Those were just some of the top stories from this day in 2008.

We've opened up the archives to take a trip down memory lane, looking at some of the newsmakers featured in the pages from the issue of September 24, 2008

Here's the top stories from that issue.

They took out second place in the regional competition last year and this year the students of Dungog Public School went one better and took top prize in the Tournament of the Minds held at the University of Newcastle recently.

From there they automatically gained a spot in the State final at the University of New South Wales on September 14 and came away with honours.

The seven students - Hannah Bowman, Hannah Inwood, Teagan Williams-Chen, Annie McDonald, Jade Eyb, Jack Crowe and Ben Levick - only had three hours to prepare for the challenge which included writing a poem of 20 lines.

Their task was to make the Magic Mirror from Snow White feel better. The mirror was feeling very annoyed.

"I'm always looking at the same room and listening to the same line . . . I wish I could go out into the forest," the mirror said. Mother Goose thought a poem about the outdoors would cheers up the mirror!

The students' challenge was to first identify the three outdoor items liked by the Magic Mirror and using these items, compose a poem that mainly uses antonym pairs.

The poem was then presented to the judges by the students. "It was really exciting," said Hannah Inwood. "There were 10 other teams in our section and it didn't matter that we didn't win.

"To get honours is fantastic, we were all so very happy."

After 12 years on Dungog Council, Margaret Flannery has been pipped at the post by fellow councillor Stephen Farrow at the recent Local Government elections.

Mrs Flannery spent three terms on council and had nominated again for a fourth.

Cr Farrow took up a position in B Ward in March 2004 and was automatically elected when there were insufficient numbers to warrant an election.

However Cr Farrow nominated in A Ward for his second stint on council and won by 38 votes from Mrs Flannery after first preferences were distributed.

There will be five new faces on Dungog Council, three of whom are in B Ward.

Peter Ainsworth topped the poll in the Clarence Town area with 671 votes, followed by Tony McKenzie 539 and Harold Johnston with 301.

The fourth nominee, Ted Care, received 191 votes.

Incumbents Steve Low AM and Peter Trappel did not nominate for additional terms.

Robert Booth from Paterson is the new face in C Ward replacing Ted Murrell who didn't re-nominate.

He is joined by incumbents Glenn Wall and Joe Thompson.

Lea Mitchell will have her third term on council after she topped the poll with 504 votes in A Ward.

Ian Lloyd QC is the new face for A Ward and polled in second place with 365 votes.

Stephen Farrow is the third councillor for A Ward.

An extraordinary meeting of council was held last night where the mayor and deputy mayor were to be elected.

A fire in a 14-metre high sawdust silo forced the lock down of road and rail access to Wallarobba with firefighters declaring it a no go zone for safety reasons last Wednesday.

Fire crews established a 500-metre exclusion zone around the Maxwell Creek Mill, shutting down Dungog Road and nearly train lines, and declaring the area a "no fly" zone for aircraft, including nearby RAAF planes, as they battled the fire between Paterson and Dungog.

The exclusion zone caused massive delays for motorists and train passengers, locking down the area for almost 12 hours. Emergency services feared the silo would explode after 50 cubic metres of sawdust caught alight about 5.30am.

A Rural Fire Services crew from Dungog was the first unit at the scene and managed to contain the fire but called in hazardous materials specialists from Newcastle. Six workers were evacuated. Firefighters were able to start unloading the sawdust about 2.30pm and later reopened Dungog Road and train lines.

A backlog of freight trains left in limbo by the track closure meant passenger services were not restored until late Wednesday night.

What a very successful weekend of bowls Dungog Bowling Club hosted.

On Saturday the HDBApresented the number 7 pennant to men's bowling club president Jim Merton.

This function was attended by 80 guests and the function went very smoothly. The speeches though numerous were succinct and all bowlers and guests were well behaved as one would expect of such a gathering.

A big thank you to Michael O'Neill, Ashley Wade, Mary and Alan Fisher for their valuable assistance for the day. It was appreciated by all.

The Shire singles competition was completed on Sunday morning with the final. This thrilling match was played between Bob Campbell and Malcolm McDonald.

After getting away to a flying start and leading 16-8 Bob couldn't finish Malcolm off and allowed him back in the game.

With a change in green speed which Malcolm adapted to, he began the great fightback. Slowly the game turned and Malcolm managed to capture the final with a 21-17 win. Congratulations to both finalists of producing a great game of bowls and a big thankyou to all those who participated.

The Shire pairs have now started and the first two rounds completed.

Winners on Sunday were David Muir and Fred Longbottom who defeated Alan Fisher and Harold Johnston in the only morning match.

