Plus creative science and extinct survivors. Welcome to Galah Weekly, our award-winning newsletter keeping you up to date with regional headlines that matter, plus other delightful things from life beyond the city. By Dean Southwell, who just can’t abide zucchinis.
A decade after Bendigo’s Muslim community faced a backlash over plans to create a place to worship, the first building in a mosque development is complete.
In 2015 plans for the mosque gained international attention when protests became a focus for right-wing extremists and led to Victoria’s first conviction for racial vilification. A 2016 High Court challenge to stop the mosque failed.
Ten years on, members of the Muslim community believe a grassroots multicultural campaign, inter-faith outreach and a welcoming attitude of ”just drop in, have a coffee” has helped change community views.
Bendigo’s apparent progress towards tolerance contrasts dramatically with incidents of hate elsewhere. This week NSW federal MP Allegra Spender and state MP Kellie Sloane faced online threats of “metaphorical rape” and death because they had condemned a neo-Nazi rally outside NSW Parliament.
This Christmas, Dirty Janes celebrates community and creativity with complimentary Saturday morning tutorials at all three stores. Join our talented stallholders and staff members for engaging 15-minute demonstrations every Saturday at 11am, covering festive crafts from watercolour painting basics to Christmas wreath-making. Eight weeks of creative inspiration await across Bowral, Canberra, and Orange locations.
Visit dirtyjanes.com for the full details.
How do you protect native species that survive even when the law considers them officially extinct?
Three rare plants are in bureaucratic limbo and a native mouse is legally considered both extinct and alive because of a quirk in national endangered species legislation.
Gould's mouse was declared extinct more than a century ago but a recent genetic study found the endangered djoongari, which inhabits islands in WA’s Shark Bay and one mainland reserve, is actually the same animal.
The mice are recorded separately on the national threatened species list but funding for protection is still possible because one of the listings shows the animal as “endangered”.
The three plant species rediscovered recently in WA and Qld have no such protection under environmental laws that still consider them extinct.
Meanwhile, there are fewer legal tangles for little penguins, which have returned to Eden on the NSW south coast after 30 years, while the endangered eastern ground parrot has been spotted in a northern Tasmanian national park for the first time in decades.
The further Australians live away from major cities, the less faith they have in the nation’s democracy.
It’s one of the findings from a report tracking national attitudes to democracy that links the relative lack of trust outside major cities to frustration over service delivery in the country and the decline of local media.
Almost two-thirds of outer regional residents felt they weren’t well represented or understood by federal politicians, a significantly higher level of dissatisfaction than their metropolitan counterparts. The study also found young rural men had the lowest confidence in elections.
Former SA premier Jay Weatherill is executive director of McKinnon, the nonprofit foundation behind the study. It aims to improve political leadership and help deliver better government. Weatherill said the study highlighted issues that had to be confronted in the regions.
One of those issues might be country roads. A plan to reduce default speed limits from 100kmh to between 70 and 90kmh has already copped flak.
Researchers, pastoralists and traditional owners believe toad-proofing cattle water sources in dryland south of Broome in WA is a one-time-only chance to stop cane toads from devastating wildlife in the Pilbara and further south.
Cane toads need to sit in water every few days to survive. Scientists say most permanent water sources in a dry bottleneck of land between the Kimberley and the Pilbara are man-made. Modifying these mostly ground-level water sources to tanks and troughs that the pests can’t access would create a 150km toad “fire-break” large enough to stop the pest migrating further south into WA.
A Hunter Valley council likely to see thousands of temporary workers housed in a region dealing with the transition from coal mining to renewable energy is insisting it benefits from hosting them.
Muswellbrook Shire Council is banning donga-style temporary accommodation blocks, instead insisting the villages being built for temporary workers are suitable for later use as affordable housing or for aged care or tourism.
It wants the workers to integrate and support local businesses as much as possible, so its policy also bans on-site “wet mess” facilities that provide alcohol. The council policy would see developers pay at least some of the cost of building accommodation, while the council and state government would contribute assets such as land.
