Hamish MacLean

Oamaru's Victorian Heritage Celebrations show the Waitaki town's inventive nature and passion for fun, its mayor says.

 A freight train coming off the rails in North Otago created a "horrible ... screeching, scraping noise" at 2am on Saturday, but the only person on board was not injured.

Oamaru man looking after his mother with Alzheimer's is reaching out to those who have looked to unconventional therapies when caring for a loved one with the disease some call ''the long goodbye''.

People come to Oamaru for the heritage and the wildlife, Oamaru Adventures director Nigel Ryburn says.

When in Oamaru, do as the Oamaruvians do.

Eight people face more than 70 charges after a drugs bust in Waimate yesterday.

For the first time artists at the Oamaru Stone Symposium will be asked to consider a theme.

Damage to Heriot shearers' quarters which caught fire on Tuesday night could have been a lot worse.

Nineteen jobs are under threat after the embattled Bruce Woollen Mill at Milton was placed in receivership.

Hundreds of people turned out to hear music from eight bands as the Penguin Entertainers Club's celebrated 25 years at Friendly Bay on Sunday.

Moeraki adventurer Tom MacTavish is returned from retracing Sir Ernest Shackleton's heroic crossing of the subantarctic island of South Georgia 100 years ago. North Otago reporter Hamish MacLean caught up with him back at home.

The 10th Oamaru Stone Symposium has produced the best work the town has seen since the spring carving celebration began, the symposium's chairman Matt King says.

The North Otago Irrigation Company's $57 million expansion down the Kakanui Valley is well under way.

Oamaru's historic harbour breakwater is being repaired.

John Bean, of Oamaru, (above) was one of about 50 keen woodturners who gathered at the club houses at the Oamaru Racecourse on Saturday.

Two by two, cars rolled to the start of the Oamaru Drag Races on Saturday.