The North Coast Petroleum Casino Truck Show has taken out the Outstanding Visitor Experience category at the 2026 NSW Business Awards in Sydney.

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.

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.

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.

In Michelle Anderson’s Kanpala, circles of red, orange and yellow bring a place in Western Australia’s Spinifex Country into view. It’s a place she returns to often in paint: Kanpa, the Country where her grandmother was born.