The latest local news from across the upper Blue Mountains - from Medlow Bath to Mt Tomah.

It’s a bustling Thursday morning at the Blackheath Community Op-shop (BCOS). Volunteers are happily accepting donations of furniture, clothes and boxes of books, and satisfied customers are loading up the same. Passing by the racks of clothes to a large sorting table in the rear, I find David O’Brien, a serene agent in a storm of activity. We repair to a quiet courtyard behind “the …

  “There’s a lot of great people doing amazing things in the world and you can be one of them” – Emma Magenta If you’re not sure if you’re powerful enough to change the world, just look at the fact that you’re still alive in a system designed to kill you. You’ve survived this far and congratulations. This is no …

  Children see things differently. Not only are they a little closer to the ground than your average adult, but so many of the things they encounter are being experienced for the first time. With eyes wide open, their minds absorb every little detail. So when Jacqueline Reid, from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, began working with schoolchildren to …

Blackheath, in the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains, Australia, has become the world’s first town in which all the shopfront businesses have agreed to phase out plastic straws. Thirty businesses – all the cafes, restaurants, bakeries, grocery shops, delicatessens, takeaways, service stations and pubs – now display signage indicating that they will only offer straws on request. Some businesses, like The Piedmont Inn, have …

  For over ten years Lithgow High School Filmmakers have been making award winning films that have been screened all over the world with high regard. Their talented teacher and Blackheath resident, Sean O’Keeffe, has involved these young filmmakers with the wider community and with the Blackheath community in particular … from the multi-award winning “Wind Girl” in 2009, to “Bullets to Buttons” in …

When The Big Fix approached local businesses to see if they’d agree to help Blackheath phase out plastic straws, one common remark was that men rarely use straws … it’s mostly women and children. This triggered an idea that local artist and designer Ian Dalkin developed into a cartoon. It has since become the basis of the Blackheath Gets Real Campaign … …

  To devote yourself to the community is an extraordinary thing. How does it happen? For Simon Hare it started with his family motto: “be curious, try everything and learn everything you can”. In Simon’s family people were just human animals and animals were people too: their menagerie of a donkey, chickens, cats, guinea pigs, geese and two black Labradors in …

OK I admit it, I’ve got shed envy! I’ve now been to the Blackheath Area Men’s Shed four times and each time I’ve found it more difficult to leave than the last. I’m not sure what I envy the most … the beautiful, neatly organised walls of tools and various workshops with projects underway …  like the second time I came and …

Popes Glen Creek rises in Memorial Park, close to the town centre of Blackheath, then flows east for about 4km through Popes Glen Bushland Reserve and into the Grose River. Over decades this beautiful interface between the town and the Blue Mountains National Park had suffered the effects of polluted urban stormwater inundating a natural system, and had become a …