How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here? I have lived in Parkes my whole life. I love the sense of community and being close to family and friends.
Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I have worked at Byrne Clothing for over nine years and love it! I work with a bunch of total legends who are dedicated to making every day enjoyable while delivering a high standard of product quality and knowledge.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? Spending time with family and friends, playing cricket with the Honey Badgers, playing drums and watching basketball.

What makes you proud? To be my mother’s son. Sharon is an incredibly strong, kind, loving and generous human that inspires every part of my life. Watching my son, Kyuss, learn, grow and create makes me immensely proud.

If you could be an animal which one would you choose, and why? Does a Wookie count? Tearing round the galaxy with Han Solo would be epic! If not, a tiger… they are pretty epic.

What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? Movie: Mad Max Fury Road – the cinematography, the score, the acting. It’s just perfect. Closely followed by Blade Runner 2049, Empire Strikes Back, Ironman and Endgame. Song: Muse – Knights of Cydonia. It’s just an epic, climatic masterpiece. Book: Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Tell us about your best holiday. Close call between Europe and the USA, but I have to go with America. As a huge Lakers fan, seeing them play, plus ice hockey, Broadway shows, Disneyland, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Food…the food…yep… USA.

What is on your bucket list? Be an awesome dad and husband; travel China, Japan, Peru and Iceland; live to experience scientific evidence of extraterrestrial life; go to Coachella.

Shev Brown

How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here? I’ve lived in Parkes since 2005. I like how the community is engaged and forward thinking. Not just sitting around complaining about things, but actually getting involved to make the town better.

Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I work as a Teacher’s Aide at Holy Family School. I love working with the kids. I love their fabulous personalities – they make me laugh every day.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? What spare time? Just give me half an hour on occasion to read good historical fiction.

What makes you proud? Being organised and singing.

If you could be an animal which one would you choose, and why? I’d definitely be a pet cat. Mine’s got it pretty good.

What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? ‘At Last’ by Etta James, it was my wedding song.

Tell us about your best holiday. With my family last year, we travelled 13,000km towing a camper trailer through the middle of Australia – a lot of it totally off grid. We did the Canning Stock Route which is the most remote 4WD track in the entire world. An amazing adventure.

What is on your bucket list? Diving with Great White Sharks off South Australia.

How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here? I’ve lived in Parkes all my life – a great family town.

Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I am basically semi-retired, but still working with my wife, son and daughter in-law. Loved the video shop when it was operating, now we run TSG Parkes and Forbes and Network Video Forbes.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? I enjoy the occasional round of golf, like reading and watching movies, and am satisfied with gardening when I do it, which isn’t often enough.

What makes you proud? I’m proud when I finish a task successfully, I’m proud of our children and grandchildren and I’m proud of my wife.

If you could be an animal which one would you choose, and why? I’m not an animal person.What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? My favourite all time movie is Bad Day at Black Rock (Spencer Tracy), but a more recent one is Leap Year, a rom com.

Tell us about your best holiday. I would say my best holiday was when our son was posted to Belgrade and we toured through some of the eastern European countries.

What is on your bucket list? I’d like to travel and see more of Australia.

How old are you? I am 12 years old.
How long have you lived in or around Parkes, and what do you like about living here? I have lived on a farm an hour away from Parkes for the last three years. I love the lovely weather, my great school and the friendly people that are always happy to help or chat.
Where do you go to school and what year are you in? I catch the bus to Parkes Christian School every day. I am in Year 6 and I am also the School Captain.
What is your favourite after school activity? My favourite after school activity would be tennis lessons. It’s so fun to spend your afternoon out in the sun playing tennis.
What is your favourite food and movie? Hmmm….let me think. It’s so hard to choose a favourite food, there are so many good ones. It would probably be either chicken schnitzel or chocolate and my favourite movie would definitely be The Pacifier.
What music do you listen to? I love to listen to upbeat, Christian music. It always makes me feel like singing and dancing.
What do you want to do when you grow up? I’m not sure but I’m interested in being a farmer, a vet, a sports teacher or possibly a missionary.
If you could have a super power what would it be? If I could have a super power it would be super cool to be able to transform into absolutely anything!
Tell us an interesting fact about yourself. I love extreme things like roller coasters, fast rides and shooting with Dad.

How old are you and how long have you lived in or around Parkes? I am 12 and have lived in Parkes for nine years.

Where do you go to school and what year are you in? I go to Parkes Christian School and I’m in Year 6 and School Captain.

What is your favourite after school activity? When I get home I like to play Minecraft, and I also enjoy coding games and mods.

What is your favourite food and movie? My favourite food is Subway, and my favourite movie is Star Wars.

