Category: Newcastle News

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Sharon Claydon MP and an Albanese Labor Government will commit $285,000 to deliver a much-needed upgrade to the Wallsend Park’s irrigation system.

Home to the Wallsend Cricket Club, Wallsend Football Club, and the Wallsend RSL Junior Cricket Club – some of the biggest sporting clubs in the region, Wallsend Park has hundreds of people who use the space on a regular basis.

For the clubs, the current playing surface is outdated and a barrier to growth – especially for the rapidly expanding girls and womens teams.

The upgrades will allow these clubs to grow and reach more people in the local community.

By installing a new in-ground irrigation system, the Wallsend community will finally have its own facility with a playing surface equal to other clubs within the Greater Newcastle Region.

Today’s announcement is a commitment to partner with the Wallsend Cricket Club to deliver modern, accessible playing facilities to meet the future demand of the community.

What is needed is a Commonwealth Government ready to partner with the local community in delivering this much-needed upgrade. An Albanese Labor Government will do just that. 

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Businesses, not-for-profits and community groups are encouraged to apply for a share of $150,000 in funding for projects which activate or beautify the Hamilton, Wallsend and New Lambton business precincts as part of City of Newcastle’s Special Business Rate (SBR) program.

Initiatives ranging from the Big Picture Festival, which saw murals painted throughout the city, through to free cultural performances in Gregson Park, have recently been funded through the program, with REMPLAN modelling showing an economic impact of $5.8 million for the $1.6 million invested in the program last year.

Deputy Lord Mayor Declan Clausen said this round of funding would allow for projects which drive visitation and economic activity in the city’s suburban business precincts.

“City of Newcastle has received some truly innovative and unique proposals through recent SBR funding rounds, including Shakespeare in Civic Park and temporary 3D chalk art trails through the city, so we’re looking forward to seeing what comes through for our suburban precincts,” Cr Clausen said.

“Hamilton, Wallsend and New Lambton all have unique offerings as local business centres, and events, activations and beautification projects funded through the SBR program will give people another reason to visit.

“The funding available through the SBR program will see direct benefit to businesses by attracting visitation and making our local centres even better places to eat, drink and shop.”

Key categories of funding in 2022 include: industry and business development; place activation and events; beautification and infrastructure development; and promotion, with up to $50,000 available in each suburban precinct.

Councillor Carol Duncan said over the past few years COVID-19 had created the toughest trading conditions suburban businesses had ever experienced.

“The advocacy of our BIAs in engaging with business owners to activate their precincts is vital in creating thriving business communities to help mitigate the ongoing impact of COVID-19,” Cr Duncan said.

“We’re seeing the benefits of the BIA model across Newcastle, including in Hamilton where there are a host of new businesses popping up and even a new providore market establishing in James Street Plaza from this Saturday.

“We look forward to receiving a range of creative project ideas in the next round of SBR funding to positively benefit our local business precincts in Wallsend, New Lambton and Hamilton.”

Applications for the New Lambton, Wallsend and Hamilton funding close on 20 May 2022.

More information about the Special Business Rate program and funding opportunities can be found at newcastle.nsw.gov.au/special-business-rates.

Projects previously supported by suburban SBR funding include:

· Hamilton 150^th Anniversary Celebrations (Curious Legends)
A mini cultural festival was held in Hamilton’s Gregson Park, in December to coincide with the 150^th year anniversary of the suburb of Hamilton. Local artists, musicians, light installations and puppeteers activated the park. The community were also invited to participate in free workshops at Hudson Street Hum prior to the event to get involved with performances.

· Hamilton Hive Interactive Mural (UP&UP inspirations)
This project led to the design and painting of a mural on the exterior wall of the Community Hive building on Beaumont Street, Hamilton. The mural makes the space more vibrant and welcoming and encourages people to visit the Hamilton precinct which increases foot traffic for businesses.

· Walk With Us (Paul Maher)
This project is replacing a number of existing mosaics with safe, level, slip-resistant installations suitable for high foot traffic areas. The mosaics will beautify the Beaumont Street footpath, honour the suburb’s social and entrepreneurial history, encourage engagement with local businesses, and celebrate our shared cultural heritage and history.

· Hamilton Garden Tile Mural
Local ceramic artist, Ali Sobel-Read, in collaboration with the Kent Hotel, will create a unique artwork for local residents and visitors alike on a wall owned by The Kent on Cleary Street.

A key chapter of Newcastle’s social and regional planning history has been preserved with the completion of the Greg Heys Regional Planning Collection.

