More than 400 people took advantage of a glorious autumn day to step back in time visiting the six heritage homes that opened to the public on Sunday.

A mood of admiration and appreciation prevailed as residents and visitors from across the state as far as Sydney admired lovingly restored and cared for homes and gardens. “It is just so beautiful,” was a remark heard over and over again.

Parkes Shire heritage advisory committee chair, Councillor Alan Ward said it was a tremendous turnout for the inaugural year of the Sunrise to Sunset – Parkes Heritage Homes open day.

“It was a wonderful start and has created a lot of interest in the history of our build- ings.” said one of the home owners, Ann Olson. “I think it is the start of something really big. I like it that we still have people living in our heritage buildings and they have not all been turned into museums.”

Ann also hoped the involvement of the National Trust would result in some benefit to the community even if it was just to give owners advice on the restoration of and additions to old buildings.

Alan thanked the home owners for allow- ing people to explore inside their homes. “It was scary to open your home to the public,” said Ann. “But it is a way of sharing the way we live with others, and that was part of the message of the day.”

Ten lucky guests won a chauffeured tour with the Parkes Antique Motor Club transporting them between each of the homes in style.

“It is a wonderful experience.” said Lynne Hawley, regional director of Quota International who came from Condobolin for the day to be chauffeured by Bob Steel in his 1926 MG.

By Maggi Barnard

Not many people would expect to win an award more than 20 years after competing in their last race, so it’s understandable that John Pizarro’s most recent accolades took him by surprise.

In March this year John was inducted to the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame, a prestigious honour shared by other motor- sport greats, such as three-time Formula 1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham and five-time MotoGP champion, Mick Doohan.

John admitted that he was completely stunned when the Confederation of Aus- tralian Motorsports asked if he would be prepared to accept the award. “It was quite a surprise.” He said, “It was the last thing on my mind.”

The Parkes Rotarian was among 21 new inductees who were celebrated at a gala function in Melbourne.

Motorsports enthusiasts would know his recognition is well-deserved. John is one of the most recognisable names in Australian karting and is considered to be royalty in the scene.

He earned an impressive record of titles throughout his 30-year career including 15 Australian karting championships. He won races all around the world, competed in five world championships, and won the CIK Asia-Pacific championship.

His contribution to the sport is so well regarded that there is a trophy named after him. The perpetual John Pizarro Trophy is awarded to the champion of the Pro Gear- box class, recognising the highest per- forming karts.

While many consider karting to be a gate- way motorsport, John proves that it’s pos- sible to forge a highly-regarded career on the karting track. He credits his loyalty to the sport as a combination of pragmatism and competitiveness.

“Other motorsports are expensive, and I didn’t have the money for the winning equipment. I liked winning, and I could win in karting.” he said.

He started racing at just 18 years of age after being introduced to the sport by his brother-in-law. “We purchased an old kart with an even worse engine, and broke the con rod on the first race.”

While his brother-in-law was deterred by the experience, John found the challenge enticing. He purchased a bare chassis and embarked on a kart engineering odyssey that took him to the top. “I moved on to a Victor mower engine, and then a McCull- och engine, then proceeded onto an Italian rotary engine.”

It’s no surprise that he managed to strike a winning formula. “When you’re good at something, you work hard, and the harder you work, the luckier you get.” he said.

During his karting career John raced every other weekend, and worked his day- jobs in between; a commitment made more challenging because he had to travel to train on a kart track.

“I worked very hard.” he said. “My phi- losophy is when it’s good, make it better, and when it’s better, make it the best.”

It’s a work ethic that he has taken with him long after his retirement from the racetrack. John owns the 4.5 star Astro Dish Motel, which he built from scratch.

By Raen Fraser

The Trundle ABBA Festival officially kicks off tomorrow with over 5,000 visitors expected to attend.

