Hamish MacLean

The twittering of 300 birds transformed the Drill Hall in Itchen St, Oamaru, into a rolling, chirping harmony at the weekend.

A cultural exchange of sorts brought a Queensland couple to North Otago yesterday.

Hot and dry northwest winds whipped a burn-off of "tree slash'' into an out-of-control blaze in North Otago yesterday afternoon.

A soundshell and concerts in the park could be in the future for the Oamaru Public Gardens.

Tertiary education in Oamaru has a future, but what that future is looks unclear.

The former chairman of the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust has resigned, amid a shake-up of the trust's board.

His parents started preparing for his funeral, and family travelled to Starship Hospital in Auckland to say goodbye, but Daniel Milliken did not die.

Frustration levels are down since the summer crowds of freedom campers left Kakanui, but the community is still split on freedom camping, Waitaki district councillor Melanie Tavendale says.

Oamaru Hospital's emergency department will be "unsafe'' if the Southern District Health Board follows through on a proposed 10% funding cut in 2017-18, management says.

A ‘‘deadlock'' in contract negotiations between Waitaki District Health Services and the Southern District Health Board could be broken after a clinically-led review is completed at Oamaru Hospital in April, the district health board says.

Work on the new $22million Observatory Retirement Village overlooking Oamaru is ‘‘tracking well'', project manager Michael Forgie says.

For more than three decades, Alexander Bell (60) has instilled his love of art in North Otago's primary school children, but when pupils return to Oamaru North School on May 2, Mr Bell will not be coming back.

World War 2 veteran Bill Herd (93), of Oamaru, shares a laugh with his great-grandchildren, St Joseph's School pupils Sebastian (12), left, and Kristiana Whiston (9) after the Anzac service at their school yesterday afternoon.

A series of five deaths over the past 12 months on 26km of State Highway 1 between Maheno and Moeraki, in North Otago, has sparked concerns the stretch of road is dangerous.

Community groups and the Oamaru Opera House will share the Oamaru courthouse with the Oamaru District Court when it reopens.

The decision to return the Oamaru District Court to its historic home, the 132-year-old courthouse on Thames St, ticks all the boxes, Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher says.

After months of farmers crying out for rain, overcast, wet weather has badly affected crops on a North Otago orchard.