A sold-out gala in Lismore has raised more than $200,000 for Women Up North (WUN) and its Bugalma Bihyn Aboriginal Women’s Refuge, which can accommodate up to five families.

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.

In a stunning repudiation of Donald Trump and the Republican Party he remade in his image, US voters have chosen alternative candidates across the country in midterm elections.

Haven’s story starts with a supermarket. The venue at 102 Jonson Street occupies the former Woolworths building, a site presented as a temporary home for music and community, before the building is eventually redeveloped. Instead of hiding that impermanence, the team made it the point. The space was built entirely from salvaged materials, turning a commercial site into a cultural one which is reminiscent of a futuristic Pan-Asian set from Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell.

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.

The NSW Government will spend $3 million on a sewer link for the Saddle Road housing precinct near Brunswick Heads, a connection it says could service up to 600 residential lots.