News Updates

CALLING all amateur sleuths and detectives….An old wooden mallet was handed in to the Coonamble Times on Wednesday 29 July by Pilliga district resident Austyn McDowell.It is roughly 22 centimetres wide, with a broken handle.The so-called Mighty Mallet has an inscribed plaque on it, with the earliest … [Read more...] about The mystery of the‘Mighty Mallet’

Agents, buyers and sellers at last Thursday’s cattle sale welcomed some new faces on the catwalk – representing the Castlereagh Regional Abattoir. It has been almost exactly twenty years since the founders of the Abattoir, the Scott Family, closed the gates on an enterprise that had operated … [Read more...] about New partners hands-on in abattoir preparations

The Independent Planning Commission (IPC) Panel on the first day of the hearings. SOURCE: IPC Twitter. THE controversial Narrabri Gas Project has drawn so many community responses that the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has extended the project’s public hearings to seven days. The … [Read more...] about Record registrations for Narrabri Gas Project public hearings

IN 2019, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) introduced a mandatory safety standard for quad bikes (ATVs), including the compulsory fitting of operator protection devices (OPDS) on all new quad bikes at the point of sale.The new safety requirements come into place in … [Read more...] about The quad bike conundrum

Clancy, Katie, Ryan and Charlie were excited to be at ‘Shawwood’ protesting the coal seam gas project that The Great Artesian Basin Protection Group say threatens their futures. “I have one of these stickers on my tractor,” said Charlie. By KEA BROWNING ON Wednesday 24 June, a group of 40 … [Read more...] about Next generation say no to Narrabri Gas Project

Whilst other NSW country rugby league competitions have decided to pull the pin on the COVID-19 affected 2020 season, the Christie and Hood Castlereagh League will be kicking off their competition on July 18. A Castlereagh League meeting on Sunday 21 June in Gilgandra endorsed a competition which … [Read more...] about Bush footy to kick on in the Castlereagh League

THERE was a familiar buzz around Coonamble last Thursday 11 June as the Associated Agents hosted their first Fat & Store Cattle Sale in three long years. "We yarded close to 1100 prime cattle - 900 fat and 150 store - and there was one of the biggest galleries of buyers I've seen since the … [Read more...] about Prices and spirits soar at sale

The campaign continues: Flashback to the Coonamble community march against CSG on 22 March 2014. Campaigner Anne Kennedy front right. NATIONAL Party MPs from around NSW are bearing the brunt of a community backlash after a vote on the Coal Seam Gas Moratorium Bill was rushed through both houses … [Read more...] about NSW won’t ‘press pause’ on coal seam gas

By KEA BROWNING On Tuesday 26 May, students at Coonamble Public School commemorated National Sorry Day. National Sorry Day has been held in Australia since 1998, to remember and commemorate the mistreatment and suffering of the Stolen Generation, who were forcibly taken from their … [Read more...] about Singing out for National Sorry Day

FOR more than a decade, photographer Neville Owen had been preparing to hand ownership of his vast photographic collection to his beloved Coonamble community so both his original photographs and the historic images he had collected would be available to future generations. With assistance from … [Read more...] about Neville’s lasting legacy