An exhibition portraying the powerful mix of art and science opened at the Visitor’s Centre of the CSIRO Parkes Observatory on Wednesday.

The 17th annual Dr David Malin astrophotography competition of the Central West Astronomical Society (CWAS) went ahead in July this year despite the cancellation of the Astrofest due to COVID-19.

The opening of the permanent exhibition of the competition for amateur astronomers and photographers, which has become Australia’s largest photographic exhibition with over 200,000 visitors, was postponed until this week.

“This week is World Space Week, and today is the 75th anniversary of the birth of radio astronomy in Australia, and we thought an appropriate date to open this exhibition,” said organiser of the competition John Sarkissian.

World-renowned astrophotographer, Dr David Malin, who judged the entries in the competition, said on Wednesday the quality of images were better every year. “The mix of art and science also gets better, and this year the focus shifted to technology.” He made special mention of the overall winner Mark Polsen’s entry called Tranquility Base – a landscape image with the moon and Venus peeping through the trees at twilight. “The wonderful colours printed on glass makes it sparkle.”

The winning image was specially printed on glass by Make It Shine in a new partnership with the competition.

The permanent exhibition will be at The Dish for a year, while a second touring exhibition will travel to selected venues, beginning with Sydney Observatory.

By Maggi Barnard

News of the cancellation of next year’s Parkes Elvis Festival has gone viral around the world with more than 50,000 messages of support logged on the festival’s Facebook page earlier this week.

“It’s gone national on radio stations right across Australia, and we’ve received messages from right around the world,” Festival Director Cathy Treasure told The Parkes Phoenix.

The overwhelming sentiment from fans has been that it is very sad, but necessary under the current COVID situation, and everyone is looking forward to 2022.

“So sad, but think how great the atmosphere will be in 2022. Congratulations on doing the right thing Parkes, we will miss you,” said one fan. Another said: “We will be back in 2022 with blue suede shoes on. The King will understand. What a party it will be in 2022!”

The same sentiment came from participants in Parkes. “It is probably the best for the safety of our senior volunteers and the community, especially if there is another outbreak,” said Al(vis) Gersbach, who has transformed into Elvis for the past 16 years. “Let’s wait for 2022 and fully enjoy the spirit of Elvis as it should be, The King of rock and roll. Thank ya very much.”

Twenty years ago Sydney hosted the biggest sporting event ever held in Australia and Parkes created unique memories to be included in this exciting part of the country’s history.

Not only did the Olympic torch come through our town with the late Parkes Mayor Robert Wilson taking it on top of the Parkes Radio Telescope, and local hockey hero Stephen Davies represented Australia at his third Olympics, but IBM also broadcast an advertisement worldwide about Parkes and Stephen.

Stephen, who was known as the Maradona of hockey, scored for the Kookaburra team when they won the bronze medal. With three Olympic medals in his pocket, he announced his retirement after the Sydney Olympics having played more than 274 games in green and gold and scoring 140 goals.

Two decades later people all over the country have dug up their photos and memorabilia to revel once again in this universally uplifting event and share their glowing memories.

“I’m sure it’s one of Parkes Shire’s favourite memories how the Olympic Torch galvanised the whole community from schools, sports clubs, service groups and the general public,” said Helen Magill, who was one of the torch bearers.

Council’s promotions officer at the time, Michael Greenwood said as Parkes was lucky enough to get an overnight stop for the torch, it was decided to do something different. “We organised a procession with 35 different floats each representing an Olympic sport with Stephen Davies leading it in a chariot, just ten days before the start of the Games.”

Michael said Olympic organisers in Sydney said the event at Parkes was one of the most innovative in the whole country. According to Michael, Parkes was also the only town where the torch was handed over between twins with Ken Keith (current Mayor) handing it to his brother Tim, the town crier.

Parkes’ iconic radio telescope provided another unique opportunity and footage of the Mayor with the torch on The Dish went around the world.

That was exactly the focus of the famous IBM advertisement – two Parkes icons: Stephen Davies and The Dish that again splashed the name of Parkes around the world.

“The American film crew came for a week and had their every need looked after. We even closed the main street for them to film,” Michael recalled.

