📢 COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD

🟡 Check out our big May guides below, covering What’s On, Live Music, and Kid’s Events.

🗞️ IN THE NEWS

🟡 Mid North Coast receives additional $56 million in funding for flood recovery

The Mid North Coast will receive more than $56 million in additional state and federal funding to support communities still recovering from the severe storms and flooding of May 2025.

Announced on Tuesday, the $56.3 million package is focused on waterways, environmental damage and direct financial relief for local businesses.

How we got here: More than 50,000 people and at least 10,000 properties were impacted by record-breaking floods hitting across the Mid North Coast in May 2025.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which swept along the East Coast, resulted in $1.5 billion in insured losses.

What they’re saying: NSW Premier Chris Minns said the funding would provide “practical on the ground support”.

“We know recovery doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and requires governments of all levels to work together to ensure communities are getting the right support they need to move forward.”

What it looks like: Launched in the coming weeks, the funding will include:

• $26.2 million for clean up and waste removal, targeted at hazardous debris in riverbanks and on land.

• $8.8 million for repairing riverbanks and coastal areas.

• $5.6 million for small business grants, specifically for businesses and not-for-profit organisations that suffered direct damage during the May storms.

• $7.2 million for community recovery and “resilience activities”.

• $1.9 million for disaster legal services.

• $4.2 million for mental health disaster recovery support.

More information, and instructions on how to apply for grants, can be found here.

Kristy McBain, the Minister for Emergency Management, said “recovery is a long haul; it is not days and weeks, it is months and years”.

NSW Minister for Recovery Janelle Saffin said the funding would help with heavy-duty clean-up and mental health support.

“Small business owners have been clear about what they need to move forward. This funding is specifically designed to help replace damaged equipment and repair shopfronts to ensure local traders can complete their rebuilds and focus on the future.”

Future for Ibis Budget Coffs Harbour revealed

The new owner of the Ibis Budget motel in Coffs Harbour will continue operating the property as is, despite the sale including a DA for a nine-storey mixed development.

Sold off-market, the site was bought by Sydney-based motel investor Iqbal Singh.

Location, location: The 70-room motel - operated by accommodation giant Accor under the Ibis brand - is set on a 3,205-square-metre block on the Pacific Highway and comes with a pool and breakfast room.

It is at the entry-level end of the motel market. A single room for next Friday night (May 1) on a flexible rate with breakfast included is $108.

The Ibis Budget Coffs Harbour was sold by Iris Capital, which owns numerous hospitality venues in Australia including pubs, hotels and casinos.

Accor sell-off: Iris Capital had bought the Coffs Harbour property in 2021 as part of a suite of 17 Accor motels.

A campaign by hotel brokers JLL in 2023 to sell the Ibis Budget Coffs Harbour on behalf of Iris Capital ended without a new buyer. “We couldn’t quite get there,” Greg Jeloudev, JLL Senior Vice President, Hotels & Hospitality, told the Mid North Coaster.

The motel remained off the market, however in 2026 a new buyer emerged in the form of Iqbal Singh, and a deal was signed off on last week.

High occupancy: Jeloudev said he was unable to disclose the sale price, but that it set a record for a regional Ibis motel. Asked what the previous record was, he said he was not at liberty to reveal, but that the Coffs Harbour motel had “a very sharp yield”. In a LinkedIn post he said the occupancy rate was 84 percent.

The motel was sold with vacant possession, meaning Singh is free to rebrand the property, or demolish it with a view to constructing a nine-storey tower with nearly 100 apartments, parking and retail.

As of Friday afternoon the Iris Capital website was still listing the Ibis Budget in Coffs Harbour as one of its properties. A webpage with artist impressions of the nine-storey block states: “Coming soon - luxury residential development.”

However, Jeloudev said Singh - who he described as a “private bloke” - was in no rush to develop the site.

📹 Port Macquarie's Noshtalgia Cafe has earned a reputation as a friendly local spot with great food on the menu.

Noshtalgia Cafe, in Port Macquarie, has been serving up tasty, healthy, friendly meals for years.

Owner and head chef Andrew Norman runs the cafe with his wife, Andrea.

“I can do really good home cooked food… the menu’s quite extensive,” said Norman.

“We have a very, very regular local clientele… I was actually sitting over here with an older gentleman who lost his wife unexpectedly and he doesn’t know how to cook. We actually get quite a few of them.”

“We’ve been to people’s houses; we’ve taken food to them when we’re sick.”

Watch the full profile of Noshtalgia Cafe below: