Ryde. Another 'first' for university

Macquarie University and Google have once again teamed up for an Australian "first" - this time by agreeing to provide 6000 Gmail accounts to the university's research, teaching and administrative staff. Macquarie was the first university in Australia to offer Gmail to its students and recent alumni when it set up 68,000 new accounts in September 2007. "Macquarie University led the way in Australia as the first educational institution to give their students the speed, ease and flexibility of Gmail, and now they're leading the way once again with this major roll-out of Gmail to their staff,” said Alan Noble, Google's head of engineering for Australia and New Zealand, Alan Noble.

Parramatta. $48 million in homebuyer grants

More than 1800 families in the Parramatta LGA have benefited from $48 million in first homebuyer grants, with the suburbs of Parramatta and Westmead among the top five suburbs in NSW to receive such grants. NSW Office of State Revenue figures show that last year 1072 families in Westmead received a total of $28.8 million, and 735 families in Parramatta received a total of $19.5 million. “This is a vote of confidence by families wanting a good place to live,” said local MP, Tanya Gadiel. Western Sydney was the most popular region for NSW first homebuyers, accounting for all of the top five suburbs where grants were received.

Region. New CEO of WorkCover

Lisa Hunt, a former member of the dissolved Greater Western Sydney Economic Development Board, a board member of Westlink Ltd, a former senior executive of Transurban, a board member of the Sydney Catchment Authority and other organisations, has been appointed CEO, of the WorkCover Authority.