HELPING HAND… Derrick Milling of Georgie’s Pantry and founding member of Central West Food Rescue Elliot Red- win unload produce from the refrigerated truck at the pantry in Parkes.

When the drought really tightened its grip on farmers more than a year ago, Rhonda had no idea what an impact the flyer she found about Georgie’s Pantry in Parkes would have on her.

“It was getting pretty tough, and I saw the flyer about free groceries for farmers. I was one of the first to rock up and became one of the regulars.”

Rhonda said she soon realised it was not just about the groceries, but also the social aspect. “Everyone there is just so friendly and understanding. I look forward to going there every week and catch up on the latest news.”

She said the pantry had helped so many farmers from all over the Central West, and enabled them to pay other bills not having the expense of groceries. “It is also fantastic to know that all that food won’t go to waste.”

As a founding member of Food Rescue Central West, Georgie’s Pantry is part of a network of nine agencies reaching over 2,000 clients in an area covering 63,000km2.

The project supports soup kitchens, hands out emergency food hampers and runs community pantries and gets support from food relief charities, such as Second Bite. It has been operational since March after they secured a grant from the Environmental Trust to buy a refrigerated truck and refrigerated storage in Bathurst, as well as fridges for Georgie’s.

“It was a significant achievement to get it off the ground, let alone run it,” said founding member Elliot Redwin from Bathurst.

He deliveries 10t of food to all the member agencies once a week. “From Parkes they go out even as far as Walgett and Lightning Ridge.” He said Georgie’s Pantry was hands down the most successful in accessing the farming community. “We can all learn a lot from what has happened at Georgie’s, and they are happy to share their knowledge.”

He said the Parkes Shire Council had also been fantastic in its support of the project. “The next step for Parkes would be to get their own refrigerated truck,” said Elliott.

Derrick and Sandra Milling help manager Natalie Quince to run the pantry in Parkes every week. “It is a wonderful endeavour,” said Derrick.

“The rain might have come, but we will continue to help the farmers until there’s been a harvest. It has been fantastic to be able to help up to 60 farming families per week from young couples up to farmers over 80 years old.”

For Rhonda and her husband the pantry helped to keep them going. “It would have been much harder to survive without their help.” Rhonda added that while it looks nice and green at the moment, it would still take a very long time to recover as farmers won’t have any cash flow until the first harvest.

“I cannot speak highly enough of Georgie’s Pantry and what they have done for us,” said Rhonda.

By Maggi Barnard

Ainslee Austin is the library and information services team leader at Parkes Library.

Although Ainslee Austin loves reading rural and outback stories by Australian authors, she has never lived in a small town until she decided to make a tree change to Parkes.

She started as the new library and information services team leader at Parkes Library on Monday.

“I wanted a new adventure and something different, and look forward to exploring the area and meeting the community,” said Ainslee, who was born in Cairns and grew up on the Central Coast.

Moving from Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Library, where she was the resources librarian for the past four years, Ainslee is very excited about the new library expansion. “It is a new opportunity to learn different aspects of library services, and different ways to engage the community in our services and programs.”

In her previous position she was responsible for purchasing books and resources and collection management, among other things.

When you work surrounded by books all day, you definitely need to love reading too. Ainslee enjoys putting on a non-fiction audio book when she is driving, but when she’s at home her preference are books by Australian authors like Matthew Riley and Carly Lane. “I enjoy rural, outback stories.”

She is also keen to explore all the walking tracks in the region, and is looking forward to attending the ABBA and Elvis festivals, and exploring the region’s markets and museums.

Should the adventure of small town living prove challenging at times, her favourite craft activity of making dream catchers should keep her journey a pleasant one.

Members of the Parkes Shire Concert Band played Aladdin at home during isolation to make a video that can be seen on their Facebook page.

Music makes us happy whether we sing, dance or play an instrument. It is some thing we can do alone or together. It adds purpose to our community celebrations.

On Anzac Day in isolation, we played the Last Post alone at our mailboxes. It did not matter what instrument was played, the music that connected us was heard and shared by others.

This Sunday, 21st June is World Music Day. It has been celebrated every year since 1982 in over 120 countries. It started in France, where it is known as ‘Fête de la Musique’ meaning “festival of music”, to honour amateur and professional musicians. Musicians will perform for free in public places in cities across the world. Whether in isolation or with friends at home, you too can have a music day.

The Parkes Shire Concert Band members are still playing on Tuesday nights connecting by Zoom. Our music director Duncan Clement has put together a video of members playing Aladdin, which can be seen on our Facebook page. We love sharing our music and playing for our community, and we look forward to getting back to rehearsals and playing at events around the Shire.

By Ellen Tom

Lead actor Harry Secombe signed this photo for each of the 14 Parkes kids who appeared in the movie. Sharryn Cunningham is seated with pigtails and bows.

Have you seen the movie Sunstruck? Interest in the movie has spiked considerably since local historian Dan Fredericks wrote a blog about it.

Dan said it was a big thrill to uncover the experience on behalf of those involved and stirring up memories of a truly novel and happy time in the district’s history.

As the producers paid homage to the locals by holding the worldwide premiere in Parkes on 25th November 1972, another big event for its re-screening would only be appropriate.

Dan and his manager Kerryn Jones are keen to organise a reunion of all the locals involved in the production with a screening of the movie. “We’d like to do something big for the library. A public showing, with local cast and a Q&A maybe. But first our new library building needs to be completed and the COVID-19 regulations lifted.”

He had already been contacted by some of the child actors who now live on the Central Coast and in Canberra.

“There were only a handful of Australian movies made in the 1970s, which makes Sunstruck a really important movie,” said Dan.

Sunstruck, with a budget of $400,000, was the second film ever to receive funding from the then fledgling Australian Film Development Commission.

Read Dan’s history blog at https://historyparkes.org/2020/04/30/wongalea/