Region. Top award to railway stations

NSW has won eight of the 33 awards and commendations in this year's National Architecture Awards, including the nation's most prestigious public architecture award for the Epping to Chatswood rail link intermediate stations. The Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture went to the north-western Sydney rail interchange, which also won the NSW Sulman Award for Public Architecture for architects Hassell earlier this year.

Camellia API to roll out plan

A plan by Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, based at Camellia, to accelerate the roll-out of its Priceline beauty and healthcare stores to hit a target of 500 shops in the near term, comes as it claims to have taken market share from the supermarkets and hooked 3.2 million members into its loyalty club.

Region. Sales shrink

Sales at the women's fashion chain Noni B, at Kings Park, declined 3 per cent in the first quarter of this financial year, while heavy discounting in the retail sector further squeezed profit margins. Falling prices for electrical and whitegoods due to the rising dollar and brittle consumer confidence has led to Homebush West-based Harvey Norman's first quarter sales growth to grind to a halt in Australia and its quarterly profits to shrink by a third.

Region. UWS academic appointed a director

Tim Hannan, a Senior Lecturer from the School of Psychology at the University of Western Sydney, has been elected as a general director on the Australian Psychological Society's board of directors. Representing 19,000 members, the society is the largest professional association for psychologists in Australia and is committed to advancing psychology, both as a discipline and as a profession, and promoting the contributions that psychology makes to society. Mr Hannan will serve a three-year term.

Sydney Olympic Park. More power for the park

The Sydney Olympic Park Authority proposes to grant a lease to EnergyAustralia for the establishment of an electricity zone substation to supply additional electrical power and network infrastructure, and a license prior to the lease commencing for the purposes of construction of the zone substation and related infrastructure works. The term of the lease is 99 years.

Parramatta. Developer sues contractor

The ABC reports Plaza West, of the Parramatta-based Dyldam group, is suing a contractor, Simon's Earthworks and one of its directors, in a civil case in the New South Wales Supreme Court. The developer has been accused of using truckloads of asbestos-contaminated soil as landfill at a housing development, in Parklea. Dyldam alleges the contractor falsified invoices, paid kickbacks to a site supervisor and wrongly claimed payments for work on the Entrada apartment site, on the corner of Church Street and Victoria Road. in the Parramatta CBD, in 2007 and 2008. The Environment Department is investigating the claims against the Dyldam group.