“If we're hosting them and they're using our roads, they're using all our facilities, our services, we see that the community should benefit," mayor Jeff Drayton said.
Aquaculture company Tassal, already dealing with controversy over salmon farming operations in Tasmania, has reported a major fish kill at a barramundi farm off WA’s Kimberley coast.
Details of the WA fish deaths were provided by a whistleblower through conservation group Environs Kimberley. The WA Primary Industries Department confirmed that Tassal had experienced relatively high fish mortality at Cone Bay.
Tassal has said the deaths were caused by a parasite and lower sea temperatures, which left the fish vulnerable.
As the days get a little longer and the weather a little warmer, the thoughts of home gardeners and designated cooks around the nation turn to … zucchinis.
Anticipating the annual onslaught, we’re taking our cues from Galah food columnist Belinda Jeffery.
Her delicious summer lunch menu in Galah’s Issue 13 features a salad of barbecued zucchini, goat’s cheese, mint and chilli. Get grilling.
Emerging Bathurst artist Bella Fenton explores the strangeness of nightmares and living through unreal timelines in a series of works in which a cowgirl is trapped in a world of horror. At Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW, 22 November 2025-25 January 2026. Read more
This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of Queensland’s most significant regional arts events. The exhibition celebrates the work of established and emerging artists in the awards. At Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum, Qld, until 24 January 2026. Read more
This exhibition is inspired by NSW north coast artist Kiata Mason realising her own good fortune, regardless of the challenges of life. Each work by Mason, who featured in Galah Issue 4, imagines a close friend or family member at a birthday party. At AK Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, NSW, until 30 November. Read more
At high school, Matt Dodds would help fellow students with their homework because he enjoyed helping others understand maths and science. This month the Glen Innes High School physics and biology teacher was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for excellence in secondary school science teaching.
Dodds, who grew up in the Blue Mountains, said an excursion to Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in Tamworth as a student teacher led to his first job and the eventual move to Glen Innes, his wife’s hometown.
The science prize recognised Dodds’ creative teaching methods that have helped students from rural areas and diverse backgrounds, and increased the numbers pursuing higher education in STEM subjects. Those methods have included an innovative two-day program for New England students at the Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran.
Who inspired you to learn about science? My parents bought me science books when I was young and my imagination would run wild with the possibilities. I also had fantastic science teachers in high school. Watching the movie Gattaca led me to study genetic engineering at UNSW in Sydney. I was also a sucker for David Attenborough documentaries.
Why are you so passionate about teaching in the regions? I travelled to Tamworth during school holidays to visit my grandparents and enjoyed the wide-open spaces. Even if you’re not in a big city, you should still get access to a quality education.
Why is it still important for students to learn science? No matter how much AI infiltrates our lives in the future, we still need to train students to think critically about information they’re being exposed to and to remind them that they’re in charge of the thinking process.
How do you inspire students to study science? Teachers know that if a student designs, conducts and analyses an experiment themselves, they’re going to learn it so much better than just reading a textbook. I get my students to embrace the philosophy of "fail forward", where mistakes are part of the learning experience, and I get them to work together as much as possible. I try to look for areas of the course that will allow students to be creative, to design and build something from their imagination.
What’s next for you? I want to continue to increase the number of female students at my school choosing to study physics in years 11 and 12 and I want to partner with organisations to increase that number at other schools. I also want to collaborate with others to bring science into the 21st century and make it exciting again, by improving teaching programs, textbooks and syllabuses.
Like a storm cell, the furore over the Bureau of Meteorology’s new website just keeps intensifying.
The upgraded website was launched last month to criticism familiar to anyone who has delivered a redesign. There were also bugs, such as the omission of key fire danger information.
Now the ABC is reporting a potential cost blowout for the content management system behind the site. Originally valued at just over $31 million, the contract documented on a federal government website now shows a $78 million price tag.
We’d love to hear about the news, events and people that should be making the headlines in the Galah Weekly newsletter. Share what’s new(s) in your neck of the woods with us at newsie@galahpress.com
