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52 stories · Latest 15 November 2026 · Story tips to news@iherald.nz
Gore District Council is asked on Tuesday to approve a $28.07 million three-year roading programme. The report says some work will be prioritised to fit the new contract, but that detail is not in the published papers.
Environment Southland staff say the cost of fixing the worst areas is likely beyond landowners acting alone, and councillors have been asked how far to take a review of the regional pest plan.
Staff say changing Southland District Council's agreement with Police could open every council CCTV network to the searches, and admit community views have not yet been sought. The Ōreti board decides on Tuesday.
Staff recommend consent for MV Mitre Peak III, which would carry 154 people instead of 64, and admit an earlier report got the size increase wrong. A second, larger expedition vessel is heard the same day.
Tuatapere's urban ratepayers would pay $725.35, up from $412.54, under draft long-term plan figures. The Northern board says its rise is not sustainable and has recommended a smaller one.
The 2025/26 annual report got a clean audit opinion, but corrections pushed the council past its own rates-rise limit for two earlier years, and an $8.4m three-waters overstatement was left in.
More than 10 Gore addresses, plus stops in Riversdale, Wyndham, Seaward Downs and Waikaia, open their doors on Saturday and Sunday as the reshaped Southland Arts Trail reaches eastern Southland and the coast.
Nine days from the election, an RNZ-Reid Research poll has National at 24.8 per cent, below its 2020 result. Southland MP Joseph Mooney sits 50th on the party list, so his future rests on holding the seat.
Millie McFadzien, 18, of St Peter's College in Gore, is Southland Young Enterprise Company of the Year for her eel pâté business The Lost Larder and heads to the national finals in Wellington on 9 December.
Tuturau slink skin operator Da Cheng 'Eddie' Zhi has denied three charges, including the new offence of stalking and harassment, and elected trial by jury. A case review hearing is set for 9 December.
Gore District Council's first comprehensive rating review in many years is open for consultation until 5pm on 18 November, with three options that would shift how rates fall on rural, urban and commercial properties.
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A five-course Dinner in the Spotlight served on the stage, followed the next morning by a free community open day with guided tours, will mark the Civic Theatre's 120th birthday on 14 November.
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A new law strips four appointed members of Invercargill City Council committees of their votes from 18 March 2027. Whether to seek an exception, with applications due by 18 November, will be decided by councillors on 2 November.
The Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter Trust says the service flew to more than 2000 patients in the year to June and that community funding of nearly $1.4 million paid for new gear including life rafts.
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The Mid Dome Wilding Trees Charitable Trust has taken the Councillors' Award and Fiordland fisherman Pete Young the rarely presented Tohu Pou award as Environment Southland's Environmental Champions awards reached their 30th year.
Invercargill City Council has been asked to build its 2027–2037 long-term plan on an optimistic Infometrics forecast of 0.5 per cent population growth a year, taking the city to 61,300 people by 2037 if Datagrid, wind farms and aquaculture deliver.
The Royal New Zealand Ballet opens its national tour of Greg Horsman's The Sleeping Beauty in Wellington on Thursday, with a single Civic Theatre performance in Invercargill on 18 November and a free pre-show warm-up.
Invercargill City Council's draft 2025/26 annual report records an $8.5 million operating loss and borrowings of $201.1 million, or $7,329 for every property, with auditors expected to flag uncertainty over the future shape of Southland's councils.
Eastern Southland Gallery's 50 Fish exhibition closes on Friday with an auction of trout artworks by local artists and personalities, raising money for permanent installations telling the Old Hokonui Museum's stories.
More than 68,000 New Zealanders cast advance votes on Labour Day, slightly more than on the first day in 2023, as Southland voters head to the polls under new rules that stop people enrolling once early voting begins.
From 1 November the Invercargill City Council's risk and assurance committee becomes a committee of the whole, after councillors backed mayor Tom Campbell's proposal; whether to seek an exemption for appointed members will be decided on 2 November.
An aerial check on Tuesday found no smoke at the Centre Hill fireground near Mossburn, so no ground crews are needed. Fire and Emergency now puts the burnt area at 130 hectares, up from the 80 first estimated.
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Three Southern Institute of Technology screen arts students attended the New Zealand Game Developers Conference in Auckland on CODE scholarships that covered flights, accommodation and tickets, and came home with industry contacts.
A three-year national partnership between the Department of Conservation and tourism operator RealNZ formalises ten years of predator control on Cooper Island in Dusky Sound, where kiwi pukupuku are due to return in 2028.
Southland's four councils paid $599,468 in severance in the year to June, almost 50 per cent more than the year before, with a single $346,037 payment to Environment Southland's former chief executive accounting for more than half.
Invercargill Mayor Tom Campbell is asking councillors today to join the risk and assurance committee en masse and add a member to the water committee, ahead of a law change that will strip appointed members of their votes.