Memorable moments included the horse that went into a café and filming Stephen bouncing a ball on his hockey stick as the sun came up at The Dish. “When I saw the ad for the first time on TV, I nearly dropped my beer. It was so good!”

After all the excitement of filming the ad and hosting the torch relay, Michael and his family were lucky to watch three hockey matches at the Games in Sydney. “There were a lot of Parkes people there and it was great to feel part of it.”

Although Helen could not get any tickets, she still has very fond memories of the torch relay.

“I was so proud to be representing my community and even though we were far away from Sydney, the torch relay was our piece of the Olympics and we felt like we had contributed to the Games. I’d have to say it’s been one of the highlights of my life.”

By Maggi Barnard

Following on from the worst drought, 2020 has so far thrown several other challenging curve balls at our community.

Community health has become a priority and an exciting new collaboration between Gotcha4Life, Landcare NSW, the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) and Surf Lifesaving NSW will bring new programs to the Parkes and Forbes Shires to build mental fitness.

The four organisations saw the opportunity to work together in regional, rural and coastal areas in NSW by delivering workshops and training focussed on the concept of ‘prevention through connection’.

The mayors of both Parkes and Forbes have expressed the support of their respective councils for the outlay of programs.

Marg Applebee, Coordinator for Central West Lachlan Landcare, and Di Gill, RAHMHP Consultant are pleased to be working with Gotcha4Life to help activate these programs in the Parkes and Forbes shires.

Gotcha4Life is a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to connecting corporate Australia, government, community and NFP to help prevent and reduce instances of poor mental health in Australia. “We are so excited to work alongside such powerful and purpose-driven organisations, who have local reach into communities across NSW, enabling us to build mental fitness with local relevance and sustainable impact,” said CEO Tim Hodgson.

Founder of Gotcha4Life and television and radio personality, Gus Worland said: “Our vision at Gotcha4Life is a world where people are open, honest and supportive in their relationships and comfortable to express themselves when they are not ok. We envisage a society in which everyone has a Gotcha4Life mate who they can open up to and rely on no matter what.”

“This collaboration will be vital to help engage people across NSW who are battling with the effects of drought, fire and COVID-19,” said Gus.

Dr Adrian Zammit, Chief Executive Officer at Landcare NSW said while his organisation’s mission was to continue to care for the land and environment, it was founded on a series of close-knit communities that needed support. “With over 70 local coordinators supported by their own local Landcare groups across NSW, we have the opportunity to assist with facilitation of this important program across the state.”

RAMHP Manager Tessa Caton said continuing to find new ways of building mental fitness and capacity in rural communities was absolutely essential after the challenges 2020 has brought.

“Whilst Surf Life Saving NSW isn’t an organisation that we rely on day to day in the country, they are an important link in this partnership and well-placed to provide practical support for initiatives and programs on the ground.”

The launch of Gotcha4Life in the Parkes and Forbes Shires on Zoom with Gus Worland will be on Wednesday, 23rd September at 7pm. Register via EventBrite, follow the links on Central West Lachlan Landcare’s website and social media sites. Invitations will also be sent to sporting clubs, schools and other organisations.

Spring is a time for new beginnings and thanks to the generosity of some locals three species of birds will hopefully be able to produce some off spring on the fire ravaged south coast.

The unprecedented bush fires last summer destroyed the habitat of bird species who normally breed in hollow tree branches, like the Sacred Kingfisher, Crimson Rosella and Kookaburra.

Members of the Parkes Rotary Club, in conjunction with the Parkes and Forbes Men’s Sheds, completed 75 bird boxes last week that will be placed on trees in time for the spring breeding season.

Ken Engsmyr from Parkes Rotary, who also serves on the Rotary Bushfire Recovery Committee, said when he heard Rotary clubs on the South Coast were making bird boxes he thought it was the perfect opportunity to repay a kind gesture. The Sapphire Coast Rotary Clubs visited Trundle during the drought and did some work in the town to support the community.

Ken involved the two Men’s Shed groups saying, “It gives us something to do jointly as we are all about returning something to our communities”.

The Rotary Bushfire Recovery Committee had received donations from Rotary clubs overseas and funds were made available to purchase the supplies.

There were three different box designs for the three different species of birds, and each participating group made 25 boxes.

“I had to learn how to make the boxes for the Crimson Rosella,” said Rotary member Cliff Cowal, who is an electrician by trade. “It felt good to get back into my shed. It was a great project for our club.”

While making bird boxes was not a novelty for the Parkes Men’s Shed members, the challenge was to draw up a design from a photo for the Sacred Kingfisher boxes. “We’ve made boxes for the Superb Parrot for a Northparkes Mines project, but this design was completely different,” said Ron Fewing.

“I just loved it,” said Ben Lan, who helped Ron. “It was an interesting project and it is a good feeling to do something for a good cause.”

Ken said the Rotary Bushfire Recovery Committee would also be very interested in taking the project further possibly providing funding for a study to see whether the boxes made a difference or whether the tree hollows that remained after the bushfires were still attractive to birds given the fire damage, charring and smell. “If hollows in burnt trees are not suitable for nesting, then nesting boxes may be very important to encourage birds to return.”

By Maggi Barnard

It was almost literally a day of fire and ice last Saturday when the Parkes Brigade of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) celebrated the opening of their new brigade station on a freezing cold day.

The ceremony marked a big week for firefighters in Parkes, as the new Parkes Fire Station in Hill Street was officially opened only four days earlier.

“We are delighted with the outcome of this building to serve our community,” said Parkes Shire Mayor Ken Keith OAM. He said the Parkes Headquarters brigade was a very good supplement to the rural brigades where numbers had been dropping over recent years as a result of much bigger farms.

He said the cadet program with the Parkes High School, initiated by Terry Job 15 years ago, played an important role in ensuring a constant flow of new recruits for the RFS.

Sam Farraway MLC joined NSW RFS Assistant Commissioner Peter McKechnie at the ceremony saying the $870,000 new station will further help members of the Parkes Brigade assist with training and the fighting of fires locally, providing enhanced support to volunteers as well as the communities they protect.

The new station, with four vehicle bays, an office, training and store room, kitchen and bathroom facilities, was part funded by the State Government, Parkes Shire Council and by fundraising efforts from brigade members.

Work on the station took about two years to complete and the brigade moved in earlier this month.

Two of the younger members of the brigade were very happy with the new facility. “We’ve come so far,” said Connor Trueber. “We now have what we need and it will be good to do training here,” said Brayden Varcoe.

Sam Farraway and Assistant Commissioner Peter McKechnie both praised the efforts of the RFS crew members. “Volunteers are a special breed of people. They are selfless, brave and really generous with their time and skills.”

“We continually see how hard our skilled firefighters and support crews work to keep us safe when bush fires and emergency situations threaten and I offer my sincere thanks and gratitude to all the NSW RFS members for their outstanding efforts,” Sam said.

Two months after its completion, the brand new $2.05 million Parkes Fire Station was officially opened with a COVID-safe ceremony on Tuesday.

“I am delighted to open this significant investment in the Parkes community that will see the local response to fires and other emergencies improve,” said NSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott.

The new facility in Hill Street is the third fire station for Parkes and replaces the old station, which had been in use for 100 years. Fire & Rescue NSW (FRNSW) Commissioner Paul Baxter said he was delighted to have seen the project from start to finish.

The new station features a twin fire engine bay, allowing the station to expand its fleet to two Class 2 appliances (one pump and one SEV Pump). Along with a training and lecture room area, the new station also features a separate station commander office, locker rooms and toilet facilities, as well as a new gym to help keep staff prepared for the physical nature of their work.

“It is definitely a step up from the old station,” said firefighter Tom Rinck, who had been with the Parkes Station 417 for about 18 months.

Parkes Station Commander Captain Craig Gibson touched on some of the big fires in the history of Parkes, including the Mobil Depot Fire on 23rd May 1983. A memorial has been erected in the garden of the new fire station in honour of the bravery of the firefighters on that day, and a special commemoration is planned for May next year.

By Maggi Barnard