IT'S been a big year here at the Leader, and our journalists have picked their favourite stories to look back at 2021.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Two pandemic years have put our health system under unprecedented strain, but it was the ordinary stories of health, politics and health politics that made headlines in 2021.
You can't deny that this year has been tough, and Tamworth has had more than its fair share of strain.
But from mental health planning to mice plagues, the city has kept on trucking, despite the challenges.
Here are the four stories from 2021 that left a mark for Leader journalist Andrew Messenger.
Building A Better Banksia
Click the photo to read the story.
In 2021, NSW Health started planning Tamworth's new mental health unit.
In a first for the state, many of the people who will use the unit were included in planning what it will look like, part of a "co-design" process.
But, as the Leader exclusively revealed, initial plans for the unit did not include a single specialist bed for children, meaning a policy of transporting the most at-risk kids to Newcastle would continue. Documents released to the public under an order by NSW parliament, published exclusively by the Leader, show the decision was made in order to achieve "economies of scale".
After a year of advocacy, the Leader exclusively revealed the state government had drawn up new plans, which include four children's beds, plus an adolescent mental health outreach unit to cover smaller communities across the region, which would almost entirely end the practice.
Leader journalist Andrew Messenger was shortlisted for a Walkley Award for the series of stories.
'Sacking' scandal puts Armidale Anglicans at centre of religious freedom debate
Click the photo to read the story.
The alleged sacking of a gay Anglican church organist at an Armidale church became a national scandal, and could become a legal test case for the right of churches to discriminate against their employees.
Armidale Anglican church organist Peter Sanders claims he was told that the way he lived was "unbiblical" and that he could not continue to play the organ or hold other leadership roles at the church until he separated from his husband, Peter Grace, agreed to be celibate and to "learn how to live in a biblical way", in early 2021.
The church communities rallied behind the Peters, staging a walkout of St Mary's West Armidale Anglican church after voting to back their fellow parishioner.
Eddie Whitham 1, Taliban 0
Click the photo to read the story.
Afghan women's advocate Mitrashiva Husseini once missed out on a Taliban ambush thanks to a literal eleventh-hour phone call from one of the men who informed on her to the terrorist group.
The Hazara UN worker and charity founder spent years at risk of death, while living and working in her home country.
But when the ruthless gang took back power, after the immediate collapse of Afghanistan's government just weeks after the United States withdrew its troops from the country, she needed somewhere safe to flee.
Not only did Multicultural Tamworth's Eddie Whitham help negotiate her escape, and then her visa, he offered her a spare room.
The only connection behind the extraordinary act of charity: the pair met, years before, in Dubai airport.
Mitrashiva is now a committed Aussie.
Yet another horror rare disease spreads across region in unprecedented plague
COVID-19 wasn't the only horrible disease to carve through the north west in 2021.
After years of drought, fire, pandemic and then flood, the region got the last thing it needed - a mouse plague.
The mice in turn brought their own malady, leptospirosis.
HNEH public health physician, Dr David Durrheim, said the disease, which is spread in animal urine, is ordinarily a rare problem in most parts of Australia.
"Generally we have two leptospirosis cases on average per year, up to this time in the year that are notified. This year we've had 28," he said.
Quirindi small business owner Lindsay Andrews used his experience with the disease - "probably the sickest I've ever been in my whole life" - to urge the community to keep safe.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News