🟡 That's a wrap
Including: A tax on gas would generate million in weekly revenue – where would MNC residents like to see that money spent?
Ellie Chamberlain
April 22, 2026
⏱️ The 113th edition is a seven-minute read.
✋ Hi to all 16,600 of you. For the final time, it’s Ellie – your Mid North Coaster reporter.
After launching the MNCster over a year ago, I’m taking on a new challenge and the next chapter.
It’s been such a pleasure being your local journalist, from bringing you stories of community resilience during disasters, to delving into local impacts of our changing climate, to providing lists of things to do in our patch and getting recognised on the streets as “the pie girl”. It’s been a fun and fulfilling ride.
The Mid North Coaster will continue, and we’re currently hiring for a reporter to fill my shoes. Find out more about that here.
And this won’t be the last you’ll see of me – I’ll continue to sporadically contribute to the Mid North Coaster because I care about the community and want be a part of keeping it connected and informed. Plus, I have so many more stories to tell.
But for now, today’s newsletter includes:
📹 The 2026 Kempsey Show wrapped: Light-up rides, motorbike tricks, Dagwood dogs, racing camels, wood being chopped, and people on horse back – to name just some of what the show had in store.
🗞️ A tax on gas: There’s growing pressure on the federal government to change how it taxes gas projects, with critics saying Aussies aren’t getting their fair share. A 25 percent tax would generate $17 billion per year. I asked people on the MNC what they would want to see that money spent on, from fixing roads to bringing more doctors to the area.
📽️ Long gone cinemas remembered: Reader of the Mid North Coaster, Mark Johnson, wrote to me about his memories of growing up next to the Panorama theatre in Crescent Head and what it was like entering the “exceptional” Mayfair in Kempsey when it existed. I enjoyed reading his reflections and I’m sure you will too.
📢 COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD
🟡 The Big Sing
Registrations are now open to be a part of a weekend of choral signing in Port Macquarie later in the year.
🗓️ Learn and perform Karl Jenkin’s The Armed Man over one weekend in August.
Saturday 8 August, workshops 9:30am-4:30pm
Sunday 9 August, final rehearsal 10am-12:30
Sunday 9, public concert at 2 pm
ℹ️ Email Robyn Ryan at [email protected] with Armed Man in the subject line. Please include your full name, your phone number and the part you would like to sing (Soprano, Alto, Tenor or Bass).
🎟️ $50 registration fee. Registrations close Friday 24 June 2026.
🟡 The most visited National Parks on the North Coast
The numbers are in: 2024/25 saw 6.81 million visits to North Coast National Parks, up from 6.29 million in 2022. The most visited parks included Coffs Coast Regional Park, Crowdy Bay, Arakoon and Bunjalung .
TOP STORY
🟡 Local roads and more doctors: What would Mid North Coast residents do with millions made from a tax on gas?
Matthew Cotter says the Australian government’s current tax on gas is “nowhere near where it should be”.
The South West Rocks resident is one of many on the Mid North Coast backing the call for a 25 percent tax on the country’s gas exports that could generate $17 billion in revenue a year.
Advocates across the political spectrum say it's money that could be spent on things like fixing roads, bringing doctors to the region, and becoming more energy independent as a nation.
The Mid North Coaster spoke to locals about the possible tax, and asked what the extra $348.9 million a week could do for local communities.
How we got here: Australia is one of the biggest gas exporters in the world, but as it stands, the Australian government makes more money by taxing beer than it does from taxing the country’s gas exports.
Local impact: Kempsey Shire resident and local business owner, Sam Preston, said he wants Australia to become energy independent “so we’re not beholden to something that's happening over the other side of the world.”
“Possibly use the money to help us out with our energy…a better price than what we're exporting, really, and then we can use that to become a little bit more resilient,” Preston told the Mid North Coaster.
Preston suggested extra revenue raised from increasing the tax on gas should trickle down to local governments for roads and infrastructure.
South West Rocks resident, Brad Ingram, said the government “definitely taxes our beer too much”, and agreed fixing local roads should be a priority, along with finding ways to bring more doctors to the area.
Regular visitor to the area, Warren Kuschert, said Australia is in “desperate need of revenue” which he’d like to see build more public housing and increase mental health support.
“There are people who are struggling week to week. We want to see people who are in desperate need of aid being supported, because we’re not seeing that,” Kushert said.
What’s happened: The government currently taxes gas projects via the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).
Critics say the tax is inadequate and not raising enough revenue, with politicians such as Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie and Independent Senator David Pocock saying Australians aren’t getting a fair return on the sale of gas.
The Australia Institute found Australians pay four times more in student loan repayments than gas companies pay PRRT.
Make them pay: Advocates say a minimum 25 percent tax on gas export revenue would raise approximately $17 billion per year for Australians, compared to the roughly $2 billion currently collected under the PRRT.
The Australia Institute’s research found that by not implementing a 25 percent tax on liquefied natural gas exports since July 2022, the government has missed out on more than $69 billion and counting.
What next: At the end of March, the federal government agreed to a Senate Inquiry into gas taxation. The inquiry is due to report its findings before the federal budget in May.
What they said: Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May, who is leading the inquiry, has called the PRRT "woefully out of date” saying it was originally developed for the oil industry and didn’t take the gas industry into account.
