Latest news with #WaggaWagga
News.com.au
3 days ago
- General
- News.com.au
Wagga, Taree best bets, inside mail for Thursday, June 5, 2025
Racenet and The Daily Telegraph form analyst Adam Sherry provides his best bets and quaddie analysis at Wagga and Taree on Thursday. â– â– â– â– â– WAGGA TIPS BEST BET Race 4 No.7: DEFLECTOR Just nosed out last start and can go one better here. NEXT BEST Race 3 No.11: SHEBRINGS BEAUTY Hasn't been far away in recent runs and gets her chance to break through. VALUE BET Race 7 No.10: SMART POPPY Will appreciate a big drop in weight and stepping up to his pet trip. QUADDIE Race 4: 3, 7, 10 Race 5: 1, 2, 3, 7 Race 6: 1, 2, 3 Race 7: 2, 5, 8, 10 JOCKEY TO FOLLOW BLAIKE McDOUGALL has a solid book of rides and will be popular in the TAB Jockey Challenge. WAGGA INSIDE MAIL RACE 4: MAIDEN PLATE (1300m) DEFLECTOR (7) was held up early in the straight when third to Master Patrick over 1000m first-up in a Super Maiden here. Raced a little keen when a nose second to Sundrop over 1200m at Corowa. Up to 1300m and gets a nice run from the draw. TRIUMPHANT TONIC (6) was caught three-wide without cover when fifth behind big winner Watoto when resuming Wodonga on May 24. Runner-up in both second-up runs. SANTOLINI (10) has been mixing her form but has place claims on her last start fourth at Albury. BET: DEFLECTOR to win. PROPHET'S PROMISE (3) is a first starter by Divine Prophet from the 100 per cent producer Virginia Breeze. Settled just off the leaders and worked to the line nicely without pressure when second to Yindyamarra in his Canberra Acton trial on May 23. YINDYAMARRA (7) is also on debut. went forward speed to sit outside the leader before going to the front on straightening and holding Prophet's Promise by a length. MO SPIRIT (2) drifted back before closing nicely for second to The Bat Fox on debut on the Riverside track here. BET: PROPHET'S PROMISE to win. LET'S GO BRANDON (3) took improvement from his first-up fourth to Secure at Canterbury and dropped back to country grade to score a smart all-the-way win from London Boy at Goulburn. Wide gate just makes his task a little more difficult. ALL ASTERN (2) was just behind the placegetters in her first two runs back from a spell over 1200m before dropping back to 1000m and leading all-the-way at Canberra. Went back-to-back with a nice effort to beat The Mooch over 1000m at Queanbeyan. GALSTON GORGE (1) won impressively first-up last time in. BET: LET'S GO BRANDON to win. SMART POPPY (10) was slow out settling back in the field and was crowded at the 300m before closing for fifth to Grinzinger Moon with 60kg over 1175m at Albury first-up. Drops to 55kg, up to his pet trip and has three wins and two placings for six runs second-up. BLOW IN (2) was a handy third to The Dramatist at Dubbo before a second to Champions League in the Defence Cup over 1460m at Queanbeyan last start. MOSGOLD (5) drops back from a fifth on the Kensington last start. BET: SMART POPPY each-way. â– â– â– â– â– TAREE TIPS BEST BET Race 3 No.1: DARK STRATUM Beaten a head in town three runs back then had a tough run last start. NEXT BEST Race 4 No.7: OTIUM Nice win two starts ago. Back in distance and likes it wet. TAREE INSIDE MAIL RACE 4: WINGHAM CUP (1600m) OTIUM (7) sat outside the leader to score a tough win from Sweet Bubbles over 1700m at Scone before a fourth to Eclair Awesome over 1870m at Newcastle. Back to the mile handles it heavy. WEALTHY INVESTOR (4) is enjoying the heavy tracks of late with a win and two placings from his last five starts. Backing up from a third to Super Nui at Hawkesbury last week. VEANDECHANCE (1) won well over this track and distance two starts back before a break. Will improve off his recent Grafton run. BET: OTIUM to win. RACE 5: BENCHMARK 82 HANDICAP (1250m) GOLD CARD (1) ran down Dis Is Heaven to claim the Hannam Cup over 1007m first-up here on Mar 17. He then went to Canterbury on Apr 21 when seventh to Cassiel over 1100m. Up to 1250m where he is unbeaten in four starts at the track and distance. TIME FOR VICTORY (2) scored his first win here when he came from midfield to beat Zoom Outcome over 1000m on a Heavy 10 on May 13. ZARU (5) scored back-to-back wins here in January. Checked in the last 100m when well back behind Time For Victory first-up on May 13. BET: GOLD CARD to win. MISS REBEL (2) was beaten just over three lengths by Massira in a TAB Highway at Randwick first-up then raced wide without cover when a nose second to So You Suggest at Mudgee. Up sharply in grade when 10th to Zealously at the Scone stand-alone meeting. Back to her right grade. KAYZ TIME (4) went back-to-back at Port Macquarie and here in January before being well beaten in a Rosehill Highway. Resumes here and will make her presence felt. PUNCH ONE OUT (3) is progressive type who broke through for his maiden win in impressive style when a near four-and-a-half length winner at Port Macquarie first-up. Worked forward from the outside gate to lead when fifth to Sheila's Fanta Sea here last start. Stablemate GOLDEN HONOUR (2) was wide throughout when second to Rathoran at Port Macquarie two starts back. Raced keenly when fourth to Rathoran here last start. ZELESTIAL (8) scored a nice win on a heavy track at her Australian debut at Tamworth.
SBS Australia
3 days ago
- Business
- SBS Australia
Could Australia's cost of living crisis have a silver lining for First Nations communities?
According to the head of Australia's fastest growing Aboriginal housing provider, the current cost of living crisis could provide opportunities for First Nations communities to address long overlooked concerns. Wiradjuri man and Birribee Housing CEO Paul Coe told NITV's The Point that issues like housing affordability and rising costs are now impacting Australians from all backgrounds. We Put The Blak In Blacktown 'When you look at current issues around cost of living ... things that have been a concern for Aboriginal communities for years, society's now joined them in this space,' he said. 'Society is now saying this is an election issue, which makes it a sweet spot for Aboriginal people to push and push for these outcomes as best they can.' Birribee Housing was established by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council in 2019 and now manages hundreds of properties across the state as well as having involvement in major developments like the renewal of Tolland Estate in Wagga Wagga. In Blacktown, home to the country's largest urban Indigenous population, Birribee manages more than 120 properties and operates an Aboriginal homelessness service in the region. 'It's often a sum loss game," said Coe. "There's more money going out than coming in, and it's difficult, particularly in the Aboriginal housing space when the stock in Western Sydney [is] quite aged. 'They're barely standing up. Old cottages that are cold, that are hot, and somehow society accepts that.' Mr Coe said that a broader approach was needed to go beyond the current closing the gap focus on reducing overcrowding. 'We know that homelessness is probably more often than not an outcome of a former institution," he said. "You've been in out-of-home care, you've been in jail, you've been in mental health, or there's been some other institutional effects on you. 'Your pathway to that hasn't been shaped by yourself or your family.... Aboriginal families lean into their family a lot for support, and so we hide that homelessness to a large degree. "But that hiding ... creates its own pressure points in households financially as well as wear and tear, and pressure across schools and everything else.' With around 60,000 people waitlisted for public housing across NSW, the need for new dwellings is critical. However Dharug Elder Uncle Chris Tobin said that growth shouldn't come at the expense of Country. 'This is the hard part for particularly TOs, or traditional custodians looking after their ancestral Country. We've still got that job,' he explained. 'We've got to keep looking at ways to rescue our Country and it's just so hard to do with this model of development that just wants more and more and more and which doesn't add to anyone's quality of life. 'Sadly, I think it's all about dollars and I think the health of the Country will take us in a direction that will be good for us ... "When the Country's healthy, we'll be healthy.' Paul Coe agreed that communities should use the increased political focus on housing solutions to advocate for the ongoing inclusion of culture and respect for the health of the land. 'They do become a real tangible election issue as we've seen through Labor and the push federally around housing,' he said. 'The difficulty you have is around this lack of bipartisan approach on the key issues around housing. A four or three year cycle is never going to solve something so critical to that. 'The development opportunity, or how we go through that, is to, one, make sure that we have housing, and that we curate our land as much as possible and that has to take some time to work through and a sustained effort and focus from people.' The Point airs Tuesdays 7.30 on NITV, and is available after the broadcast on SBS On Demand.
