🟡 Farm visits & $lim Dusty Centre

Including: videos from around the Mid North Coast.

Author

Ellie Chamberlain
September 26, 2025

⏱️ The 65th edition of our newsletter is a 6-minute read.

🙋‍♀️ Hi there, it’s Ellie – your Mid North Coaster reporter.

🎉 We now have more than 14,600 subscribers! A warm welcome to new readers and a welcome back to those already signed up.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I visited David and Carolyn on their Toorooka property on Wednesday. Such a beautiful slice of our MNC paradise

What a spot!

I went there to talk about bushfires – the importance of managing land, the issues of an aging volunteer firefighting population, and how to better prepare your home for wildfires and more.

Getting an insight from David and Carolyn into the lasting impacts of the 2019/20 Black Summer Fire helped me write my article on the mental health impacts of disasters, which will be published today.

From their beef cattle farm, I went to a flower farm. Specifically, Mountain Nursery in South Kempsey. I met with Alex Dalley, the native plant expert, who helped me put together this list of What to plant in your garden.

I wanted to check-out in person the beautiful native plants happily growing in Mid North Coast soil. I’ll pop those two videos below.

FYI- Alex has a thriving veggie patch at home, so there’s a third video in the works. Keep an eye out for that.

I’ll also share other videos from this week, including our contributor Mel’s piece on the painted rocks of Port Macquarie’s breakwall and another “Where is this on the MNC” vid. This is another challenging one.

But first, a look at how much the Slim Dusty Centre is costing Kempsey Shire Council to operate.

Let’s dive in…

🗓️ FREE EVENTS THIS WEEKEND

Looking for a free, family-friendly day out? Here are a couple of ideas…

 🤠 The Slim Dusty Centre costs $296,000 a year to run – and council says it's worth it

The council-run Slim Dusty Centre is costing close to $300,000 to operate every year, with a recent council meeting analysing the performance of Kempsey’s signature tourist attraction.

Slim Dusty Centre (Facebook page)

🎸 A community asset: The keys of the Slim Dustry Centre museum and event space were handed over by the Kirkpatrick family and the Slim Dusty Foundation to Kempsey Shire Council in December 2022 as a community asset at no-cost.

🏠 Council takes on management: As new owners, the council took over management of the onsite Slim Dusty museum, regional art gallery, and cafe. However, in April this year, Key Café began operating both the café and catering services privately under a 12-month management agreement.

🏢 A multi-purpose space: The centre can also be hired as an event space, however the centre’s 2024-25 Annual Report found venue hire only contributes to about 9 percent of the centre’s total gross revenue.

✅ Report gives tick of approval: A report brought to the Kempsey Shire Council meeting on September 16, said despite the venue’s net cost of $296,435 per annum (excluding depreciation) it remains a cost-effective facility when compared to other council-run establishments on the Mid North Coast, noting The Glasshouse in Port Macquarie operating at a cost of  $2.5million, and Coffs Harbour’s Jetty Theatre and Yarrila Arts and Museum (YAM). Council also reported a 34 percent reduction in the operating deficit ($153,732) during this period. 

🎨 Art, tours, and events: During the financial year, the centre hosted four gallery exhibitions, two community events, 29 group tours, and the space was hired 41 times. Tickets to the Slim Dusty Museum, which is full of memorabilia and awards, brought in $132,000 and retail sales amounted to more than $80,000.

The centre includes the Visitor Information Centre for the Macleay Valley, and recently introduced an Akubra outlet – another Kempsey icon.

🌱 What to plant in your garden

Alex Dalley from Mountain Nursery is an expert in native plants, especially those that grow in MNC soil. He’s passionate about planting for the bees and birds.

Come for a stroll through the nursery for some inspiration for your garden, or simply to learn something knew like I did.

Part I

Part II

🎤 Do you have a favourite painted rock?

Enjoy Mel Mantle’s trip down memory lane and categorisation of Port’s breakwall artworks.

📍 Where is this on the MNC?

Last quiz video got so many responses over Instagram and TikTok, and I found it interesting the amount of places across the region the lookout over river could have been.

So far, the same thing is true for the lookout over a beach. Where do you think it is?

Click on the video to comment.

@midnorthcoaster

Write your answer in the comments #australia #midnorthcoast #nsw

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back next week with more newsletters.
Until then, you can keep up to date on our Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, or check the website.

Have a lovely weekend,

👋 Ellie