A total of 19 initiatives in the region’s two shires have received grants from Northparkes Mines (NPM) in the latest round of the company’s Community Investment Program. The mine’s program has two rounds each year with $40,000 awarded to successful applicants each round. In the latest round of funding initiatives from Parkes, Forbes,
Peak Hill, Tullamore and Tottenham received grants. Funding was evenly split between the Parkes and Forbes Shires. Northparkes People, Safety and Environment Manager Angus Wyllie said: “We are pleased to be able to support such a wide range of programs in this round of funding.

“By funding initiatives which support aged care, disability services, recreation, sport, health, music and more, we know the Community Investment Program will benefit many people in our region,” he said. He said it was good to see so many applications for funding. “We received a record number in this round, which means there are plenty of wonderful community initiatives in the Central West.

“I congratulate the successful applicants and thank everyone who took the time to apply for the program. It was very challenging for our committee to select funding recipients from so many high-quality initiatives.” The successful applicants were: Calarie Recreation Reserve Trust, CanAssist (Peak Hill), Condobolin RSL Pipe Band, Currajong
Disability Services, Forbes and District Meals On Wheels, Forbes and District Soccer Club, Forbes Business Chamber, Forbes High School, Forbes Public School Special Education Unit, Havannah House, NSW SES Parkes Unit, Paint Parkes REaD, Parkes Early Childhood Centre, Quota International of Parkes, Rotary Club of Parkes,
St. Georges Anglican Women of Australia, Tottenham Late Notes and Trundle Central School.

According to some of the great philosophers our true character is revealed by how we react under pressure. On a Saturday afternoon in October one such moment put Parkes carpenter Travis Boland to the test. It was a split-second decision to rescue the occupants of a smouldering car wreck that proved Travis was a hero, and last week he was one of fifteen brave Aussies to be bestowed with a Pride of Australia Award in recognition of his courage.

Travis and his family were travelling along the Renshaw McGirr Way, between Parkes and Wellington, when they witnessed a horror crash. The car ahead of them veered off the road, hit a tree and flipped. The experience was surreal, but the shocked husband and wife immediately stopped to help. Belinda called triple zero, while Travis approached the vehicle to assist the occupants: Bill Phillips and his nine year-old son, Rawson.

By the time he’d reached them there was a small grass fire surrounding the wreck. Travis could see a jerrycan in the back of the car, and remembered the driver filling it up at the service station. “There was a moment when I thought it could go either way,” Travis said. “There was smoke and flames coming from the bonnet, and I could see stuff dripping off the car. I stopped for a moment, but then I heard the screams and kept going.”

With his own children anxiously looking on, and knowing that the car could explode at any moment, Travis smashed a window, and helped pull first young Rawson, and then Bill out of the wreckage. Within minutes the flames were inside the car. There is little question that Travis saved their lives. In October the attending officer, Inspector Steve Munn, said if Travis hadn’t got them out of the vehicle, they would have died.

While Travis was awarded a medal for his bravery at the ceremony in Sydney last Thursday, for him the real prize was seeing Bill and Rawson in person again. The accident survivors were special guests at the event, and the surprise reunion was emotional. “They look much better than when I last saw them being strapped into the helicopter,” he said.

In the past few weeks Travis has been overwhelmed with all the media attention and accolades. However, he says best thing about it all is making his four kids proud. “It’s pretty special to see your kids look up to you like that,” he said. The Boland children have coped remarkably well considering they witnessed such a traumatic event. Travis said the family have been open and used it as a life lesson. “The kids witnessed a lot that day, not just the accident, but they got to see the emergency services in full operation, which is incredible.” The incident has also given pause for some reflection. “You realise that life is very short and things do happen,” Travis said. “It makes you look at life a little bit differently. Certain people come into your life for a reason.”

Regardless of whether it was a case of being at the right place at the right time, or if there was a grander scheme at play, there are a lot of people who are thankful that Travis Boland crossed paths with Bill and Rawson on that day in October.