Daily Telegraph
26-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Telegraph
Wagga real estate: The latest auction and sales results for week ending May 25
Don't miss out on the headlines from Hyperlocal. Followed categories will be added to My News. A four-bedroom house in Wagga Wagga was the most expensive sale reported in Wagga last week. The property at 60 Peter Street sold for $2.1 million by private sale. Only one property was sold via auction last week. data division Proptrack has reported 19 local auction and private sale results in the past seven days. Guide to reading auction and private sale results PI - Passed in PT - Sold by private treaty S - Sold at auction SA - Sold after auction SB - Sold before auction VB - Passed in on vendor bid W - Withdrawn from auction Auction and private sale results in Wagga Click on the address to know more. Ashmont 252 Fernleigh Road, 4-bedroom house, PT, $470,000 Agency - Fitzpatrick's Real Estate - Wagga Wagga Boorooma 24 Darcy Drive, 4-bedroom house, PT, $766,000 Agency - Macarthur Real Estate Agency - WAGGA WAGGA 2/32 Kingsford Smith Road, 3-bedroom unit, PT, $690,000 Agency - RE/MAX - Wagga 29 Darcy Drive, 3-bedroom house, PT, $629,000 Agency - PRD - Wagga Wagga Bourkelands 14 Berembee Road, 3-bedroom house, PT, $584,500 Agency - RE/MAX - Wagga 2 Wilton Street, 2-bedroom house, PT, $549,000 Agency - PRD - Wagga Wagga Forest Hill 19 Lacebark Drive, 4-bedroom house, PT, $799,000 Agency - Macarthur Real Estate Agency - WAGGA WAGGA Glenfield Park 10 Nardoo Street, 3-bedroom house, PT, $610,000 Agency - Fitzpatrick's Real Estate - Wagga Wagga Gobbagombalin 15 Paradise Drive, 4-bedroom house, PT, $747,000 Agency - Macarthur Real Estate Agency - WAGGA WAGGA 9 Winter Avenue, 4-bedroom house, PT, Undisclosed Agency - PRD - Wagga Wagga Kooringal 3/2 Banks Avenue, 1-bedroom unit, PT, $275,000 Agency - Macarthur Real Estate Agency - WAGGA WAGGA 28 Merinda Crescent, 4-bedroom house, PT, $580,500 Agency - Raine & Horne - Wagga Wagga Lake Albert 11 Kyeamba Avenue, 4-bedroom house, PT, Undisclosed Agency - PRD - Wagga Wagga Tolland 4 Cobb Street, 4-bedroom house, PT, $605,000 Agency - Macarthur Real Estate Agency - WAGGA WAGGA Turvey Park 29 Dalton Street, 3-bedroom house, PT, $600,000 Agency - RE/MAX - Wagga Wagga Wagga 90 Peter Street, 3-bedroom house, S, $1,101,000 Agency - Fitzpatrick's Real Estate - Wagga Wagga 60 Peter Street, 4-bedroom house, PT, $2,150,000 Agency - PRD - Wagga Wagga Track the value of your home today. The previous auction and sales article for Wagga can be viewed here.
ABC News
21-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Streets to be named after Kapooka Tragedy victims
On May 21, 1945, Geoffrey Partridge and 25 other soldiers died in Australia's worst training accident just months before the end of World War II. The army engineers, known as sappers, were training in a bunker at the Kapooka Army Base near Wagga Wagga when an explosion killed all but one. Eighty years on, Sapper Partridge's only sister Shirley Booth remembers it like it was yesterday. "My father turned up [at my school] in tears and I had never seen my father cry," she said. "The headmaster took him inside, and then the headmaster had come out and told me that my brother had been killed." Ms Booth, who was 12, said the news didn't fully sink in at first, but when it did, it hit home hard. Years later, she learnt her 18-year-old brother had seen the dentist that morning and was told he didn't have to return to training, but he did anyway. "He said, 'No, I want to keep up with my training', and that was where he walked from Kapooka down to where the accident actually happened," Ms Booth said. Within a couple of hours, her brother was dead. She said it was only in the 1980s when she obtained records of the incident from the army that she first learnt who had died alongside her brother. Cherie Benn's uncle Jack Nixon was another killed in the blast. Her father would say his brother was killed in the war. It wasn't until 50 years after the tragedy in 1995 that she learned more about what happened that day, and she first attended a commemoration in the paddock where the explosion took place. Ex-military investigator Andrew Johnston served at Kapooka in the 1990s and never heard of the tragedy. Then one day, he stumbled on an internet article about tragedies on home soil. "Having been a soldier that raised a bit of interest to me," Mr Johnston said. He decided to write a book on the incident to help bring closure to families of the victims and ensure they were remembered. In 1945, Kapooka was the training centre for all army engineers. Mr Johnston said the army had devised a system to conduct military exercises with explosions above ground while lessons were held underground. On May 21, the soldiers had been learning about explosives and detonators. "The instructor, Jack Pomeroy, was giving instruction to his trainees in the dugout with him, and at the time there were high explosives in a box in the corner," he said. "And then, unfortunately, Corporal Bill Cousins came in with the detonators and something happened in which the detonators sparked and set off the high explosives. "As a result, everything went up and collapsed the