By Wayne Hawthorne “Get your affairs in order to ensure you are best positioned” was sound advice from Peter Westley when he spoke to Naracoorte Mens Probus Club recently. Further advice was that passed on to him as a young Lawyer, preparing for a large Federal Court case was, “Get your facts right and the law will look after itself. “If your facts are wrong, you go nowhere”. Some interesting cases were described by Peter, including property purchase disputes, a stabbing, and a brief phone call and encounter at 2am over the Heywood murder”. Whether crime pays or not was also discussed following one local drug acquittal and another prosecution. He also explained how in civil litigation, you do not win many friends. An example was after some success in the Coonawarra Wine Region Boundary Dispute, a number of the parties at the time took the proceedings personally and blamed […]

By John Mossop, PCAF Committee Member, Coordinator of the JSN Exhibition The official Opening of the Penola Coonawarra Arts Festival was held at Penola High School on Thursday evening, 18 May 2023. The John Shaw Neilson Acquisitive Art Prize has been highly anticipated again this year and continues to attract a wide range of entries from within this region and beyond. Artists work in a two dimensional medium, and the annual competition has firmly made its mark on the artists’ calendar. The Acquisitive Art Prize is open to all emerging and established artists from throughout Australia and must be inspired by the works of famous Penola poet John Shaw Neilson. This event was created 30 years ago and has been growing in reputation every year. The major prize of $12,000 is again generously sponsored by The Balnaves Foundation. As in past years, the Lois Hodge Local Art Prize is open […]

By Tim Delany, MLA  Cattle: LWB 4 – LWY 187 – LWC 52 – OAY 4 Naracoorte agents yarded 247 cattle 23 less on last week. Quality was mixed and varied mostly from average to very good. Most of the regular buyers attended and followed the market and there was some restocker and feeder interest. In the agents trade run prime younger cattle sold close to firm in places although during the sale there were some sales that eased 5c to 15c/kg. Grown heifers also sold 5c to 15c cheaper on last week although reaching a top price of 320c/kg. Heavy cows varied in price from unchanged to 6c/kg softer and the slight drop in the quality of the bulls averaged 7c/kg cheaper. The good quality young steers to the trade sold from 320c to 346c, the heifer portion made between 274c to 354c/kg and a restocker purchased lighter steers […]