Plus cool coral and hot drivers. 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 gave up burnouts decades ago.
Rural and remote communities are being massively short-changed on government funds for aged care, even though many are working hard on local solutions.
The National Rural Health Alliance says it’s part of a broader picture in which the regions miss out on up to $6.5 billion of their fair share of health funding every year.
The alliance has cited the far north Queensland town of Mareeba as an example. Limited options for at-home aged care in the town force many residents to look at options 60km away in Cairns.
Ross Cardillo and his sister are supporting their mother, 77, and father, 83, on the family farm at Mareeba. Cardillo chairs Mareeba and Communities Family Healthcare, a not-for-profit enterprise aiming to provide better medical services in the town. Lack of funds limits its ability to extend into aged care.
Health alliance CEO Susi Tegen told Galah this week there were plenty of similar examples and described government failures to properly fund rural aged care as “geographic narcissism’’.
As well as the funding crisis, she said regional communities were struggling in the absence of a national rural health strategy and the accompanying gaps in coordination between federal and state health agencies.
“You’ve got small regional communities raising $700,000 on their own to keep health services going,” Tegen said. “You don’t have anybody in Toorak or Double Bay doing that.”
A 2023 report by the alliance found each rural Australian missed out on $850 of healthcare a year because of lack of access to services.
Addressing that imbalance made basic economic sense, she said, given regional Australia’s enormous contribution to exports and tourism alone.
Last week Tegen used data showing rural medical students wanted to train and work in the regions to call for more investment in rural health training.
Enjoy seamless travel arrangements, French-inspired small-ship luxury, expert-led adventures and all-inclusive indulgence with Ponant Explorations’ Fly, Stay & Cruise packages available on all 2026 Kimberley departures until 30 September. Book today by calling 1300 737 178 or contact your preferred travel agent.
Scientists believe selective breeding could develop coral better able to withstand rising ocean temperatures and help save WA’s Ningaloo Reef.
Kate Quigley, a molecular biologist with mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation, said trials of selective breeding had shown it was possible to develop baby corals with twice the usual ability to withstand warmer waters.
Using the heat-resistant corals to repopulate reefs is seen as a potential solution to protect Ningaloo from coral bleaching. Scientists found large areas of the reef had been devastated by bleaching this summer due to high ocean temperatures.
Forrest presented the research at the World Oceans Conference in France this week, highlighting the impact of overfishing and climate change, and calling for a 30% no-take zone in exclusive economic zones.
Environment Minister Murray Watt told the conference Australia wants to give 30% of its ocean “highly protected” status by 2030. Although 52% of ocean around Australia has some form of protection, only 24% of it is safe from fishing and drilling.
In April the International Coral Reef Initiative found 84% of the world’s reefs had been exposed to ocean temperatures high enough to turn them white since January 2023.
On the other side of the country, the Qld government has taken the first steps in what it sees as a revitalisation of Great Barrier Reef tourist islands.
In April it opened expressions of interest for the lease on Double Island, off Cairns, which was stripped from the former leaseholder in 2023 after years of neglect and access disputes.
Premier David Crisafulli warned the government would step in to take over other neglected island resorts once seen as tourism jewels.
A parliamentary inquiry last year found natural disasters, neglect and lease compliance breaches had left many of the resorts in disrepair.
Thieves apparently hunting scrap metal used an angle-grinder to remove a 185-year-old bell from a former church in the Hunter Valley town of Paterson.
It’s believed it would have taken at least two people to remove the bell and police fear it’s destined to be melted down and sold as scrap.
Devastated locals said the church bell had enormous significance to the community. It was rung so hard to celebrate the World War I armistice in November 1918 that it had cracked.
Amanda Ferrari said she cheered when the final episode of Galah’s first podcast series dropped. And she cried when Galah editor-in-chief Annabelle Hickson and journalist Gabrielle Chan admitted their children, like hers, went to boarding school.
The podcast examined life in country schools and looked at the impact boarding schools have on small towns.
Ferrari moved from Sydney to Trangie in country NSW 36 years ago. Despite her initial reluctance, sending her children to boarding school for their high school years was a decision to “let them go to give them more”.