What music do you listen to? I enjoy listening to Christian worship songs.

What do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be a professional game developer.

If you could have a super power what would it be? If I could have a super power it would be to have the ability to fly.

Tell us an interesting fact about yourself. I have a Youtube channel with 143 subscribers, and I’m also an Administrator on Skyserver’s Survival Minecraft.

How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here? I’ve lived in the Parkes area for almost 60 years. Country towns are such friendly places to live in and I wouldn’t want to go back to city living.

Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I was a teacher for 33 years and am now retired. I enjoy my garden, playing bridge, reading, doing puzzles and watching TV dramas, British crime and comedy shows.

What makes you proud? I am proud of my three children and how they have achieved success. I’m also proud of former students who’ve done well in their lives.

If you could be an animal which one would you choose, and why? I think I’d be a giraffe as they are graceful and friendly and are not a threat to other species or to humans.

What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? My movie would probably be “The Sound of Music” because it’s based on a true story, has singing, humour, history and drama which are all things I enjoy. My favourite books are historical and ‘who dunnit’ novels.

Tell us about your best holiday. My first visit overseas to the USA and Canada with local tour company Harris Travel was great, and also a recent trip to Turkey and Gallipoli to see where my father fought in WW1.

 

How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here? I’ve been in Parkes for three weeks!

Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I work at the Ikon restaurant, Hotel Graceland as Head Chef. I love the freedom to express my creativity.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? I love spending time with my dogs.

What makes you proud? I’m proud that I stand my own ground with integrity.

What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? I love any movie that’s horror. As for music, I love The Amity Affliction – an Australian band that’s post-hardcore, metalcore.

Tell us about your best holiday. My favourite holiday was going to the Calgary Stampede Rodeo in Canada.

What is on your bucket list? To volunteer at an orphanage.

 

 

Liz Matthews

How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here? I’ve been in Parkes 51 years this year. I think it’s a very pleasant town to live in because of the climate, the geography and the people.

Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I’m a retired foreign language teacher who worked at Parkes High School teaching French and Japanese among other languages. Nowadays I’m a lady of leisure just taking a short break from my volunteer work at Neighbourhood Central. I feel I’m giving something back to the community – and the people there are good to work with.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? There are very many things to fill my free time. I like to read and to cook. I play golf when I can and I enjoy a glass of wine with friends. In longer periods of spare time I like to travel.

What makes you proud? I don’t think of myself as ‘being proud’ although I do feel I’ve achieved quite a lot in life. My biggest achievement would be contributing to the development of the hundreds of kids I’ve taught and helping them to become good citizens. When I came to Parkes it was a very inward-looking community, but now people can see beyond the hills. I hope I’ve helped broaden their horizons.

If you could be an animal which one would you choose, and why? I would be a platypus because it’s such an unusual creature – even if it does eat worms…

What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? My favourite song is ‘Je ne Regrette Rien’ by Edith Piaf because it is such a defiant statement of resilience.

Tell us about your best holiday. The ten days I spent in the Galapagos Islands because of all the incredible creatures I was able to see and interact with on land and under water.

What is on your bucket list? Although I’ve travelled widely around the world, I haven’t yet been to Uluru, so I’m going to make sure I get there next year.

Warren Blatch

How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here? Since I started school at Parkes Infants. The best thing in Parkes is my lovely wife Nancye.

Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I was the middle man in the family business, A A Blatch. I really enjoyed the interaction with the farming community.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? Golf and bridge.

What makes you proud? The achievements of my three children.

If you could be an animal which one would you choose, and why? A pussy cat because they get cared for.

What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? ‘Bill the Bastard’ – it’s a great read about a great horse and the Great War.

Tell us about your best holiday. Backpacking through Europe in ’72.

What is on your bucket list? Winning at Las Vegas.

Kate Anderson

How long have you lived in Parkes and what do you like most about living here?
I’ve lived in Parkes since I was four. I love the community spirit.

Where do you work or what do you do currently and what do you enjoy about it? I work for Baptistcare Niola. I love working with the residents and other staff who always have a smile and a story. I also coordinate the Little Acorns Playgroup every Tuesday during school terms, and the St George’s Toy Library every second Monday at the Anglican Church.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? I enjoy sewing and attend lessons at the sewing shed.

What makes you proud? My family and friends who are always there for each other.

If you could be an animal which one would you choose, and why? I’d love to be a cat and sleep all day.

What is your all-time favourite movie, song and/or book, and why? I don’t have any.

Tell us about your best holiday. We took the kids to the beach and even though it rained the whole time, we still had fun.

What is on your bucket list? I would love to go to Scotland to see where my grandmother’s family came from.