The Eastern Southland Gallery has taken the top prize at the 2026 Southland Creative Arts Awards, with its exhibition of paintings and prints about the Mataura River named Supreme Winner on Saturday night. The exhibition — a series of 26 works by artist Jo Ogier — explores the ecological and geographical landscape

Rugby Park's fireworks are back — and bigger than before. The ILT Fireworks Spectacular returns on Friday October 2, 2026, when the Southland Stags host Northland in their final regular season home game. Kick-off is 7.10pm. The fireworks go up at approximately 8.50pm, straight after full-time. Now

Two SIT staff spent a week in Poland this month building international partnerships — and came back with genuine interest in Southland as a study destination. SIT nurse educator Marie Meyer and head of faculty Hamish Small travelled to Gdańsk from May 20 to 24 to attend the Powiślańska Academy of

The defibrillator at Five Rivers Café had been sitting dormant — battery flat, pads expired, locked inside a building that closes at night. It's back now, and anyone can reach it. New café owner Emily Todd discovered earlier this year that an AED had previously been donated to the

Ground has broken on what is being billed as New Zealand's largest data centre project, with construction crews already on site at Makarewa, north of Invercargill. HEB Construction — a New Zealand company and subsidiary of global construction giant VINCI Construction — has been appointed to deliver the horizontal works

Southland's recycling contamination rate has dropped, but 811 tonnes of recyclables still ended up in landfill last year. That's $309,639 worth of waste — at the current general waste fee — that could have been recycled. The contamination rate across kerbside recycling and public drop-off fell to

A body has been located in the water near Lawyers Head, Dunedin today. Police were called to John Wilson Ocean Drive at around 3:20pm after a member of the public discovered the body. The body has since been recovered, and a formal identification process is underway. The road was

JB Hi-Fi's New Zealand operation had a very good year. A remarkably good one, actually. Total sales surged 26.0% to NZD499.5 million in the year to June 30, 2026, with comparable sales up 15.3%. That outpaced every other part of the group. Online sales jumped