On Saturday 14 October, 2023, all eligible Australian citizens aged 18 years and over will vote on whether Australia should change its Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

February/March 2023 Events

You may have noticed the Brighton Community News has had a facelift for the first bi-monthly edition of 2022. The new Brighton Community News is full of good news stories and showcases the people, businesses, community groups and sporting clubs that make our area great. In our next edition we will introduce an event calendar with listings of what’s on in our local area.

On 1 July this year a new state­wide landfill levy came into effect. All waste sent to landfill will now attract a fee of $20 per tonne. This will increase to $40 per tonne after two years, and then finally $60 per tonne after another two years. The cost of this will be passed on to house­holds and businesses through Council rates. This strategy was developed by the Tasmanian Government to incentivise households to sort and recycle rubbish instead of sending it to landfill, to improve resource recovery and to keep resources in the productive economy.

In June ABC News reported on a FOGO truck making a special visit to students at the East Derwent Primary School to celebrate stu­dent’s efforts of diverting unwant­ed food scraps away from regular rubbish bins into FOGO caddies. Passionate students of the school’s dedicated ‘Environment Club’ were interviewed as part of the report, and it was found that some stu­dents were even putting peer pres­sure on others not to litter! Some lucky students got an official tour of the truck and saw the cameras used for road safety and to capture pictures of FOGO contamination.

Technology changes quickly. If you need to update your computing skills, this is a great place to start! The Workplace Computing course at Bridgewater Library will take you through using a computer and other digital devices.

The first time Mary Wood tried knitting, she was twelve years old and her sister had asked her to knit a complicated jumper. Unfortunately Mary found the pattern too difficult and much to her sister’s disappointment, ended up making a completely different jumper instead! How­ever, something about weav­ing the wool with her knitting needles Mary found extremely soothing and enjoyable, and thus a life-long passion be­gan.