By Raen Fraser

There is no shortage of awards at the Parkes Shire Council this year, with the PAC Park Rehabilitation project taking out its second accolade in a month. The project won Division A of the Natural Environment Protection and Enhancement: On-Ground Works category at an awards ceremony held in Sydney last Tuesday. The annual awards recognise outstanding achievements by local government in managing and protecting the environment.

Last month the community-driven work done at PAC Park was recognised with a Blue Star Sustainability Award.
Parkes Shire Council Mayor, Cr Ken Keith OAM thanked the community for helping deliver this important project.
“This award is recognition of the time and effort our community members, local organisations and Council staff dedicated to ensure the potential of PAC Park was realised.” “Thanks to their hard work, the area has been transformed into a beautiful outdoor precinct for residents, visitors and wildlife to enjoy.”

The project has transformed a degraded stormwater channel into an ecologically complex wetland treatment system, while improving the overall public amenity of the reserve. As part of the project, dredging works were undertaken to remove a large amount of gross pollutants and sediments that had accumulated within the waterway. An existing
island infested with exotic weeds has been turned into a mudflat area to accommodate water plants that will provide habitat for native birds as well as improve water quality.

Funding for the project was made available through the Public Reserves Management Fund Program for Crown Lands, the Building Resilience to Climate Change program, and the Central West Local Land Services incentive program for Local Government. The Local Government Excellence in the Environment Awards were initiated in 1998 and are held annually. The Awards are open to all local government organisations in NSW.

Do you want to attend a heroes and villains party? If you join the Parkes Shire Library’s annual Summer Reading Club and help all members to complete the mission of reading 888 books this summer, you are invited. At the party library staff will perform wacky challenges voted for by the members, only if members complete the mission!

The club is free and open to all children from birth to 17 years of age. Anything that you enjoy can be read: books, magazines, newspapers, comics and listening to stories on CD or online. For all children, especially the very young, having a story read to you counts too. “We love throwing out a good challenge to our Shire kids and are confident over 888 books will be read. The Library team are all wondering what crazy challenges we will have to do at the graduation party. Maybe we will have to wear our clothes inside out or be wrapped up in toilet paper like a mummy
by the members,” said Library Officer Sandie Ward.

If you can’t decide what to read Library staff will happily provide some suggestions and help you find a new author or series. Visit Parkes, Trundle, Peak Hill or Tullamore Library to join. You will be given your heroes and villains mission kit, instructions and reading log to complete. The challenge concludes on Tuesday, 31st January 2017.

More than 100 Essential Energy employees will converge on Parkes this month to complete a major network maintenance project that will result in power outages for some residents. The 120 field-based employees will work
in Parkes and surrounding communities including Alectown West, Bindogundra, Cooks Myalls, Cookamidgera, Goonumbla, Gunningbland, Nelungaloo and Tichborne. Due to the scale of the project, some households and businesses may experience up to two planned power outages during the project to enable crews to safely access the network. Affected customers will be notified in advance.

Regional manager Northern, Mark Summers, said the crews would work between 8.30am and 4.30pm from Monday, 12th December to Saturday, 17th December. “Crews will complete more than 800 separate maintenance activities to strengthen the local network, including the replacement of 350 cross-arms and 40 power poles,” Mark said. “The work will target potential weaknesses on the power network – such as replacing insulators damaged in storms and ageing power poles. “This is a very large project so we have undertaken significant planning and will be
bringing in extra crews and equipment to limit the number of planned power outages affecting customers,” Mark said.

“We apologise to local households and businesses for any inconvenience caused by the planned power outages.”

Caswell Street in Peak Hill was transformed into a haven for family fun last Friday for the annual Meet You Up the Street festival. “It was a wonderful and busy day,” said Antonia Francis, one of the organisers. She said it was hard to put a number to how many people came as it went on for the whole day, but all the activities were well attended and some people specially travelled from Canberra and Sydney for the event. She said not as many farmers could attend as they were busy harvesting, but overall the numbers improved from last year.

