What a weekend!
By the time you’re reading this, we’ll have celebrated two of the biggest nights on our regional business calendar, with the Oberon Business Awards on Friday night followed by the Bathurst Carillon Business Awards on Saturday. Two nights, two communities and a whole lot of frocks, trophies, applause and probably a few sore heads by Sunday morning.
Awards nights are always great fun, but what I love most is seeing the people behind our local businesses recognised. The small business owners, their teams, the volunteers and the people who keep turning up, having a go and investing in their communities. Congratulations to every finalist, winner and organiser involved in both events.
Then, of course, Sunday was Father’s Day — hopefully a slightly slower day for many of us and a chance to celebrate the dads, grandads and father figures who make our families what they are.
And just like that, Spring is here.
The next few weeks are absolutely packed with reasons to get out of the house. Daffodils, flower shows, open gardens, markets, festivals and community events are filling the calendar right across the region.
This is one of my favourite times of year in the Central West. The days get a little longer, the countryside starts changing colour and suddenly a Sunday drive seems like a very good idea again.
So get out there. Visit the gardens. Buy the coffee. Wander through the market. Stop for lunch. Take the scenic route home. Support the volunteers who have spent months organising these events and spend a few dollars with the businesses in the towns you visit.
There really is so much to love about where we live.
And speaking of loving regional communities, I have some pretty exciting news of my own to finally share.
From Thursday, 24 September, I will officially launch the Mid West Village Voice — a new free community newspaper for the Mid-Western Regional Council area, including Mudgee, Gulgong, Kandos, Rylstone and the surrounding villages.
It will be built on the same model as the Central West Village Voice: positive local news, community stories, events, sport, arts, business and, most importantly, a place where the people doing good things in their communities can have their stories told.
For me, it feels like a natural next step.
It also creates something I think is particularly exciting for our existing Central West business community.
Our regions don’t operate in isolation. People travel between Bathurst, Lithgow, Oberon, Blayney, Mudgee, Kandos and Rylstone every day for work, shopping, services, events and weekends away. The launch of the Mid West Village Voice gives businesses here an opportunity to start a conversation with readers in another strong regional market — while giving Mid-West businesses the same opportunity in return.
There is plenty more to share about that over the coming weeks, but for now I’m incredibly excited and proud to see the Village Voice family growing. What started with a simple idea about giving our communities more space for good local news has grown into something bigger than I could have imagined — and I can’t wait to see what this next chapter brings.
Spring really does feel like the perfect time for something new.
See you out and about — and perhaps a little further down the road.
