Anna Logue

Twelve fires in a year. All started by batteries. And that's just locally. Nationally, lithium-ion battery incidents have more than doubled in recent years — a trend that makes Southland's twelve fires feel less like a local quirk and more like a symptom of something bigger. Southland

Lotto NZ is holding back one piece of information after each draw — and it's the one that usually sends everyone scrambling for their tickets. From Wednesday July 8, the locations where winning tickets were sold will no longer be published on draw night. Players will still get the

The ILT Southland Art Awards are open for entries, with $20,000 in prize money on the table for visual artists from across New Zealand. Now in their third year, the awards are a collaboration between the Invercargill Public Art Gallery and the Southland Art Society. The top prize — the

Invercargill's most-visited gallery exhibition is back — and this time it's asking you to show up in your pyjamas. Play, now in its fifth year, opens at the transitional public art gallery on Friday July 3 with a free family night running from 5pm to 7pm. Balloon

Invercargill Young Professionals has a new president, and she wants young people to stop quietly leaving Southland. Breea Scully has been appointed president of Invercargill Young Professionals (IYP), with the committee's focus squarely on making the region somewhere people actually want to stay. "There is a lot

Three hundred and twenty refurbished laptops are heading to Southland schools and youth organisations, courtesy of a deal between Great South, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and a handful of local groups. MBIE is donating retired devices from its own fleet. The laptops will be split across the

Invercargill City Council's management team has toured Southern Institute of Technology's campus — and left with a clearer picture of what the institute can offer both the city and its own 400-plus workforce. Hosted by SIT chief executive Bharat Guha and senior leaders including Trish Lindsay, Nick

A factory in Riverton is selling around one million pāua shells a year to Chanel, Cartier and the Sultan of Oman — and still can't keep up with demand. Ocean Shell Ltd, based on a quiet street in the small Southland town, processes and exports pāua shells alongside mother