dugout and killed 26 innocent soldiers." Mr Johnston said the sole survivor, Sapper Allan Bartlett, was looking away when the incident happened, and the exact circumstances around how the tragedy unfoldeded remain a mystery. Following the tragedy, the victims received the nation's largest military burial with thousands of people turning out to pay their respects, and then Mr Johnston said Australia effectively forgot. In addition to the annual memorial service for the tragedy, this year for the 80th anniversary, the Wagga Wagga City Council will unveil streets named in honour of the Kapooka tragedy victims. The School of Military Engineering, now based in Sydney, will send a large contingent of officers. Deputy head of the Royal Australian Engineers, Lieutenant Corporal Thomas Whale, said it was important the school's future leaders learnt about the tragic day. "To ensure they understand this important part of our culture and understand the gravity of their positions and the fact that training incidents like this can happen," he said. Lieutenant Corporal Whale said wartime deaths on home soil "don't quite" get the same recognition as those overseas, but the "damage is done either way". "Whether you die in service overseas or you die preparing for war, it's the same death, it affects the family of that person just the same as the death overseas," he said. "Potentially, we need to look at ways to make sure that we commemorate it in the same manner." It comes as the Royal Australian Engineers Association of Victoria pushes for a national memorial to all those killed or injured in training accidents on home soil. "There are many men and women who do suffer from accidents, incidents and even death on home soil," association president Don Hughes said. "I think the recognition of that is becoming greater and it's well deserved.
ABC News
19-05-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
Farmers sell off record numbers of stock as southern NSW drought bites
Dams have dried up and the paddocks of Yvette McKenzie's New South Wales Riverina sheep farm are dry and bare. While torrential rain lashes eastern Australia, conditions could not be more different at Ms McKenzie's Bethungra property. "I haven't seen it this dry in the 25 years that we've had this property," she said. Cattle have been sold in record numbers, farmers have brought in feed for their livestock and the potential of newly planted grain crops has waned across southern NSW. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, parts of the Riverina received 1–10 millimetres of rain last month. Ms McKenzie said she had been forced to reduce livestock numbers. Ms McKenzie said feeding the sheep with silage and grain helped her get a good price for the surplus livestock, despite the dry conditions. She said she had focused on keeping her best sheep. "It's keeping the top line so we can keep our genetics and selling off anything that is not a breeder," she said. Record numbers of cattle have been sold at the Wagga Wagga saleyards amid worsening drought conditions. An offering of 5,000 head of cattle would normally be considered large, so when almost 8,700 cattle were sold earlier this month at the saleyards, the agents were stretched to capacity. Cattle auctioneer Tyler Pendergast said truckloads of cattle had been moved to the "greener pastures of the north". Mr Pendergast said that was providing an opportunity for local producers to offload stock. According to the Department of Primary Industries, 1.7 per cent of NSW is in drought, and a further 23.1 per cent is drought-affected. Almost all of that is in the Riverina and Murray. Local Land Services drought adoption officer Geoff Minchin said the difference was "chalk and cheese". "Two different planets, really very dry in the south and very wet in the north," he said. Mr Minchin, who advises farmers on drought management strategies, said producers were drawing on their experience in previous droughts to adapt farming practices. "I think there's a higher percentage of landholders that are better prepared and making some really good decisions," he said. He said destocking, making sure feed was at hand and planning grazing to protect ground cover were good strategies. At Marrar, north of Wagga Wagga, farmer Ben Langtree has been planting crops into dry ground after several months without rain. "Sometimes we've started the sowing and it's been a bit dry but not the whole way through," he said. Mr Langtree said he had cut back on crops that were more expensive to plant, such as canola, instead using barley and oats. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, there is a 20 per cent chance of exceeding the median rainfall in Marrar in May, which is 5.9mm. It is expected to rise to 52 per cent in June, with a historical median chance of 48.9mm of rain. There is a 48 per cent chance of Wagga Wagga exceeding its medium rain fall next month, which is 53.3mm. Despite the tough conditions, Mr Langtree said it was not too late for the season to turn around. "Rain sooner than later would be great and it would get us back on track," he said. "Every farmer is a gambler, they take a fair bit of risk every year so this is just a different type of risk for us now."