The Staging Post is showing several films including Marley this afternoon and The Last Waltz tonight. The music trivia event at the Trundle Hotel is tonight at 7pm with the Ambassador of Sweden to Australia, Pär Ahlberger asking several rounds of questions.

If fashion is more your bag, you won’t want to miss the Fashions of the Festival tomorrow with a catwalk gracing Trundle’s famously wide main street with several prizes for best dressed female, male, couple, and group, most Swedish dressed and the inaugural Celia Vild Memorial Best of the Best.

Following on from this immensely popular event is the professional dance display and disco competition, with Tristan MacManus and Alana Patience taking to the stage be- fore judging the disco competition.

Other scheduled events not to be missed include the I do, I do, I do, I do, I do wed- ding vow renewals at the Trundle Hotel tomorrow, and the world record attempt for the most number of people dancing on Trundle’s main street at 4pm. The most highly anticipated event of the festival is the performance by Bjorn Again – the world’s number one ABBA Tribute band. Their performance kicks off at 5.30pm at Berryman Oval.

Amitie, the singing trio from Parkes, and the Kransky Sisters from rural Queensland will also be performing. Amitie will perform songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s with their amazing combination of tones and fabulous harmonies.

The Kransky Sisters will offer light relief with their popular award-winning musical concert. Utilising a kitchen pot, toilet brush, keyboard, musical saw, tuba, guitar and dueling tambourines the three weird yet endearing spinsters present offbeat covers of songs ranging from Nana Mouskouri and Eurythmics to Talking Heads and The Bee Gees.

Tickets are on sale now from www.123tix. com.au and there will be a ticket booth in the main street if you haven’t pre-purchased your tickets.

Yasmin Potts is going places. The Parkes High school captain has won a place in a world-class science program and is packing her bags for London in July.

Yasmin is one of only 20 Australian stu- dents to be accepted into the highly com- petitive International Youth Science Forum. During the two-week program students visit world-renowned research institutions, laboratories and museums in London and across the UK. The program gives students a deeper insight into science and its applications, and is attended by 500 bright young scientists from all over the world.

Yasmin will then travel to Geneva to attend another youth program at CERN (Europe- an Organisation for Nuclear Research). It is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research and home to the Large Hadron Collider.

“Scientific method and critical thinking are great concepts to foster in young students to help them make more informed deci- sions.” Yasmin said. “Science explains how everything works, from the tiniest atoms to the universe. It gives the why and the how to everything.”

Despite Yasmin’s already impressive re- sume that includes a Victor Change Sci- ence Award and recent attendance at the National Youth Science Forum at the ANU, she was still surprised to make it into the program.

“I thought I had no chance of getting in.” she said. “The letter started with ‘thank you for applying’ and I thought they were letting me down easy. I could not believe it when I realised I was successful. My hands were shaking so much. It was just incredible.

“I’ve never even been on a plane before. I’m really looking forward to meeting so many like-minded people.”

Yasmin is excited about the once-in-a-lifetime experiences she will have, but also about sharing those experiences with her peers when she returns.

“It’s going to be a great thing for Parkes. It proves that females living in rural areas can do stuff like this.” she said. “Regional schools don’t necessarily have less opportunities, but we’re less aware of what’s available and don’t always know how to access them.”

Yasmin says the entire staff at Parkes High School has been supportive of her ambition. She credits the teachers for sparking her interest. “My science teachers are really amazing. They know so much outside the syllabus and their enthusiasm makes the classes really engag- ing. My maths teacher Mrs Vere puts in so much effort. I love maths because of her.

“Parkes Rotary have also been amazing and have chosen to support me for this.”

Yasmin is laying strong foundations for a career in science. “Neuroscience is really my field of interest, there’s so much we still don’t know about the brain. As technology advances it’s a field of science that will prosper.” she said. “It’s exciting to think that the job I might have might not exist yet.”

