Local News

JAMIE HOTTAKE | Celeb | Contact Woah! Look out Australia! Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex, is pregnant and the entire world is collectively chuffed for her! As scores of displaced refugee children continue to die a slow, undignified and painful death at the hands of the Australian Parliament at their beachside concentration camp on Nauru, the visiting Royals are stealing our...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact "But it's so transparent and free," he said. There was a pause. It was late and Michael Rust, a Betoota Grove private asset manager was tired. "Who gives a shit? And why would we want that? So governments and poor people can see what we're doing? So the financial systems around the world become fairer? Who in their...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact Drowning in debt, going bald from stress but glad to finally have a job in the industry, a bright-eyed and freshly qualified teacher told The Advocate this morning that she's really been enjoying her first year in primary education. Sandy Greenwich's group certificate has been sitting by the disconnected landline in her Betoota Heights sharehouse...

INGRID DOULTON | Local News | Contact As a 12-year-old boy, Stephen Doohan burnt himself a slow jams mix for the express purpose of charming an overly-polite and awkward girl in his class - Mary. While he has grown, his sense of what constitutes something to be appropriate or not has not. Recently, the comically-tense Gemini moved out of his parents leafy Betoota...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact Working on behalf of a number of local coal miners and power companies, it goes without saying that Sam Ferguson gets to wine and dine on the company card more than most. He doesn't get his hands dirty - unless of course, you find cold hard cash to be filthy. Part of his role as a...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact In town for the Betoota Gold Cup at the weekend, homely Brisbanese man Dennis Spears was woken in the night by a blood-curdling scream. "What the fuck was that?" he said, springing up in bed. The 28-year-old was so confronted by the noise that he decided to wake his host, Mike Pearson of Yulumba Street in...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact It is probably the most exciting thing to happen to Betoota Grove mother-of-four, Wendy Spock, this calendar year. Save for perhaps the conception or unplanned birth of her first grandchild. Prince Harry arrived in Australia this morning with his popular new wife Megan Markle - and Wendy is barely keeping it together. Speaking exclusively to The Advocate...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact It's a glorious afternoon in our great south-west and two of the town's most polite and happy-go-lucky youngsters are keen to murder a few local schooners this afternoon as the soft atumn sunlight warms their shoulders. Though it's not the first time Lindsay Cappoo and Digby 'Gorilla Tits' Frost have been seen looking for victims of a Sunday afternoon...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact After a particularly heavy week of work after a particularly heavy weekend last week, a local city worker has made time to catch up with an old friend who's largely unsuccessful - in order to put her doubts about her own life at ease. Louise Pichot knew on Wednesday night that she'd need a bit of a lift before...

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact In a futile attempt to win some brownie points, a local diesel fitter opted to leave his Baxters at the hotel today and don the Nike Air Maxes as he and his life partner head out on a walking tour of Canberra. Betoota Heights couple Nathan Decanter and his significantly more popular girlfriend Lucy Aldridge,...