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The Latest Breaking News from Lois Williams

The West Coast's surprising shade of blue

Few pundits flagged the West Coast, birthplace of the Labour Party, to be part of the big blue swing this election.

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West Coast sees red, goes blue

Independent candidate Patrick Phelps helps open the exit door for Labour MP Damien O’Connor letting National’s Maureen Pugh slip in.

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Line in the sand between locals and miners

It’s David v Goliath round two – and back to the cake stalls – for a West Coast community trying to stop a sand-mining venture on the Barrytown Flats.

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Coast goldminers crank out the currency as DoC mulls land status

Decades after his father began mining for gold on land near Lake Brunner on the West Coast, Riley Perkins continues to make a go of it.

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Alpine Fault quake is coming, ready or not

Inhabitants of the shakiest part of Aotearoa’s shaky isles are readier than ever for the overdue big one.

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Move over, bad old boys

If Westland politics was once the province of oafish blokes who paid the niceties no heed, things have changed since last year’s local elections.

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Chinese memorial opening defies harassment campaign

The arrival on the West Coast of gold miners from China more than 160 years ago has been marked at an event at Ross marred by one man’s antics.

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What’s up with the tracks, DoC?

"It's as if DoC's simply given up." Neglected, overgrown and hazardous walking and biking tracks are raising concerns on the West Coast.

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Reefton turns the lights on again

Thanks to donations of millions of dollars in cash and kind it’s back to the future for the New Zealand community that first had electric lighting.

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Conservation’s bridge too far

The threatened loss of road access to a former mine at the behest of the Conservation Department has Forest and Bird volunteers and heritage advocates up in arms.

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Who cares? In Reefton they do

A combination of unfulfilled dreams, isolation and food poverty is keeping one small town’s volunteer sector busy and eager for donations - just no chickpeas, thanks.

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Top marks for ageism and sexism

As the treasurer of Inangahua Community Arts Council, which is made up of mostly women volunteers over 50 and hosts Arts on Tour shows in Reefton, Lois Williams vents on defunding by Creative New Zealand.

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West Coast economy surges ahead of the rest

The economy of a region traditionally at the bottom of the deprivation index is outstripping our national one. Lois Williams asks why.

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Council final frontier for Coast women

With the exception of a resilient few females, West Coast local body politics is a macho men’s club

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The political rise and fall of Wayne Brown

The man who would be Mayor of Auckland has already had a stint as a mayor in the Far North - voted out comprehensively after council ructions and an Auditor-General's report

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‘Wet Coast’ cow cockies say ‘get off the grass’ to new rules

When new stock wintering rules designed to protect waterways were imposed on a century-old South Island dairying property, the owners bet their nest egg to build an enormous barn.

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You can run but you can't hide

You have to be a sucker for punishment to seek office in local government when your private conversations become fodder for social media.

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Franz Josef ready to say Gidday, Cobber

After two years of doing it tough, West Coast tourism operators are cautiously optimistic that the dark Covid clouds are wafting away

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A river runs through it

Flood-prone Franz Josef and nearby farms remain at the mercy of the West Coast's biblical rainfall as the Government dithers on protection measures.

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Taking the wet out of Westport

Short-term work to save the West Coast town from increasingly frequent floods is about to start but a $10 million “big fix” remains some way off.

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