A decade behind the headlines

The Parkes Champion Post marked a milestone on 1 July - it's been 10 years since the first publication of a new-look Champion Post, in what was an entirely new and contemporary design. We went from a tri-weekly to printing twice a week, with a much greater focus on delivering the news across digital platforms; we had a newsroom restructure and could work remotely when the moment called for it. It's been an incredible and significant 10 years. How people are receiving and reading the news has dramatically changed, and continues to change, ultimately shifting the way we work as journalists and how and when we bring the news to our communities. It's not only something you wait for and pick-up at the newsagent or supermarket anymore, it's much more accessible thanks to the internet and social media. It's also been 10 years since I stepped up to become editor, returning to the town after I began my career here as a journalist cadet from 2009 to 2011, and taking over the reins from retiring editor Roel ten Cate and senior journalist Billy Jayet. My first six months alone were extremely eventful: We got to witness not one but two Parkes athletes make their Olympic Games debuts in Rio - Mariah Williams and Scott Westcott; the demolition of the former 110-year-old Parkes Hospital; the Parkes Bypass route was first revealed; and that freak supercell storm in October that plucked enormous gums from the ground and ripped the roof off the Parkes Racecourse historic grandstand. The years that followed, were even greater. In the 2017 Federal Budget the Australian Government made a landmark announcement of an $8.4 billion investment to officially green-light and fully construct the 1700km dedicated freight corridor Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail after decades of lobbying by country councils. Construction began on the first section in Parkes on 13 December 2018 and completed in 2020. Around the same time the state government unveiled its Special Activation Precincts program (July 2018) and Parkes officially announced as the very first Special Activation Precinct. The first SAP business, a pet food factory, arrived in October 2022. And we can't forget the two Parkes brothers and farmers who were the faces of the 2018 drought relief Australia Post postage stamp and the stellar 50th anniversary celebrations of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing at the Parkes Radio Telescope in 2019, marking the Parkes Dish's significant role in broadcasting the historic live television images of Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon. Little did I - us all - know the most life-changing was to come in 2020: the Covid-19 pandemic. Our towns shut down and the world stopped as Australians were ordered to stay home unless leaving for essential reasons like work, education or food, and when near others to stay a "social distance" of 1.5m apart. For the first time in the Parkes Champion Post's then 129-year history - that survived through two World Wars - we stopped publishing for two months under our former owners. Events and sporting competitions were cancelled - there was no Parkes Elvis Festival in 2021, for the first time in 28 years. At the end of 2021 the office the Champion Post had been operating out of for more than 100 years was sold, staff began working from home and we transitioned to publishing a weekly print edition. In 2023 the Champion Post was purchased by Provincial Press Group, a fourth generation publisher of the Wangaratta Chronicle in Victoria, and formed Mid West Media to publish the Champion Post and other regional papers in NSW. Staff returned to the CBD, the paper operating out of its new home at 189 Clarinda Street. The next major SAP announcement came in March 2025 of the $1.5 billion Energy from Waste facility proposed to be built, which has generated ongoing debate and resistance within the community. After six years the Parkes Bypass opened to traffic on 15 April 2025, and the most recent impacting announcement has been the axing of the Inland Rail route to Brisbane by the federal government in May, the line now to stop at Parkes less than half the distance due to a budget-blowout. On a broader scale, 2026 marks the 135th anniversary of the Parkes Champion Post, which formed following the merger of the Parkes Post, established in 1891, and The Western Champion, 1898. In the coming months we're planning to highlight this anniversary with a special history feature, sharing some of the biggest and most significant times in Parkes over the past 80 years that the Parkes Champion Post was there for, informing, fighting for, and celebrating with its community.