27/08/2008 | AS word spreads about the new after-hours GP service in Forster more and more people are making the most of it.
Forster Private Hospital (formerly known as the Cape Hawke Community Private Hospital) executive officer Karon Devenish said up to eight patients a night are now using the service.
27/08/2008 | A TEENAGE driver who led police on a high speed chase through Bulahdelah on Saturday was stopped with road spikes, and will face court on dangerous driving charges.
27/08/2008 | HE’S peddled halfway round the world on a battered Centurion bike, but Mohammad Tajeran doesn’t plan to rest long at the Great Lakes.
“I want to go to the Philippines, all of southeast Asia, and then on to Japan,” he said.
27/08/2008 | OFFERED a plate of whale in Japan, exchange student Sarah Jefferson decided to pass.
“I just thought “no, I don’t want to eat that. Let’s not open up that issue”.”
27/08/2008 | A NABIAC Credit Union branch slated to close has been saved by eleventh-hour talks between locals and bosses.
The Holiday Coast Credit Union branch was earmarked to be scaled back to just an ATM and a deposit service, but will carry on as normal for at least three months after a public forum earlier this month changed managers’ minds.
27/08/2008 | AN elderly driver made an unscheduled visit to Forster’s Main Beach on Saturday morning – and so did her car.
The 73-year-old Tuncurry woman drove her 2007 Mazda 3 straight through the beach’s southern car park, demolished a park bench and flew over a retaining wall onto the sand. The car came to rest after 25 metres, and the woman was unhurt.
27/08/2008 | THE quality of life offered by the Great Lakes is among the worst in Australia, according to a new study.
Dismal poverty, unemployment and crime figures have made Great Lakes the state’s eighth-worst area in the BankWest Quality of Life Index. Of 590 Australian local government areas (LGA) listed, Great Lakes languishes at number 559.
20/08/2008 | LABOR candidates will have the benefit of the ‘donkey’ vote at next month’s Great Lakes Council election after being picked first at last week’s ballot draw.
20/08/2008 | THE entries are rolling in - pardon the pun - to Richard Old’s team ‘Is there any fat in that?’
Mr Old, who also happens to be the Great Lakes Tourism manager, has entered the Forster Anaconda Adventure race in a two-person team with Danielle Donnelly.
20/08/2008 | A FORSTER man was stabbed in the throat on Friday night, but claimed the wound was self-inflicted even though police arrested a woman over what they thought was an attack.
20/08/2008 | A SLEEPING couple was terrorised at Tuncurry on Friday night when three intruders broke into a Wharf St apartment and demanded money.
20/08/2008 | EVERY judo bout I’ve ever seen has involved Maria Pekli. I’ve seen three.
The Australian missed out on the 57kg women’s bronze last Monday when she lost to Brazil’s Ketleyn Quadros. I can now tell you Pekli competed for Hungary in 1992 and 96 before migrating to Australia and, at 36, she’s probably had her last Games.
20/08/2008 | GREAT Lakes students saw some strange people at the City2Surf.
“There were Teletubbies, Smurfs, men in budgie smugglers, people from Dancing with the Stars, Spidermen and people with tools stuck to their heads,” Great Lakes College’s Kieran Hennessy said.
20/08/2008 | A TEN storey apartment block at Forster’s Head St is set to go ahead after a court hearing breathed life into rejected plans.
The project was reviewed by the Land and Environment Court, and court-appointed expert Stewart Verity deemed the building suitable for its 43 Head St site.
13/08/2008 | A 20 CENT gap between Sydney and rural NSW petrol has sparked claims of price fixing, but service stations have hit back with allegations they are unfairly targeted.
Sydney vendors were offering unleaded for as low as $1.40 a litre on Friday, but Forster’s average price over the same week was $1.60.
13/08/2008 | HOW do you pick the highlight of a life-changing, emotionally charged journey to a country so different from your own?
For many of the eight Great Lakes College students who travelled to Vanuatu last month it was an impossible task.
13/08/2008 | CANDIDATES at September’s local council elections face huge fines or jail time if they break campaign contribution laws that started recently.
13/08/2008 | GREAT Lakes photographer Keith Davies has taken out first prize in the prestigious Queensland National Circuit at Redcliffe with his stunning image The Burning Ghats India.
13/08/2008 | HOW do you tell teenagers drinking isn’t cool?
That’s the challenge for educator Paul Dillon, who spoke to years 10 and 11 at Great Lakes College Tuncurry campus last week.
The answer is, incidentally, you don’t.
13/08/2008 | WHEN James Castrission last came to Forster, he wasn’t famous. Then he launched a kayak from Cape Hawke Harbour, paddled through two months of exhaustion, made the world hold its breath and landed in New Zealand.
Now, if you Google ‘Castrission’, the first page of results is articles about his voyage with best friend Justin Jones.