Jenna Thompson

On Thursday, December 9th I signed off from the Daily Examiner for the last time.

Starting next year, a new adventure awaits me when I join the communications team (based in Grafton) at the Department of Primary Industries 😊

While it had only been brief (four years), I'm humbled to have been part of the DEX team and help be a voice for the Clarence Valley community.

For instance, every time I drive past the Ulmarra speed camera I smile because to me it's testament to what a community and their local paper can do to make a difference. What used to be a road crash on the southern end of Ulmarra almost every six weeks is now practically non-existent. Residents were always eager to help me in any way possible while I spent months writing countless stories about the issue for our 'Let's Not Wait' campaign (and running out of fresh headline ideas!). The day the speed camera was unveiled I was over the moon!

The Cowper podcast is perhaps the most defining moment of my career with the DEX. Little did I realise this project would have such an impact on people! Some have reunited for the first time since that day, while others have found closure through the information presented in the series. Even today I get phone calls or emails from people connected to the tragedy wanting to share how it has positively impacted them or their loved ones. To me, that's what being a digital storyteller is all about.

It was a similar situation for my second podcast project On The Frontline. However, this time it was the response and newfound acknowledgement from the community toward the volunteers I'd interviewed. To hear that a community member at a shop recognised one of the volunteers, walked up and hugged them, then went back to what they were doing was just incredible.

There were so many fun times with the old DEX team that I'll never forget. Like when the snake man turned up to the office to give us an impromptu demonstration... resulting in some colleagues leaping onto their desks (you know who you are! lol), filming any video segment with the sales reps which guaranteed lots of laughs, one of my favourite journalists turning up to work in shorts and thongs only to transform into corporate attire in the blink of an eye - all without leaving his desk, to filming the incredible Glen from Grafton for our Spunkiest Mullet competition in a park in Glenreagh.

A former colleague pointed out to me the other day that I'm the last of the original DEX cohort, and with my departure, it will mean the end of an era.

I'm sad about that, but I know it's time for me to move on and find more opportunities to help make a positive impact for communities just like the Clarence Valley.

Thank you everyone who trusted me to share their story or help highlight an issue within this community. It’s been an absolute honour 🤗

Happy 90th Birthday to the Clarence River Historical Society!

Gillian, a lovely colleague of mine in Sydney, reached out a few weeks ago to say she loved my Cowper podcast and that she was using it for a new Web Stories platform. This morning she sent me the final result and I must say, it absolutely blew me away!
Check it out for free here 👉 https://bit.ly/2YNnfFU

EDIT: WE WON!! 🍾🎉🥳

I'm thrilled to learn that On The Frontline is a finalist in the 2021 News Awards ☺️ This is a huge win for regional journalism and, more importantly, national acknowledgement for the amazing work of our Clarence Valley RFS volunteers during the 2019 bushfire season.

To celebrate this achievement, Damo over at FM 103.1 Loving Life will be playing an episode a day between 8.30am and 9am for this week only (Nov 8 - 12).

Thank you again to everyone who contributed to this podcast. Without you, it never would have happened.

Most of you would have heard by now that the DEX currently consists of...
..just myself 😳

This beautiful region once required at least seven journalists to successfully cover all aspects of community news, events, achievements and tragedies.

But with only me flying the flag for the next few weeks, it means I'll be forced to 'triage' what local stories I can cover so I need your help.

If you have a story to tell or a local issue you want put in the spotlight, I'll need a few things from you to give it the best chance of making it happen:

CONTACT ME
The easiest way to get in touch with the details is either by private messaging this page or emailing me: [email protected]

The next step is for me to organise a time and day to interview you or whomever is to be interviewed. Most interviews take around 10-30min depending on how much you want to say and can be done either over the phone or in person.

PHOTOS
These are a must for any story and do require a local face so expect me to arrive with a camera! I'm happy for you to send me a favourite photo of yourself in lieu of me taking the photo 😊 (horizontal/landscape shape is ideal).

DO YOU HAVE EVIDENCE?
For some stories, I'll need evidence of the claim you're making before I can pursue it. It also requires your willingness to put your name to the claim in the story. Evidence could be in the form of a photo, video, copy of documents etc.

I look forward to hearing from you all!

After a few weeks off on annual leave, I'm finally back in the 'newsroom'... and what a fantastic story to cover first up! It was hard to leave this stunning spot, which will soon open to the public.

Thank you Darrell for making this story happen :)

(Full story out hopefully this evening or first thing tomorrow)

Anyone wishing to get vaccinated with Pfizer, there's a hub opening this morning at Maclean Showground. It's open to indigenous and non-indigenous people.

Thank you to Bulgarr Ngaru Medical Aboriginal Corp, Northern NSW Local Health District and NSW Police for organising this 🤗

Stay safe everyone

MACLEAN TOMORROW!!

We are encouraging all members of community, indigenous and non indigenous to come along and get vaccinated. Lets keep our community safe.

He’s such a cute little fellow! I just picked him up from South grafton news & gifts Newspower 🦇

In recent days I’ve been speaking to business owners who are flat out struggling.

