IF you have a top-loading washing machine and are a pensioner, veteran, social housing tenant or part of a low-income household, you may be eligible to trade your machine in for a brand new 8kg water and energy-efficient front-loader for just $250. The NSW Government’s Washing Machine Exchange Program is back with another 6,000 discounted […]

Linda Trudgeon. Photo: Supplied by Linda Trudgeon. Sonja Duncan. Photo: Supplied by Sonja Duncan. ARTS Gloucester is hosting a very special fundraising event on Saturday, 22 August, between 2pm and 5pm in the CWA hall in Church Street. Facilitator Julie Lyford will interview author Maura Luxford and local writers about their journeys as authors, the […]

Estelle Leishman demonstrating how to use ochre as paint. Photo: Rachel Barry. Aboriginal traditional dancing workshop led by Murrook Culture Centre staff. Photo: Rachel Barry. Uncle Justin Ridgeway sharing the Dreaming story of Yapii the platypus. Photo: Rachel Barry. Uncle Justin Ridgeway with children Connor and Charli during the smoking ceremony. Photo: Rachel Barry. STROUD’S […]

AUTHORITIES  have called for calm after Australia’s sixth bird flu case was confirmed at Hawks Nest, with thousands of department staff deployed to the coastline. Authorities insist there’s no bird flu crisis and no need to panic, despite a growing number of birds testing positive to the deadly virus along the Australian coastline. Poultry farms […]

EACH year some of Australia’s most outstanding classical musicians make the journey up the Bucketts Way to Gloucester and beyond to Rookhurst, before heading down a dirt track to perform in a near-century-old tin farm shed. It’s been happening since the Craven Creek Music Festival first kicked off in 2013, each year playing to a […]

DAVE Layzell MP, Member for Upper Hunter, has shared the news that the endangered Manning River turtle population appears to have bounced back from last year’s East Coast severe weather event. The storm swamped the MidCoast, Hunter coast and the Upper Hunter in May 2025, causing significant disruption native animals in those environments. Mr Layzell […]

Judges and winners: Marilyn Sanderson, Michael Duffy, Eva Brooks, Alison Gorman, Crystal Syned, Tess Nolan, John Hogan, Deb Pugh. Photo: Charlie Lethbridge Judges, Alison Gorman, Michael Duffy, Tess Nolan. Photo: Charlie Lethbridge THE winners of the inaugural Arts Gloucester Quills and Ink writing competition were announced on Saturday, 13 June. The competition grew from an […]

KOALA Azaliah and her joey Zali were hit by a car not long after 40 eucalyptus trees in their home were destroyed. Mother and baby recovered after intensive care at Northern Rivers Koala Hospital in Lismore, NSW, and were released back into the wild in October. But another joey, Guinevere, was not so fortunate, dying […]

MIDCOAST Council says the Manning River Underbore project remains on track, but has not ruled out water restrictions for northern parts of the MidCoast throughout October and November. The project reached a major milestone last week when a 750m pilot hole was successfully drilled under the Manning River, from Bootawa to Wingham. MidCoast Council’s Director […]

PICTURE this: you’re 23 years old, and while most of your peers are still navigating university or working out what to do with their lives, you’ve already chosen your destiny. Not fame, not fortune – but Mars. That’s the life of Alyssa Carson, a young American who has devoted almost every waking hour to one […]