“The chocolate wheel was fantastic with big prizes, the lip sync competition for kids was brilliant, the Christmas decorations in the shops were exceptional,” said Antonia recalling some of the highlights of the day. Leighton Davies was very happy with the Billy Cart Derby for kids held at the gold mine. The fastest time of 30.31 seconds was set by Malachi James. There were a number of competitions, including the Library Writing Contest, and the best decorated house, shop and best shop window, with winners announced at the Bowling Club at the end of the day.

Wops Glass Will Look After All Your Glass Needs
Wops Glass specialises in windscreens, windscreen chip repairs and all general glazing including residential and commercial premises. Wops Glass offers windscreen replacement or chips repairs on all vehicles including trucks and farm machinery at a competitive price. With 30 years’ experience in the glazing industry they also specialise
in all glazing needs for residential and commercial properties. Wops also repair or replace fly doors and fly screens.

The full list of services include: customising, screen doors, fly screens, mirrors, stone chip repairs, glass cutting, installation, replacement, resealing, automotive glass replacement and residential and commercial glass and all insurance work.

Rego’s Plus Has A Confident Team Of Mechanics
Rego’s Plus Tyre and Mechanical would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year. The team at Rego’s Plus have more than 35 years’ experience in the tyre and mechanical field. Patrick Lenehan is the
owner and operator of the business and has a very confident team of mechanics working for him. You can be assured that your vehicle will be looked after. Rego’s Plus Tyre and Mechanical ser-vices include all mechanical needs, Rego
checks, all your tyre needs and CTP Insurance. Rego’s Plus is one of the leading tyre specialists in the Central West and is a Kumho Platinum dealership. In Parkes customers have access to the full range of high quality, reliable tyres. The technicians guarantee a professional and well thought out decision when it comes to fitting your tyres. Rego’s Plus Tyre and Mechanical, in conjunction with Kumho Tyres, are the only mechanics in Parkes that help to support the McGrath Foundation by taking part in Pink Fitters Day. The network of Kumho dealers raised more than $20,000 on the day.

Inline Panel & Paint Will Look After All Your Smash Repairs
Inline Panel & Paint panel beaters has a fully equipped smash repairs workshop for all types of vehicles and has been servicing Parkes for the past four-and-a-half years. Owner Mick O’Donohue has 14 years experience in the field and works hard to ensure he and his team are always up to date with the latest technology and safety features in new models of cars. They do all insurance work and private work and all work is guaranteed. Go and see them at Shed 3, 7 Clarke Street or call them on 6862 5770.

Ensure You Arrive Safely This Holiday Season

It won’t be long until school finishes for the year, the kids are on holidays and we all get ready for our summer holiday. Whether it be heading to the coast for Christmas, visiting family and friends or just on a local outing, one thing is for certain, you need to ensure that your vehicle is safe and ready for your trip. You are not only ensuring the
safety of your family, but also other travellers who share the road.
To ensure that you arrive at your destination safely and on time, here are some safety tips for your car:
• Service your car: Drop into your local service station and ensure that you get your car serviced before setting out on
that trip. Better to be safe than sorry.
• Insurance and registration for your car: Double check your insurance to see that it is up to date and now with some people not always receiving their registration notices in the mail and no evidence on your car to remind you, check to see if your car meets all criteria.
• With any chips in your windscreen, why not get them fixed rather than run the risk of it running when left out in the sun. It doesn’t take long to get it repaired, so make the time now.
• Check all of your tyres, including your spare, and have your wheels aligned. Nothing worse than being stuck in the
middle of nowhere with no spare tyre ready to go.
• Keep your mobile phones charged, a first aid kit in the car and a map handy in case you get lost, either mobile or paper.
• Carry water and oil in your car at all times, you never know when you might need them.
• Ensure you have the correct child restraints in your car, and keep pets restrained as well for everybody’s safety.
• Remember double demerits over the Christmas period, so do not speed, its not worth the accident or fine.

