Plus migrant successes and a prize encore. 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 is staying away from those oysters.
Confirmation of the boundaries for one of NSW’s biggest national parks to protect koalas has been broadly welcomed by environmentalists but it means almost immediate job losses in the timber industry.
The NSW government will add 176,000 hectares to existing national parks and reserves in the state’s mid-north to create the 476,000-hectare Great Koala National Park. Logging will be banned immediately in the area proposed for protection.
Although the government also announced funding to help six timber mills and about 300 workers expected to be affected by the logging moratorium, the timber industry and state opposition argue the move will hinder hardwood supply, push up housing construction costs and hit regional towns that rely on the industry.
The government said the park would protect more than 12,000 koalas, 36,000 greater gliders and more than 100 other threatened species.
Conservationists have lobbied for the new national park, which was a Minns government election commitment, for more than a decade.
In less divisive koala news, the national vet regulator has approved the first vaccine to protect the marsupials from potentially fatal chlamydia. The sexually transmitted disease has devastated wild koala populations already threatened by habitat loss.
A new arts festival is about to take over the Armidale region. The Creative Streets Festival will transform Armidale in a vibrant celebration of art, culture and community. There will be silk acrobatics suspended across the city’s busiest street, live performances, community installations, global food and muralists creating visual magic. Head to the Armidale region to explore a world of creativity. Read more
Forget about cannibal cane-toad tadpoles, Australia’s latest biosecurity threat is a super-sized sex-switching invasive oyster.
Biosecurity Queensland is asking residents to report sightings of the Suminoe or Chinese river oyster, which was first detected in Queensland waters two years ago.
Suminoe oysters are widely farmed in China, Japan and India and are believed to have arrived in Australian waters latched onto ship hulls.
At 24cm, they dwarf a Sydney rock oyster and start life as males before switching to female.
They can reach sexual maturity in just a few months and are seen as potential disease carriers able to foul aquatic infrastructure as well as outcompeting native shellfish.
In South Australia, another pest has moved in, with the first detection of varroa mite in Riverland beehives last week.
The Victorian town of Ararat is proving migrants can bring benefits to regional communities that face an ageing population and younger workers heading to the cities.
Ararat is involved in a statewide resettlement program that aims to address labour shortages and help secure the region's long-term future.
Ararat Rural City Council economic development lead Tim McDougall said the migrant workers gave employers the confidence to invest as well as bringing broader benefits to the town as they integrated.
The resettlement scheme was seen as a big win for employers such as industrial and farm machinery manufacturer Gason and the local abattoir, which had both struggled for workers.
Not everyone shares the Ararat view on immigration. Attitudes there are a stark contrast to some put forward at anti-immigration rallies on 31 August. The rallies have been criticised for pushing misinformation on immigration numbers and the presence of neo-nazis.
The immigration debate also dogged the federal Opposition, with outspoken Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price dumped from the shadow front bench after suggesting the government was favouring Indian migrants to boost Labor's vote.
A Blue Mountains mother who decided on a career change after decades with NSW police has graduated in the same university nursing course as two of her daughters.
Angela Robinson, who comes from a family of health workers but had been with the police since 1990, credited daughters Abigail and Emelia for the support she needed to continue her studies.
All three completed their Bachelor of Nursing with the University of Western Sydney and said their studies had been a bonding experience.
It’s footy finals season in Victorian – a time that sees increased demand for domestic violence services.
Respect Victoria and other support services say the AFL grand final – this year due on 27 September – and even local football finals typically bring a surge in violence linked to an increase in drinking and gambling.
Last month Respect Victoria was among more than a dozen organisations that called on the AFL to reconsider using US rapper Snoop Dogg as the pre-match entertainment at the grand final, given the often-violent content of his lyrics.
In Tasmania, a pilot program has started to help GPs – typically the first to see the evidence – better recognise and respond to domestic violence.
Animal welfare groups are opposing suggestions from NSW councils that the state government should legislate mandatory cat curfew to protect native wildlife.
Local Government NSW president Phyllis Miller said it was time for the state government, not councils, to take responsibility for cat containment. A state government report found last month there was insufficient evidence a cat curfew would be effective.
The Invasive Species Council estimates cats kill more than a billion mammals and almost 400 million birds in Australia each year.
