The Parkes Elvis Festival was declared the winner in the Festivals and Events category at the 2016 Regional Tourism Awards held in Euchuca Moama last Saturday. Parkes Shire Council also picked up silver in the Destination Marketing category for the development and implementation of the ‘Parkes it all adds up’ brand and associated campaigns.

Parkes Shire Mayor Ken Keith said “This is a fantastic achievement for the Parkes Elvis Festival and is a credit to all of the hard work that Council staff and volunteers put into the Festival”. “The Elvis Festival has grown to be an internationally recognised event, which injects $11 million into the local economy.

However, the festival would not be possible without the support of the local community and the assistance of over 100 volunteers,” Cr Keith said. The Regional Tourism Awards are held annually to acknowledge excellence in tourism in the four regional tourism areas of Central, Inland, Murray and Riverina.

“The 13th annual Regional Tourism Awards showcased some of the best tourism attractions, products and operators in NSW and Victoria”, said Jane Barnes, Chair of the Awards. “This year, all entrants were of a high calibre. In some categories the marks between finalists were so close that a silver and bronze award was given.” Parkes Shire Council is now looking forward to the state tourism awards, with the finalists to be announced on 30th September.

The Parkes Radio Telescope’s involvement in the $100 million program in search of intelligent life beyond Earth will start in October. Dr Pete Worden, Chairman, Breakthrough Prize Foundation, delivered the John Bolton Lecture at the AstroFest in Parkes on Saturday to about 120 people detailing this initiative. The Breakthrough Initiative with Yuri Milner, internet investor and science philanthropist, and Stephen Hawking, physicist, announced the most comprehensive, intensive and sensitive search ever undertaken for artificial radio and optical signals in July last year.

The 10-year, multi-disciplinary search effort will complete a survey of the nearest million stars, it will scan the centre of our galaxy and the entire galactic plane, and beyond the Milky Way it will listen for messages from the 100 nearest galaxies using the world’s largest telescopes. This means the Parkes Radio Telescope would be used 25% of the time for observations in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, USA will be used 20% of the time for the Northern Hemisphere.

Both Dr Worden and Yuri Milner have visited the Parkes Radio Telescope in the past year to discuss details of the program with local CSIRO staff. John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, said it was a very exciting project. “If there is anything to be found, this project will find it.” In addition to this program, Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking announced the Breakthrough Starshot project on 12th April to develop a 100 million mile per hour mission to Earth’s nearest stars.

The idea is to develop light-propelled nanocrafts that could fly at 20% of light speed and capture images of possible planets and other scientific data in our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, just over 20 years after their launch. As leader of the program, Dr Worden said the Alpha Centauri star system is 25 trillion miles (4.37 light years) away. “With today’s fastest spacecraft, it would take about 30, 000 years to get there, so we had to look at something else. We ended up using very old technology – the sail.” Breakthrough Starshot aims to establish whether a gram-scale nanocraft with a 4m sail pushed by a 50 gigawatt laser light beam, can fly over a thousand times faster.

The nanocraft is a gram-scale robotic spacecraft consisting of a starchip and a ligthsail. With the dramatic decrease in the size of microelectronic components, the starchip weighing only a few milligrams could carry cameras, photon thrusters, power supply, and navigation and communication equipment to constitute a fully functioning space probe.

It is expected the Starshot would be launched in about 35 year’s time. The announcement on 12th April was made on the 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering space flight. Dr Worden, a former director of NASA AMES Research Center, will be advised by a committee of world-class scientists and engineers. The board will consist of Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg.

The AstroFest endeavours to bring worldrenowned astronomers, to the Central West so they may share their enthusiasm and love of the heavens. “The festival has been absolutely fabulous,” said Eileen Newport, President of CWAS. “We have been honoured to have such a great speaker as Dr Worden. The Breakthrough project has really captured people’s imagination, as all of us are interested in or wondering about extraterrestrial life.”

The festival, attended by people from all the states and ACT, presented a series of lectures, as well as events at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory Visitors Centre including daytime astronomy and talks. (See more on page 9.)

