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MARCH 18-24, 2021 | LOCALLY OWNED & INDEPENDENT | FREE!
REACH FOR THE SKY WHEN you come in to land (whether by air or road) at the Narromine Aviation Museum, a squadron of red-t-shirt-clad volunteers is there to greet you with a warm, well informed welcome and the offer of a rare glimpse into the rich airborne history of the region. The museum, established in 2002 by legendary icon of the air Nancy Bird Walton, and extended again in 2016, has become the flag-bearer for the aviation history of not only Narromine, but the nation. It’s thanks largely to the contribution of this dedicated band of community minded local volunteers that the museum has not only survived and thrived throughout the ups and downs of regional fortunes, but is now looking to further spread its wings with the addition of some unique slices of aviation history for the already remarkable collection housed under its vast roof. Dubbo Photo News landed in Narromine recently for a flying visit with some of the volunteers.
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PHOTO: Dubbo Photo News/Steve Cowley
CUT-PRICE FLIGHTS Local tourism, airport and health suffer under new half-price airfare scheme THE federal government’s controversial half-price airfare package has been slammed by those in the regions who claim the little guys have missed out, again. Dubbed a ‘tourism support package’, the $1.2 billion scheme will subsidise half of 800,000 airline tickets to 15 ‘tourism dependent’ destinations around Australia from the beginning of next month. Among the 15 destinations
listed, there are four Queensland locations, including the Gold Coast, Whitsundays, Cairns and Sunshine Coast, but just one in New South Wales, Merimbula. Mayor of Dubbo Ben Shields believes regional NSW has been overlooked, and says the scheme is not only detrimental to the town’s tourism and airport but also important health services. “It’s not just tourism that is suffering from this, Dubbo is a huge medical hub and before COVID, each and every morning literally dozens of medical professionals
would fly into Dubbo, effectively Fly-in-Fly-out (FIFO) doctors, and fly out that afternoon,” he told Dubbo Photo News. “Now, we have nowhere near the number of flights coming into Dubbo compared to what we used to, so therefore, a lot of the medical professionals are finding it hard to get the time that they require to land and to leave, so the decline of our aviation industry has caused it to be harder for our medicos and that is certainly something that we don’t need. “If they had a boost in tour-
ism numbers here, that would mean the airlines would be able to put extra flights on which in turn, would help a lot of our issues when it comes to health services.” Dubbo Regional Airport is also suffering the ongoing implications of the pandemic and these cheap new airfares are only doing more damage by luring holidaymakers away from places like Dubbo, to other parts of the country. Continued page 2
Dubbo Regional Airport Advisory Panel chairman, Greg Mohr. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
SOLVING THE HOUSING LOCAL ARTIST SUPPLY CRISIS PAGE 3 SHARES ‘HERSTORY’
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By LYDIA PEDRANA
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