Space radar unveiled
2 COLLIE RIVER VALLEY BULLETIN, FEBRUARY 2, 2023
AAAAAA What's on, When and Where Markets Country markets Saturday, Wallsend ground 8am to 1pm. Goods Shed markets Sunday 8am-12noon Bingo Collie Eagles football clubrooms, Thursdays, doors open 6.30pm, eyes down 7pm. Library activities Sing along story time, weekly, Mondays, 9am Junior board game starts today, then fortnightly Thursdays 3.30pm. Lego Club weekly Mondays, 3.30pm. Parkrun Parkrun at Soldiers’ Park every Saturday, 8am. Walk or run at your own pace. Fun and fitness is the focus. Collie Child and Parent Centre Playgroup Mondays at 9.00am (for parents and carers with children birth to 5 years old). MyTime support group (for parents and carers with children with additional needs) Tuesdays from 12.30pm. Baby Business (for parents and carers with children birth to 2 years) Fridays at 9.00am. For more information call 9734 3364 or drop in at 6 Cable Street Collie. Collie Art Gallery Open Thursdays to Mondays, 10am to 4pm. Coalfields Museum Open every day, 9am to 3pm. Children under 16 free with an adult. Riff Raff dancing Every Monday from 7pm at Collie PCYC. Beginners welcome, no partner necessary. Supper provided. Cost is $5 per person. Signing centre Monday 10am to 12-noon; Thursday 2pm-3.30pm; Friday 10am to 12-noon at the courthouse. Op shops The Anglican Op Shop has reopened, Tuesday to Friday, from 9am to 3pm. Vinnies open Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 3pm. Jo’s Bazaar, Monday and Thursday, 9am to 12pm. Send it in This column offers free publication of events for not for profit clubs and organisations, or for items of social news. If you would like to have details of your events or organisation published in this column, send copy to nola.crvbulletin@ gmail.com or classies@crvbulletin.com. Deadline 5pm on Fridays.
THE LeoLabs West Australian Space Radar (WASR) was commissioned on Tuesday in Worsley. The commissioning ceremony was held at the site of the radar, and included LeoLabs leadership and international guests, federal and state politicians, local elders and community leaders, as well as members of the Australian Space Agency and the Australian Defence Force. LeoLabs is the leading commercial provider of low Earth orbit (LEO) mapping and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) services. It provides superior information in the dynamic space era through its ver-
tically integrated space operations stack and globally networked space radars. In collaboration with the LeoLabs Kiwi Space Radar in the South Island of New Zealand, Collie’s site will allow for tracking and monitoring of median to high inclination resident space objects in LEO in the heart of the Indo-Pacific region. The two radar sites will also increase LeoLabs capacity to discover new objects, including lethal, small debris that are currently non-trackable. During the ceremony, local aboriginal elder Joe Northover said he was impressed when he saw the radar.
FINALISTS: Dianne Clark and Cheryl Rochester are finalists in this year’s Collie Art Prize.
Local artists contend for $50,000 TWO local artists are finalists in the $50,000 Collie Art Prize (CAP). Dianne Clark and Cheryl Rochester are among 47 finalists chosen from 360 entries from around Australia. The winner will be announced at an opening night function on Saturday, March 4. The Collie Art Prize is one of regional Australia’s richest art prizes, and started in 2018. Its ongoing theme is “identity”. Mrs Rochester said she chose the Collie open cut mine as the subject of her painting. “Coal is relevant to Collie and we’re transitioning into the next phase of what Collie’s going to be like,” she said. “I felt we had to address the fact that we are a coal mining town and that was important to me and a lot of people.” Mrs Clark said she was “ecstatic” to be a finalist. Her painting features the end of her studio where she sits to contemplate whether she has finished an art piece. “It’s where I sit and have my coffee
quietly, or a glass of wine, or read a book,” she said. Collie Art Gallery deputy chairperson and art organiser Don Clark said the art prize could not go ahead without local support. “We’re incredibly grateful for the support we’ve had in 2018, 2020 and again in 2023,” he said. “We’ve had a tremendous response from local businesses in helping provide the operating funds we need to run an event of this magnitude.” The finalists were selected by the director of the Art Gallery of WA, Colin Walker, Lester Prize chief executive, Annie Silberstein, and freelance art advocate Kelly Gellatly. First prize is $50,000, while other awards include two second prizes to host an exhibition at the gallery, The People’s Choice award of up to $1500, the Best West Australian award of $1250 and the Pollie Packers’ Prize of $1000. There is also a kids’ prize in the “KID-Entity” program.
UNVEILED: LeoLabs Australia president and managing director Terry van Haren (left), with chief executive officer Dan Ceperley at the commissioning of the LeoLabs West Australian Space Radar (WASR) in Worsley on Tuesday. “To me, a disk is supposed to be a big plate pointing upward,” he joked. “As soon as I saw this, I thought ‘that’s a skate park!’ “But it is a job well done - science has come so far. Science to me was walking into a science room at Collie Senior High School and seeing frogs and stuff in jars. “I am proud that we can share this with the rest of the world.” Mr Northover acknowledged the radar’s important role in looking after “sky country”, which the First Nations people of Australia have observed for tens of thousands of years as the world’s first astronomers. “All of these different people have come from different places to see the stars,” he said. LeoLabs chief executive officer and co-founder Dan Ceperley visited from California and said it was a big occasion for the company. “The radar is a huge milestone globally in space safety and for LeoLabs,” he said. “Australia is now host to a landmark in the world of space safety. “At LeoLabs we are honoured and humbled to be a part of the Australian space ecosystem and to have found so many supporters and partners in Australia.” LeoLabs announced its plans to build its sixth radar site near Bunbury in Western Australia in October 2021. Site work began in April 2022 with construction finishing in November and operational testing completed in December. The US manufactured radars were assembled by a consortium of local Australian companies under the supervision of LeoLabs Australia. Despite the COVID pandemic, local engineering companies completed the project in eight months.
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