A small number of volunteers collected a huge load of rubbish around Parkes on Clean Up Australia Day last Sunday.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) put in a fan- tastic effort making up almost half of the 28 volunteers who turned up on the day. Another two stalwarts, Bev and Bob Bokeyar, continued their traditions of more than 20 years of cleaning up.

According to organiser Michelle Bicket, the RFS once again cleaned the Orange road towards the airport filling two trailers with rubbish. This is a lot, considering they cleaned the same road last year when they collected even more. Other areas cleaned were the Forbes road where 18 bags of rubbish were picked up and seven bags at the northern truck stop.

Michelle said approximately 80 per cent of the waste were cans and bottles. Other items included plastic bags, fast food wrap- pers, take away cups, plastic straws, pack- aging, and also some clothing, nappies and paint buckets.

In the mean time the deadline to implement the biggest initiative to tackle litter in NSW has been extended to 1st December. The container deposit scheme (CDS) will give people in NSW a 10-cent refund when they return empty beverage containers between 150ml and three litres to collection points. This will give people a financial incentive to do the right thing and recycle drink containers to significantly reduce the 160 million drink containers littered every year.

Beverage containers made up 49 per cent of litter by volume according to the 2015- 2016 National Litter Index. The CDS will catch 43 per cent of this.

As for Clean Up Australia Day volunteers, over the last 26 years they have picked up more than 331,000 tonnes of rubbish. That’s the equivalent of end-to-end fully laden utes from Sydney to Brisbane via the coastline.

By Maggi Barnard

Let’s Do More Together is the theme of the 2017 Seniors Festival, and the festival events organised by Neighbourhood Central certainly provided plenty of opportunities for friends – old or new – to get together.

The Parkes Seniors Festival kicked off on Monday with a sing-a-long concert at the Parkes Bowls and Sports Club. The event included a morning tea and lunch.

MC Terry Ridley entertained the 45 attendees and led the sing-a-long. A special guest performance by the Parkes Public School primary choir delighted the audience with their first public performance of the year. Whilst some of the choir members were seasoned singers, others were new additions to the chorus, but all sang beautifully. Then after lunch, Parkes’ very own Elvis tribute artist Barry Green crooned the crowd with his vast repertoire of songs.

The festivities continued on Wednesday, with a screening of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at Neighbourhood Central. The movie is about a group of British seniors who plan to spend their retirement at an Indian hotel only to find it is less than they’d imagined, yet more than they expected.

Three dozen people came along for the Bollywood-themed event, with some get- ting into the spirit of the occasion, dressing in their most colourful outfits and wearing bindis. The Indian-inspired morning tea in- cluded traditional deserts such as Jalebi, Carrot Halva and Pysam, a sweet sago tea made with almond.

Thursday provided a change of pace, with a team of seniors from the region bussing out to compete in a range of sports ability activities at the Central West Elders Olympics in Orange.

The Seniors Festival, formerly known as Seniors Week, is now in its 59th year and is a celebration of the role seniors play and the contributions they make to the NSW community.

By Raen Fraser

  

Local retiree June Edwards is about to do something few of us are brave enough to consider. Next week she will shave her head to raise money for leukaemia research.

Like many who take this step, June was inspired by personal tragedy. June lost her beloved husband John Edwards to can- cer six months ago. So, when she saw the World’s Greatest Shave was approaching she didn’t think twice about signing up. “He’s worth it,” she said. “He was such a lovely, gentle man.”

June and John had seven happy years together. “It was a big loss and I still feel it terribly.”

June is hoping to raise $1,000 for the cause, and is already humbled by the con- tributions she has received from her family, friends and even strangers.

June admits to feeling apprehensive about her bold new look. “I’m a little bit nervous, but it’ll grow back,” she laughed “at least it better!

“The funny thing is John never liked short hair. I don’t know what he’d say now, but it’s for a good cause.”

Buying and selling houses and land can be fraught with difficulties and is constantly changing.