About 80 hectares of grazing land and native bush have burned in a vegetation fire near Mossburn that started on Sunday afternoon, where six helicopters defended two telecommunications towers until gales forced them down.
Southlanders can cast their votes from today, Labour Day, in the two-week advance voting period before the 7 November general election, with sitting National MPs Penny Simmonds and Joseph Mooney defending Invercargill and Southland.
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Gore District Council's rates review shows rural ratepayers facing increases of 18 or 28 per cent depending on the option chosen, and councillors want public meetings in farming communities before submissions close on 18 November.
A convoy of nine helicopters flew from Queenstown across northern Southland to Riverton on Friday, delivering 45 Australian visitors to the Beach House for lunch as part of The Helicopter Line's work with Great South.
The Government has granted $4 million from the Regional Infrastructure Fund to complete Mataura Marae, finishing its wharekai and ablution block and strengthening the complex as an emergency refuge for the flood-prone town.
A $6 million Regional Infrastructure Fund grant will let Southland District Council fully replace the 105-year-old Monowai suspension bridge over the Waiau River, lifting its weight limit from 28.5 to 50 tonnes by December 2027.
Twelve months after a 174km/h gust tore through Southland, Invercargill City Council has removed more than 1000 trees, Queens Park has reopened in stages, and PowerNet has put its repair bill at about $7 million.
Gore District Council's 2025/26 deficit of $2.5 million came in $2.8 million better than budget, but its latest residents' survey found satisfaction with council decisions has fallen to 23 per cent against a target of 80.
Southland District Council is weighing three short-term options to get the closed Curio Bay campground open for summer after the trust that ran the Catlins site walked away from an expired lease.
A modified version of He Waka Tuia's popular Play exhibition has been installed in the children's ward at Southland Hospital, in what the gallery believes is a first for a public gallery and a public hospital.
Gore's drinking water upgrade has reached a major milestone with the demolition of the Hilbre Avenue water tower, which stood over the town for 78 years and is to be replaced by a new reservoir.
Weekday opening at Invercargill's after-hours urgent care clinic now starts at 11.30am after an expansion on 19 October more than doubled its hours, paid for from the $164 million Budget 2025 urgent care package.
Bluff musician and trucking company owner KC Barris has won the top prize at the 2026 Southland Music Awards, where Brenny & The Bushwhackers were named Band of the Year and three new Hall of Fame members were inducted.
Winston Peters has pledged NZ First support for more frequent passenger trains linking Invercargill with Dunedin and Christchurch, built around the monthly Mainlander service, though without a timetable or funding commitment.
An Invercargill City Council committee has rejected staff advice to consult on a sinking lid for pokie machines, opting instead to put a cap on venue and machine numbers out for public feedback from 28 October.
Environment Southland issued Invercargill City Council a formal warning on 23 September after an earthquake-damaged outfall pipe spilt treated wastewater onto the foreshore at Ocean Beach, Bluff, and the council is still not meeting its consent conditions.
Fitch Ratings has again rated Invercargill City Council AA+, the seventh year in a row, while noting that debt will rise as the council expands its capital programme and sets up in-house water services.
Laura Allen's porcelain piece 34 years of Age has taken the $8,000 supreme award at the 2026 ILT Murihiku Art Awards, with the finalists' exhibition on show at He Waka Tuia in Invercargill until 15 November.
A Department of Conservation survey has found the invasive algae didymo in the Kaipo River in northwest Fiordland, prompting DOC and Southland Fish & Game to renew their plea to anglers, hunters, trampers and packrafters.
A 10-date national tour by Che Fu and The Kratez opens at Invercargill's Civic Theatre on Wednesday, with the 2001 album Navigator played in full and Aaradhna, Betty-Anne and King Kapisi as guests.
A council hearings panel has recommended revoking the reserve status of Newfield Park despite most submitters wanting it kept, while advising against the sale of Bluff's JG Ward Reserve.
The 20th Burt Munro Challenge will run from 10 to 14 February 2027, coinciding with the Southland Motorcycle Club's centenary. Entries, rally passes and spectator tickets went on sale on 1 October.
Internal Health NZ briefings have rated the risk to Southland's urology service as extreme. The region has no permanent full-time urologist following two resignations this year, and patients are being sent as far as Christchurch.
Invercargill City Council has spent about $4.3 million of the $21 million set aside for its Esk Street headquarters on moving staff out, but no repairs have started and a decision on the building's future is not due until 2027.
Invercargill City Council has voted 8-3 to stop buying from companies on a United Nations list of businesses linked to Israeli settlements, reversing a decision that failed on a casting vote last year.
A single juvenile Undaria plant found on a mooring line near Pukeweka Island, at the southern tip of Stewart Island/Rakiura, has been removed after a fisherman reported it to Environment Southland.
