Bendigo Bank has dipped into their coffers once again, donating $60000 to the Hydrotherapy Pool Committee.

The donation is the final influx of funds the committee needed to get the project into the construction stage.

“Once again, it is because people in the community bank with Bendigo that we are able to contribute to worthy causes to benefit the community,” Branch Manager Sandra Dolan said.

Former resident Lucina Hogan was recently appointed to the board of Meat & Livestock Australia.

At the recent annual general meeting held in Bendigo Ms Hogan received 91.54 per cent of the favourable vote. She is one of nine directors leading the national organisation.

The Senate has passed the Murray-Darling Basin Plan amendment bill following a deal made by the Albanese government and the Greens.

The bill passed on Thursday afternoon. It will now go back to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass.

The Federal environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, said that the deal includes a commitment - in law - that an extra 450GL of environmental water will be recovered by 2027.

Hay could have its own university by as early as next year.

A pilot campus for Country University Centre in partnership with TAFE Connected Learning Centre has been proposed, and to be known as CUC Hay.

As reported by Hay Shire Council in October and in The Riverine Grazier on November 15, Hay had been identified as a good fit for CUC Southern Riverina which would also include the Councils of Berrigan, Edward River and Murray River.

Hay Shire Council celebrated the official opening of a trio of projects on Friday.

To commence celebrations, a large group gathered alongside the Murrumbidgee River at Maude, to celebrate the opening of the new Maude Bridge.

The official party included Helen Dalton, Members for Murray, Senator Deborah O’Neill and Member for Farrer Sussan Ley.

Also in attendance was the mayor and councillors from Cumberland City Council, Hay’s sister council, as well as local Hay Shire councillors.

Photo gallery from Balranald Southern Cross Centre’s open day, commemorating the 90th anniversary of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s visit.

Massive crowds gathered at three simultaneous rallies in Deniliquin, Griffith and Leeton last week.

The protests against water buybacks to reach Murray Darling Basin Plan targets was a National Farmers’ Federation initiative, supported by the Speak Up Campaign.

The rally included trucks, tractors and farm equipment, driven to each gathering by angry farmers and irrigators.

The capture of US-based journalist Evan Gershkovich by Russia has rightly become an international incident, but behind the headlines and politics is a family desperate to see their son returned safely to them.

“I can’t even imagine how hard it is for him to fight every day to keep himself mentally and physically strong,” his mother said.

Mayor Carol Oataway has been nominated by Hay Shire Council to apply for a board position on the proposed Country Universities Centre (CUC) Southern Riverina.

Margaret Young (Bolitho) is one of the new recruits following her return to Hay from South Africa where she lived for most of her married life.

Image: The Riverine Grazier/Margie McClelland.

Pictured are John Perry, Noel Corliss, Dick Van Buuren, Don Butler, Peter Bisset, Tom Lugsdin, Alex Curtis, and Rob Rob Young.

Front: David Marshall and Eddie Redfern.

They are some of the winners of trophies at the Annual Presentation.

71 years ago Marg Beckwith, then five-year-old Margaret Short stepped off the good ship Dorsetshire onto Australian soil at Sydney Harbour.

She was accompanied by her parents and little brother Jim, aged two, and the family had travelled from Scotland as ’10 pound Poms’. Marg was born in 1947 in Stirling, a small city in central Scotland, within 50 kilometers of Glasgow and Edinbugh.

Marg shares her vivid memories of the trip across the ocean to sunny Australia.

Before Hollywood descended on the southern Riverina township of Hay, in NSW, to film part of ‘Mad Max Furiosa’ in 2022 the tiny township already boasted an impressive bio.

Movies such as ‘True love & Chaos,’ ‘Child Lost on Goolumbulla’ and ‘Charlie and Boots’ have been filmed at Hay, as well as the dark TV series ‘Mr Inbetween’, TV advertisements and Shannon Noll’s award winning film clip.

Hay Shire Council and Hay Plains Landcare Group have formed a partnership to address the beautification of the South Hay roundabout precinct.

And the Landcare group is keen to recruit volunteers.

Those driving down Lachlan Street would no doubt have noticed the bright and attractive new signage adorning the shopfront of Mackers Meats.

Gary McRae is passionate about the need for signage in the shopping districts of towns.

In addition to enlisting Anthony Slattery Painting to create some eye-catching business signs for the butchery, he is also getting new awnings.