Plus life-saving talks and a dingo’s tale. 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 finds our bonds with some animals amazing.
The NSW central-west town of Gulgong is finally getting its doctor after 18 months without a GP.
Experienced rural GP Mark Adamski and nurse practitioner Sky Bradford are reopening a practice in the town with help from the non-profit Doctors 4 Mudgee initiative.
Supported by local mining companies and Mid-Western Council, Doctors 4 Mudgee wants to attract 10 new GPs to the area over three years to address the critical shortage. It offers financial incentives and other benefits for incoming doctors, such as helping families find schools, sporting clubs, and social networks.
It’s good news in a week when new evidence emerged of the massive geographic divide in healthcare access.
The same day Galah Weekly reported on the Rural Health Alliance’s campaign for a more equitable health system, the Grattan Institute released a report showing poorer and rural Australians are suffering from lack of access to specialists.
Two of the report’s authors, Peter Breadon and Elizabeth Baldwin, said it was symptomatic of a broken, unfair system in which rural Australians get about half the care received by people in major cities. They said half of remote areas received fewer than one specialist service per person each year.
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A WA shire at the heart of the renewables energy rollout is the latest to call for communities to share in the benefits.
Narrogin, about 180km south-east of Perth, is at the centre of a region with about $18 billion in solar, wind power and battery projects in the pipeline. Shire president Leigh Ballard says his council welcomes the projects but said they put stress on infrastructure and the community generally.
The shire sought to have a community fund included in a $400 million battery project recently, but this was rejected.
The WA government has released draft guidelines that would ensure community benefit funds were part of such projects. Under its proposal, a 200 million-megawatt wind power project would contribute between $100,000 and $300,000 to a community fund.
Meanwhile, the federal government is reviewing the power pricing system that is supposed to set a guide for the bills that energy retailers can pass on to their customers.
Aged care and disability service provider Annecto, which operates in 19 locations across the eastern states, has announced it will close next month, creating uncertainty for thousands of clients.
Annecto operates in major cities and regional centres including Mildura, Kempsey and Dubbo. It cited “financial challenges” for the closure.
More than 4400 clients advised of the closure had only weeks to accept an alternative care provider.
Canola oil could be refined in Australia to use in sustainable aviation fuel as early as 2030.
Ampol, GrainCorp and other investors hope to develop a new processing plant, potentially in NSW or WA, that would double the existing canola crush to one million tonnes.
The new operation would extract canola meal for livestock feed and send the oil to Ampol’s Brisbane refinery. The product can be blended with traditional petroleum-based jet fuel. Qantas already imports sustainable fuel from Malaysia.
Proponents say they need federal government support to get the Australian project off the ground.
The WA government is pushing low-deposit loans for prefabricated, modular homes as one answer to the housing crisis.
The state budget announcement also included a $210 million shared equity scheme and a build-to-rent fund.
Although the incentives were welcomed, there were concerns WA doesn’t have the number of skilled workers it needs to boost housing supply.
Mental health awareness and suicide prevention in country NSW will benefit from a marathon water-skiing effort by a group of young enthusiasts and their parents.
Narrabri artist and Galah on the ground Deb Michell-Smith said her children Molly, 20, and Toby, 21, convinced their family to join others in tackling Ski For Life, a 456km water-skiing epic along the Murray River from Murray Bridge to Renmark earlier this year.
The Michell-Smiths joined the Wee Waa-based Constable and Tully families to form Team Wee Waa for the three-day water ski fundraiser that involved more than 400 people.
Some of the money raised is being used to bring resilience speakers Ben Pettingill and Mike Rolls – hosts of a podcast called Talkin Tough – to talk at schools and pubs in the area in September. Ski For Life is also a major supporter of Are You Bogged Mate?, whose founder Mary O’Brien features in today’s In The Flock.
A Victorian school that began with six students in a one-room mud-brick building erected by parents is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
The Mansfield Steiner School, in the foothills of one of Victoria’s ski regions, has 225 students and 50 teachers, with classes from kindergarten to year 12.
