Byron Writers Festival opens on Bundjalung Country on August 14 with a Calling to Country led by local Arakwal Bundjalung custodian, Delta Kay, and this year will feature the inaugural Rhoda Roberts Oration, honouring the late, beloved Rhoda Roberts AO.

A program called The Welcome Experience, which aims to ensure essential workers who move to the Northern Rivers establish meaningful connections and navigate their new communities has been boosted with a new 'Local Connector' position.

The Festival of Stone sold out in June with over 2,000 people enjoying good music, great food, and the festival’s namesake Stone Brew Beer.

While Australia’s parliamentarians were frocking up for the Midwinter Ball last week, representatives of the nation’s authors, musicians and artists were in Canberra pleading for assurances that the government would not water down copyright laws, as part of a deal with giant tech firms to build $50bn worth of new data centres across the country.