When her four daughters and husband joined the Rural Fire Service ten years ago Vicki Williams did not want to miss out and followed them with no real desire to be active.

It did not take long for her to learn volunteering involved a lot more than just putting out fires, and at the beginning of October she became the first female Group Captain of the Mid Lachlan Valley Team.

“I was a little shocked to get a phone call to ask me if I’d like to do it. I did have a lot of questions, but in the end I thought it would be good to gain some experience just for the year and see how I go.”

A group captain is usually elected by the brigades within the group for a period of three years. Vicki was appointed by her district manager for the final year of the previous group captain, Scott Baker’s term, as he took up employment with the RFS and could not do both roles.

Although she has been a deputy captain and captain, she feels being the first woman in the top role puts extra pressure on her.

Vicki will be responsible for five brigades and aims to focus on the role of women in the RFS by giving them a bigger voice. “Sometimes people are stuck in their ways. Women are still in the minority at 20% in the Mid Lachlan Valley Team. I would like to get more women involved.”

Vicki feels many women probably think volunteering is not for them, “but there are many more roles than just firefighting. There is a role for everybody, and it could include communication, training, community engagement, catering and many more. You don’t have to go and fight fires.”

Vicki has chosen to do it all and can still clearly remember the first fire she attended. “It was a caravan fire, and I was put on the end of the hose. It was scary, but the training that I’ve had really helped in what I did.”

The most memorable fire she fought was on deployment to the State Mine fire in the Blue Mountains in 2013 for three days. “I had a strike team leader that was more involved in firefighting so I actually ran his job in a sense. That put me up a level, but I was still there to help out at the fires. We were on a cliff and the fire was coming straight up so I had to order a helicopter to come and help us out.”

When Vicki is not working her day time job at Parkes Pharmacy, or taking on a fire fighting role, she really enjoys working with the juniors doing their training, going to championships and doing school cadets.

Vicki would also like to encourage more women to join up. “We have a role for everyone, and there is always somebody to help you.” As for how much time volunteering required, Vicki said it depended on every individual on how much they wanted to put in.

The Parkes Headquarters Brigade trains every Tuesday night, and then there is the option to go away and do training to get qualifications.

After ten years in the service, Vicki can’t imagine her life without the RFS. She sees herself volunteering forever hoping to carry on as long as their oldest member at the moment who is 74.

“We are one big family group and we really love seeing everyone thrive.”

By Maggi Barnard

In a year when storms, plagues, demolitions and a pandemic hampered so much of the good work of Parkes CanAssist, this week will be remembered as a happy one of new beginnings.

A cheer went up from the waiting crowd outside 33 Court Street when President Sylvia Glendenning and Treasurer Adriennne Brown cut the ribbon before the grand opening of their new shop on Tuesday.

The new central location in town where Rascals used to be was cause for much excitement with people streaming through the doors.

After hours of hard work to move the thousands of items and set up a proper shop environment by the CanAssist volunteers, Sylvia said she really appreciated the spontaneous cheer that went up from the crowd. The cherry on top was one man who called out: “At last you’ve got your own shop!”

The new shop will be open five days a week from Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 1pm and run by about ten volunteers per day. “It will cost us a bit, so we had to do something to increase our income” said Adrienne of the decision to open five days per week. “We hope it will cover our expenses so we can continue to assist up to 100 people with cancer.”

Sylvia said once everything was sorted they planned to start up again with the box sales once per month. “We are very happy with our new space.”

The furniture sales are still open at the Parkes Showgrounds.

By Maggi Barnard

The Parkes Visitor Information Centre will soon be upgraded under the Driver Reviver Australia Program to accommodate more people and introduce them to what our Shire has to offer.

Parkes was granted $232,100 as part of more than $1 million of funding to upgrade Driver Reviver sites across the Riverina and Central West.

Parkes Shire Council’s Tourism Team Leader Lisa Moon said the upgrades at the centre included seating, picnic settings, bins and a shade sail outside and hot/cold water dispenser, fridge and some tables and chairs inside. The grant for Parkes also includes money to upgrade the signs at the entry points to town, which will be electronic and controlled from the Visitor Information Centre.

The program was moved to the Visitor Information Centre last year when Destination NSW, Transport for NSW and Driver Reviver Australia announced an extension to the program to include various Visitor Information Centres across NSW.

Lisa said it was a good move as the centre was open seven days a week. “We are also hoping to catch people who do not normally go to visitor centres. It is an opportunity to tap into that flow of people and to engage them in what Parkes and our region has to offer. It would also blend in well with the holiday programs we usually run at the centre.”

Four ancient scar trees that were sadly cut down last year have found a new home in Parkes where they will serve as a visual reminder of their cultural significance for the Wiradjuri people.

The trees, estimated to be older than 400 years, are now part of the Wiradjuri Garradyang Cultural Garden at the Bushman’s Hill Reserve with plans to develop a unique storyline intertwining the garden and trees using QR Codes and mobile technology.