Brad and Greg over at South grafton news & gifts Newspower are running on fumes to keep the shop running while lockdown continues. To add insult to injury, they have thieves taking advantage of an already trying situation.

It was equally as difficult to speak with Sara from the Whiporie General Store yesterday where she’s helping her parents close the business for good this weekend.

It’s been a crap couple of years for small businesses. It really has.

But you know what? Of all the communities I’ve lived in over the years the Clarence Valley has been the one with the biggest heart. And that’s all we need to see our local businesses thrive again. The next time you go into town, rather than go straight to the big chains, why not pop into a locally owned business instead?

A perfect example of my own.. I was after some glass jars to store pasta, biscuits etc in. Instead of going to Kmart or Big W, I instead popped into Ace Variety Discounts - Maclean, a small local business, who happened to have them. (I also made the mistake of walking past their stationary section and splurged a little bit too much 🤭).

I was also on the hunt for some sewing machine oil a few months back. I skipped Spotlight and went over to Grafton Textiles. Not only did I get the oil, but also picked up some contacts for the day my sewing machine eventually packs it in.

With Christmas coming up soon, it’s also a good time to start visiting these local shops for gifts. Even if they’re physically closed, it’s worth checking out if they’re online. I know clothing shops like Pretty Little Witch are doing their own version of click and collect.

All it takes is a little bit of initiative from us to completely change the life of a local business owner.

It was just beautiful to see complete strangers walk up and give his family a warm hug.

(If you weren’t able to attend I took a video of the service.)

Vigil held for father killed in freak vehicle collision Family, friends and members of the Clarence Valley community gathered Thursday evening at Market Square in Grafton to honour a father who tragically died following a freak vehicle collision.

It’s been a difficult weekend covering this story.. trying to remain professional while also not getting overwhelmed by the grim reality that something so awful has just shattered a family.

My heart goes out to his family and friends. If you know them, please give them a hug for me.

Update: Police confirm the worst following highway incident A Clarence Valley man who was critically injured in a highway incident on Friday has died.

Check out this little legend!

Tucabia resident Summah Chellew is fundraising for a couple of defibrillators for her community. If you have some shrapnel to spare, I'm sure she'd love to see it go toward this amazing cause.

More details here: https://bit.ly/36Lrdza

Stories sometimes just fall into my lap...
I happened to be in Maclean on my day off when someone mentioned to me that Sam was leaving the Clarence Valley and it was his last day. So, I raced over to Maclean Variety Meats to have a quick yarn with the 2020 Clarence Valley’s Spunkiest Mullet winner. I'm glad I did because he's always a cracker to talk to when it comes to his luscious locks :P

Have a read here: https://bit.ly/3BZYeWR

I was pretty excited to see a new policy on affordable housing in the Clarence Valley, especially after hearing countless stories of residents being priced out of the rental market and forced into homelessness.

But as I started going over the policy documents, I was pretty disappointed to see there wasn't much difference to their original policy. Developers are still required to set aside 10% of the total number of dwellings they build. I plan to make enquiries with Council as to what benefit this policy actually has for our residents.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/grafton/community/clarence-valley-council-release-draft-housing-affordability-policy/news-story/277cea6713c888f64555e98f9f7d57c6

CVC reveals diversity stock plan to alleviate housing crisis Will a new housing affordability policy help alleviate the ongoing crisis faced by Clarence Valley residents?

Are you under 40, living in the Clarence Valley, and trying to get the AstraZeneca vaccine? If so, I'd love to hear your experience for a story 💉

You can send me either a private message or email me [email protected]

Have you spotted the Hungry Blacks around the Clarence Valley? If so, don’t be afraid to go up and say g’day!

Avery and Uncle Joe are the sweetest blokes you could ever meet and are a mine of information and stories. Since speaking to them, my brain is going into overdrive brainstorming new projects and ideas to help promote the countless stories, biographies and histories our community have yet to reveal.

Watch this space ...

Why these two men are hungry for a yarn These days Avery Brown and Uncle Joe Walker can’t wander around town without being recognised.

This was a fun story to write. Gary was lovely to speak to and shared some hilarious stories about his beloved hearse. It turns out, this thing doesn't quietly amble around town either. He fit her with a V8 engine some time ago!

She now resides in the Clarence Valley so we should expect to see her out and about from now on.

Death rides a hearse: unique ride appears on Facebook marketplace For more than a decade, Gary Mullins has taken the road death travelled, driving a very unique set of wheels. Now, he’ll say a final goodbye to his favourite ride, a 1983 hearse.

Did you know I once worked in the death care industry?

It was only for a few months. I was waiting for my teaching degree to start and I needed something interesting to do in the meantime. My main role was to be the first point of call when a family member rings following the death of a loved one.

That phone call can be terrifying to take! But thanks to a beautiful, caring funeral director named Dael, she mentored me through the entire process.

New Maclean funeral home gets opening date Maclean will soon be home to another death care facility with the opening of Simplicity Funerals along the main street in the coming days.

My opinion piece, along with a news report on local teacher crisis meetings appeared in today’s Daily Telegraph.

I have a follow-up story about this issue coming out soon.

