, Orange, Wagga Wagga and Con- dobolin, as well as from near Oberon, Dubbo, Gilgandra and Coonamble, and down to Grenfell and Young.’’

Buoyed by a flourishing wool market and a delay in the sale fixture this year that helped increase growers’ wool donations for the auction to some 14,000 kilograms (93 bales), this year’s total of $77,000 easily eclipsed last year’s figure of just over $55,000.

Quality Wool visited farms to pick up donated wool and clean out sheds for growers, and it pressed and auctioned the wool free of charge. The Australian Wool Testing Authority also tested the wool for free, ensuring all proceeds would go to Ronald McDonald House Westmead.

In its fifth year, the charity wool auctions have raised over $225,000 for the home away from home that supports families with seriously ill children attending The Children’s Hospital Westmead.

Sister City Cars In Parkes

April 6, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

It is fitting that the Armstrong Siddeley Club visit Parkes on Sunday as part of its 50th anniversary rally.

The original company was formed in 1919 in Coventry England, and Coventry is a sister city of Parkes.

The company was very quick off the mark after World War II, announcing new models (Hurricane, Lancaster and Typhoon) just three days after the end of the war. The 3.4 litre Sapphire was introduced in 1952, and replaced by the Star Sapphire in 1958. A mid-sized Sapphire 236 was produced between 1956 and 1958.

Although all vehicles were excellently engineered with above average performance, they were priced much above comparably sized Jaguars. Sales were moderate, and production ceased in 1960.

Boars Junior Competition

April 6, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

Under 17’s Parkes Boars game against Forbes Platypi was a hard battle with Forbes leading 29-7 at half time. They continued their dominance, but the Parkes boys never gave up even though they only had 12 play- ers on the day.

The under 15’s Parkes Boars travelled to Narromine on Saturday to take on the Dub- bo Blues. The Parkes boys joined up with players from Narromine Gorillas for the first time. The boys had not trained together and the game started at a frenzied pace. Parkes played with great intensity, but Dubbo man- aged to put the first try on the board and ended up winning 36-0.

A very young Parkes U13 side travelled to Orange to take on the juggernaut Or- ange Emus with a notable size difference between the two sides. Although Emus opened the first half scoring, Jayden “Pow- erhouse” Pope scored first for the Boars. At half time the score was 12 all.

Emus took advantage of some weak de- fence and took the score to 24 to 22 with only a few minutes to go. Emus were hot on the attack again when Tyler Yeo saw a steal and a quick pass wide to Malakai Folau who scored in the corner. Parkes held on for the win 29 – 22.

By Allan Bailey

Redecorate This Easter With Parkes Décor Shoppe

April 6, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

If you are planning to do some home decorating or other jobs around the house over Easter, Parkes Décor Shoppe is the place to go.

You can find anything there from lights and fans to curtains, blinds and awnings to linen and even gifts.

Parkes Décor is part of the Lighting Network, the largest group of independent retial lighting stores in Australia, offering many dif- ferent types of lights to choose from. These include DIY lights needing no electrician to fit them.

With the weather turning colder, the store has beautiful bedspreads, quilts, linen and cushions to choose from. With new stock arriving weekly, you will never run out of new ideas or might just find that special design you want.

Parkes Décor has a free measuring service to give you a professional quote and advice for blinds, curtains and lighting. The curtains on offer range from classic to contemporary, country style to urban living in a large selection of fabrics to choose from. You can browse through a wide range of fabric samples in store. Curtains are custom made professionally with many different finishes.

With 42 years of experience in the industry, Parkes Décor Shoppe has the answers to all your decorating questions. Phone 6862 2677 or call in at 202 – 204 Clarinda Street.

Mayoral Notes

April 6, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

This week we welcomed, Michael McCormack MP to Parkes to carry out an official sod turning on construction of the new Ad- vanced Water Recycling Facility (AWRF). The $6 million facility, jointly funded by the Australian Government’s National Stronger Regions Fund and Parkes Shire Council, will underpin a new recycled water scheme for Parkes to strengthen water security and bring our water recycling activities up to cur- rent regulatory and industry standards.

We are delighted that the Ambassador of Sweden to Australia, Pär Ahlberger, will join us at the 2017 Trundle ABBA Festival on 6th May to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the iconic pop group’s first visit to Australia. This will be the Ambassador’s first trip to regional NSW. We look forward to celebrating Trun- dle’s unique connection with Sweden and developing a positive and collaborative rela- tionship with the Swedish Embassy.

The streets of Tullamore will soon turn green for the annual Tullamore Irish Music Festival. With the Easter Long Weekend just around the corner, it is time to start planning your outfit and join us for family fun, music, food, games and fashion over three days. For more information visit www.tullamore.org.au.

These school holidays the Parkes Visitors Information Centre is hosting its first Kids Days Out next Wednesday, 12th April for kids 0 -12 years. There’ll be a free animal farm, classic cars, face painting, an Indigenous dance performance, colouring competition, story time and a visit by the Easter Bunny! Contact 6862 6000 or visitparkes. com.au

Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.

Yours Faithfully, Cr Ken Keith OAM Mayor of Parkes Shire

Editors Note

April 6, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

With the the 24-hour news cycle and social media so easily taking centre stage in our lives, we can feel overwhelmed by all the bad news we are constantly bombarded with.

In contrast The Parkes Phoenix focuses on good news stories and once you start looking, there is literally an avalanche of positive things happening in our community. My most difficult task every week is trying to fit in all the wonderful stories that come our way.

