Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Mr Murray Watt has today welcomed the appointment of Ms Cathy McGowan AO to the position of Chairperson of the AgriFutures Australia Board.

Ms McGowan is a sixth-generation farmer from northeast Victoria and has held various leadership roles in rural and regional organisations, including as President of Australian Women in Agriculture. Ms McGowan was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia in 2004 and was elected and served in the Australian Parliament as the Federal Member for Indi from 2013 to 2019.

Six people will face court today after almost $22 million worth of cannabis plants were seized near the north-west NSW town of Narrabri. 

Police said officers found almost 11,000 cannabis plants and a quantity of cannabis seeds when they raided a remote property on Killarney Gap Road at Rock Creek on Thursday at 3am.

Five men aged 28, 33, 35, 45 and 56 and a 41-year-old woman were arrested.

The six people were charged with knowingly taking part in cultivating large quantities of cannabis and were refused bail.

They will face Tamworth Local Court this morning.

The arrests follow extensive police inquiries that began in September with the formation of Strike Force Lyretrail.

More to come.

Boggabri SES put out a call for help in filling sandbags on Sunday morning and Boggabri residents responded en masse.

Boggabri SES member Chris Rixon said the service needed to replenish the stock as, over the past few days, it had used up the supply.

“We filled 170 in Gunnedah a couple of days ago and transported them here, but we have used all of them.

It would be fair to say that in the first two decades of this century the occurrence of major flooding has not been in the forefront of the minds of most members of the Narrabri district but some parts of the Namoi River system have experienced periods of flood disruption.

Rather, the main focus of concerns about the climate and the environment in this area has tended to be more on the question of a lack of rain, rather than an overabundance of rain. In more recent years the dangers and costs imposed by moderate or serious flooding in NSW and the eastern states in general have become more apparent as evidence mounts that the consequences of global climate change include serious economic and social harm.

It is very clear now that our society and our governments at all levels must assume that the decades ahead may bring more – not less – adverse climate-related consequences.

John Bowie has been found guilty of murdering his wife Roxlyn in Walgett 40 years ago.

After just four-and-a-half hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict in the Bowie murder trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The 72-year-old stood accused of murdering his wife Roxlyn on or about June 5, 1982, while the couple lived in Walgett in north-west New South Wales with their two young children. Her body has never been found.

The jury heard four weeks of crown witnesses before finding the accused guilty.

The offender maintained his innocence for 40 years, telling the court he came home from the pub on the night of Saturday, June 5, 1982, to find his wife missing and their two children asleep in their beds.