School marketing officer Nicky Sanders was prompted to tell the story of the Mansfield Steiner School – a tale of community “optimism, creativity, resilience, and plenty of imagination” – after Galah’s recent podcast and newsletter round-ups on country education. “Forty years on, the school is thriving and is now an integral part of the educational landscape of Mansfield,” Sanders wrote. “It is truly a unique school in a unique country town.”
The school is holding a spring fair on 25 October to celebrate its jubilee.
An exhibition by regional photojournalist Jacklyn Wagner captures the profound human stories behind the catastrophic floods that struck the Northern Rivers region in February and March 2022. At Lismore Regional Gallery, 27 June-10 August. Read more
Townsville artist Lisa Ashcroft explores environmental stewardship and the artificial regeneration of the Great Barrier Reef in an exhibition she hopes will prompt viewers to consider their responsibility as the guardians of the environment. At Bundaberg Regional Gallery, Qld, until 4 July. Read more
This exhibition is billed as the first to examine the influence of English Romantic artist JMW Turner on Australian art. It includes key Turner works beside examples from the generations of artists since who have been influenced by his work. At Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Vic, until 4 August. Read more
If food with a bit of fire is your thing, the Sawtell Chilli Festival offers more than 100 exhibitors, food vendors, stallholders, cafes, bars, and restaurants lining First Avenue in the Coffs Coast town. The day also includes the Aussie Chilli Championship. Sawtell, NSW, 5 July. Read more
Seven years ago the suicides of two men shook a farming community on Queensland’s Darling Downs and was the catalyst for a new mission for Dalby-based rural consultant Mary O’Brien. After the funerals, she penned an article, Are You Bogged Mate? It was part lament for the ongoing toll of mental illness and suicide, and part statement that existing services weren’t working for country men. O’Brien had grown up around farmers and was used to talking to them about chemicals and controlling spray drift. She established Are You Bogged Mate?, an organisation dedicated to raising awareness about mental health issues and preventing suicide among rural men.
There are other services that tackle suicide awareness. What’s different about Are You Bogged Mate? We’re all about rural men. I’ve been encouraged to broaden it but it’s what I know and I don’t follow the rule books. When I started out, just about everything I read was BS and so little really dealt with the issues in the country. For example, isolation is often mentioned as a problem for rural men yet so many really enjoy the isolation and peace they have. Isolation really only becomes a problem when they need to access services.
How do you operate? A lot of what we do is me raising awareness by talking to country blokes in a way they can relate to and where they’re comfortable. That means going out and speaking directly to them, even at trivia nights or other events. Sometimes it might be three people and sometimes 300. We can also connect them to services and we run programs such as Bogged Brakes, which offers participants the chance to take a break from the grind.
Is it still hard to get men to acknowledge they need a hand? It’s still a big factor, especially getting blokes to reach out to services at a time when so many are struggling. And country men are a hard demographic to reach, especially when so many mainstream services are really designed around women. There is still that stigma of weakness about asking for help.
How do you get around that? You just have to talk to them in a way that’s practical and so they’re comfortable. To reach them, sometimes it means literally going up their driveway.
How do you measure success? It’s hard and sometimes you never know if and how you’ve helped someone. But we hear from people who say it’s pulled them back and at events you can see when it sinks in.
Bunbury residents are mourning the death of Marley, a 15-year-old dingo that became a familiar sight at the WA city’s harbourfront.
In a story familiar to anyone who’s seen the film Red Dog, Marley was found as an orphaned pup in the Pilbara.
Truck driver Kevin Frencl found Marley in 2010 and he stayed with Frencl and his family at first. The dingo was most comfortable around Bunbury’s boat harbour, where he’d spent time with Frencl, and the local marine rescue unit unofficially adopted him.
Marine Rescue Bunbury skipper Denis Hynes said the response from the community had been overwhelming. "It's unbelievable, the love everyone had for Marley and the effect he had on some people's lives," he said.
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
