The arts are an essential industry. We need artists as much as we need accountants. We need dancers as much as we need doctors. We need comedians as much as we need civil engineers. We need filmmakers as much as we need financial planners. We need musicians as much as we need ministers.

Construction has begun on an eight-lane athletics track at Southern Cross University’s Lismore campus, giving Northern Rivers schools and clubs a competition-standard venue closer to home when it opens in mid-2027.

There’s something special about biting into a perfectly ripe peach or nectarine, with juice running down your chin and the taste of summer in every mouthful. Stone fruit season is now underway, and local grower Rajesh Kumar is bringing a beautiful selection of fresh fruit to the farmers’ markets.

Fewer than half of Northern NSW emergency patients needing admission or transfer met a six-hour hospital access target in 2025–26, according to a health district review released yesterday.

It is the age-old story – the lack of public transport across the Northern Rivers that leads to high car ownership and a failure of local and regional public transport infrastructure and use.

A Northern Rivers family might be forced to leave their life behind without direct intervention by the Minister for Immigration, Tony Burke. The de Silva family have been living locally since 2020, contributing significantly to local businesses and to disaster recovery.