“The existing tax regulations are completely riddled with loopholes,” Senator Hodgins-May told the National Account. “These gas exporters, making billions, are paying less tax in exporting our gas than the nurses, retail workers and teachers.”
The Senator said she wants to see the minimum 25 percent tax introduced in the next budget and the $17 billion per year raised in revenue invested in clean, secure energy here in Australia, rather than tied to an “unpredictable” global supply chain.
@midnorthcoaster What would MNC residents do with millions made from a tax on gas?
🎥 Mayfair & Panorama: The long lost movie theatres of the Mid North Coast
Now in his 70s, Mid North Coast resident Mark Johnson remembers the magic of two long-gone picture theatres: the grandeur of the Mayfair Theatre in Kempsey with its semi-circular staircase, classical statues and upstairs foyer, and Crescent Head’s Panorama, a simple building next door to his childhood home where he spent every Saturday night.
Cinemas a’plenty: The Mid North Coast has a deep history of theatre and cinemas. While most have closed down, been demolished or redeveloped, seeing a movie on the big screen remains an option – but going to “the pictures” has changed.
New neighbours every weekend: Johnson grew up right next door to the Panorama theatre in Crescent Head – where Barnett’s Bakery now stands.
“I have a very faint memory of the theatre being built,” Johnson told the Mid North Coaster.
During that time, when the town had a population of about 500 people, Saturday night ran the only session with no daytime shows or weekday screenings.
“You went on Saturday or you missed it completely,” Johnson said. Living next door, he saw every movie the Panorama showed.
The Panorama in Crescent Head. Picture supplied by Mark Johnson.
A fibro palace: Johnson said he fell in love with movies before he hit primary school.
“The Panorama was not exactly a lavish cinema; the sole decoration was two fading photos on the wall near the stairs, one of Tony Curtis and one of Debbie Reynolds,” Johnson said.
“It may have been a fibro box, but the Panorama was a dream palace to me.”
Mayfair memories: The Mayfair Theatre, in Kempsey was a different experience.
The theatre was opened on Easter Sunday in 1933 (April 15). After almost 50 years of service, the doors closed in February 1980.
Licensed to seat more than 950 people, the Mayfair was built on a scale not before seen in a Kempsey theatre.
According to the Macleay River Historical Society (MRHS), the Mayfair was modelled on theatres in England and was built by Sydney’s Tom Lawson, who owned the Wintergarden and Mayfair Theatres at Rose Bay and Earlwood. He later bought two other theatres in Kempsey; the Roxy (previously known as Adelphi Theatre) and the Victoria.
Unlike any other: Johnson said the Mayfair was “no ordinary country picture theatre”.
“Walking into the foyer was like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz stepping from black-and-white Kansas into vibrantly coloured Oz,” he said.
The venue had a colour scheme of off ivory and gold with carpet throughout.
Mayfair Theatre, Kempsey. Picture supplied by Mark Johnson.
A walk through: Johnson says he didn’t realise until long after it was gone how exceptional Mayfair was.
“You entered the downstairs foyer with its deep pile carpeting and bought your ticket from the ticket booth in elaborate gold-painted arabesque style. All fancy gold fretwork.
“You then either proceeded to the downstairs, often the only section open for ‘kid’s sessions’ on a Saturday afternoon ( a couple of Looney Toons cartoons, a cliff-hanger serial from the forties, and a kids movie, like Old Yellah or The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh both courtesy of Walt Disney).
When you reached your teens, you went upstairs.
“Upstairs meant ascending a semi-circular staircase with niches in which stood life-sized ‘Greek’ statues. In other words, a semi-naked lady which I am sure fuelled the dreams of many a pubescent Kempsey boy.”
At the top, another foyer with a beautiful circular sofa.
“My mother told me that in the 40s and 50s you would be shown to your seat by either an usher in a dinner suit or an usherette in a long gown and long white gloves.”
Predominately a picture theatre, the Mayfair occasionally put on stage shows and talent quests.
Dream-worthy: Johnson said he still dreams about The Mayfair and The Panorama.
“It was a wonderful time when going to ‘the pictures’ was something special,” Johnson said.
“Of course, both the Panorama and the Mayfair are gone now, as is my childhood home, but I am grateful to them for fuelling my love of cinema which remains unabated into my seventieth decade.”
📹 THAT’S A WRAP
The Kempsey Show dates back to 1881 and continues to celebrate the Macleay Valley with livestock competitions, arena events and all the trimmings of a good agricultural show.
This year, the event was held on Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15, May. I attended on the final afternoon to catch the nerve wracking tricks of the Freestyle Kings, the woodchopping competition and the camel race – and got to talk to those involved.
If you missed any of those interviews head to our Instagram, TikTok or Youtube to watch, or find them all in one spot on the website ⬇️
I pulled together a wrap video of everything that happened at the show, plus an interview with an attendee about what they enjoyed at the event.
Check them out below.
@midnorthcoaster Here’s everything you missed at the Kempsey Show #rides #woodchopping #camelraces #motocross #showbags
Thanks for reading this edition and past newsletters, too. Everyone’s support has meant a lot to me. I’ll be online until the end of the day so feel free to get in touch.
Keep following the Mid North Coaster for local news on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and check out the website – I know I will be.
Thanks again and take care,
👋 Ellie, the first Mid North Coaster reporter.