Ferrari now runs a business, Boarding Schools Expo, that works with boarding schools and rural and remote families. The final information sessions in its expo “season” are at Griffith (19 June), Wagga Wagga (20-21 June) and Narrabri (26-27 June).
You can find Galah on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
The exhibition of the 2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize wrapped up at NERAM in Armidale last Sunday. There’s still the chance to buy some of the finalists’ works, before works are shipped out to buyers in the next few days. For sales queries, don't hesitate to contact us at info@galahpress.com
More than 160 writers will gather in the NSW Northern Rivers in August for three days of storytelling, poetry, conversation and performance. The full Byron Writers Festival program was released this week, with feature events including author Helen Garner in conversation with journalist Kerry O’Brien. At Bangalow Showground, NSW, 8-10 August. Read more
This exhibition demonstrates drawing for a range of disciplines and features the work of contemporary artists as well as luminaries from the past century. At Cowra Art Gallery, NSW, until 13 July. Read more
An exhibition of finalists in the BAMM Biennale Portrait Prize spans work in oil, watercolour and acrylic. Melbourne-based artist Gab Lewis won the prize last week for her self-portrait, Entire. At Bank Art Museum Moree until 19 July. Read more
First Nations art has been gathered from across the traditional lands of the Sunshine Coast region, including the Kabi Kabi (Gubbi Gubbi) and Jinibara people. At Caloundra Regional Gallery, Qld, 13 June-3 August. Read more
Interview: Emma Hearnes
Ursula Woods is a Tasmania-based filmmaker whose work – for clients including Netflix, ABC and SBS – moves between narrative, documentary and experimental forms. She works primarily on 16mm, Super 8 and analogue stills.
How does living in Tasmania influence your work? I see colours and textures in my work that come directly from my connection with this magical place. The natural world feels much closer to me here than it ever did in Melbourne or Dublin. Living here, I also feel a little wild and cut off, which helps me distance myself from caring about trends – I just do what I enjoy.
What have you learned about regional creative communities since moving? I’ve found wonderful, supportive and collaborative arts and film communities here. Even well-established practitioners are willing to jump on a project in the spirit of helping. I find that kind of generosity really inspiring – it makes me want to do the same for others.
Across your diverse work, do you notice a pattern? A quote I love is by Nicola Daley, a highly accomplished Australian cinematographer, who said, “Cinematography is not my style that is laid on top of a story.” I love this because it reminds me to transform, renew and explore what the work is asking of the camera, rather than impose my own voice or style onto it. To me, it says: listen, study, understand, then do.
What do you find in the darkroom that’s missing in digital work? I think the biggest difference is the happy accidents that happen either in-camera or during processing. I think all analogue artists are obsessed with the charm of these so-called mistakes, especially the chemical imperfections that create such beautiful textures.
Being completely alone in the dark, all you hear are your own movements, the swash of the chemicals, or the rattle of the tank. It’s a deeply sensory experience that makes me focus on every single frame.
The sound of blown tyres and clouds of smoke at a NSW Riverina motorsport venue on Saturday will be the signals that Leeton’s burnout queen is celebrating her 85th birthday.
Lorraine Tuckett – a great-great grandmother better known as Nan – will be at the wheel of her SS Commodore named Nan’s Dream with foot to the floor as she takes centre stage in a burnout event. The fifth Nan’s Birthday Burnout is a private event, but about 180 other competitors and 80 vehicles will take part and some will have driven 500km to be there.
Grandson Guy Tuckett said Nan had moved into Leeton after the death of her farmer husband. Concerned that “Nan was just sitting on the couch knitting”, he’d coaxed her into the passenger seat to join him in burnout competitions, which she loved.
“At Christmas a couple of years later I bought her the licence she needed to take over the driving. I reckon it’s added 10 years to her life and she just keeps getting better.”
Nan turns 85 on 29 June, but family commitments meant the celebration had to be held a week early.
For the uninitiated, burnout competitors are judged on their ability to generate constant smoke, driver control – they have to avoid hitting anything – and are expected to blow tyres as part of the run.
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
