He might only be seven, but Jack Falahey can now tick off completing a “life-long” dream.
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The youngster has consistently reminded his family over the span of his short life that he is the only one to to never have appeared in the pages of the Deniliquin Pastoral Times.
Even older sister Eva - who also lives in Canberra with parents Anthony and Amanda - has graced our pages before.
So when Jack’s grandmother Faye asked Jack to make a list of things he’d like to do at the Deni Ute Muster on Saturday, getting his photo in the newspaper was top of the list.
We were not lucky enough to come across Jack ourselves in the sea of Muster goers, but Faye reached out to us on his behalf so the final item on his list could be ticked off.
And we were only too happy to make it happen.
Others items on Jack’s wish list included repeating his Friday Muster experience of playing cricket with the police from the PCYC, seeing the ferret races, watching the AFL grand final with the Muster crowd and seeing Jessica Mauboy.
“We were going out during the day, heading back home for a break and then going back for the concert,” Faye said of the plan for Saturday.
“We ended up staying out there as it was just great.”
Macca’s marvellous weekend
Still on the Muster, it seems the event has a new fan in What’s Up Down Under host Craig ‘Macca’ McGown.
One of a few to make his Muster debut, the caravan and camping enthusiast hosted ‘Maccas Camping Chats’ as part of the bumper around the grounds entertainment.
PTee noted that he was stopped regularly by fans in the crowd outside his chats, and with the camping as popular as the festival itself over the Muster weekend it was easy to understand why.
When he caught up with the PT at the chair’s reception, he made sure to tell us just how excited he was to be there.
Others making their Muster debut were Whitey’s Ferret Racing (see page 7), Rev It Up Racing Junior Racing Experience, Black Snake Productions, Ice Skating, Bottle & Brush Painting Workshops, Circus Dropzone and Bendigo LEGO User Group.
Change of venue
There’s just two weeks until the Deniliquin High School’s fundraising trivia night.
Originally planned to be held in the school’s MPC on Friday, October 20, the event will now be hosted at the Deniliquin Rams Clubrooms at Hardinge St Oval.
There’s still time to register your team, or sign up as an individual and be placed in a team.
Go to https://www.trybooking.com/CKUUR to book today. Tickets are $30 each, or $300 for a table of 10.
The Back to School Trivia Night is a fundraiser for DHS P&C programs, specifically the breakfast program.
The fundraising efforts include a major raffle to be drawn on the night, with tickets available at the school office in the week leading up to the trivia night. Tickets are $5.
The prizes for the raffle are fantastic, with the first prize being a $500 travel voucher donated by Deniliquin Travel.
Second prize is a $200 Deni Car Care voucher, third is a car pack donated by REPCO and fourth prize a $50 fuel voucher donated by Purtill Group.
Wild week
We certainly were spoiled with lovely weather over the Ute Muster weekend, as we have been reminded by the less than ideal conditions this week.
Mother Nature turned on her head and gave us a wild and mild week to contend with.
According to the Bureau of Meteorolgy, the Deniliquin Airport weather station recorded 73mm of rain up until the time of going to print yesterday.
But we know rain is patchy in our neck of the woods, and it may have been higher in other parts of our region.
Wind speeds on Tuesday reached a high of 72km/h, slightly higher than the highest wind speed of 63km/h recorded when the storm reared its head on Monday evening.
And the chill factor!
After sunburn inducing sunny days with highs of about 30 degrees over the weekend - including the public holiday on Monday - the mercury plummeted to a top of only 23ºC on Tuesday and 14ºC on Wednesday.
Yesterday was not much better, with the temperature only just making it to double digits by mid-morning.
Honour for Brenda
Our very own super fish Brenda Norman has been inducted to the Australian Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.
Brenda was among four inducted over the weekend, alongside Richard Jones who has been her training partner for some of her long distance swims.
Brenda is still in Ireland after her recent attempt to swim the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland.
We’ll have the full story on her induction for you once she is back in Australia.
Community grants open
Could your community group or club benefit from a grant of between $5000 and $150,000?
The NSW Premier has announced that the Community Building Partnership (CBP) program 2023 round opened on Monday.
The Community Building Partnership program invests in local infrastructure projects that deliver positive social, environmental and recreational outcomes while promoting community participation, inclusion and cohesion.
Applications close Friday, October 27 at 5pm, and Member for Murray Helen Dalton is encouraging groups to head along to nsw.gov.au/cbp.
Senior journalist