Pictured left to right – Nick Dion, Corey Stover, Sean, Dawn Marie, Kibbe Brown (team Lead), and Tianna Yellow Hair.

Parkes recently welcomed a very special group of visitors. Five indigenous Ameri­cans from the Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, Na­kota) nation in South Dakota, visited as part of a Rotary Group Study (Cultural) Ex­change. The visitors were from the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires).

The purpose of their visit was to observe and study another indigenous culture (the Wiradjuri nation) to examine and under­stand how they were maintaining culture while progressing in the wider community.

A tour of the Rotary Peace Park at the base of Memorial Hill was to highlight a success­ful example of a collaboration between Rotary and Wiradjuri and non-indigenous artists, promoting peace and reconciliation.

The group was welcomed by Parkes Mayor, Neil Westcott and the President of Parkes Rotary, Graeme Hunter. Wiradjuri artist and Chair of the Parkes Aboriginal Community Working Party, Irene Ridgeway, Parkes Wiradjuri Language Group Presi­dent Geoff Anderson, Everlien Gardner TAFE teacher of Wiradjuri cultural studies and Sean James Cassidy, artist and design­er of the park, guided the visitors through the landscape, explaining the significance of the natural forms and the art works.

The visitors found the park “very intrigu­ing and a special place.” Carved instal­lations with Wiradjuri iconography were the first art works the visitors had seen in Australia. They were very interested to see language represented within the art works.

They felt that the local Wiradjuri culture was being woven into the wider community which was a different situation from their own.

Parkes Wiradjuri elder Robert Clegg stated, “Bringing people together from dif­ferent cultures starts a conversation, show­ing each other respect, develops trust.

Following on from the great success of the Australian Philippines Friendship mural, this recent visit by members of the Dakota Sioux nation helps to show that Parkes is able to lead the way towards a more ac­cepting and peaceful future.”

Inland Rail CEO Nick Miller and the Inland Rail Board of Directors visited the Parkes Special Activation Precinct on Wednesday 27th Novemeber, with Mr Miller declaring after the visit that Parkes has established itself as the flagship city on the Inland Rail project.

After visiting the Parkes Special Activa­tion to review the freight and logistics fa­cilities at the 4,800-hectare site, Mr Miller and the Inland Rail board held an official company board meeting in Parkes, the first time the board has ever met in the town.

Inland Rail will connect Melbourne to Brisbane via Parkes, while the Trans-Aus­tralian Railway connects Sydney to Perth via Port Augusta in South Australia and the Nullarbor Plain, with the Parkes Special Activation Precinct, sitting on the only junc­tion of Australia’s two rail spines.

Inland Rail is expecting to be in full con­struction in every section between Bev­eridge and Parkes next year as it looks to complete the Beveridge to Parkes by sec­tions by 2027.

Construction began on the Stockinbingal to Parkes section of the project in March this year, with 162 local residents em­ployed on this section. Of this number, 28 are First Nations people. The section has also employed 54 women and spent more than $9 million with 97 local businesses.

Nick Miller, Inland Rail CEO, said “What we are seeing happening in Parkes with the Special Activation Precinct is just a taste of what is to come as Inland Rail gets built out further – there is no doubt that Parkes is the flagship town on the project right now.

“The Parkes Special Activation Precinct and Inland Rail complement each other to provide a compelling answer to questions of sustainable growth in Australia.”

Pictured is “Mum and Bub” Casey and Pip.

Last week, the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) announced the addition of two ‘Mum and Bub’ combos to their Adoption program – Paradise Country duo Kalari and Priyanka, and wild pair Casey and Pip.

Kalari has been a familiar face within the AKF’s adoption program for some years now, a popular adoptee with her first joey Mavis who was born in 2021. Now an in­dependent Koala in her own right, Mavis is available to be adopted singularly.

Kalari’s newest joey Priyanka has already had her own taste of the limelight, visited earlier in the year by Priyanka Chopra – the Hollywood movie star that inspired her name.

The other pair added to the program are a wild Mum and joey, found recently on a Koala spotting expedition led by the AKF Koala Woman, Deborah Tabart OAM and nicknamed Casey and Pip.

“We were thrilled to find and observe Ca­sey and Pip in their natural habitat,” says Tabart. “We were able to see how they in­teract with each other. Casey was very alert and protective, holding Pip as close as pos­sible, which wasn’t easy considering Pip ap­pears to be quite a daring little thing, prone to running off up to taller branches with juic­ier leaves.”

By participating in the Australian Koala Foundation’s ‘Adopt a Koala’ program, sup­porters receive an adoption certificate to keep, regular updates about their nominat­ed Koala and the AKF’s current conserva­tion efforts.

For more information about the Adopt a Koala program, please follow the link htt­ps://www.savethekoala.com/adopt-a-koala/