With most of the State paralysed by drought the club organised a family farm relief program at the weekend - and down came the best rain in months over the valley.

Instant green tinges began to appear on the sad parched landscape in and around the Lithgow Valley and a flow re-appeared in Farmers Creek.

It was patchy  though across our region and far from a drought breaker but every little bit helps and the weekend events brought an encouraging reminder that it still remembers how to rain, at least sometimes.

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For the record, the Oberon Dam water levels continue to fall and last week was down around 54 per cent capacity.

So the need for farm support goes on and will go on while we wait for the drought to break.

Just leave it to the Workies; they’re the ones with the good contacts.

BULLDOGS behaving badly last week drew a lot of flak and hefty consequences but it was really nothing new in the boofy footy tradition of Mad Monday.  We well recall distant past end of season antics (just to put it politely) among Lithgow footy teams when players fired up by the rigours of a pub crawl were happy to bare all in the name of madness - in Main Street in mid afternoon.  Hardly raised more than an embarrassed smirk among shoppers as we recall. Again in years gone by (and just another day on the turps) it was not unusual for cheeky punters to win a bet by shedding all inhibition and doing a streak between Main Street pubs. It was never a pretty sight and thankfully that rite of passage appears to have been left behind in our more colourful past.

WHEN you’ve gotta go you’ve just gotta go. And that’s what prompted a reader to seek assistance from Council in making it possible to ‘go’’ in an increasingly busy commercial precinct of Lithgow.  Our caller pointed out that there’s nothing in the way of public plumbing in the area around Aldi and Pottery Plaza.  And with a new residential estate being created next door he expects the demand to become even greater. He’s taken the issue to Council and is hopeful someone will answer the call.

WHEN the Dragons roared to a huge NRL finals win at the weekend we were there. More observant viewers may have noticed in the TV close ups on the scrip of the victorious St George players the familiar logo of Lithgow’s Westfund Health. The Dragons are one of several NRL sides with Westfund sponsorship this season.  We even one time spotted the logo on the coaches’ box at Manly’s Brookvale Oval.

WILL the promised impact of AI (artificial intelligence) across community life can we expect more robotic but smarter politicians?