More than 1,400 documents – including local urban and rural area studies and reports, project proposals and assessments, environmental studies, and the complete set of the original coloured zoning maps for the Northumberland County District Planning Scheme prepared in 1952 – have been catalogued at Newcastle Libraries.

The archives are the life’s work of former Newcastle Lord Mayor, the late Greg Heys, who studied extensively in these fields and had almost completed a PhD thesis on Regional Governance when he passed away in 2007.

A small celebration was jointly held by City of Newcastle and the Planning Institute of Australia Hunter Branch on Thursday evening to mark the project’s completion, more than a decade in the making, acknowledging the collaborative efforts of the city’s librarians, the Hunter Planners Network, and Greg’s wife and former Lady Mayoress, Wendy Heys.

Deputy Lord Mayor Cr Declan Clausen said thanks to their tireless work sorting and processing dozens of boxes of documents, these significant items would be available in perpetuity for research and historical purposes.

“Greg Heys was a passionate and devoted town planner, working at the Bathurst-Orange Growth Centre as a social planner from 1976 to 1980, and today’s event recognises his contributions to our built form as well as Mrs Heys’ ongoing advocacy,” Cr Clausen said.

“I’d also like to acknowledge City of Newcastle’s librarians, in particular Sue Ryan, who have dedicated countless hours to this incredible undertaking.”

Wendy Heys echoed these sentiments, adding, “This collection came about through volunteer efforts, especially Len Regan’s, a transport planner with whom Greg worked at the Bathurst-Orange Growth Centre. This is also an opportunity to acknowledge the breadth of the task Newcastle Library undertook and is a fitting tribute to Greg’s dedication to regional planning.”

City of Newcastle will now explore digitising the extensive collection using its state-of-the-art archival grade scanner, the only one of its kind outside of the University of Melbourne. This will allow anyone to access these documents online.

Planning Institute of Australia’s State Manager NSW, Karen Goldsmith, said the collection provided a permanent home for planning documents that held regional significance.

“The Planning Institute is proud to have played a part in this important project, carrying on Greg Heys’ legacy,” Ms Goldsmith said.

“The Northumberland County District Planning Scheme, for example, was the first planning scheme in the Hunter Region and set the vision for the region’s growth. As far as we know, it may be the only set of these plans still in existence.”

This latest project milestone provides scope to add Newcastle and Hunter material to the collection in future.

City of Newcastle has embraced the return to face-to-face citizenship ceremonies following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, welcoming more than 130 new citizens from 34 countries on Wednesday afternoon.

The first opportunity to gather in person in 12 months, conferees, their families and friends joined with dignitaries to make the pledge of commitment to Australia at the iconic Civic Theatre.

Hailing from all corners of the globe, from Germany and Brazil to South Africa and Afghanistan, the city’s newest citizens further add to Newcastle’s rich multicultural tapestry, where 14 per cent of residents were born overseas and more than 14,000 speak a secondary language at home.

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the COVID-19 pandemic had presented unique challenges to the way in which citizenship ceremonies were conducted, with City of Newcastle continually adapting to changing restrictions to ensure conferees had the option to participate in online ceremonies.

“Since the start of the pandemic, City of Newcastle has welcomed 786 new citizens, and today’s cohort takes that tally to just shy of 1,000, keeping the waitlist down and upholding democratic processes, allowing our new citizens to enrol to vote, apply for an Australian passport and employment opportunities,” Cr Nelmes said.

“A number of ceremonies were held online via Zoom during lockdowns, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for myself as Lord Mayor and for the many faces smiling back at me.

“It is heartening, two years later, to see face-to-face ceremonies in full swing once more, representing a very special occasion in our new citizens’ lives, the photos and memories of which they will cherish forever.”

Wednesday’s ceremony featured a traditional didgeridoo performance by the Deadly Callaghan Yidaki Group, as well as musical items by The Grainery Church.

Proud Newcastle Aboriginal Elder Aunty Cheryl Smith continued the tradition of her father, the late Uncle Bill Smith, in delivering a powerful Welcome to Country that acknowledged the lifestyles, cultures and spiritual beliefs of the traditional custodians of the land.

City of Newcastle’s next citizenship ceremony will be held on Wednesday 7 September 2022 at the Civic Theatre.

Community and sporting groups, businesses and tourism and event operators can now apply for close to $1 million of community grants and sponsorship funding from City of Newcastle.

Applications are open for projects and initiatives under four categories to support social, cultural, environmental and economic initiatives.

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the funding is aimed at initiatives that activate public places, enhance community wellbeing and strengthen the city’s reputation as a tourism, business and events destination.

