The Parkes Champion Post covered a diverse range of stories this year – from national announcements and the beginning of major projects to massive personal and sporting achievements to the loss of some much loved members of our community.

One of the biggest stories to come out of Parkes this year was the arrival of the Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay on January 29 and the selection of 19 baton bearers to carry it through town and onto the Parkes Dish.

The Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project continually made headlines throughout the year, with the delivery of the first steel to Peak Hill for the Parkes to Narromine section in January first grabbing our attention.

The Federal and NSW Governments signed a landmark Bilateral Agreement for the Inland Rail on May 4, six rail bridges were upgraded at Goonumbla, Mickibri, Tomingley and Narwonah in preparation for the multi-billion dollar project, a one-stop-shop Inland Rail shop opened in Parkes’ main street in May, the creation of new jobs began from about July as two local companies worked to supply about $7 million in ballast and capping for the project’s first stage in NSW, Parkes hosted the first Inland Rail Conference on July 18 and 19 – all ending with the official sod turning ceremony on December 13 to mark the beginning of construction of the Inland Rail.

While this was taking place the NSW Government unveiled its 20-year economic vision for regional NSW which included a regional NSW first special activation precinct and an inland port in Parkes.

Then in June work was very much underway in establishing a new mine near Fifield called Clean TeQ Sunrise, one of the largest greenfield mineral processing development projects in Australia, one of the largest nickel and cobalt deposits outside of Africa, and one of the largest and highest-grade deposits of scandium in the world. The mine will bring 1300 jobs during construction and 300 in operations.

On a local government level, the Parkes Water and Sewage Treatment Plants were officially opened in March, and Parkes’ new Advanced Water Recycling Facility in April. And construction on the Recycled Water Rising Main began in November.

There were some significant and exciting milestones this year too, for community members and local clubs, organisations and schools. Such as Parkes' own Mr Cricket Greg Morrissey was named on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List to receive an OAM in January, Parkes Public School celebrated 150 years in August, the Little Theatre had a $500,000 refurbishment and the Parkes Elvis Festival was inducted into the NSW Tourism Hall of Fame after winning the best festival category for a third consecutive year at the 2018 NSW Tourism Awards in November.

There were some big social events in town this year too, with the Aero Spectacular at the Parkes Airport in April marking the 70^th anniversary of the Parkes Aero Club, and the Band Together Farmers fundraiser featuring several rock legends, at the Parkes Showground to support the mental health of farmers.

On the sporting front, we had a Parkes East Public School teacher selected as an athletics official for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, two hockey veterans attended the Masters Hockey World Cup in Barcelona, the Trundle Boomers claimed back-to-back Woodbridge Cup premierships and the Parkes Spacecats took home the club’s second Group 11 league tag crown in three years.

Above are the major stories we covered this year.