Scott Turnbull, Rhonda Sharp and Geoff Anderson, representing the Parkes Wiradjuri Language Group and Parkes Aboriginal Working Group, told the story of the trees to The Parkes Phoenix.

The trees were on a property on Back Trundle Road and were unfortunately cut down to make way for a development. “A lack of First Nations and Wiradjuri cultural knowledge lead to the demise of a sacred place,” said the representatives. “There were sincere apologies given, but unfortunately the damage was already done.”

During the relocation process the trees were identified to be in excess of 400 years old – this predates the recolonisation of Australia and a time period when Wiradjuri people thrived in this region.

The Wiradjuri community became aware of the incident around April last year and after a lot of consultation and collaboration with Parkes Shire Council and other parties involved the trees were relocated in order to preserve what was left of them. Kent Boyd of Parkes Shire Council arranged funding for the works to begin, while Steve McGrath, Derrick Hoe and Bob Moon assisted with the removal of the trees, and designing and building steel enclosures for the trees.

“This incident has been a huge learning curve for our People, the Shire Council and others who may wish to destroy anything before consultation.

“The trees are now in a far better place than being desecrated and burnt. We can now use them as an educational tool for many years to come.

“The local community have to understand that scared trees are culturally significant and protected and are a visual reminder that First Nations Peoples did exist and have survived.”

Two of the trees have been placed in steel structures to hold them in place, and the other two will take a bit of searching to find up on Bushman’s Hill.

Aboriginal people caused scars on trees by removing bark for various purposes, such as canoes, coolamons, shields, geo-graphical markers and significant sites. The scars, which vary in size, expose the sapwood on the trunk or branch of a tree.

One of the trees removed from the school was identified as a woman’s tree by the shape of the markings, while the other three were identified as large coolamons that would have been used in ceremonies and as geographical markers from the direction it was pointing, as Parkes was a meeting area for Wiradjuri people for tens of thousands of years.

There are many more scar trees around Parkes at about 30 different sites including at the cemetery and above the football ovals.

The Parkes Shire community is stepping up to help keep us all safe with an 80% first dose vaccination rate in our sights.

Parkes is at 72.8% for the first dose, which is a little bit under the state wide 75% for the first dose.

This week Member for Riverina Michael McCormack appealed to his electorate to get the jab.

“Regional Australians are among the most resilient people in the world,” he said.

“The very worst of circumstances always brings out the very best in regional and rural people. We battle through fires and drought, storms and floods – and we do it together.

“We band together, we help our fellow community members. It is what we do.
“Now the COVID-19 pandemic is another significant challenge and, again, our regional and rural communities will rise to the occasion – together.”

Michael said the Delta strain of COVID-19 had presented a situation not experienced since the Spanish Flu pandemic more than 100 years ago.

“But we have a solution up our sleeves – it requires as many of us as possible to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

“I thank each and every person who has rolled up their sleeves for the jab and I urge and encourage those who have not yet done so to discuss your options with your GP to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

Parkes Shire Mayor Ken Keith joined 11 other Mayors in the Riverina to call on residents to get vaccinated in a video released by the MP.

“It is so vital all our community get vaccinated,” said Ken, “and I encourage you to not only look after yourself, but your friends and family. Please get vaccinated!”

As the Parkes community is heading towards the end of its third week of lock-down and a total of ten COVID cases as at Wednesday, the majority of people have so far listened to and followed the public health orders.

Parkes Police Chief Inspector Scott Rayner said while the community had been vigilant to stay abreast of public health orders, an issue of concern for local Police was the amount of people moving around the area outside of the current rules. “An aggravating feature is that some people disregard the stay-at-home orders and are moving around and not wearing a face mask as required.”

He said over the past few days, Police had to make two arrests for repeat breaches of Public Health orders and issued numerous infringement notices for non-compliance. “The fines are quite substantial and should act as a deterrent,” the Chief Inspector said.

While additional officers are working in the central and far western areas of the State and other officers have been re-deployed from the usual duties for Operation Stay at Home, the Police are also working with local health, council, emergency services and welfare agencies to prevent mass infection occurring in our area.

The Chief Inspector said the Police were working on the highways to identify persons travelling between local government areas in contravention of restrictions, while there was an increased visible presence in the town/villages of our area.

“Our message to the community is to please do the right thing. Follow the health advice and restrictions. Please seriously consider vaccination and get tested if you have the mildest of symptoms.”

After more than a week of positive COVID fragments detected in our sewerage, a positive case was confirmed on Sunday followed by a further five cases on Monday.

At the time of going to press the number had not increased, but Chief Executive of Western NSW Local Health District Scott McLachlan said it took two to three days for symptoms to show and that Parkes residents should not hesitate to get tested. He said it was great to see 515 tests done on Monday, but by Tuesday it had gone down to 344 again.

“The clinic is at the Parkes Showgrounds every day. We would like to see double the number of people getting tested to the current numbers.”

The Parkes community did not hesitate to get vaccinated on the first day of the pop-up vaccination hub on Tuesday with 350 jabs given, which is the full capacity the ADF team could handle in a day. The aim was to have 1,200 to 1,300 people vaccinated by the end of Thursday.