NRMA estimates the busiest times to be the last day of school: 16th December; two days before Christmas 23rd December; the day after Boxing Day 27th December and January 4th. Enjoy your holiday!

The great bard suggested there was little to it, but last week the name of Parkes was the cause of celebration. Local residents gathered at Chamberlain Square on Thursday, 1st December to enjoy a piece of cake beneath the statue of Sir Henry Parkes. It was a birthday – of sorts – commemorating the 143 years since the township was officially named Parkes in honour of the then Premier of the Colony of NSW, Sir Henry Parkes.

However, the history of settlement on this land precedes that grand milestone. The original custodians of this land were the Wiradjuri people, the largest Aboriginal language group in NSW. The Wiradjuri had visited and lived on this land for thousands of years before European settlement. But that all changed in 1862 with the discovery of gold. White settlers made their way to our plains in the hope of improving their fortunes. A tent village soon sprung up
around the gold deposits, and was known as Currajong, purportedly named after the local trees.

While there was a lot of gold to be found, it wasn’t the easy alluvial gold of many other fields. Most of our gold was deposited underground in buried rivers, known as leads and could only be obtained by sinking deep shafts to mine it. In 1871 prospectors found a rich deep lead which they named Bushmans Lead. This discovery sparked another rush and saw the region become one of the richest gold producing areas in the colony and hastened the village’s growth.

The burgeoning settlement of Currajong became colloquially known as Bushmans. In August 1873 the Premier Henry Parkes visited the township of Currajong and Bushmans Lead Mine, following a request from locals. Then, on the 1st December 1873, the Lands Department officially changed the name of the settlement from Currajong to Parkes.

Many claim our town was named as a tribute to Sir Henry Parkes, who served five terms as Premier and became known as The Father of Federation. Yet in 1873, Henry Parkes had only been the Premier of the Colony of NSW for a year, and despite nearly 20 years in parliament, was yet to make his mark. According to the Parkes Shire Council’s website an anecdotal story suggests the town’s naming was actually a savvy political move from locals who were
lobbying the Premier to construct the eastwest rail line through Parkes.

So, what is in a name? A lot of history, and a bit of flattery.

By Raen Fraser

Local art-lovers got all fired-up for the Parkes Potters’ Group exhibition at the Parkes Shire Library’s Coventry Room last Friday. Cr Bill Jayett formally opened the exhibition, saying that while Parkes prides itself on our unique attractions – the Dish and Elvis Festival – the town’s real treasure is the arts. Bev Rowe, president of the Parkes
Potters Group said that for a small geographical area, there is a diverse output of artisans.

Lynn and Wayne Rogers were among the dozens of guests appreciating the art. “It’s a real credit to Parkes to put on a display of this calibre,” Lynn said. The work on display wasn’t simply traditional thrown pots and plates, but a selection of sculptural and functional pieces that utilized a fascinating range of styles and techniques. It was the third exhibition for the group this year, with 11 of the 14 members displaying their craft. Bev’s work included meditative wallmounted masks that incorporated religious themes, whereas Pol Cruz displayed a range of abstract art pieces, many of which positioned the human form amidst an almost surreal, dream-like arrangement of shapes and elements.

Other artists made more figurative pieces – the ram was a crowd favourite, and the Coventry Room became an honorary aviary with dozens of beautifully crafted pottery birds perched on various plynths. Bev drew attention to the two works, which were isolated in glass domes to highlight the skill involved in their crafting. Under one glass dome was a flawless Raku Pitcher made by Judy Kinsella, the other was a piece by the late Jan Hunter, who had passed away during the week.

“She was a great talent, and will be sorely missed,” Bev said. It was a delightfully arty soiree, with nibblies provided, along with a selection of locally produced wines by Twisted River.

By Raen Fraser