FREE /APRIL 2023 THE STAR IS AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION FOR LOCAL PEOPLE BY LOCAL PEOPLE ESTABLISHED 2021
02 - 10 : NEWS
11 - 15 : LIFESTYLE
18 - 20 : SPORT
Chamber of Commerce revived.
Regen Fest was a great success.
On ya bike for youth mental health!
Dr Mick Dewing wins GP of the Year Veteran doctor has been caring for local families for most of his working life.
D
r Mick Dewing’s 45 years of medical service as a GP and obstetrician in the Warren Blackwood region has been recognised at the WA Rural Health Excellence Awards when he was named GP of the Year.
Dr Dewing has recently retired from obstetrics and stepped down from the roster for after-hours emergency duties at the hospital this year. He’s self-effacing about the award and says that not many Doctors have been practicing in the country as long as he has. “So I don’t think it’s any special recognition of me so much as it’s recognition of long service in a town
reasonably far from the big smoke,” Dr Dewing said. “It’s just a recognition of the work that country Drs in small towns do, it could have been anyone other than me, but it is nice to have that recognition.” Dr Dewing moved to Bridgetown in 1977. It was his first job outside city hospitals and he’s been here ever since. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
BRIDGETOWNGREENBUSHES STAR FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Y
our response to the new tabloid edition of the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Star was overwhelming, with over 2,000 copies flying off the shelves throughout Bridgetown and Greenbushes. It’s been very gratifying to hear how much you’ve enjoyed reading it, which is why I’m so shattered to tell you that this will probably be the last time you’ll be reading it in its current form. The axe fell on Tuesday the 28th March with the news that IVE, the business that prints the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Star, will be closing in May. The only remaining option for printing a tabloid newspaper is 7 West Media, publisher of The West Australian. Suffice to say that at the time of writing I’m not feeling confident that they’ll offer me a price for printing that will make publication viable.
Sadly the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Star is not alone, with other community-based regionals, like the Toodyay Herald, also facing an uncertain future. So what’s in store for the BridgetownGreenbushes Star? At this stage I’m not sure, but one possibility is a back to the future scenario and a return to its previous news magazine format. However, that will depend on finding a printing method considerably cheaper than the one I was using previously, and that may not be straightforward. Another option is an online-only publication behind a paywall, so that readers will pay to read each edition of the paper. The only things I know for certain are that there’s a lot of demand for a local newspaper in Bridgetown-Greenbushes, and that I’ll be taking a break for a while to catch my breath and think about where I go from here. Mark Schneider, Editor