Getting trains back on track

By Samantha Elley

Alstonville Public School has walked away with the gold in the recent International Tournament of Minds held at La Trobe University in Melbourne nearly two weeks ago.

The team of Year 6 students: Nahla Turner,

“They had two challenges they had to complete,” said Amy.

“There was a long term one where they were in a room for three hours.”

The project involved creating artwork, dances and performances. The action was performed in a 3x3 metre squared space.

“I think they were super excited to win the La Trobe water bottle,” laughed Amy.

“They were over the moon with the win.

“There was a lot of cheering, especially as we were representing NSW.”

Amy said the girls

By Samantha Elley

Recently, a meeting to reinstate trains in the New England area had been held in Tenterfeld, and this was reported in The Northern Rivers Times.

debated at a date to be confrmed.

“This follows considerable efforts by the larger train reinstatement body Trains thousands of litres (of) diesel fuel daily and is the only east coast train line capable of matching the speed of trucks.

Bridget Farrelly-Wight, Charlotte Davis-Job, Cleo Wynd and Year 5 students Trixie Gillett and Ashor Kincade rocked the Arts segment of the competition.

After winning the NSW fnals in September, they headed to Melbourne with teachers Amy Gartside and Dave Hutchins and their parents to come up against all the other states and New Zealand.

“At one point there was a spontaneous task of 10 minutes where they were judged on their creativity,” said Amy.

“They were confdent with their spontaneity as they had received good feedback from the state fnals.” and their friends and families had worked very hard to make it to the international fnals.

The talented six ended up walking away with the winners medal, a trophy and a gift pack from La Trobe University.

“They raised all the money themselves, as they didn’t receive any government handouts,” she said.

“They work really well as a cohesive team and they have been very grateful for all of the support from our school.”

The meeting promoted a petition to highlight the issue, and now with 10,749 hardcopy signatures, it was tabled at a ceremony at Armidale train station which was attended by residents from Tenterfeld, Glen Innes and Armidale.

The petition is now in the hands of State Parliament to be

North Inc representing people from the New England area deprived of reasonable public transport between central NSW and (the) Queensland Darling Downs areas,” a spokesperson for Trains North Inc said.

“Our studies indicate this train line can replace the hundreds of trucks on the New England Highway, saving hundreds of

“The missing link between Armidale and Wallangarra requires state gov support and we seek (to commission) a professional engineering study to clarify the project.”

Attached photo from Armidale Train Station includes the petition and left to right Rob Lenehan, Karin Von Strockirch, Billy Wood, Mathew Tierney, Joy King,