When I heard about public Clarence Valley high schools stopping work in response to the ongoing issues of adequate staffing, I had to share my thoughts and solutions based on my experience in the classroom.

It's an issue that's routinely misinterpreted by those with a limited understanding of how the NSW public education system works. As such, too many people believe the answer to this decades-long 'teacher shortage' is to flood the industry with more teachers.

That's not the answer.

Mainly because that same influx of teachers will leave the industry, on average, five years later... I explain why 👇

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/grafton/opinion/teacher-shortage-due-to-abuse-of-casual-temporary-teachers/news-story/28ee5249c1f2da12548f1b93fff64b69

Does anyone remember a Grafton racehorse from the late 90s called Moneyrow?

I had the pleasure of speaking with his former adoptive mum Nikki this morning. She's been trying to track down his whereabouts after having to give him up two years ago.

I admit, I was expecting this story to end on a sad note, given his age and where ex-racehorses can end up. Thankfully that wasn't the case!

Story should arrive on the DEX website soon 😊

Photo: Nikki Plint

Thank you to Kelly (pictured) and the crew from Clarence Landcare for tonight’s cane toad information session at Lawrence Hall!

Despite being a Lismore girl who grew up hunting cane toads every summer, I didn’t realise there was still so much for me to learn about these creatures.

I’m looking forward to the prospect of a Lawrence cane toad community catching crew being formed in the coming months.

Who’s keen to join with me? 🐸

Clarence Landcare Inc

Much like the rest of the community, my newsroom didn’t know about the planned sale of Camellia Cottage until we saw the auction listing online.

For anyone that doesn’t know Camellia Cottage, it’s a beautiful, grassroots community centre that has not only provided support to South Grafton, but empowered those who have passed through its doors. It’s as vital to the Clarence Valley as the Grafton bridge(s)!!

Since learning of the auction, I’ve been chasing this story to find out how exactly a special place like this can be sold out from underneath the community without any consultation.

Here’s the list of stories I’ve written on it so far:

* Letter reveals ultimatum to save Camellia Cottage
* Revealed: How Camellia Cottage auction flew under the radar
* Camellia Cottage creator shocked by ‘disgraceful’ actions
* ‘We had no communication on what was happening’
* Camellia Cottage auction listing withdrawn

Check them all out here: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/search-results?q=Camellia+Cottage

Last night I went on a cane toad collection night in Lawrence which, for anyone who’s never done it, is surprisingly fun to do. In amongst grabbing toads, you also get to see the incredible native wildlife up close.

Some highlights were the countless native frogs, a few different species of microbat zooming over us, to coming across a family of king quail complete with mum, dad and six kids in the long grass.

I’m not sure how many toads we collected at this one dam, but it was definitely more than 50! Hopefully we’ve made a big dent in this recent containment line breach.

UPDATE: 156 cane toads were collected 😲

Thank you to Russell from Clarence Landcare Inc for organising this collection night. As a result, I’ve gained a whole lot more knowledge about toads that will no doubt help with managing them in future.

You can read all about this recent containment breach here: https://bit.ly/3dhzCyJ

Check out this gorgeous candid photo of the lovely Kayla from Crema & Brew at Lawrence General Store. She was helping me test the lighting before getting a group photo yesterday.

Ps. Their cheeseburgers... oh my gosh.. 😋

Happy Highland Gathering!

I'll be heading down today to capture this year's event so hope to see you there :)

In the meantime, here are a couple of favourite snaps I took in 2019.

This is actually a pretty scary thought...

Imagine being stuck somewhere in a life-threatening emergency/natural disaster situation. Most of us would ring triple zero and expect help to arrive ASAP, right?

Well, what if that help couldn't arrive until hours later? Not even the local units just a few minutes down the road from where you are?

Region’s flood emergency highlights unsettling problem After 273 requests for assistance, 154 flood-related tasks, 34 flood rescues and 67 storm-related jobs in the past three weeks, Clarence Valley SES volunteers are finally enjoying a well-earned break.

I'm pretty fortunate to have a secure roof over my head each night. I often think, given the current housing situation, just how lucky I am to have been in a position a few years ago to shift from renting to owning a property in the Clarence Valley. I can't imagine what it feels like for a lot of residents out there who are scrambling to find accommodation :(

Fortunately, Allison Bryant - Whaites has been doing some amazing things with local businesses to ensure everyone that approaches them gets a safe place to stay.

If you know anyone in the Clarence Valley region that needs a hand, please pass this on (it's a free article)

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/grafton/south-grafton-real-estate-agent-determined-to-house-every-resident/news-story/4fcd6b7b55e997535e0ae5f5aa1538f4

Can’t find a place to live? These businesses will take you in Local businesses are giving residents a leg up as the housing crisis continues throughout the region.

I popped down to the Lawrence General Store this morning in the vain hope the new Crema & Brew at Lawrence General Store would be open (Monday, they assure me) and saw this champion pressure hosing the road, parking lot and the odd muddy car!

Thank you to Sergeant French, Senior Constable Rainbow and Senior Constable Biele for sharing their experiences. You truly are the guardian angels of our roads.

Full story: https://bit.ly/3bDedhe

📷 Adam Hourigan