The results of the afternoon matches were as follows: A. Roberts and M.O'Neill d D Muir and F Longbottom; K Maley & J Martin d T Doosey & I Mann; K Russell & J Dureau d M McDonald & T Higgins; A Golledge & I Greig d J Flanagan & R Moseley; P Reeves & D Reeves d S Eyb & D Turner; J Lill & G Smith d R Edden & R Young; T Wilson & H Bojkowski d C Walters & S Neilson ( on an extra end) and R Campbell & B Turnbull d I Watson & A Deasey.

Next Saturday morning commencing at 9am the third round has been scheduled and so please be on time. The semi finals will be played in the afternoon with the final scheduled to be played on the Sunday at 10am. Congratulations to Andrew Deasey who finally was rewarded for his bowling when he was selected in the Hunter District junior side to play against the lower north coast, the Manning and Newcastle at Tuncurry on Saturday. Andrew's team managed to win two of its three games only being beaten by the eventual winner Newcastle.

I'm sure Andrew will be a regular player in the Hunter side in the future. One game in the Shire triples has been played and it resulted in a narrow victory for I Watson, J Dureau & ADeasey over K Maley, W Tyne and C Deasey. Gresford players please check with Dungog Club if you are unsure when you have been drawn to play.

A long anticipated windfall to local dairy farmers hinges on two things - a guaranteed supply of milk and a 75 per cent favourable vote.

Over 40 local dairy farmers and accountants listened intently as ACF chairman Ian Langdon spoke about the sale of Dairy Farmers to National Foods.

It was announced on August 25 that the National Foods will acquire all of the shares in Australian Co-operative Foods Limited (ACF) which trades as Dairy Farmers for $5.65 a share. It will also mean an additional 1 cent per litre for suppliers who sign revised contracts until the end of June 2010.

Mr Langdon told the meeting that the shareholder documentation was to be lodged last Friday. "The proposal is also subject to Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative (DFMC) entering into revised supply contracts with new or existing suppliers until at least June 30, 2010.

"This will be for minimum specified volumes in each region which will maintain overall milk volumes based on current milk supply levels. "The minimum volume of milk in each reason has to be supplied otherwise the deal is off."

Mr Langdon told the Chronicle that he has attended 12 meetings around the state so far. "I have another two to go," he said. "As soon as the scheme booklets go out, I will have another 24 meetings to attend. "I believe in openness and communication and to give people the opportunity to understand what is happening. "They need to know what they are voting on.

To proceed the proposal needs the support of more than 75 per cent of active members who vote. The revised milk contracts have to be signed off before the ballot takes place. Mr Langdon said the first hearing in the Supreme Court to approve the scheme documentation and convene a scheme meeting will take place in early to mid October.

"As soon as the scheme booklet comes out from the Supreme Court it will be printed and sent to shareholders," he said.

"This should be by mid October.

"This is the start of the ballot process.

"(If it all goes ahead) qualifying members should receive their cash payments by the end of November. "I am confident, but not complacent, it will all go through."

The Dungog under 14s played their grand final against Maitland in extremely hot and windy conditions.

Every team member played their hearts out and pulled together to shut down the opposition. Andrew Muddle, Scott Sullivan Amber ruddy and Jake Hunter defended strongly to keep the Maitland away from our goals as much as possible. Tom Levick, Josh Graham, Rhianon Denniss and James Bale played the midfield with determination, to keep the ball moving through to the forwards.

Will Brooker, Carmen Denniss and David Muddle had a great game up the front, with many attempts at goals, but unfortunately the Maitland goalie was just too good and stopped us from scoring. Jack Robards made many fantastic saves in goal and was a real asset to the team.

The full time score was 0-0. We then went into extra time. Both teams were exhausted, but continued to play hard. And at the end of extra time the score was still 0-0. So unfortunately, it came down to a penalty shoot out.

The final score was 5-4 not in our favour. Dungog was definitely the stronger team on the day with most of the game played in the oppositions half.

Every player had an awesome game and we are so proud of their achievements and sportsmanship.

It was a very unfair result for a team that has fought hard all year to make it this far. We are very proud of this team to have played most of the rounds with no reserves.

The under 14s are the minor premiers and runners up in the grand final. Thank you to Rhianon for giving us a reserve in this very important game. Thank you to all the under 11s, 12s and 13s that have helped us out during the season and preseason.

And a very special thanks to Tom Atkins for coaching this great team during his HSC year.

Well done and we hope you all return next year to go one better. . Under 14s soccer team, back, Scott Sullivan, James Bale, Carmen Denniss, Tom Levick, Will Brooker, David Muddle, Jake Hunter; front, Andrew Muddle, Josh Graham, Coach Tom Atkins, Jack Robards and Amber Ruddy. G