Ballina Information Blog

Far North Coast finished as the leading Country branch in the NSW Interbranch surf lifesaving championships at Umina Beach this weekend.
FNC finished sixth overall behind Central Coast, who won back the Championships with a convincing display in the teams events.
After being overrun by Sydney Northern Beaches in the final event of the 2006 championships, [...]

Bruce at Dave’s Bait Shop says Emigrant and North creeks are quite dirty after the rain last week but the main river has fished well for bream, whiting and flathead, with the best lizard this week a solid 7.7kg.
The whiting are up to Pimlico Island on the run-in tide and there have been plenty of [...]

Today there’s a swell of two to three feet from the east north-east and there’s beach breaks at quite a few local beaches.
The wind is from the east and is forecast to be south-east to north-east over the next few days.
I’ve had waves the past couple of mornings but by 10am it starts to turn [...]

North Coast Lifeguard Co-ordinator Stephen Leahy’s daily beach report:
A warm and sunny day until late afternoon when the sea breeze chopped up the clean surf and cloud cover increased. Here’s what happened on lifeguard patrolled beaches in Ballina Shire today:
Lennox Head: A great beach day with waves up to half a metre, enjoyed by swimmers [...]

The combination of the WorkChoices and Welfare to Work reforms could lead to diminished prospects and quality of life for ‘vulnerable’ people in regional communities, a new study has found.
The study, by Dr Sandy Darab and Dr Yvonne Hartman, from Southern Cross University’s School of Arts and Social Sciences, is the first phase of a [...]

North Coast Lifeguard Co-ordinator Stephen Leahy’s daily beach report:
Another great day on Far North Coast beaches. Small waves but there were still a number of rips around. The afternoon sea breeze cooled things down later in the day. Here’s what happened on lifeguard patrolled beaches in Ballina Shire today:
Lennox Head: Surfers enjoyed the conditions at [...]

Federal Labor today unveiled a plan to fast-track the completion of radiotherapy services at Lismore Base Hospital.
Labor says a Rudd Government will invest a total of $15 million in radiotherapy services at Lismore Base Hospital.
“Federal Labor will honour the $8 million previously committed by Minister Abbott but it will provide an extra $7 million to [...]

Tomorrow is the long-awaited Ballina Cup, but it’s not the only big ‘race’ meeting in town over the next few days.
The Rotary Club of Ballina’s Great Duck Race on Sunday, November 18, during Ballina’s Rivafest will help raise funds for two urgently needed community projects.
The emergency heart defibrillator for Lennox Head will be a potential [...]

They may not be champion racers but Ballina and District Riding for the Disabled (RDA) horses were big winners on Melbourne Cup Day with all 15 formally ‘adopted’ for the next five months to help deal with the current enforced quarantine.
The horses, which are in complete quarantine due to the equine influenza outbreak, had been [...]

When she left Nebraska, USA, at the beginning of this year, Southern Cross University Masters student Marisa Gibb had no idea that her research would lead to the study of new kinds of microscopic animals.
But after months of painstakingly preparing sea-bed samples from two of Australia’s southern-most coral reefs for imaging by the university’s scanning [...]