However, there are a few basic rules when buying or selling:

Rule no. 1: Always negotiate. It is a catch-cry that applies to both sellers and purchasers when buying or selling a house. In a normal or slower market a list price is the seller’s best expectation. An interested buyer considers that price, considers the property and the market, and makes an of- fer. Negotiations have opened.

Rule no. 2: The seller should always make an assessment of the market as he or she sees it. The seller should consider what else is on the market for sale, what is being asked for it and set the selling price. The purchaser does the same thing, but from the other end. The purchaser must as- sess the market, the property, what else is for sale, and what he can afford to pay. Are renovations necessary? What are the bor- rowing and purchasing costs and taxes?

Rule no. 3: Pest and building inspections assist the purchaser. These reports can be powerful negotiating tool.

Rule no. 4: Never appear too keen or too desperate. If you are the seller, let your agent do the negotiating. If you are the pur- chaser and are uncomfortable negotiating, your solicitor may assist you.

Rule no. 5: Ask the seller or agent to give you a copy of the contract. Sometimes contracts for sale of land and houses are complex. If you have any questions, take them to a solicitor.

You can contact Matthews Williams, So- licitors and Conveyancers with your ques- tions.

 

Year 6 students at Holy Family School recently participated in a lead- ership training day.

The students completed various activities in groups to demonstrate teamwork and leadership capabilities. The activities were hands on and thought provoking.

The students listened to guest speakers who spoke about their leadership roles and experiences.

Holy Family School is very proud of the Year 6 group and are looking forward to a successful year ahead.

With the summer’s heat waves still fresh in our minds, a 94-year-old resident of Narromine clearly remembers the summer of 1939.

“It was 47.5 Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) for days on end and we did not have air conditioning, let alone electricity,” said Keith Hayden, who responded to a request for stories about the 1939 heat wave.

“I was 17 years old and lived with my fa- ther on our farm outside Narromine. I was working outside in the heat every day as I had to clear a 180 acre paddock of Bathurst burs before Christmas,” recalls Keith. “I can remember it pretty well.”

Keith said green parrots were dropping out of the trees dying of the heat, and the poultry had their wings out and beaks open trying to cool down. “We just had to bear the heat during the day and at night took a cold shower hoping to fall asleep… but the mosquitoes were pretty bad.”

According to Keith it was not a drought. “There were plenty of water and the dams were full. It was just hot.”

Keith served in the air force for more than four years and was based in Parkes before he was posted overseas to several locations. He remembers his time in Parkes fondly.

Gold has played a significant role in the history of Australia starting in 1851 with the Bathurst gold rush.

More than 150 years later, the Cowal gold mine near West Wyalong announced a modern day “gold rush” last month with its board approving an investment of approxi- mately $270 million to increase production and extend the life of mine by eight years to 2032.

Rated among the top five biggest gold mines in Australia, total production is set to increase to 1.2 million ounces.

Just as all the discoveries of gold all over Australia has boosted the economy, lead to the development of foreign trade, trans- portation, communication and many inland towns, an immediate benefit of the Cowal mine expansion, is an increase in employees with 48 new operators in the open pit and the plant.

Community Relations Officer at the mine,Tony Glasgow said interviews for the new positions had already started this week.

The mine currently employs about 400 staff and contractors from the Forbes, Bland and Lachlan Shires, with 64 residents making the bus journey from Forbes.

The new investment will deliver two major projects over the next four years: the E42 stage H cutback and the dual leach project. The E42 stage H cutback will widen and deepen the existing open pit by at least 80m. The pit is currently 340m deep. This has been made possible by a 145% or 2.28 million gold ounces increase in Cowal’s Ore Reserves since Evolution acquired the operation in 2015.

The Dual Leach project will add an ad- ditional leaching circuit to the processing plant to target a four to six per cent in- crease in gold recoveries. This would result in gold production increasing by an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 ounces per year.