Letters

PRIMEX READY TO SHINE IN 2022

RAIN, hail or shine Norco Primex 2022 is set to roll out the latest in farm and agribusiness equipment and knowhow from 9am this Thursday November 10 through to Saturday 12 at the Richmond Valley Events Centre on Cassino Drive off the Bruxner Highway at Casino.

Primex Field Days Director Bruce Wright say this year’s event offers everything those in the agri-business sector need to kick their business back into gear after three years many would prefer to forget. “We have 370 local, national and international exhibitors and more than a thousand suppliers making this year’s event the largest field day east of the ranges and the largest Primex Field Days in a decade,” Mr Wright said.

With one of the largest exhibits of tractors and machinery seen in the last ten years covering agriculture, building, construction, forestry and road transport, attendees will be able to see the latest equipment in action.

“We will also cover every aspect of business and innovation from operational needs through to agricultural technology, business recovery, the education sector, home lifestyle and the leisure market including caravans and recreational vehicles and road transport.”

Norco Primex 2022 will also highlight the paddock-to-plate experience featuring the Nourish Food Festival showcasing local producers and food in the Paddock to Plate Pavilion.

“We have a great range of high-quality caterers on-site covering every taste alongside cooking demonstrations by our chefs.”

Mr Wright said Primex Field Days also has a strong emphasis on education this year

“We aim to help foster the next generation of farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs,” he said.

“There is an entire range of exhibits covering primary, secondary and tertiary education designed to encourage the next generation to stay within the supply chain of agriculture and ideally follow opportunities within their region.

“The whole family can see what is available from agricultural studies right through to agricultural careers.”

“Norco Primex 2022 is also focussed on the future with opportunities available to establish on-going relationships with experts and industry representatives along with other producers.”

Mr Wright said this year’s Primex Field Days has something for everyone especially in the run up to Christmas.

“Families will get a lot out of it, we have live entertainment, the Nourish Food Festival in the big marquee and the beer garden as well as livestock displays and animal nurseries.”

“It’s the last big field day of the year and anyone travelling here might like to find a spot here on the beautiful northern rivers and have a bit of a family holiday in the run up to Christmas.”

Mr Wright said that Primex Field Days itself was a family-owned business that has faced the same challenges as everyone else over the past five years but was more than ready to forge ahead.

“Norco Primex 2022 is focussed on making a positive impact on our agricultural industries and local communities and we’re ready to gather and help celebrate innovation and the opportunities available in our farming and agribusiness industries.”

NORCO PRIMEX 2022

When: 9am-4pm Thursday 10th November Friday 11th November Saturday 12th November Where: Richmond Valley Events Centre on Cassino Drive off the Bruxner Highway at Casino, NSW.

For information go to:

NORCO PRIMEX 2022 IS PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

primex.net.au

Accommodation support after storms and foods

I your home has been dama ed in the foods you may be able to live in a caravan on your property. The NSW Government at-home caravan program will provide you with a temporary caravan. This means you can live on-site while your home is repaired and will help you stay connected to your nei hbours and community.

To fnd out i you’re eli ible or the at-home caravan pro ram and start the application process today. Visit nsw.gov.au/caravan

“Leemo has views on just about anything”

TAKE US BACK WHERE WE ‘BELONG’

What joyful tidings! (‘Leemo Cat’ reporting). ‘Mum Jane’ had the needle thingie in her knee last week, and I feel compelled to report the atmosphere in our house has lightened considerably. Certainly, Mum has a grumble growl every now & then, and observing her get out of her armchair wielding her walking stick, is, at times, confronting. e good thing is, she has stopped saying rude words which were due to pain, (so she says). To me, as a loving feline, this is conducive to a better home calmness. NOW, moving on. I saw on our TV and read in the newspapers about the Dad Lion and his 4 cubs taking a break from of where they live at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. I decided to ask Mum about this scenario. ‘Mum, how come they wandered o ? Do they not get many treats and stu , and warm snuggy caves with plush blankies & open plains whilst residing at Taronga? Why do you think they wanted to leave?’ Mum kinda stared at me as if I was asking her to oat in the air, like do something implausible. ‘Leems, please sit and listen ‘cos I have something to say.’ CRIKEY, she has taken her glasses o ...this is serious. ‘Leems, imagine, just for a millisecond, I decided to keep you in your ‘car travel’ container, 24 hours a day x 7 days a week. And, I just poked your treats at you through the bars every now & then. How would YOU feel?’ I had to ponder. e thought was daunting. Ooooh. I truly would HATE it, so I told her as such. ‘Well, Leems, I AM NOT a believer in keeping animals in captivity, so you are o the hook being caged ‘for now.’ Reading and observation Leems, tells me that the more an animal roams in the wild, the more it will su er in captivity. Whilst some animals MAY well thrive in captivity, other species die young, don’t reproduce, and show bizarre, repetitive behaviours. So, Leems, I was most heartened to know about the Taronga lions having a wee adventure outside? I don’t blame them one bit. Many years ago I lived in Sydney, and the house I lived in was just across the water from the Taronga Zoo. I would go to bed and hear the animals making sad sounds…kinda like saying ‘take me home’ please. As you know Leems, I also lived for some years in Africa. e beautiful animals roamed and lived contentedly. Now some are in ‘breeding programs’ at Zoos and other institutions, all locked up. No roaming the plains, hunting as a natural instinct, looking out for their young…in other words, they are not ‘living their best lives’ simply for the curiosity (and money making enterprises) of humans claiming ‘extinction’ can be xed.’ e main causes of extinction of wild animals is due to us humans, the loss and degradation of habitat (mainly deforestation), over exploitation (hunting, over shing), invasive species, climate change, and nitrogen pollution. So, Leems, round up your buddies, take the bus to Taronga Zoo, nd a way to release the Lions, and bring them to our place. We shall nd a way to send them back safely from whence they came.’ (PS..Leems, you will have to SHARE!) Crikey, there is much for me to do now. With contemplative worrying purrsies, Leemo.