“City of Newcastle’s grants and sponsorships provide vital funding to benefit community initiatives through enhancing wellbeing and contributing to our city being a great place to live, work, play, visit and invest,” Cr Nelmes said.

“We provide funding to a variety of activities, projects and events annually, including recreation facilities, businesses façade improvements, community initiatives, arts, culture and heritage, as well as environmental and social inclusion projects.

“Last year City of Newcastle funded a wide range of community-building initiatives such as improvements to local sporting facilities at New Lambton’s Alder Park, Cook Park in Shortland, Corroba Oval in Stockton Stevenson Park in Mayfield and Hamilton Park Tennis Club, inclusive festivals and events including Surfing the Spectrum, technology proficiency events for seniors and an Afghan community festival.

“Also funded were creative arts projects such as the National Young Writers Festival and the Spirit of Newcastle project from Curious Legends, along with environmental and sustainability initiatives the Seaside Scavenge and Go Circular’s Circular Economy Leadership project, among many others.”

Glenn Dormand of Stories of Our Town received grant funding for a last year for a film which focuses on the missionary Reverend Threlkeld and Biraban, who worked to preserve local Aboriginal language 200 years ago.

“Biraban and The Reverend Threlkeld: Finding the Third Space has at the heart of it two men looking for connection. We have the Aboriginal space and the European space and now more than ever we need to find a space for all of us in between. If these two men could find it 200 years ago in this town we can do it again,” Mr Dorman said.

“We made this documentary using a stellar collection of both First Nation and European Academics and it only exists because of the generous support of City of Newcastle through their grant funding. This is the third film they’ve helped with and easily the most important. How wonderful to have our local government put such a value on this important piece of our history.”

Image: Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes reading Threlkeld books from the Newcastle Libraries rare books collection with University of Newcastle Archivist Gionni Di Gravio and 2021 City of Newcastle grant recipient Glenn Dormand, Stories of Our Town Director.

Community grant funding is available to help community groups, sport and recreation clubs and service organisations in areas including arts, culture and heritage, environment and social inclusion.

Grants that target minor infrastructure improvements for recreational facilities, sustainability and façade upgrades are also available under the infrastructure grants category.

Event sponsorships are open for events that promote active and vibrant spaces, attract local and out of region visitation and enhance Newcastle’s profile as an events city, while economic development sponsorships will be provided for activities that enable skills and innovation, and are considered city-shaping initiatives.

Applications for grants and sponsorship funding are open now until 30 May 2022. Online community workshops outlining the application process will be held on Wednesday 11 and Monday 16 May. Further details can be viewed on City of Newcastle’s website by clicking here.

A man has died following a fatal two-vehicle crash near the Barrington Tops National Park today.

About 12.50pm (Wednesday 4 May 2022), emergency services were called to The Bucketts Way, Stroud Road – 200m north of Reidsdale Road – following reports a Nissan X-Trail SUV and a truck had collided.

The driver of the SUV – a 63-year-old man – died at the scene. 

The driver of the truck – a 31-year-old man – was taken to Taree Base Hospital for mandatory testing.

Officers from Port Stephens-Hunters Police District established a crime scene and commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Food and garden waste recycling in the Hunter and surrounding areas has been future-proofed thanks to Australian and NSW government grants totalling two million dollars. 

Recognising the success and ongoing potential of REMONDIS’ Lake Macquarie Organics Resource Recovery Facility (ORRF) at Awaba, the Federal Government has awarded a one-million-dollar expansion grant through its Food Waste for Healthy Soils Fund.

The grant has been matched by the New South Wales Environmental Trust.

The funding will support expansion work that will lift processing capacity by 16,000 tonnes to 60,000 tonnes and assure operations for another twenty years.

Lake Macquarie ORRF facility manager Gunther Neumann said the funding was a turning point for the facility.

“Given REMONDIS’ experience with operating more than 80 such organic recycling facilities around the world, we always knew the potential of the Lake Macquarie facility,” Mr Neumann said.

“Community demand for organics recycling via Lake Macquarie City Council’s green bins has exceeded expectations, and this support enables us to match growing demand.

“Homes and businesses are more attuned to environmental responsibility these days, which is why so many people are filling their green bins with food scraps and garden waste or delivering such waste themselves.

“People and businesses are just as eager to buy the compost products we produce, which is used for many things including landscaping, farming and erosion control.”

REMONDIS said it was eager to commence expansions as soon as possible, subject to development approvals.

