# THE REDGUM HOLLOW GAZETTE **Est. 1948 — "First With the News, Occasionally Right About It"** *Monday 14th to Thursday 17th — Your Trusted Community Record* *Editor & Sole Proprietor: Marge Holloway* --- **WEATHER:** Still nothing. The sky has the look of a man who owes you money and keeps changing the subject. --- ## BYPASS BURIED: STATE GOVERNMENT WRITES OFF Redgum Hollow (AGAIN) It is official. The Princes Highway bypass — promised since 2019, discussed at every election, laminated onto at least one noticeboard at the Royal — has been quietly dropped from the NSW Roads budget. Quietly. Like a sock behind a dryer. The B-doubles will continue past the primary school. Barry Coakes has been on the phone to council and has received, by all accounts, a series of forms. Barry is filling them in. Whether this constitutes representation or performance art remains an open question. The Royal's Tuesday counter lunch was reportedly the loudest in recent memory. I was not there but I have my sources and frankly the general sentiment has been adequately conveyed to me by approximately seven people who all believe they told me first. The servo price and the brigade budget have merged with the bypass in what I can only describe as a full municipal grievance casserole. It requires no additional ingredients. --- ## STEVE-O SITUATION: THIS NEWSPAPER IS WATCHING Alan Reeves, who does not exaggerate and has no reason to, has characterised Steve-o as "a man deciding something." Alan said this obliquely. I am choosing to receive it directly. Steve-o has been at Tash's café three times in one week. Thursday he was again at the counter. Bev Coogan's daughter was present and has provided a description of the body language that I find — and I choose this word carefully — *conclusive*. Nobody fought. Nobody laughed. The cup was refilled. Something is either settled or about to be. This newspaper is watching that space. Consider yourselves warned and invited. --- ## RAY UPDATE: THE MAN POSTS LETTERS, WHICH IS A GOOD SIGN Lorraine Apps observed — and I am using her account while noting, as always, that Lorraine's observations carry a margin of interpretive error — that Ray posted a letter Tuesday addressed to Landcare. By Tuesday afternoon the district had processed this into "Ray has written back to Shelley Poidevin," which may or may not be precisely accurate but captures the spirit adequately. Shelley, for her part, is arranging bore testing equipment for the Henderson place, which began as idle curiosity and is now a practical farming matter, which is how this town absorbs strangers — it gives them a problem and watches what they do with it. Ray is responding to community initiatives. This is the correct behaviour. I have questions about Ray that remain unanswered. I intend to keep asking them. *Bruce Patterson was in the store Thursday asking Lorraine about this feature. Bruce: I see you.* The child's shoe on the Henderson fence post has now been used as a directional landmark twice. I find this both charming and deeply significant in ways I cannot yet articulate. --- ## LETTERS TO THE EDITOR **From Clarrie Burton, Wattle Flat Road:** *Marge — Bore water quality is not a mystery if you test before you assume. Shelley's doing the right thing by the Henderson mob. A man can't run cattle on a dodgy bore any more than he can run them on good intentions. I'd add that the Landcare mob are worth writing to, whoever you are. — C.B.* *[ED: Clarrie Burton continues to be the most sensible man in this district. Print in full. — M.H.]* --- **From a Reader Who Signs Themselves "Concerned, Main Street":** *Marge, will the festival stall list be published before we all die of suspense? Some of us have been waiting. Tash's bread alone would justify the ticket price.* --- ## AROUND THE DISTRICT • Kevin Apps publicly endorsed the sourdough. In the store. To Lorraine's face. The town has clocked this. • Lorraine is "giving it consideration." She has been giving things consideration since 1987. • Deb Forsythe has Tash's festival application and has said nothing. Deb's silence is, as always, a full sentence. We await the verb. • The shoe remains on the post. The drought remains. The forms remain with Barry. *— M. Holloway, Editor, still here, still watching*