Roxane Manley

Royal Far West riders took on their final leg – riding through Eugowra, with a special stop to connect with the local com­munity. Pictured with Eugowra Public School kids who are proud of their partnership with Royal Far West and we are appreciative of the support they provide.

Royal Far West’s Ride for Country Kids made its way from Parkes to Forbes, tak­ing 64 cyclists on a journey. They started in Parkes, and then traveled through Trundle and Eugowra, before finishing in Forbes.

At 12pm on Tuesday 19 May, on their 3rd and final day of riding, the cyclists vis­ited the Eugowra Community Hall to meet Raewyn Molloy and her team, and the local schools being supported by Royal Far West.

Raewyn Molloy knows all too well about needing the services of Royal Far West, as she herself required their assistance when she was just five years of age, after a grass seed shot into her ear and began to grow. An operation that followed caused her to lose the ability to speak clearly. The Sunshine Club at Parkes supported her to travel from Eugowra to Royal Far West in Manly for treatment, where she spent one year undertaking speech therapy. On her re­turn to Eugowra, she changed schools and repeated kindergarten and was well on her way to succeeding.

Royal Far West’s vision is to improve the health and wellbeing of children living in ru­ral and remote communities. In FY25, we supported 512 children, 302 parents and carers and 496 educators across 29 pri­mary schools and 5 early childhood centres in Western and Far West NSW – delivering services including speech pathology, oc­cupational therapy, psychology, and social work.

Each year, cyclists head out on a threeday ride across regional NSW as part of Royal Far West’s Ride for Country Kids. The annual event raises vital funds and aware­ness for developmental, behavioural and mental health services, to help transform the lives of Australia’s country children. For more information visit www.royalfarwest.org.au

The NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) has partnered with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to offer funding to Local Aboriginal Land Coun­cils (LALCs) from across the State through a new grant program called Together on Country.

The Together on Country grants are aimed at supporting LALCs across NSW in managing their land holdings. This includes improving waste management and caring for Country within their local communities.

NSWALC Chairperson, Dr Raymond Kelly, said the Together on Country grant program will help Aboriginal communities safely dispose of waste, care for Country and support Aboriginal participation in the circular economy.

Through this program, LALCs are encour­aged to apply for up to $150,000 per project to improve waste management and sustain­able practices within their communities.

The grant funding is available to all LA­LCs; successful projects should address a specific waste issue and provide sustain­able, long-term solutions.

Further details are available at https://alc.org.au/t-o-c-grant/.

Pictured with a novelty cheque for the funds raised at this years Inkredible Experience Tattoo Gallery Birthday Bash and Mental Health Charity Day are owners Trevor and Courney Smith with their daughters Averie and Everly.

The team at Inkredible Experience Tattoo Gallery have raised a whopping $10,000 from this year’s 16th Birthday Bash and Mental Health Charity Day. Funds were raised through raffles, donations and merch sales at the street party and spon­sorship funds.

Owner of Inkredible Experience Tattoo Gallery, Trevor Smith said, “Mental health is very important to us and should be to everyone, but our studio and industry spe­cifically is very closely working with and on individuals that don’t fit the norm and strug­gle more openly. We have an opportunity to advertise our willingness to help, so hope­fully these people know we are here for them when needed.

Despite the weather conditions, the morning was electric with approximately 50 patrons lined up and waiting when doors opened at 9am, seeing satff fully booked by 10am! The morning music vibes from Hunter Rawson kept everyone entertained while they explored the many market stalls and mental health stalls on display.

“This year was a bigger push than usual so it was a pretty intensive 12 months of planning. None of which would be possible without the support of our staff in the stu­dio, with our manager Jock handling a lot of logistics and pushing this event to grow.”

“We would not have been able to do it without the participation of our staff, vol­unteers, customers, community, mental health care providers and our amazing sponsors. We will be contacting a heap of our known local resources soon to discuss immediate cash needs for them and will announce the delivery of these funds as we make it,” said Trevor.

The date for next year’s Birthday Bash and Mental Health Charity Day has been set for 2 May, 2027. Planning is already un­derway to refine the new two block struc­ture and include more local businesses and mental health providers in 2027.

The display is hosted by the owner of the building and it will be there until the site is leased out by Ray White.

Have you seen the ex-flying model aircraft display in the window of the old Comm Bank building in Clarinda St, (previously Elvis Central)? The aircraft displayed range from WW1 Fighters to Allied WW11 aircraft such as Mosquito and Spitfire, alongside Axis aircraft such as Focke-Wulf 190 and the BF 109.

The display shows ex-flying model air­craft, some with a 2 metre wingspan that were built and flown by Trevor John Gal­lagher.

Trevor John Gallagher is recognised by the aviation model making community as one of the best with excellent replicas to his credit.

HARS has had a presence in Parkes since the mid 1970’s and the aircraft and memorabilia collection continues to grow.

Mike De La Hunty from HARS Parkes Aviation Museum said, “The HARS organi­sation has been recognised by airlines and the military as an organisation that has the capacity to preserve, maintain and where possible fly historic aircraft that should be preserved for future generations to see, enjoy and understand the story of aviation in Australia.

“We have a large volunteer workforce that have come from the airlines and mili­tary and they use their skills to preserve the artefacts, this skillset attracts further aircraft into our display fleet.

“There are more models on display at the Museum, where you can actually go onboard full size aircraft such as the newly arrived Fokker 100 seat jet airliner, the AP3C Orion the maritime long range patrol bomber, the DC3, the Caribou the work­horse of Vietnam and many others.”

The Museum is open every Thursday and Sunday from 9.30am to 3pm. For more details please see the HARS Aviation Mu­seum – Parkes Facebook.