Last month the WA wheatbelt town of Wagin proposed a two-cat household limit on felines to try to control the number of ferals.
The 2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize exhibition is making a comeback.
The photography prize has been selected as the feature exhibition for this spring's Bathurst Regional Art Museum OUT THERE program.
The photography prize will be projected onto the Bathurst Gallery and Library forecourt wall every evening after dark from 20 September to 9 November.
The 2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize exhibition is a collection of outstanding images made by 37 regional photographers from across Australia – from the WA Pilbara to Armidale in NSW and as far south as Willalooka in SA.
Lisa Sorgini, who lives at Ocean Shores in the NSW Northern Rivers, won the $25,000 prize in May for The Flood, a diptych of images examining the impact of the February 2022 Lismore floods.
Galah editor-in-chief Annabelle Hickson said the prize was created to celebrate the incredible talent that exists beyond metropolitan art hubs. Collaborating with BRAG on the prize exhibition was a huge opportunity to share it with a wider audience. Read more
This solo exhibition produced by painter Kim Harding from her farm studio at Ilford ponders the quiet moments in life that are shaped and softened by the presence of four-legged companions. At Rosby Cellar Door and Gallery, Mudgee, NSW until 29 September. Read more
This exhibition, featuring ceramic artists and designers across Australia and New Zealand, is from the biennial award open to professional artists who have produced works within the past two years. At Arts Mansfield, Vic, 20 September-6 October. Read more
Elizabeth Barnett works from her home studio in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges. This solo exhibition, named after a favourite book, features works developed during a residency on Tasmania’s East Coast. At Madeline Gordon Gallery, Launceston, 1-18 October. Read more
Thirteen artists from around the Goulburn Valley region have combined for this spring exhibition with an obvious focus on blooms. At Tank’s Art Gallery, Shepparton, Vic, until 20 September. Read more
More than 150 WA artists are opening their workplaces to visitors this month as part of the 12th Margaret River Region Open Studios. Francois Payet, who creates jewellery in the Payet Gallery studio he shares with his brother Nicholas, has been involved since the event started in 2014. Payet’s family moved to Melbourne from a small community in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Seychelles in the 1970s. Here he talks about his early life, his family’s move to Australia and his love for Margaret River, a region that’s been his home for the past two decades and inspires his work.
Tell us about life in the Seychelles and moving to Australia. It was a happy childhood. We were very poor though. Dad was a fisherman. Mum was more creative. She was a singer in the church and sometimes hotels. My mum and dad gave up their blue lagoon in the Seychelles for factory floors at the Rosella soup factory [in Melbourne]. It was a massive sacrifice, just for us kids to have a better life.
How did you start out as a jeweller? I’d set up near the clock tower in St Kilda with a card table, some beads and a piece of black velvet. If I had a good day, I’d have a beer at the Esplanade.
How does the Margaret River region influence you? The coast influences my work; the turquoise water and connection to the Indian Ocean is almost spiritual. The giant rocks down at Red Gate beach are similar to the Seychelles. There’s big energy in those boulders.The beauty here isn’t always in the obvious. But there’s an enormous amount of beauty in our community. You really have to experience it.
Why do you think Open Studios is special? It puts a spotlight solely on art in the region, and creates opportunities for everyone, especially those just starting out. Being part of it from the beginning has been special. We’ve seen it transform the artistic landscape here.
What makes you most proud? The fact that I’m in a business that makes people happy. We’ve had engagements in the gallery. We’ve had loved ones who are passing away buying their final gifts for their wives. Earlier this year, a man hired the entire gallery for a candlelit dinner to celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary. Watching their faces you could see the joy. Those moments make everything worthwhile.
Regional Arts WA has more on Francois Payet here. Margaret River Region Open Studios runs until 28 September. Read more
Imported human pests are proving it’s not just cats and cane toads that are a nuisance to native wildlife.
A video of an American influencer apparently chasing and capturing crocodiles by hand in far north Queensland has sparked calls for his deportation.
The Queensland Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation said it was investigating the videos.
Another American, hunting influencer Sam Jones, faced heavy criticism in March over a video showing her grabbing a wombat joey from its mother.
Ironically, at the time Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suggested she should try to “take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there”.
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