Don’t tough it out on your own, call your Bank as soon as you are able to, they are ready to help.

Banks ready to help food

impacted communities

Banks ready to help food impacted communities

The Australian Banking Association said banks stand ready to support Australian communities hit by rain and devastating foods.

“We know more rain is on the way and this event has already affected many tens of thousands of Australians, it is a terribly diffcult time for those in regional areas affected,” Chief Executive Offcer, Anna Bligh said today.

“The message from banks is clear: don’t tough it out on your own, call your bank as soon as you are able to, they are ready to help. “Banks have very experienced hardship teams. They’ve worked with families who have experienced foods before and have a range of very practical measures to support people to get through these experiences,” Ms Bligh said. ABA member banks offer a range of measures to help customers affected by natural disasters. Depending on individual circumstances, assistance may include: • A deferral of scheduled loan repayments, on home, personal and some business loans for up to 3 months • Waiving of fees and charges, including for early access to term deposits • Debt consolidation

to help make repayments more manageable • Restructuring existing loans free of the usual establishment fees • • Offering additional fnance to help cover cash fow shortages • Deferring upcoming credit card payments • Emergency credit limit increases

Cane toad problem to be tackled again this season

For the third year running, Council is focusing on reducing cane toad popula-tions on the Tweed Coast with a suite of educational events and community toad busting initiatives.

Council has once again joined forces with not-forproft community environment group Watergum to run the Tweed Toad Busters program, aimed at stop-ping the advance of cane toads on the Tweed Coast before they have a chance to breed and multiply.

The citizen science program runs from now until April 2023 and will target cane toads at every life stage, from tadpole trapping through to toad busting.

The frst free event of the season will be held at the Kingscliff Community Hall on Wednesday 9 November from 6:30 pm to 8 pm (NSW time). This highly engaging event will teach the community about cane toads, their impacts, and effective techniques to reduce their numbers.

A special focus will be on the use of Watergum’s cane toad tadpole traps and lures, which can catch up to 4,000 tadpoles at a time.

Council’s project offcer - wildlife protection Emily Clarke said the aim this year was to build on the momentum gained during last season.

“We know that when we work together, we achieve greater results and our ef-forts will help to reduce our impact on the natural environment in the Tweed,” Ms Clarke said.

“The events are designed to be fun and easy for people to get involved in, with week-long toad busting challenges that include prizes and more convenient drop-off points, so residents don’t have to keep the toads in their freezers.

“We are also launching a new educational video which will help novice toad busters identify and humanely rid cane toads from their properties.”

Watergum’s cane toad program began on the Gold Coast in 2018 and was brought to the Tweed in 2020. Last season, the program successfully engaged 174 community members and resulted in the removal of around 2,223 cane toads from the environment.

Watergum’s invasive species manager Emily Vincent said research showed regular and thorough toad busting activities were the most successful way to control cane toads.

“Each female cane toad can lay up to 70,000 eggs per year, so removing adults from the environment before they can breed can have a big impact on their breeding capacity,” Ms Vincent said.

“Cane toads are now well established in 4 Australian states including Queens-land, NSW, the Northern Territory and Western Australia so it’s important the community bands together to fnd and eradicate this invasive pest.”

To register to attend the free cane toad trapping and information session at Kingscliff on Wednesday 9 November, and to watch the new educational video on this program, visit tweed.nsw.gov.au/canetoads.

For more information, email canetoads@ watergum.org or vis-it watergum.org/canetoads/.