Central to the expansion will be the addition of further composting tunnels enabling more processing capacity, increased retention time and improved compost quality.

Lake Macquarie City Council engages REMONDIS to perform waste management and recycling services. The city’s Mayor, Kay Fraser, said the grants were a win for the community.

“Lake Macquarie City Council, in partnership with Remondis, has been a trailblazer in organics waste processing and we are pleased to see both the federal and state governments supporting our innovative and sustainable approach to waste management,” Cr Fraser said.

“The Organics Resource Recovery Facility at Awaba keeps waste out of the ground, which is not only better for the environment but reduces pressure on our limited capacity for landfill and is a more cost-effective outcome for our ratepayers.”

REMONDIS’ grant application was prepared in-house by Gunther Neumann and Technical Manager Jan Duebbelde, with support from Environment & Sustainability Manager Helen McCarthy.    

FUTHER INFORMATION

www.awe.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/food-waste/food-waste-for-healthy-soils-fund/projects

www.environment.nsw.gov.au/funding-and-support/nsw-environmental-trust/grants-available/organics-infrastructure/stream-1-processing-infrastructure

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REMONDIS is one of the world’s largest privately run recycling, service and water companies with around 900 business locations in over 30 countries and across four continents. Founded in 1934, this family-run business employs more than 38,000 people and generates a turnover of €8.3 billion (2020). Each year, it processes more than 30 million tonnes of recyclable materials and provides services for local authorities, small and medium-sized businesses and industrial firms as well as for around 30 million people. Operating in many different fields of business, REMONDIS makes an important contribution towards protecting the environment and conserving natural resources – from recovering valuable raw materials from industrial and household waste, to producing high quality recycled raw materials, all the way through to transforming non-recyclable materials into a range of different fuels. Moreover, the company is increasingly helping to advance the switch from fossil fuels to renewables by using biomass as a source of energy. REMONDIS sees itself as an adviser and point of contact for industrial, commercial and retail businesses as well as for local authorities as it helps them to find regional and bespoke solutions. REMONDIS Australia commenced operations in 1982 and now services more than 20,000 customers nationally.

A man will appear in court next month over alleged assault and intimidation offences at a correctional centre in the state’s Hunter Region.

On Sunday 20 February 2022, detectives from Hunter Valley Police District commenced an investigation after receiving reports a female Corrective Services NSW officer had been allegedly assaulted and detained by an inmate at a Muswellbrook correctional facility.

Following inquiries, a 50-year-old man was arrested at a correctional facility in Goulburn about 9am yesterday (Tuesday 3 May 2022).

He was taken to Goulburn Police Station, where he was charged with five offences:

– Inflict actual bodily harm with intent to have sexual intercourse with victim,

– Kidnap with intent to commit serious indictable offence occasion actual bodily harm,

– Assault law enforcement officer (not police) inflict actual bodily harm,

– Stalk/harass/intimidate law officer (not police officer), and

– Commit s114 offence, having previous conviction.

The man was issued a Court Attendance Notice and remanded in custody, to appear at Muswellbrook Local Court on Tuesday 28 June 2022.

A man has been charged with high range PCA near Newcastle today.

About 1.50pm (Tuesday 3 May 2022), emergency services were called to Nelson Bay Road, Fern Bay, following reports a Subaru Tribeca had hit a brick fence.

The driver – a 47-year-old man – was assessed by NSW Ambulance paramedics; however, he was uninjured during the incident.

Officers from Traffic and Highway Patrol Command attended, and the man was subjected to a roadside breath analysis which returned a positive result.

The man was arrested and taken to Raymond Terrace Police Station where he underwent a secondary breath analysis which returned an alleged reading of 0.316.

The man was issued a Court Attendance Notice for drive with high range PCA and his NSW drivers licence was suspended.

He will appear at Raymond Terrace Local Court on Monday 20 June 2022.

A man has died following a fatal two-vehicle crash near Muswellbrook today.

About 12.40pm (Monday 2 May 2022), emergency services were called to the New England Highway, about 1km north of Muswellbrook, following reports a utility travelling south and a Pantech truck travelling north had collided.

The driver of the utility – a man believed to be aged in his 70s – died at the scene. He is yet to be formally identified.

The 36-year-old male driver of the truck was taken to Muswellbrook Hospital for mandatory testing.

Officers attached to Hunter Valley Police District attended and established a crime scene.

The New England Highway remains closed in both directions, diversions are in place with motorists advised to avoid the area. Heavy vehicles are urged to check the Live Traffic NSW website for the latest information: https://www.livetraffic.com.