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Thursday, October 13, 2022
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Airship over Narwonah
Optus hack was a Roses bloom data breach despite weather STORY: PAGE 6
STORY: PAGE 4
STORY & PHOTOS: PAGE 15
Crunch time for Trangie Magpies
What a wet, wild week in the central west
By SHARON BONTHUYS
By SHARON BONTHUYS
WHEN the Trangie Magpies Rugby League Club holds its Annual General Meeting (AGM) later this month, it will be the third attempt in as many months. The fi rst two times, August 25 and September 21, had to be abandoned due to lack of attendance. Will it be third time lucky for the struggling club? Will those who care about the club and its future in Trangie step up, show up and put their hands up to help keep it alive? Club president Luke Phillips hopes so, because October’s AGM is crunch time. If the October meeting cannot fi ll the executive positions in the committee, or field enough members to make a quorum to vote, the club will fold. Plain and simple. The proud club with an even prouder history will no longer exist. Luke is spearheading the mission to save the club from folding and to return to competition in 2023. “We folded half way through this year due to lack of players and lack of helpers,” Luke said. Both the men’s and women’s teams pulled out of the Christie and Hood Castlereagh League, unable to field teams for several matches or afford the hefty fees that would come with forfeiting matches.
TWO wet weather systems hit the Narromine Shire and other parts of the central west NSW last week, dumping more than a month’s rain on already saturated land. Between Wednesday and Saturday, the two systems caused widespread flooding across large swathes of the central west as well as other parts of NSW as local rivers and waterways were simply unable to cope with the heavy rainfall and run-off. On October 4, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warned of the impending monster system stretching from Tasmania to north Queensland. It rolled in on October 5, bucketing entire states including Tasmania, Victoria and NSW, as well as the ACT and about two-thirds of Queensland. After the fi rst wave of wet weather, a low pressure system brought fresh misery over the weekend, with torrential rain falling for much of Saturday. A self-serve sandbagging station was set up at the Narromine Showground next to the pavilion, with residents invited to bring a shovel and prepare their own sandbags. The downpour dumped masses of water on the Tomingley Road, forcing its closure, and further misery on the McGrane Way/Tullamore Road which was already closed from the previous
Continued page 22
Noel Powell Fields on October 9. PHOTO: NARROMINE STAR. weather event. For a period of time, water over the Mitchell Highway cut access to Dubbo. Trangie received 33.8 mm in the Saturday rain dump according to rainfall data, but we were unable to get figures for Tomingley. On Sunday at Narromine, the Macquarie-Wambuul River had begun to seep into the Noel Powell rugby league
playing fields and the Narromine Shire Council had closed off the entry to Rotary Park to vehicles and foot traffic. At that stage it was possible to walk down to the river’s edge where the signposts to the boat ramp were almost completely submerged.
on the goal posts, an estimated peak of 12.8 metres according to the BOM but possibly higher. Neighbouring Rotary Park was almost completely submerged, too, with the roof and top section of the playground equipment poking out of the floodwater.
The following day, Monday, October 10, the river had risen to just below the crossbars
Continued page 3
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