Be the one that wonders…by Nigel Dawe

TO paraphrase arguably the western world’s first martyr to sound logic, if not clear thought, Socrates once implored, “All you need to be a good philosopher, is a sense of wonder.” I’d go even as far as to say: that the sense of wonder is outright essential to being the most well-rounded person we can be.

Nothing, when you think of it, transcends our response to something more than ‘wonderful’, there is no word or sensation that climbs higher or reaches further into the world than wonder. And equally, nothing is more reductive than an abject lack of being able to find wonder in our surroundings. Or as G.K. Chesterton once stoutly observed, “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.”

None other than the original moon-leaping astronaut himself, Neil Armstrong once said, “Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of humanity’s desire to understand.” To know, deeply feel and fathom as well. Wonder is the metaphysical master key that unlocks all doors, difficulties, deeds and demands. There is no force that can more clinically topple, albeit see right through the petty self-absorption of dictators and the empires they forge through their own obsessed and pampered idiocy.

Aptly, the American scholar Huston Smith once surmised, “The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” Not to mention an appreciation of the rights, differences, beauty, place, and presence of others. Ironically, the greater the sweep of someone’s ignorance, the smaller their world becomes, reduced to the point of containing nothing more than their own miniscule self.

As if prescribing the ultimate remedy for inserting, albeit insisting that wonder be a feature in our lives, Friedrich Nietzsche once chided, “Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?” And boredom, whilst being the mangey antithesis of wonder, is also its ultimate shady nemesis. It lethargically pulls the blinds down on all that wonder looks upon, celebrates, and sees clearly.

Boredom is often a deep cry for help when it isn’t a clear death cry of the soul; Winston Churchill himself, entered this rather gloomy ballpark by making, “I’m bored with it all,” the last thing he ever said before slipping into a coma and passing away some nine days later. Maybe the Nobel Prize winning author, Saul Bellow touched on something beyond dispute when he once gleaned, “Boredom is the conviction that you can’t change ... the shriek of unused capacities.”

Alternately, the final words of the ultimate computer supremo and doyen of wonder, Steve Jobs were heard to be, “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!” You can only imagine what was streaming through the heart and mind of this innovator to the very end. Though, when it comes to ‘parting’ words of polish, no one could ever surpass Humphrey Bogart’s cracker, “I should have never switched from Scotch to Martinis.” With the possible exception of Karl Marx, “Go on, get out – last words are for fools who have not yet said enough!”

Life Lessons: Bernadette Trela – All in the name of art

IN an age and era that elevates and spruiks everything it considers exceptional, but which often only amounts to little more than what other generations would’ve scoffed at. It is reassuring to know that there are still people cast from the most authentic, non-fckle of molds.

One such individual is Bernadette Trela, the Grafton-born and Sydney-imbued artist with the unfabricated personal distinction of having a last name that spells ‘alert’ backwards. Which is a handy twist of fate when it comes to etching a name for yourself in a feld that relies so heavily on your ability to notice – what others don’t.

Fittingly, the German fgure of culture par excellence, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, “You select a pattern and with that you mix your individuality: that’s the sum total of your art.” And when it comes to the pattern, added individuality and sum total of Ms Trela’s art, what you get is the refned accumulation of a life lived in absolute sync with artistic inclination and conviction.

Having left her hometown of Grafton for the bright lights of Sydney at the age of 17, returning many years later, Ms Trela said, “I’d always known I was an artist and told my father this from an early age. He would tease me with his thick Polish accent and humour, “Study Journalism, you will travel the world, Bernadette!”

But travel the world she did and refne her talents and artistic sensibilities every step of the way. One major highlight of her career was being invited to Ukaria Art Convention Centre in Mt Barker by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Diana Doherty to visually interpret the mood and atmosphere of live classical music in 12 pieces.

As for other highlights, Ms Trela is quick to reference meeting her partner Tim Lewis, who lived in the house of renowned artist Martin Sharp when they frst met. “Meeting some of my Australian ‘Artist Heroes’ was exciting, inspiring, encouraging and made anything seem possible for a time. These artists were mostly very real people, humble, gentle, vulnerable, and non-conformist; ‘my people’ and I felt comfortable, in awe but supported,” Ms Trela said.

Very graciously, Ms Trela is quick to defect attention away from herself, “I have painted a few paintings that I am happy with, and the collections they have gone into. But I’m most happy with the success of some of my very young students and the amazing older students from incredible backgrounds, they themselves are inspirations.”

When it comes to the ultimate advice, Ms Trela said, “Be kind to yourself, if you really want to do something fnd the people doing it! Go to University and gain as high an education as you can. Travel, seek out and fnd the good people rather than feel you have to fnd the good in people. Don’t settle for less! Stay curious and stay away from negative people who tell you what you can’t do.”

