Articles published in April 2026
2026 Oberon Shakespeare Festival - The Play's The Thing
April 2, 2026 in Community and Entertainment  You can't really have a Shakespeare Festival without a performance of one of his plays, and this year the 2026 Rotary Oberon Shakespeare Festival brought us Romeo and Juliet at the Malachi. A great performance of a great play and a fitting finale to a fine Festival. It will all be back next year, but in the meantime you can relive the night through some pictures.
See the story of the night here
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2026 Oberon Shakespeare Festival - The Festival Feast
April 2, 2026 in Community  What's a festival without a feast, and Oberon got a magical feast as part of the 2026 Rotary Oberon Shakespeare Festival. There was food, of course, and snippets of some of Shakespeare's plays. And dancing. And fun for everyone.
See some action from the night here
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Big problems, simple answers.
April 2, 2026 in Opinion
Updated July 2, 2026  American journalist H L Menken is often quoted as saying "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong". This has been amply exhibited by two events affecting this part of the world right now - the closure of Victoria Pass and the price and availability of fuel following events in Iran.
See the rant here
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Fake news on everything from whales to wind farms: Australia is flooded with climate misinformation
April 2, 2026 in General News  The Australian Senate has just released the report of a Senate inquiry into the misinformation, disinformation and outright nonsense coming from the opponents of renewable energy, some of it generated by "artificial intelligence" bots and much of it paid for by secretive organisations. This article from The Conversation analyses the findings. There is also a link there to the full Senate report and another analysis published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
See the article here
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Book review - "Wind Turbine Syndrome: A communicated disease"
April 2, 2026 in Reviews  Every time a new technology comes along people are fearful and resist change. I can remember when television arrived in Australia and there were severe warnings about possible damage to eyesight from watching it (and scammers selling special glasses to eliminate the danger). People used analogue mobile phones to complain about 2G digital signals, 2G phones to whine about 3G, 3G phones to spread fear about 4G and 4G phones to warn of the dangers of 5G. Did you know that there are almost 300 medical conditions in both humans and animals caused by wind towers?
Read the review here
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The more schooling the better
April 2, 2026 in Schools  The excitement and the learning opportunities just keep coming at the schools around Oberon.
See this week's excitement here
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More sport than you can poke a cricket stump at
April 2, 2026 in Sport  Cricket is back and the league season is off to a good start. And golf. Always golf.
See the results here
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A busy Saturday morning
April 9, 2026 in Community  It was a Saturday, so after buying the paper Oberon Matters decided to act like a tourist and see what there was to see around the town. There was a lot more, but the Oberon Markets, the Oberon Tarana Heritage Railway and the Oberon & District Museum filled in the morning nicely.
See some photos of the adventure here
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The Burraga Easter Egg Hunt
April 9, 2026 in Community  Burraga might be a tiny village but nobody could deny the community spirit there. On Easter Saturday the Burraga Sports & Recreation Club hosted an Easter Egg hunt for the local kids.
See some photos of the fun here
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Still waiting for the Leagues Club
April 9, 2026 in Community  Oberon Leagues Club still hasn't moved to its new home at the Sports Complex for reasons which puzzle everyone outside the negotiating process.
See an update from the Club here
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All the schooling, all the time
April 9, 2026 in Schools  Things were winding down for the autumn break, but that didn't stop some of the schools around Oberon having some fun, getting some exercise and even learning some things.
Catch the excitement here
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Golf. It's everywhere you look.
April 9, 2026 in Sport  Golfers love long weekends because there are more days for playing golf instead of going to work.
Examine the score cards here
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A nice day out at the Edith Seasonal Markets
April 16, 2026 in Community  Edith turned on another great market day. It's a small place but when 183 families take the time to drive there (when fuel is still very pricy) it shows that the market is very welcome and well received.
See some photos from the day here
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Oberon Pony Club gets its new club house
April 16, 2026 in Sport and Community  After almost 70 years the Oberon Pony Club has finally got a club house worth of the club. With plenty of space and a proper commercial kitchen, the new building points to a new future for the club.
See some photos from the official opening here
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Victoria Pass
April 16, 2026 in General News  I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that Victoria Pass is still closed and the initial estimate (guess?) of a three months closure is looking very optimistic and unlikely as one month has already passed. The good news (actually "not so bad news") is that there will be a meeting of engineers, road builders and other experts on April 23 to consider where to go from here.
Transport for NSW have a web page where you can follow progress - Great Western Highway Road Closure at Victoria Pass. The latest media releases are: | | |
When is the best time to get your flu shot? 2 infectious diseases experts explain
April 16, 2026 in General News  Influenza kills about 3,500 Australians every year. In the year up to June 2025, 1,340 people died on the country's roads, so flu is a bigger killer. It's not "just a bad cold", it's a serious illness. The annual flu season is already here so it's time to make sure your vaccination is up to date (the vaccine changes yearly to accommodate expected changes in the particular virus strains that might be encountered). You can get your shot at Oberon Medical Centre or Oberon Pharmacy, but whichever you choose, just do it. And yes, I've had my shot, as I do every year.
This article from The Conversation gives you the facts.
See the article here | | |
Oberon Council Mayor's Column
April 16, 2026 in Community This fortnight's column from Oberon Mayor Andrew McKibbin can be seen here. The sporting continues
April 16, 2026 in Sport  The back pages this week got filled up with some soccer scores, some pony riding. And golf. We must never forget the golf.
