Plus desert dancing and drone spotting. Welcome to Galah Weekly, our newsy newsletter keeping you up to date with regional headlines that matter, plus other delightful things from life beyond the city. By Dean Southwell, who is relieved he’s not entering the housing market.
Regional Australia is keeping the dream of home ownership alive, according to analysis released this week. The Regional Australia Institute has produced its Good Life Guide, a tool that allows comparison across local government areas on a range of liveability benchmarks. Criteria include median house price, median income and distance from the coast and national parks. It even hints you might find a “sweet spot” in regional Australia.
Institute CEO Liz Ritchie offered a comparison between the City of Monash in Melbourne and Greater Shepparton. In Monash the median property price is $1.2 million, or more than 20 times the median income there. In Shepparton the median home price is about $460,000, which is only eight times the median income. DIY, if only to see what’s happening in your neighbouring town.
Of course, being relatively affordable doesn’t mean housing is available where you want it. The Good Life Guide arrived in the same week the Federal Government announced 13,700 social and affordable homes will be built under its Housing Australia Future fund as part of the effort to deal with the national housing crisis.
Meanwhile, one Queensland town is trying a local solution. Cloncurry Shire Council has built its own housing estate, aiming to lure and keep workers in the town of 4000.
Telstra's new Satellite Home Internet, powered by Starlink, has arrived in Australia. Using satellite technology, it provides a new connectivity option for home internet access for those who struggle with regular service coverage in regional areas. Orange farmers Peter and Lucy Eccleston use the new solution to improve the way they manage their farm. Read their story.
Coby Eddy didn’t like the negative news he saw about young people. He felt there were a lot of positive stories in his community that just weren’t being told. So the 21-year-old gym worker and photographer from the northern Victorian town of Numurkah created a Facebook page, Hometown Heroes, to present a more positive view of life in the region around Shepparton.
Eddy’s efforts come as both the federal and SA governments move to put age limits on social media access, to address community concerns about fake news, online bullying and the impact of screen time on mental and physical health.
Eddy admits some people comment on the page “for the sake of trolling”, but he’s committed to his positivity push and isn’t so sure about the proposed bans. “It comes back to a simple concept that if people want to do something, they will, so priority should come to protection and education on correct and safe usage,’’ he says.
You’re in the middle of the Nullarbor and you find a space rock. What are you going to do? You dance, of course.
That’s what former geophysicist and software engineer Robert Towers apparently does each time he finds a meteorite, spreading his arms out like an aeroplane as he circles each new find.
He’s been recognised by the South Australian Museum for his efforts over the past 15 years. He has found hundreds of meteorites in SA and WA during twice-yearly visits to the Nullarbor. The space rocks help scientists study the solar system and the origins of life on Earth.
Freezing overnight temperatures swept the country early this week and, while snow lovers saw it as a spring bonus, grape growers are counting the cost.
Frost hit vines in SA’s Barossa, Clare Valley and Riverland areas and yields are likely to be down. There were also concerns other crops such as apricots or almonds could be hit.
Looking a little further ahead, it’s increasingly likely that our big climate driver, La Nina, will emerge within the next few months. The Bureau of Meteorology hasn’t made the call yet, but a La Nina is typically associated with cloudier, wetter conditions. The BOM’s seasonal outlook is already predicting a strong chance of a relatively wet finish to the year in parts of NSW and Qld.
More than 100 contract mining jobs connected to the South Australian steel town will go as the operation shifts from mining hematite iron ore to mining magnetite to feed the mill.
GFG Alliance, the British company that owns Whyalla’s steelworks, said 116 jobs would go in its Eyre Peninsula mining operations that feed the plant. The news comes after about 100 jobs were cut from other parts of the business earlier this year.
The steelworks has only recently returned to full operations after maintenance problems led to a four-month shutdown.
Farmers Peter and Lucy Eccleston have trialled Telstra's new Satellite Home Internet, powered by Starlink, on their farm near Orange, NSW. Joy upon joy, they now have good, reliable internet. Read their story.
It didn’t take long for Anna’s call-out last week about dearly departed and iconic Australian-brand foods to strike a chord. The newsletter had barely hit the inboxes before Sally Clouston, of Wamboin, NSW, sent her lament. “I have recently discovered, to our horror on a trip to Queensland, that Palms Mango and Pawpaw Chutney is no longer produced. I bought a carton of two dozen a year or so ago and we are now hoarding our last jar,” she wrote.
