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Bourke - 2840

Desperately seeking skipper: Hunt for paddle steamer captain to steer town's key tourist draw

The paddlesteamer PV Jandra, which meanders along the Darling River, is out of operation because there is no-one to take the helm.
Updated
A paddle steamer tied up at a jetty on a river, with blue sky overhead.

Reopened outback abattoir creates a business boom as it attracts 200 workers

The outback New South Wales community of Bourke celebrates the good fortunes of its previously troubled local abattoir which processes sheep and goats.
Updated
Two goats in a pen

Takes off like a helicopter, flies like a plane, this all-electric hybrid aircraft could change the way we fly

An Australian aviation startup on a mission to decarbonise air travel is developing a battery that could power a small aircraft to travel 1,000 km using hydrogen, and it already has a customer.
A rendered image of an electric aircraft on tarmac with the sun setting in the distance

Domestic violence service based in town where Molly Ticehurst died barred from applying for extra funding

A domestic violence support service that helps women in an area half the size of NSW says it has been blocked from applying for funding that would employ 148 extra workers.
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A silhouetted woman sits with her head in her hands.

‘Predatory and disgraceful’: The man who plied teens with alcohol before doing the unthinkable

On a road out the back of Bourke, the lives of two Indigenous teenage girls ended in 1987. They were failed by the police as the lawyer for the defendant played on racial tensions in the town.
Cutouts of two Aboriginal girls over a picture of an empty road in the desert.

Coroner finds racial bias affected investigation into 1987 deaths of Indigenous teens

A coronial inquest has found the predatory and horrifying behaviour of a man responsible for the 1987 deaths of Aboriginal teenagers Mona Lisa and Cindy Smith was poorly investigated by police.
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ABC News Current
Duration: 8 minutes

Racism tainted investigation into 1987 deaths of Aboriginal teenagers, coroner finds

The NSW State Coroner finds racism tainted an "inexplicably deficient" police investigation into the 1987 deaths of two Indigenous girls.
Four women stand outside a courthouse holding a document

This school only has five students, but four of them made it to the state swimming championships

From laps in outback water holes to Sydney's stadium of Olympic dreams, a tiny NSW primary school defies the odds and raises the roof in the state championships relay race.
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ABC News Current

As it happened: People urged to stay indoors as NSW soaked

It has been a wet and wild day across New South Wales with more extreme weather expected over the weekend. In Sydney more than 160 millimetres of rain has fallen since 9am on Thursday, its heaviest in 4 years.
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Parramatta River flooding

Sydney cops heaviest rainfall in four years as severe weather event hits NSW

The expected deluge overnight in parts of Sydney and the Illawarra, Blue Mountains and Hunter, could see severe flash flooding and rapid river rises.
Updated
state emergency personnel at a flloded parramatta river

Machete, batons, ammo, body armour, capsicum spray allegedly stolen by NSW police officer

Police allege a country officer had 19 cans of capsicum spray, four police-issued batons and almost 500 rounds of live pistol and simulation ammunition at his northern NSW home.
Arimdale courthouse

Police are coaching kids in the boxing ring to build relationships, and demand is in the rise

In a western NSW sports hall, dozens of young people gather each week to hone their hooks, jabs and upper cuts. And while it might sound serious, the sessions at Bourke PCYC are also full of laughter and conversation.
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Kids participating in the boxing program with the help of a boxing coach and officers.

Man dies after crop duster crashes in western New South Wales

A man has died after the crop dusting aircraft he was in crashed into a paddock near Bourke in western New South Wales.
NSW police generic; blue and red lights on top of Newcastle car

'A horrid scam on the Indigenous community': Government to pay thousands of families after funeral insurance 'fiasco'

Thousands of Australians who collectively lost millions of dollars to failed funeral insurer Youpla could now get some of their money back, under a newly announced government scheme.
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Cheryl Fernando and Donald Craigie

Wildlife advocates, farmers at odds after NSW report shows kangaroo numbers down by two million

An official survey estimates the roo population declined significantly across New South Wales in the past 12 months, yet farmers say numbers appear healthy.
A single kangaroo in a paddock standing upright and looking at the camera from behind grass.

We felt treated 'as blacks', mother tells inquest into 1987 deaths of Aboriginal girls near Bourke

The Indigenous mother of a 15-year-old girl who died on a highway with her cousin 35 years ago tells an inquest into their deaths she felt discriminated against during the initial investigation, which the counsel assisting the coroner has blasted for a litany of failures.
Picture of road sign beside bitumen road

Senior detective slams initial NSW Police investigation into 1987 deaths of Aboriginal cousins near Bourke

A senior detective tells an inquest into the historic deaths of two Aboriginal girls on a NSW highway that manslaughter charges against a non-Indigenous man would have been more appropriate.
Updated
Stretch of bitumen road with trees either side

Superannuation fraud a growing threat

Lack of public awareness around self-managed funds is leaving people vulnerable to scams.
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ABC News Current
Duration: 4 minutes 22 seconds

Inside the 'growing threat' to self-managed super that could leave Australians out of pocket with no compensation

ABC News has exclusively traced a devastating case of financial crime described as "bizarre". It comes as the financial watchdog reveals that investment scams are on the rise in Australia.
Updated
a man on a porch

Documenting a nation: Why food traditions and old cookbooks matter

In a world where recipes can be accessed with a keystroke, well-thumbed, old cookbooks can provide more than nostalgia and the comforts of home — they're a snapshot of who we are and where we've come from.
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An animation of sprinkling flour with images of recipe books and a cake.

Viral hip-hop group B-Town Warriors recruits new generation to inspire change in outback town

B-Town Warriors enjoyed international success and won a national Indigenous music award back in 2018, and has now re-formed to inspire a new generation.
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five members of Bourke warriors in the video for the new song

Her girls were found dead in a wrecked ute, but Aunty June doesn't believe they were killed by the crash

The mother and aunt of two Indigenous teenagers who died in Bourke in 1987 has told a coronial inquest that she was never contacted by police, and learned of her daughter's death through her brother.
An elderly Indigenous woman is smoking leaves

NSW Police handling of 1987 death of Aboriginal cousins probed at Bourke inquest

An inquest has heard from a former senior police officer, who admitted he accepted at face value, a non-Indigenous man's account of a fatal road accident, which killed two Aboriginal girls in the 1980s.
ABC News Current
Duration: 1 minute 36 seconds

Inquest hears man was released despite suspicions serious crime was committed against Indigenous teen

A retired police officer has told an inquest he suspected a man had sexually interfered with a teenage girl after she died in a road crash in Bourke in 1987.
OLd photos of a car that has been in a crash.

Former detective tells inquest police failed to test 'critical evidence' in deaths of teenage cousins

The crash investigator tells an inquest there was "something not right" about the initial investigation into the 1987 crash in regional NSW.
OLd photos of a car that has been in a crash.