Southland

Four new Life Members, a 16-year-old Club Champion and nine rally stars on a Q&A panel — Gore's 70-year-old car club had plenty to mark.

More than 55 interactive exhibits and live shows will tour Gore, Invercargill, Winton, Riverton, Lumsden, Frankton and Wānaka over nine days.

SIT's return to independence has Southland's MP and Mayor talking workforce, local decision-making, and a raft of new programmes arriving in 2026 and 2027.

A tentative trial date of April 2029 has been set, with name suppression continued while mental health and medical assessments are completed.

Applications close November 6. Community groups, iwi and not-for-profits in Southland can apply for $500-$5,000 to fund one-off preparedness projects.

Five Southland landmarks are going pink this month, and for the first time, ILT Stadium is joining them. The Gore Brown Trout Sculpture, Invercargill's Band Rotunda, Feldwick Street Gates and Gala Street Fountain are all part of Breast Cancer Foundation NZ's Global Illuminations campaign through October

At last, work is underway on the upgrade of the old Mataura Railways Station building In August last year, then minister of railways the Rt Hon Winston Peters announced that additional funding would be provided for the refurbishment of the historic building and that ownership would be transferred from KiwiRail

Laura Allen has taken the top prize at this year's ILT Southland Art Awards, with her work *34 years of Age* claiming the Supreme Award at a ceremony held at Invercargill's transitional public art gallery on Friday October 2. Now in its third year, the awards