“And most importantly if people tell you to toughen up... don’t! Honour your sensitivity. A successful life is a life devoted to doing what you love and loving what you do. The freedom that comes with creating something that gives meaning and beauty to yourself and others.”

As such, you deeply sense that the trail Ms Trela has followed has been one of genuine meaning and beauty – both sought and found, for not just herself – but for everyone she has met along the way.

Bernadette Trela

MOTORING NEWS & REVIEWS 24 HOURS/7 DAYS A WEEK

National Award for Local Gardens

Sawtell Catholic Care’s ‘The Link’ community gardens have been named as the best in Australia, having received the coveted National Green Space Regional Award at the Australian Institute of Horticulture’s Awards Ceremony, held at Melbourne’s Rose Street Artists Markets on Friday 28 October 2022.

Sawtell Catholic Care CEO, Michael Darragh, said the Awards Ceremony featured a diverse range of national and international green space projects and celebrated the commitment and professionalism of those who have made a significant contribution to the horticultural industry.

“These awards are recognised as the pinnacle of achievement in Australia, so it has been both very exciting and humbling that our community gardens were selected as the winner amongst a very competitive nationwide field of regional nominations.”

Mr Darragh said the journey to develop The Link began with a local team of industry professionals coming together to design and create a beautiful, thriving and sustainable natural environment where people could connect with nature to support their physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

“Firstly, I would like to thank our Board Members and Sawtell Catholic Care’s Leadership Team for their continued support over the past five years, as it was a challenging project to deliver given the scale of works required to realise our ultimate vision for the five-acre site.”

“Thanks must also go to Garden Expressions’ Senior Landscape Designer Claudia Nevell, Design Professional Jim Booth from Casa Koala Architecture, F. M. Glenn Constructions and Lisa Daniel from The Design Cupboard for their collective input towards creating such an engaging environment.”

“What the team have managed to deliver is a natural destination which is also a physical expression of our mission in action, because it is a safe place where we can grow together as a community and nurture a shared understanding of care for our land, our environment and each other.”

“And it is vital during these busy and challenging times that we are able to connect with nature, as research recognises that horticulture can play an enormous role in our lives by creating naturebased experiences, which in turn promote healthy lifestyles and support our physical and mental wellbeing.”

The Link is located at 631 Hogbin Drive, Toormina and is open to the public for free, Monday to Saturday between 8:30am and 3pm, so you can connect with nature and explore the gardens, or simply sit back and relax with a coffee and a light meal or snack at The Link’s new Nyanggan Gapi Café.

Costa and Steve

Free solar - savings up to $600 on electricity bills

The NSW Government is ofering a new way to assist people on low incomes with their power bills by installing free solar systems for eligible households in place of their Low Income Household Rebate. This program aims to improve energy afordability by helping households unlock long terms savings on their electricity bills. While this means you will no longer receive the $285 annual rebate on your electricity bill, you could receive up to $600 in savings per year from your new solar system!

The ofer is only available to households that live in the specifed regions and meet the eligibility criteria. When participating in this program households will receive a free, fully installed 3kW solar system in place of their Low Income Household Rebate.

SAE Group are the approved provider, designing and installing solar systems to eligible homes in your region.

To be eligible you must: - Currently be receiving the Low Income Household Rebate - Agree not to receive the rebate for ten years - Own your own home - Not already have a solar PV system - Hold a valid Pensioner Concession Card or a Department of Veteran Afairs Gold Card - If you are not the registered homeowner, but your spouse is, you may be considered eligible collectively as a household

A 3kW system is designed to generate an average of 12.6kwh per day, which will deliver electricity savings depending on each household’s energy consumption. Managing Director of SAE Group Glen Ashton comments “We know electricity bills continue to place a lot of pressure on households, and we are pleased to be working with the NSW Government to help ease the pressure on low income households.”

SAE Group are an Australian owned and operated organisation with over ten years’ experience in the solar industry. SAE Group are a Clean Energy Council Approved Retailer, and hold accreditations ISO 9001, ISO 45001 for safety and quality systems. Safety is paramount to us, and it our goal to ensure we provide quality solar systems to eligible households that will deliver ongoing savings for many years to come.

Want to fnd out more? Visit: https://energysaver.nsw.gov.au/solar-low-income-households to check your eligibility and apply online or visit www.saegroup.com.au or call us on 02 66 389 439. The Solar for Low Income Household Ofer is supported by the NSW Government.

Are you eligible for free solar?

Save up to $600 in electricity bills!

SAE Group is the approved provider, designing & installing solar systems for the NSW Government Solar for Low Income Households Offer.

Get in touch with SAE Group today to find out more 1300 18 20 50 www.saegroup.com.au