71 years ago Marg Beckwith, then five-year-old Margaret Short stepped off the good ship Dorsetshire onto Australian soil at Sydney Harbour.

She was accompanied by her parents and little brother Jim, aged two, and the family had travelled from Scotland as ’10 pound Poms’. Marg was born in 1947 in Stirling, a small city in central Scotland, within 50 kilometers of Glasgow and Edinbugh.

Marg shares her vivid memories of the trip across the ocean to sunny Australia.

Before Hollywood descended on the southern Riverina township of Hay, in NSW, to film part of ‘Mad Max Furiosa’ in 2022 the tiny township already boasted an impressive bio.

Movies such as ‘True love & Chaos,’ ‘Child Lost on Goolumbulla’ and ‘Charlie and Boots’ have been filmed at Hay, as well as the dark TV series ‘Mr Inbetween’, TV advertisements and Shannon Noll’s award winning film clip.

Hay Shire Council and Hay Plains Landcare Group have formed a partnership to address the beautification of the South Hay roundabout precinct.

And the Landcare group is keen to recruit volunteers.

Those driving down Lachlan Street would no doubt have noticed the bright and attractive new signage adorning the shopfront of Mackers Meats.

Gary McRae is passionate about the need for signage in the shopping districts of towns.

In addition to enlisting Anthony Slattery Painting to create some eye-catching business signs for the butchery, he is also getting new awnings.

The fate of teenage bushranger William Brookman was sealed when he joined the gang of Jerry Duce and held up a race meeting at Mossgiel Station, near Willandra, and shot a police officer at Booligal.

Learn how this prize-winning Uardry 0.1 Merino Ram ended up gracing Australia’s 1938 shilling - the story of the Shilling Ram.

Council has back-flipped on its final Murrumbidgee River Masterplan adopted two years ago which included the redevelopment of Sandy Point Reserve, particularly around the beach and boat ramp.

A Notice of Motion was received by Council for the recent October meeting from Cr Martyn Quinn, calling for the return of the beach as it was before last year’s flood event.

Learn how living in Hay in the 1880s contributed to Joseph Furphy penning the Australian classic “Such is Life”

All the photos from the 150th anniversary celebrations at The Riverine Grazier, including the 12-page feature as a FREE download.

Internationally renown wildlife artists Chris McClelland lives and works in Hay, giving visitors a unique opportunity to mee an artist of such high calibre.

In its heyday Hay was a bustling regional centre and boasted a variety of long gone industries that serviced the district. Breweries and malt houses were established in the late 1800s and by all accounts were in fierce competition with each other.

Arguably one of Hay’s finest and best known photographers Irene Brown, known as Rene, was born in Hay in 1908.

Hay Historical Society has a vast collection of Rene’s images and has collated them in the book “Rene - Photographer of Hay.”

There were plenty of glitter and glamour at the second annual Bollywood night at Hay Services Club last Saturday.

The evening raised money for local medical services and brought together the many cultures that make up the people of Hay, with a strong focus on our Indian community.

The owners of Gundaline Station are facing serious allegations from former employees about their management practices, particularly in relation to staffing and biosecurity measures, but have strenuously denied any wrong doing.

“All such allegations are utterly unfounded,” a spokesperson from Smart Shirts said.

Four employees resigned in September 2023, and shortly afterwards long-term employees were made redundant, following disputes over hours worked and safety conditions.

"Some staff were told last month they had (unknowingly) worked too many hours and the business was now in breach of the modern slavery act and supply-chain policies, which would put Gundaline Station's contracts in jeopardy when the auditors and compliance teams turn up," one source said.

The Hay Plains have become the focus of geoscientists and researchers who believe the largest known asteroid impact structure on Earth lies buried beneath.

Geologist Tony Yeates, originated the view of the Deniliquin multi-ring structure as an impact structure. He visited the area last week as guest of Edward River Council and U3A (University of the Third Age) in Deniliquin.

Mr Yeates told The Riverine Grazier the structure is yet to be further tested by drilling, but is believed to span up to 520 kilometres in diameter.

This is larger than the Vredefort impact structure in South Africa which to date has been considered the world’s largest, and three times bigger than the Chicxulub crater in Mexico which represents the impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Armed stand-offs over establishing the town of Hay NSW, pulling down buildings as they were being constructed, and shallow graves for the unfortunate are all tales from the town’s early history, when Lang’s Crossing Place was the domain of a few determined people.

The Hay Football Club was founded in 1876 at a meeting at the Royal Hotel. Read about the history of AFL in Hay, from 1876 to the premiership year of 2023.

Members of Hay Plains Landcare travelled to Carrathool and Narrandera recently to hone their skills in composting and propagating.

To fast-track their nursery and demonstration site development, members visited the established nursery at Narrandera to learn effective methods of propagating native seed.

The workshop touched on the different containers and potting media available, labelling and record keeping, watering regimes required, and the seed preparation needed for the hard coated seeds like acacias.

The Hay branch of the Country Women’s Association hosted another successful bi-ennial flower show at Hay War Memorial Hall on Saturday, supported by volunteers from Hay Youth Taskforce.

The most coveted award, for best overall rose, sponsored by Hay Services and Fitness Club, was won by Linda Anderson (nee Headon), pictured above with her bloom and prize.

Two new gardening gurus emerged as winners of the 2023 CWA Flower Show’s Best Garden Competition.

Robyn Vickery took out the Small Garden category and Anna Antonakas the Best Large Garden category.

Council’s unrestricted cash remains sound with a balance $8,648,000 showing in the financial statements.

Even allowing for prepaid grants of $6,133,000 which are included in this figure, this still a very satisfactory result for the year and gives Council sufficient cash moving forward.

“Good financial management would be to try to keep this figure around this mark, although there is scope to use some of these funds if required,” Director Corporate and Community Services, Mark Dowling said.