See the stories here
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Council resolution following code of conduct investigation
April 23, 2026 in Community  Oberon Council has issued a media release about the conduct of a Councillor and the subsequent investigation and decisions about action.
You can read the release here
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Oberon 2026 Autumn Garden Showcase
April 23, 2026 in Community  It's autumn, so it's time again for the Oberon & District Garden Club to open up some gardens to the public. Oberon Matters got to two gardens that are new this year and one that has been around for a long time and is featured every year.
There's a lot to see here
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Bringing back the bricks
April23, 2026 in Community and Entertainment  If you were around town in March 2023 you might remember the excitement about an exhibition of Lego constructions on display at the Malachi Gilmore Hall. Well, the excitement will return to the Malachi on May 9 this year. Mark the date in your diary.
See some of the excitement from last time here
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All the knitting and crocheting paid off. The rugs are here
April 23,2026 in Community  It started in 2022 with some bales of wool and now members of the audience at the Malachi Gilmore Hall don't have to worry about cold knees in October's cooler months. The project to knit some rugs has been a success.
You can see the success here
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Can I get a free flu shot? And will it cover 'super K'? Your influenza vaccine questions answered
April 23, 2026 in General News  This is a follow up to last week's article about flu vaccination. This piece from The Conversation tells you how to go about getting your shot, what the options are and what to worry (or not worry) about. (My shot was Fluad. I had absolutely no reaction.)
See the article here
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Schools sneak back to work
April 23, 2026 in Schools  School buses might have been running empty on pupil-free days (yes, really!) and fines for speeding in school zones were in action when all the pupils were at home, but that's the way bureaucracies work. Meanwhile the teachers were getting ready for the onslaught. And there was Harmony Week, too.
See the getting ready action here
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Where sport happens
April 23, 2026 in Sport  Where sport happens is Oberon, and this week it's our soccer players winning 66% of their matches and golfers giving the youngsters a go.
See the scores here
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ANZAC Day in Oberon
April 30, 2026 in Community  Oberon turned on perfect autumn weather for the 2026 ANZAC Day event, and the town turned out in larger numbers than have been seen for many years. The change from the RSL Club to having everything at the War Memorial was a great success.
See a video of the day's events here
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Rededication of the Black Springs War Memorial
April 30, 2026 in Community  On the day after ANZAC Day, Black Springs got together for a rededication of the War Memorial in the Black Springs Recreation Reserve.
Catch the action at the event here
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Something special this way comes
April 30, 2026 in Entertainment  Whatever your plans are for the afternoon of Sunday, May 3, cancel them, because the place to be at 3pm will be the Malachi Gilmore Hall for a performance by the Omega Ensemble. This award winning musical group will be performing "Howl", described as "Riot, rapture and release" and "Uniting five leading contemporary classical voices Howl presents a performance of musical defiance and untamed brilliance".
The show will include works by composers Missy Mazzoli, Anna Meredith, Daniel Wohl, Pierre Jalbert and Danny Elfman (yes that Danny Elfman who scored Tim Burton's films and wrote the theme for "The Simpsons"). They might not be your usual collection of classical music composers but it's always good to approach something new and different. You can see the program here and book tickets here | | |
Waste 2 Art is on again for 2026
April 30, 2026 in Community and Schools  Students in the schools around Oberon have been busy turning things that would usually go into the bin into artworks.
See some photos of the creativity here (and get down to the library to see the real things)
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Business Awards Finalist
April 30, 2026 in Business  Here's some news from Oberon Pharmacy:
We're incredibly proud to share that Oberon Pharmacy has been named a finalist in the Western NSW Business Awards!
This recognition means so much to our team, and we're truly grateful for the ongoing support from our wonderful community.
We love what we do, and it's an honour to be able to care for and support the health of Oberon and surrounds every day.
Thank you to our wonderful customers for being part of our journey - we couldn't have done it without you! Congratilations. | | |
Checking the facts
April 30, 2026 in Opinion  I was recently pointed to a court case as evidence that a court had ruled on a particular matter with the suggestion that the ruling would apply in totally different circumstances to a totally unrelated matter and a second case where the result was nowhere near as favourable as was being suggested. The assumption was that nobody would read the actual court papers. This reminded me of a piece I wrote for Australasian Science magazine a few years ago about the difficulty of checking all the "facts" in a story.
You can read the article here
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Schools join in the ANZAC spirit
April 30, 2026 in Schools  The big thing for all the local schools was ANZAC Day, with both in-school events and participation in ANZAC Day marches and memorial services.
See the stories here
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The sport never stops
April 30, 2026 in Sport  The soccer players reverse last week's results, lasses on ponies do very well and golfers celebrate ANZAC Day,
See the results here
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Oberon Council Mayor's Column
April 30, 2026 in Community This fortnight's column from Oberon Mayor Andrew McKibbin can be seen here.
There were 8,533 unique visitors to the site during April, 2026.
The most read page was The craft shop moves and having moved, sells on.
"Unique visitors" counts IP addresses that have connected to the site at least once during the month. It doesn't include search engines, but even if it did Google and Bing (who index the site at least once a week) would only be counted as one visitor each. Put another way, it is the lowest estimate of the number of visits to the site during the month.
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