This year Planet Ark celebrates 20 years of National Tree Day and Schools Tree Day – Australia’s largest community tree-planting and nature care event. Each year around 3,000 schools across Australia take part in Schools Tree Day,
encouraging future generations to learn how to plant and care for seedlings as they grow.

Parkes Shire Council have invited local schools to participate in the event today by providing schools willing to branch out with up to ten native trees and shrubs towards any planting activity. “Schools Tree Day can mark the beginning of a long-term environmental program,” said Michael Chambers, Parkes Shire Council’s Environmental and Sustainability Coordinator.

“By engaging students of all ages in an outdoor, fun and hands on activity like tree planting, we can encourage their passion for the environment, maths, science and creative arts or simply contribute to creating beautiful school grounds,” Michael added. Planet Ark’s 2012 Planting Trees report revealed that interacting with nature helps children’s health, wellbeing and development. Time spent in nature helps kids thrive!

The wider community can also use the opportunity to grow on National Tree Day on Sunday. Parkes Shire Council and Central West Lachlan Landcare invite the community to dig in by planting more than 400 trees on a corridor of land adjacent to the Parkes Waste Depot with access 3.8km out on the Condobolin Road. Activities start from 10am and will conclude with a sausage sizzle at 1pm.

Since Planet Ark launched National Tree Day in 1996, more than three million participants have planted 21 million native trees, shrubs and grasses.

McPhersons Parts & Service will be celebrating its 30th anniversary by saying thank you to staff and customers.
“It makes me extremely proud to be able to keep the doors open of the business my father and his partners started to service our local farmers,” said David Thompson, Dealer Principle.

David bought the business in February 2016 from his father, Barry Thompson, and Tony Latter. “This means we are still a locally owned business, as well as the only locally owned farming machinery business in Parkes,” said David. He was one of the first two apprentices, with Steve Blaxland, at McPhersons. “I still really enjoy coming to work every day.”

According to David the chief aim of McPhersons has always been to employ local people and provide them with continuous training needed to maintain the best service to its many clients. “We have always looked to employ local people and have had more than 30 apprentices over 30 years. This means we have a lot of local knowledge. We have a combined total of 147 years of experience for our staff complement of 17 at the moment.”

David said they had developed a great relationship with their loyal customers over the years.

Preparations are well underway for this year’s annual Parkes Show to be held Monday 29th, Tuesday 30th and Wednesday, 31st August. Show President, Garry O’Brien, advises: “Schedules and tickets are now available from the Show Office in Welcome Street. It’s time to put together your entries in anything from sponges to sheep, photos to ponies and everything in between. There are also some fun activities to enter for the kids in the Arts and Craft, Needlework and Cooking sections.”

Show tickets can be bought at Cunninghams IGA and Byrne Clothing, and of course the Show Office. Tickets purchased before the Show give you unlimited entry over the three days for just $5 for “schoolies” (anyone attending school), $15 for adults, and kids not yet attending school are free. This is an amazing deal as each entry ticket once the show starts is $15 per entry! Buy your tickets before the show and go into the draw to win one of the $500 open orders from our participating stores. Please note that concession tickets ($10) are only available from the Show Office.

“The Show Committee is working hard to ensure the Showground is in perfect order. NorthParkes Mines have been one of our major show sponsors for many years. Each year they also send a large team of workers to help clean up the showground, which is greatly appreciated,” said Garry. “McPhersons Parts and Service New Holland is our new 2016 major sponsor.

McPhersons is celebrating 30 years of servicing our community – it is great to see we have community minded, pro active businesses like NorthParkes, McPhersons and others that are willing to help make our annual Show a success.”

The McLachlan Group will be holding its annual bull sale on North Logan Road in Cowra on 10th August at 1pm.
The sale will be the business’ fifth annual sale, and McLachlan Group’s Warren Miller expects it to be popular. The sale will have 35 Angus, 20 Charolais and two Polhereford bulls. Angus bulls are the most popular for beef, and Warren said these should sell fast.

All the bulls are grass fed, meaning they live longer, and produce better quality beef. “Our bulls are of the highest quality, which means our buyers get the best grass fed beef they can,” said Warren The past four annual sales have been hugely popular with bulls selling for about $4,000 each.

Grass has grown very lush after good rains  and has lead to very good cattle sales across the region.

Parkes Public School hops into Education Week today with the annual Jump Rope for Heart event for K-2. Parkes Public is the only school to have been taking part every year since the inception of the event in 1983. Families are invited to attend the fun filled session and stay on for a picnic lunch.

This year the school will be educating parents too with two maths workshops planned to provide strategies for parents to help their kids with homework. Primary parents will get their maths lesson on Monday at 5:30pm, while Infants parents have their turn next Friday at 2:00pm.

The annual open classrooms event is on Wednesday at 12:00pm with a picnic lunch for students and families at 1:15pm, followed by a whole school assembly at 2:00pm. A book fair held at the school last week was wonderfully supported by students and parents with nearly $4, 000 raised, and more than 70 families donating a book to the library. The book fair kicked off with a dress up day with the teachers turning up as Where’s Wally’s and Wanda’s.

Parkes Public also had to say farewell to Principal, Leanne Breaden last week. After 28 years at the school and principal for the past ten years, she is moving on to become Co-ordinator of the NDIS in the State Office in Sydney.
“We wish Mrs Breaden all the best as she begins her new role,” said Ben Smith, relieving principal.

Charmander, Rhydon, Snorlax, Gastly, Jynx, Pidgeot, Ponyta, Golem… Pikachu! There is a new language in the streets and parks where people roam and congregate while staring intently at mobile phones. It is the language of Pokémon Go, the hottest game on the app store right now with millions of people playing it all over the world, including Parkes.

Released earlier this month, Pokémon creatures are popping up everywhere in the real world and the idea is that you catch them. Players go to PokeStops to collect balls and other rewards, such as eggs, and Gyms where they can battle for a team against other teams.

One avid player from Forbes, Mitch Watson very soon realised the value of getting players together and started the Forbes and Parkes Pokémon Go Community on Facebook. In just over a week the group already has 230 members. “It is a good community of people and fun to get to know each other and go for walks.” Mitch has already clocked 100km in search of Pokémon.

Cooke Park has been one of the popular PokeStops in Parkes where lure modules are set up regularly. A lure attracts multiple Pokémon to the area for 30 minutes. Other players can see it on their phones and go there to catch Pokémon. On Sunday all three PokeStops in Cooke Park were lit up with lures and more than 80 people turned up to take advantage of it. On Monday about 30 people came and went while the lure was on in Cooke Park. “I have never seen so many people on a weekday in the park,” remarked one of the players.

Some Pokémoners were very excited when they managed to catch a rare Pokémon called Hitmonchan. Other rare Pokémon caught by players so far include a Dragonair and an Aerodactyl. Some of the players in Cooke Park on
Monday had over 300 Pokémon on the tally. It is apparently harder to play Pokémon Go in rural areas as you have to walk a lot more to find Pokémon. The more people there are, like in cities, the more Pokémon are around.

There have been many reports of people putting themselves in danger when playing. Mitch cautioned players to always be alert and stay safe while playing.

By Maggi Barnard