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YOUR WEEKLY INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER
CEN honours environmental champs
EDITION #520 THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY 2026
SEE PAGE 16
News
P11 Critical shortage of funnel-web venom
Out&About
P10 Carole and John Carpenter with CEN Chair Gary Chestnut (left) and Samantha Willis (right)
Flash floods wreak havoc Severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall caused havoc across large parts of the Central Coast on Saturday afternoon, January 17, and through the night into Sunday.
Deepwater Plaza at Woy Woy living up to its name
The first storm cell dumped large amounts of rain in a matter of hours, with many areas in the region recording more than 100mm of rain. 133mm was recorded at Pearl Beach over the space of just two hours, with many areas in the south of the region receiving falls of between 50 and 100mm over the course of the afternoon.
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On Saturday afternoon, trains were suspended between Gosford and Hornsby due to flooding on the tracks north of Hawkesbury River station. The line remained closed well into Sunday. The M1 Motorway was partially closed on Saturday afternoon, and many local roads were affected due to flooding and fallen trees. SES and Volunteer Rescue Association crews had a busy night responding to multiple water rescues across the region Continued page 6
P15 Catch Copa art show on long weekend
Sport
P31 New ocean swim program at Umina PUZZLES PAGE 18