So whenever you feel down and depressed by world events, just turn to The Parkes Phoenix to lift your spirits. Today we bring you once again a selection of what happened in our community over the past week.

As the school holidays start today, take time to do something special with your children. You will find a variety of holiday activities on offer for children and adults throughout today’s issue. Also take time to feel grateful for your kids and grandkids and all the joy they bring.

Enjoy Issue 57!

Maggi Barnard Editor

Kinesio Tape: Help Or Hype?

April 6, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

In 2008 Kinesio tape (K tape) was donated to 58 countries for use during the Olympic Games. By the 2016 Olympic Games it was hard to miss; brightly coloured strips of tape decorating the arms, legs and torsos of many high profile athletes. With this exposure, the use of K tape has become increasingly popular amongst the general population. The question must be asked – does it really work?

In a nutshell, K tape is brightly coloured, stretchy tape that is designed to stick to the skin. Proponents of K tape claim the adhe- sive backing on the tape lifts the skin, creating channels of less pressure. They claim it increases blood flow and lymphatic drain- age and reduces pressure on nerves, muscles, tendons, stimulates mechano-recep- tors, improves sporting performance and decreases swelling and pain after injury.

The inconvenient truth for any K tape believer is that for every research paper that shows a positive effect there is another one that shows little or no effect. Numer- ous systematic reviews have analysed the research data and none have reached any firm conclusions.

Many therapists will argue; if the athlete thinks it helps with pain and performance why not use it? I do not agree. If pain is helped by the use of K tape then it is unlikely there was significant tissue damage in the first place. In this case, tape isn’t needed and shouldn’t be used as a crutch.

Sure, an athlete may feel better after putting some tape on but I prefer the athlete to get better and back to sport by moving without fear.

For the fitness of you.

Linda Reilly

Chemicals That Cure Malaria Can Kill Weeds Too

April 6, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

Plant biologists at the University of Western Australia (UWA) have revealed the relationship between plants and the parasite that causes malaria is close enough to mean many antimalarial drugs are effective her- bicides.

The work offers a new take on an evolutionary connection made in the 1990s when herbicides were shown to interfere with processes in the malarial parasite.

The research, published in Scientific Reports, shows that the extensive knowledge of antimalarial drugs could be applied to creating much-needed new herbicides.

This line of thinking began in 2008 when Dr Joshua Mylne, a plant geneticist, enlisted in the Army Reserve and was assigned to the Australian Army Malaria Institute in Brisbane.

Dr Mylne said almost 20 years ago, researchers used herbicides to prove that the malarial parasite Plasmodium contained an organelle that was essential and did many of the same things plant chloroplasts did.

“Subsequently, herbicides were used as starting points to develop new antimalarial drugs, but thinking seems not to have extended in the opposite direction,” Dr Mylne said.

“There is an urgent need for new herbicides and in particular ones that work differently or have different targets; a feature called the mode of action.”

Dr Mylne, now a principal investigator with UWA’s School of Molecular Sciences, affiliated with the national ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, said herbicides were integral for modern day agriculture, but the success of glyphosate and spiralling costs to develop new herbicides had stymied progress.

“In the past 30 years no new herbicide mode of action has been brought to market during a time that over 500 new cases of herbicide resistance have appeared,” he said.

Co-author and organic chemist associate professor Keith Stubbs said antimalarial drugs were ideal as starting points because they were non-toxic to humans and often had the right chemical properties to also af- fect plants.

Lead author and PhD student Maxime Corral said the finding would enable researchers to use knowledge about antimalarial drugs and even the drugs themselves to develop new herbicides against weeds.

“Making this connection doesn’t just mean working with antimalarials such as herbicides, it also means you can think about what antimalarial modes of action are not being exploited by herbicides and whether they could be.”

“Despite decades of use, the way some antimalarial drugs work remains unknown,” Dr Mylne said.

“Plants are easy to work with so we might be able to use plant genetics to reveal how antimalarial drugs work”.

Footy Tips Round 5

April 5, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

Rotary Surprises Lionel With Award

March 30, 2017 By Maggi Barnard

A well known Parkes teacher was a surprised recipient of a Rotary Award at the Rotary District Conference held in Orange recently. Parkes Rotary Public Relations officer David Hughes presented Lionel Lovett with a Certificate of Commendation for Vocational Excellence.

Lionel said the award was a bit of a shock. “Rotary invited me to the dinner, but I had no idea that I was up for an award,” he said. “I thought I was going to be a guest at the dinner because I had made a small contribution to the Rotary project at the arboretum. It was one of those things that I like to be a part of, I wasn’t expecting anything for
it,” he said. Lionel is best known for his work with schools in Parkes, where he has been teaching school students Wiradjuri language, customs and history for more than a decade. He has previously been honoured with a Nanga Mai Award, and was named the 2014 Parkes Shire Indigenous Person of the year.

Lionel’s skills are many and varied. Alongside teaching Wiradjuri, he coaches the Little Goannas dance group, works as an artist, performs Welcome to Country for official events, and is heavily involved in the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group. “I really love to be involved in projects, particularly when there’s a cultural aspect to it, and aboriginal inclusion,” he said. “But it’s not just me, there’s a lot of other people I work with who are also doing great work.”

Lionel is currently planning the next project with collaborator Sean Cassidy. They envisage creating an indigenous art installation around the water tower on Bushman’s Hill, which would incorporate the Aboriginal history and serve as an extension to the Wiradjuri Amphitheatre.

By Raen Fraser

Maggi Barnard

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