A COVID-style graduation

Tell us what happened on the weekend

The PASTORAL TIMES’ newest staff members were treated to an impromptu, universitystyle graduation ceremony on Friday.

Cadet journalist Bryanna Rossow and marketing and membership coordinator Jack Bartlett were planning to return to Brisbane at the weekend, to attend their Queens- land University of Technology graduation.

Scheduled to be held yesterday, the graduations have been postponed until at least April because of ongoing concerns regarding COVID-19 outbreaks.

Intent not to let either miss out on their big day, the PT staff rallied to give the pair as real a graduation as we could provide.

Staff provided a graduation robe and made a mortar board from craft stock and copies of recycled PASTORAL TIMES newspapers.

Each was also presented with a certificate and a gift.

Bryanna joined the PT team in late November, having com- pleted a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in journalism.

Jack completed a double degree in Business and Media Communications, with an advertising major, and joined the PT team last week.

Varied weather

Ominous clouds and a sprinkling of rain is as much as the Deniliquin township experienced on Friday, but it was a different story for those on the outlying areas of the Edward River Council area.

Phyllis and Gordon Ball reported heavy rain and even hail at their Mayrung property.

‘‘We had 40mm of rain in 30 minutes in a storm at ‘Melbergen’, Mayrung about 8pm,’’ Phyllis told the PT.

‘‘There was a small amount of hail but little damage, but the rain was very heavy.’’

In stark contrast, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Deniliquin

Airport weather station recorded only 1.4mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am Saturday.

It brought the month’s total rainfall to date to 12.2mm, with more than half of that (6.6mm) falling Wednesday last week.

BoM data from the last 25 years suggests the mean average rainfall for Deniliquin in January is 23.8mm.

Some more rain is predicted this weekend, but it’s not likely to bring much.

Friday’s ‘‘possible shower’’ is expected to deliver less than 1mm, and Saturday’s possible shower could deliver between 1mm and 5mm.

Break for Bingo

Deniliquin Golf Club has a regular group of Bingo players who enjoy their game every Friday. But unfortunately,

they’ll be missing out this week.

The club has another commitment on Friday morning so it has had to cancel Bingo and apologises to its loyal band of players.

But rest assured, you’ll be back marking numbers next week.

Lightning warning

The Mid Murray Rural Fire Service is once again urging landowners to check their properties for signs of lightning strikes in the days after a storm.

The Deniliquin RFS has responded to 16 callouts in the week since a lightning storm.

Mid Murray Zone RFS district officer Terry Campbell said the fires were not difficult to put out, but cautioned they could become a bigger problem if not caught early.

‘‘I would like to reiterate and urge landowners to check their properties after a lightning storm,’’ Mr Campbell said.

‘‘We’re seeing fires days and weeks afterward.’’

On top of 13 separate tree fires, the RFS attended one hay fire, one small bushfire, and one small grass fire since last Tuesday.

Mr Campbell advised anyone who sees signs of lightning damage on their property to phone the RFS on 03 5898 4100 or put it out if they have the correct equipment.

New icon system

New emergency icons have been introduced on the Fires Near Me NSW app and the RFS website to make clear the actions those in affected areas must take.

RFS NSW says the yellow, orange and red icons show bush fire locations as part of the new Australian Warning System. Similar icons will soon be used for a whole range of emergencies like floods and extreme weather.

Swept away

The Deniliquin Swim Centre has been forced to cancel its intensive swimming program.

After initially deferring the start by a week, the centre announced late last week that cancellation was now necessary because of ‘‘the current COVID climate and staff shortage’’.

‘‘The decision is based on the best interests of our staff and the children,’’ the swim centre said.