Yasmin is hosting a fundraiser Mother’s Day movie night at the PCYC on 14th May to help meet the costs for participating in the program. Doors open at 5.15pm for the screening of Mamma Mia. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children 5-15. A sausage sizzle, cake-stall, and tea and coffee will be available.

By Raen Fraser

Next week Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan Shire Council staff will be wearing yellow lapel ribbons and displaying yellow ribbons on fleet vehicles to celebrate Yellow Ribbon National Road Safety Week 2017.

The event is in its fourth year and coin- cides with the United Nations Global Road Safety Week. The week focuses on improving outcomes for those who are vulnerable on roads and highways.

The Councils’ Road Safety and Injury Pre- vention Officer, Melanie Suitor, said the yellow ribbons were a sign that the Councils’ not only promoted safe driving but were also committed to protecting vulnerable road users.

Last year over 1,300 people were killed on Australian roads and more than 35,000 were injured. Locally there were 753 crashes across the Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan Shire Council areas between 2011 and 2015, resulting in 14 fatalities, 169 serious injuries, 212 moderate injuries and 177 mi- nor injuries. The major contributing factor was speeding (26%), followed by fatigue (14%), drink driving (9%) and the non-use of restraints (7%).

There will be a number of local yellow events including auditions for the annual mock crash demonstration, the official opening of safety upgrades to the Albert Street children’s crossing in Parkes and a Learner Driver Parent Workshop at Red Bend Catholic College in Forbes

Three Parkes junior tennis players will be venturing to the other side of the world with their coach Helen Magill in five weeks time.

Ben Evans (14), Abbey Kennedy (13) and Jake Magill (15) have been putting in an enormous effort of extra training and tour- nament play over the past 18 months to be as prepared as possible for the enduring month to the USA.

They will play singles and doubles in three tournaments at Lake Tahoe in Sier- ra Nevada, Stockton in San Joaquin and Yuba City. They will also play an Australia v USA club match in Sacramento, train at the Phil Dent Academy, tour through a college to understand how the American College system work and scholarships available to Aussie tennis players post HSC. They will experience high altitude training and have a couple of days to see the sights includ- ing Disneyland, Universal Studios, Alcatraz Prison and a bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The group will experience true American lifestyle and hospitality as they are billeted with different families for the three tournaments.

When asked what each was most looking forward to they all replied with big grins “not sure, just everything”. “It’s certainly going to be quite overwhelming for them.” said Helen. “Being away from their families for the first time and dealing with different con- ditions and cultures. It is also an opportuni- ty I am very excited to be able to give these three who are all affable teenagers, a credit to their families and excellent role models for our younger players coming through in the region.”

Helen thanked the Parkes Community for their support. “It has been a good learn- ing curve for Jake, Abbey and Ben to help organise fund raising activities and under- stand the value of local support. We have a raffle which is drawn 1st June with five fabulous prizes and 1st prize kindly donat- ed by Nangar Gems.”

Making your way to catch a little Mamma Mia and Dancing Queen at the Trundle ABBA festival?

As you drive through Bogan Gate, do a stopover and call in at the Memorial Hall Markets to view the handiwork of crafters, artists and producers tomorrow and Sunday from 10am to 3pm.

There will be more than 20 stalls with a wide range of merchandise including woodwork, paintings, quilting, home bak- ing, coffee and snow cones, hand crafted jewellery, knitwear, hand knitted soft toys, essential oils and souvenirs.

Two Bogan Gate artists will also be exhibiting their work. Renowned artisan Pol Cruz, and painter Mardi Pierpont will have artworks for purchase.

Local producers, Colin and Shelley Nut- ley of Tumbling Downs, will have their olive oil for sale, as well as an extensive range of home-made jams and chutneys.

Why not jump the queues in Trundle and enjoy a Devonshire Tea or a light lunch prepared and served by Bogan Gate community members.

Bogan Gate has a population of just over 300 and is 38km west of Parkes. So why not “take a chance on” Bogan Gate and spend time at the markets before heading out to

Trundle.