A major effort to rehabilitate almost 30 kilometres of flood-affected riverbanks across NSW has received international recognition, with Local Land Services and the Soil Conservation Service winning this year’s International Erosion Control Association Australasia (IECA Australasia) Environmental Excellence Award.

The Echo loves your letters and is proud to provide a community forum on the issues that matter most to our readers and the people of the NSW north coast. So don’t be a passive reader, send us your epistles.

Surfers can spend hours arguing about the merits of a board. On Friday, they can hear from three men who have spent decades making them.

Is it even possible to not love a film with Bill Nighy? Well, no! In this beautiful, sweeping and life-affirming adventure that celebrates the human spirit, 500 Miles follows a broken family that must come together when two young boys, Charlie and Finn, run away from home in England to reach their beloved but estranged grandfather (Nighy) on the west coast of Ireland.