“If anyone knows where some jars of the Red Label (hot) Palms Chutney are hiding, anywhere in Australia, we will buy it.”
But there’s been more culinary heartbreak for Sally.
“As for Cerevite Porridge, the loss of that, many years ago, is a blot on Australia’s culinary world, a sorrow that never ends.”
We feel your pain, Sally.
Your Galah Weekly comes to you this morning from Launceston, Tasmania. I grew up in Burnie, on the island’s north-west coast, and worked as a cadet journalist at the newspaper there before moving to Launceston. I spent a lot of my working life at the local newspaper, with stints interstate and six years working in a friend’s cheese business, making cheese and selling it during hundreds of early Saturday mornings at Launceston’s Harvest Market. I’m a proud dad of two and the very lucky grandpa of a two-year-old with serious potential as a people manager. I’m an AFL fan and I play some incredibly rubbish golf. – Dean
One lucky Galah will win a @luckycharliestudio wall banner, a timber dowel to hang it on, and a tassel of your choice – valued at $405. The winner will be drawn randomly from all our Galah subscribers (free and paid) on 30 September. The only requirement, other than being a free or paid subscriber, is that the winner has an Australian postal address.
If you have a friend who would love Galah’s newsletters, now is the time to give them a prod to sign up.
All subscribers, free and paid, will be in the running.
The biennial Stanthorpe Art Prize celebrates creativity, ranging from Australian landscapes to thought-provoking sculptures. The $16,000 prize was awarded to Melanie Sinclair for her photograph, The Bogan's Ballet. See the exhibition at Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery, Qld, until 10 November. Read more.
The NSW central-west town of Coonamble is shutting its main street for the Vision Splendid Music Festival, a night of street food, stalls and live music featuring home-town Golden Guitar winner Max Jackson, Lee Kernaghan and the Wolfe Brothers. Follow up with a Harvest Long Lunch in the Paddock the following day. On 5-6 October. Read more.
Western Australia has more than 12,000 species of wildflowers that bloom across the state, typically in the six months from June, depending on the region. It’s still in full swing in many areas now, with the blooms scattered across the Margaret River region expected to close out the natural show next month. Must be time for a school holiday visit. Read more.
Interview by Emma Hearnes.
In 2014, Natasha Morgan left the urban world behind after a decade as a senior landscape architect on projects including the Australian Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. She made a tree change to the central Victorian Highlands, where she channelled her creativity into her property Oak & Monkey Puzzle, transforming it into a hub for community and collaboration. Now, at Little Cottage on a Hill in Daylesford, she's nurturing new roots.
What inspired your tree change?
I had a deep, almost instinctual desire to reconnect with the land and embrace a simpler, more meaningful way of life. After years of working on large-scale urban projects, I wanted a place where I could bring together all my passions: gardening, design, creating and collaborating. The central Victorian Highlands, with its rich soils, vibrant seasons and a strong sense of community, felt like the perfect place.
What does “living with the seasons” mean to you?
For me, it means being in tune with the rhythms of the natural environment and allowing them to guide my gardening, creative work and daily life. Each season brings its own lessons, beauty and opportunities for growth. It’s about savouring the sweetness of a sun-ripened strawberry in summer, relishing the warmth of a hearty stew in winter, and finding joy in the simple act of harvesting what the garden provides at any given time.
Tell me about a regional creative you love working with.
Lily Langham is a garden designer, sculptor and jeweller whose dedication to her craft and connection to the local landscape resonate deeply with me. Lily’s gardens are living works of art, with every plant, stone and feature thoughtfully placed to create a beautifully layered, immersive experience. Her sculptures and jewellery carry the same thoughtful, organic quality.
Lily has an intuitive understanding of creating beauty that feels both wild and intentional, something that I would love to be able to do in my own garden designs – but alas, I’m far too neat and tidy to achieve this.
Editor’s note: Learn more about Lily Langham’s garden and art in Galah Issue 11, out in November.
Imagine spotting this hi-tech bumblebee zipping around your garden. It’s not so far-fetched. In fact, there are plans afoot to fit radio transmitters and even cameras to bumblebees, a relatively common introduced species in Tasmania. It’s part of a $3.3 million plan to produce a comprehensive study of the buff-tailed bumblebee on the island, to help the horticultural industry learn how the little buzzers affect crop pollination.
We’d love to hear about the news, events and people that should be making the headlines in the Galah Weekly newsy. Share what’s new(s) in your neck of the woods with us at newsie@galahpress.com