On Wednesday 29th June, the 2016 Northparkes Mines Indigenous Scholarships were awarded to Gabrielle Ebsworth and Kerrod Griffiths. Gabrielle is from Narromine and is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne. Kerrod, who is from Condobolin, is currently studying a Bachelor of Health Science (Indigenous) at the University of Wollongong.

The scholarship presentation was held at Northparkes and attended by scholarship holders, their families and Ralph Smith and Rob Clegg from the Northparkes Wiradjuri Executive Committee. The Welcome to Country was delivered by Rob Clegg to open the proceedings, who said; “I’m so happy to see young Indigenous people going to university and moving forward.”

Northparkes Managing Director Stefanie Loader welcomed the scholarship holders and their families to Northparkes, “You are a part of our future, and we hope you find your place at Northparkes,” she said. Kerrod said he appreciated the financial support provided by the scholarship. “Down the road I see myself moving back to the country and working in public health, helping Indigenous people.” Gabrielle Ebsworth said; “I might work in Indigenous Affairs when I’m older, I think it’s important and more effective when Indigenous people help each other.”

In addition to financial support, students receive work placements on site at Northparkes and throughout Australia. Gabrielle and Kerrod join a cohort of eight Indigenous tertiary students across NSW who study in a variety of fields including electrical engineering, environmental science, social work, and communication and media. The program is in its fifth year and is available to Indigenous students aged 30 years or younger who have been accepted into a tertiary degree.

The Parkes and Forbes Squash Clubs are making history this weekend by hosting the first ever NSW Junior State Age Squash Championships to be held in a regional centre. To make the event even more spectacular, it will be one of only two gold ranked events to be held in the State this year, which means top players from around Australia will be competing because of the ranking points on offer.

About 100 players will be in action, including 12 players from Parkes and four from Forbes competing in divisions from under 11 through to under 19 for both girls and boys. The Parkes players are Ned Hunter (under 19’s), Liam Pope and Chester Kelly (17’s), Brenden Trim (15’s), Lockie Miller (13’s), Henry Kross (11’s), Jolie O’Shannessy and Naomi Kent (17’s), Bronte O’Shannessy and Kacey Nightingale (15’s), Marley O’Shannessy (13’s) and Hana Kim (11’s).

The Parkes and Forbes Clubs have had some fantastic local support, with Parkes Services Club going above and beyond to make the event a success and ensure the facilities are top class. All four courts in Parkes have been renovated in the past six months, with a complete renewal of front walls, floors sanded and the entire centre painted.

Western Road Liners are offering bus services between the two centres for the tournament. Parkes Diagnostic is a major local sponsor, with three local motels, All Settlers, Henry Parkes and the Astro Dish. Parkes Shire Council and Northparkes Mines have been generous in lending marquees, temporary fencing and other items to extend the Squash Centre into the car park to house the large expectant crowd.

The giants have arrived for the first time in Parkes, and there are six of them! Ultimate Monster Action is gearing up to give Parkes an action packed show that will get the adrenaline flowing to drive all the winter chills away. Professional Monster Truck driver, Troy Garcia said the show would go on come rain or shine. “The wetter the weather, the more fun we have!” he joked. He is expecting a crowd of about 3,000 people who will watch every jump of the roaring monsters, as well as a host of other blood chilling stunts.

Hosted by Adam Brand, 12 times Golden Guitar winner, the freestyle motocross bikers will do some insane stunts, while the jet car will light up the sky with its after burn mode. Adding extra explosive action will be the gigantic firework show. There will be rides in a 3-metre-high monster truck from 1.30pm when the gates at the showgrounds open which will cost $10 per person. The main show will start at 4pm and last for about two hours. “It is a great event for the whole family,” said Troy.

Monster trucks were first built in the United States about 40 years ago to crush cars. “The latest models are able to do much more, such as racing, wheel stands, jumps in the air and other free style moves,” said Troy.

Get your tickets at the gate or online at www.monstertrucks.net.au.