Scott did emphasise though that the pop-up clinic was not the only way to get vaccinated and people should continue going to GPs, pharmacies and clinics.

He also said apart from staying home at all costs and minimising contact with other people, people should always make use of QR codes to help keep people safe.

Mayor of Parkes Shire Cr Ken Keith OAM said: “This is not a time for blame or social media witch hunts – this is a time for us to pull together as a community.”

While NSW recorded another record-breaking day with 633 new COVID cases on Wednesday, Parkes was still holding out with no positive cases at the time of going to press.

“What the data is telling us in the last few days is that we haven’t seen the worst of it,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned on Wednesday.

Parkes remains on high alert during the state wide lockdown currently in place as two sewage tests returned positive fragments during the week.

Parkes Shire Mayor Ken Keith has urged the community to be extremely vigilant. “I would urge anyone who has any symptoms at all no matter how mild to get tested immediately. This includes children who are of particular concern as they often present with much milder symptoms to adults. So please if you are being tested take your family members along with you”.

The case numbers in Western NSW kept on growing over the week with the total standing at 142 on Wednesday spread over eight towns. The majority of cases are in Dubbo.

According to the Premier every person who has the virus is spreading it to at least more than one person.

The main message remains that people should stay at home, book for a vaccination and follow all the COVID regulations of wearing a mask in public and keeping social distances.

The Mayor asked the community to look out for one another, and thanked the essential workers and health workers for their hard work.

By Maggi Barnard

At 29 weeks she was told for the first time she was expecting twins…

Seven weeks later on 16th August 1981 Maree Tanswell caused a scramble in the Parkes Hospital.

Megan was born at 12:01am, Julie gave her first scream at 12:06 and then Maree said: “I think there is a third one!” She was told it’s only the afterbirth, but a mum is always right, and at 12:08 Laura was born!

They became the first triplets to be born in Parkes, and to make it even more special they were identical, which is very rare for triplets.

“It was very scary as there were not enough medical staff at the time,” said Maree. “If we knew I was expecting triplets I would’ve gone to Sydney for the birth. That is why they are the only triplets ever to have been born in Parkes!”

This week on Monday the triplets celebrated their 40th birthday – separately – as COVID sadly has no respect for special celebrations. “They had big plans for their combined 120th celebrations and had organised a couple of trips, but had to cancel it all,” said Maree. “But they are already planning their 123rd celebration for next year!”

That is just how they’ve lived their lives – always adventurous. Maree said they had to keep the hospital bracelets on them until they could make their own just to be able to tell them apart.

“It took a lot to get my head around caring for three babies all of a sudden. I was always going to breastfeed the twins. I tried the three for one day and then went straight to bottle feeding.”

As the triplets had caused quite a stir in Parkes, Maree soon learned to leave them with family when she wanted to go to town for shopping. “It became and all day event with so many people wanting to see them.” She also discovered it was easier going to Forbes as people did not know her there.

Once she and husband Tony settled into their new life, they still had to contend with many new challenges. One memory that stands out very clearly is the 60 cloth nappies on the line every day!

Maree did get some help through home care who sent teenage girls to help out Monday to Friday on the farm at Gunning-bland, as she had four kids at the time.

Mandy, their older sister was only 16 months old when the triplets were born, and after them came Nicole and then Adam. “It was always hectic at our house with only seven years difference between the oldest and the youngest!”

At least the triplets were best friends 99% of the time. “They got on extremely well, and they are still very close.” Laura and Julie now live in Newcastle, while Megan is in Canberra.

“It was really hard work at the time, but when you look back you think it was not bad after all, we survived! We were extremely lucky that they were very healthy and we never had any medical problems, and they were strong academically too. They have always been very independent and strong-willed girls.”

By Maggi Barnard

Have you ever wanted to swim in a pot of gold? That is literally what you are doing at the Parkes pool every summer as it was built over the Phoenix gold mine, which was the richest mining area in our town’s ‘golden’ history.

Before the pool was officially opened on 16th January 1935, the local swimming hole was at Doyles Crossing near the Eugowra Road crossing on Goobang Creek. The problem was that every time the creek flooded, the pool washed away. When this happened the Parkes Council and Goobang Shire had a fight over whose responsibility it was to repair it.

A referendum was eventually held in January 1934, on the hottest day on record, and 80% of the population voted for a pool in town. Construction on the 55-yard long pool in 1934 was a monumental job as it was done by pick and shovel.

If you want to know more about one of the most important features in our town, there is a new display at the Henry Parkes Museum highlighting its interesting history and development over the years. With lots of historic photos and interesting facts, including a feature on Olympian swimmer Rex Aubrey, it is worth a visit during these COVID times when we have to rediscover our own backyard.

“Locals are welcome to come and have a look,” said President of the Parkes and District Historical Society Bruce Hall. “You can use your NSW Discover vouchers before they run out at the end of the month.”