May 14, 2015

Super IGA Merredin sold after 27 years. Brett and Rhonda and family are saying goodbye to serving us after 27 years. The supermarket has sold and the new owners have taken possession. The McNabb family have supported this town for a very long time in many different ways going back nearly 30 years, they, with others in the town were instrumental in supplying fresh produce to locals. They taught our teens good work ethics during their introduction to working life and earning money. They have always supported staff members being part of emergency services and causes, allowing them to leave whenever was needed. Sporting clubs were never refused assistance with sausage sizzles, raffles and food for fundraising dinners and competitions ran for years giving money back to shoppers every week. Like many people in town, I have worked for the McNabb family and found them to be very business smart bosses with many different sides to their approach. They were tough at times especially when protecting their business practices, wouldn’t put up with people who didn’t work hard for their pay and held excellent customer service to the highest regard. It really wasn’t difficult to work out what they wanted in their staff, and you give them that, in return they were loyal, kind, supportive and compassionate employers which I personally hold a lot of respect for them both. Whether you knew it or not, Brett and Rhonda were the customers best friend, you were always right. Thank You Brett, Rhonda and the McNabb family for the past 27...

May 10, 2015

Destination Merredin 2015 Wartime in the Wheatbelt   The Destination Merredin crew from the Shire of Merredin have done it again. They have pulled off another remarkable 4 day event for our entertainment with the theme ‘Wartime in the Wheatbelt’ and combined it with Mother’s day celebrations. It started on Thursday with kite making workshops from the kiteman Michael Alvares of Kite Kinetics  who has joined us for the past two years and Friday night was a return of the diggers dinner at the Grandstand bar. Our local hockey club catered for this dinner. Saturday at noon the main street was closed, the tents went up, tables came out, the band played, dancers danced and a rationed lunch in the street was on. Jasmin from Crazy Fun Amusement Hire brought some giant chess games which the kids loved to play. William Last of Four Seasons lofts held a display to show the important role messenger pigeons played during the war. In fact one of the pigeons in the display is a direct descendant of pigeons that were used during the Second World War. Drew Zweck and Amy and Patrick Rose of Moorine Rock helped put the messages on the pigeons. 12 pigeons carried messages and were released to fly back to the barracks (home) and Sheree and William went to meet them. As they arrived, William took the messages from the pigeons and Sheree text the messages to Anthony Tilli who read them out to the rationed diners who were delighted with the messages back in town. A fashion parade hosted by Kirsty Mackenzie featured beautiful dresses and outfits with the war time theme. The outfits worn by the Destination Merredin crew were all made by Kirsty. A quick dash home, shower and get ready for the night of your life. Dine and Dance at the Cummins Theatre was a real treat. The tables had been set up beautifully by “I’ll make it” I wanted to mention this in particular because the table centerpieces were stunning but easily made and simple which I thought was exactly how things were done during the tough Wartime. The Military band was one of the very best bands I’ve...

Apr 27, 2015

ANZAC Day 2015 A brilliant day in town, starting with an early morning rise to get to the dawn service. The service was awe inspiring. I usually go to the mid morning march but I thought because this was a super special ANZAC day I would get out of bed and join the early one. It was cold, the gentle breeze was almost icy and I was tempted at that stage to run back to my warm bed, but when the march started I quickly filled with anticipation. The military cars and the firies, police and returned servicemen proudly marched and then the cadets and the crowd followed at the end of the line. I wanted some photo’s of the ceremony for this post but I was really struggling to get through the crowd. There was at least 600 people attending this march. The service was beautiful, wreaths were laid, the last post was played loud and clear and then a respectful minutes silence…just perfect. All the while, the army cadets stood with the flags and didn’t move. Well done cadets, you must have been really cold. Straight after the service the fire brigade had cooked some bacon, sausage and poached eggs for us all together with a nice hot coffee. Everyone was in the spirit of things at this point and you felt ready to attend the next service which was equally as emotional. Once again they served us a light lunch afterwards of tea, coffee and sandwiches and then on to the variety show called Entertaining the Troops. At the show we were treated to local talents singing, dancing and entertaining us and they put on a superb show. Through marches, entertaining us, feeding us, photographing us, making and planting poppies, every member of our community was involved in ANZAC day Lest we...

Apr 21, 2015

    Poppy Planting Day in Merredin Today was the day that a whole community had worked towards for the last few months and WOW! Merredin…you still have it! Knitters, crochet, wooden, plastic, recycled, tin foil and paper mache, whatever we could make a poppy out of…we did. Today was planting day and the sun was shining, temperature was perfect and lots of people came out to plant a poppy. This is going to be an awesome ANZAC weekend, if you have never made it to an ANZAC march, then make sure you attend this...

Apr 13, 2015

Twilight Food Festival           England, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Italy, South Africa, China, India and New Zealand were all very well represented at the Twilight food festival on a beautiful Friday evening in March. As people finished work they headed on over to the front of the visitor centre where tables were set, BBQ’s were hot and tasters were plenty. They all cooked up a storm with their countries traditional dishes and the community was ready to try them. The first stop was Sweden, where Barbao Ricci presented us with some delicious Swedish meatballs and she followed up with chocolate balls with coconut and oats.   Then on to Paul Marks who had made a traditional English dish called Toad-in–the-Hole served with mushy peas atop…oh yum! Jomon Joseph & Ajith Iype clearly knew how to make South Indian beef fry and South Indian chicken curry, they served it on white rice and told me they had made it not so spicy, but they certainly were beautiful dishes. New Zealand was next with Sue Clark. Sue shared some amazing secret recipe cheese rolls and pavlova with cream dressed with kiwi fruit for dessert. This is a tough assignment but I soldiered on to the next stall which was Sal Marais and John McKane who made South Africa proud with their Boerewors rolls with chutney. Sal told me the translation is “Farmers sausage”. These were really tasty. Even though it’s Friday night, Jimmy managed to represent China famously with everyone’s favorite, Cantonese noodles.   Ireland had Irish Lamb stew and Irish soda bread with Brid Fitzsimmons. Carina Macdonald from the visitor centre made fudge for Scotland and the last stop was Julie Nicoletti with her delicious and scrumptious Tiramisu. Julie tells me Tiramisu means ‘a pick me up’. This is not just a dish, this is an adventure to the tastebuds, needless to say, I went back for seconds. Jim and Bev Flockart showed us a can from the Northern Territory dated back to 1992, a 23 year old witchetty soup. At the time it cost $7.50 per can. View more images of the twilight food...

Apr 12, 2015

#putyourdressout Merredin ladies put out their wedding dresses on Saturday in tribute to Stephanie Scott whose family should have been celebrating her wedding day rather than preparing her funeral. It’s also a reminder of the tragedy of violence against women in our country, 30 Australian women have already been murdered this year… mostly by men already known to them. Rest in Peace Stephanie...