According to Domain House Price Report the average median house price in Orange was $469,000.

That had risen by $50,000 (11.9 percent) in the previous 12 months, and 35 percent, up from $345,000, in the previous five years.

The regional figures included Newcastle, Wollongong and fringe areas of Sydney and placed Orange as the 22nd most expensive housing market in NSW.

Orange had recorded the eighth highest increase in the past year and the 18th highest in the past five years.

Orange's median house prices was $19,000 higher than Bathurst and the Mid-Western Regional Council area (Mudgee).

According to RealEstateView there were just 11 houses for sale between $400,00 and $500,000 in Orange that week.

For six years Tamara Matthews had worked at KFC and saved her henny pennies.

When she'd go out with friends she'd set a budget and keep to it - when the money ran out, she went home.

"I wanted to move out of home and have my own space, and I worked out early on when I was looking at properties and looking into everything, that it would work out cheaper than having to pay rent," Ms Matthews said in November.

"So I worked really hard to save my deposit."

Inch by inch, the 21-year-old edged closer to her dream of one day owning a house.

"I looked at houses while I was saving my deposit to get an idea how much money I needed," Ms Matthews said.

In the middle of 2020, having squirrelled away $25,000, she got loan approval from a bank that would allow her to spend up to $250,000 on her first house.

"I spent three months looking at properties," Ms Matthews said.

"I looked at a lot of places that were outside my budget to give me an idea of what was out there.

Two people died following a light plane crash at Carcoar on November 4.

Emergency services were called to a property after reports of a light plane crash.

The plane had taken off from Orange Regional Airport that afternoon with two people on board.

Both people on board the plane, believed to be one man and one woman, died at the scene.

Officers from Chifley Police District established a crime scene and commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was notified and a report was to be prepared for the information of the coroner.

Drivers were risking their lives to get to touch football, McDonald's and North Orange shopping centre in early November.

The cause of the chaos was the detour put in place due to roundabout construction work on the Northern Distributor at the end of Hill Street and the start of William Maker Drive.

It left vehicles wanting to reach new housing estates in North Orange having to turn off the distributor at Telopea Way.

While the detour - in place since February 2020 - generally worked smoothly, the combination of people returning from work and those heading to touch footy, McDonald's and the shopping centre led to moments of bedlam.

November 4 at 5pm was such an occasion.

Cars were backed up along Anson Street to the roundabout at Roselawn Drive, many two abreast as some waited to turn right on the distributor and others left.

Meanwhile, vehicles on the Northern Distributor heading west to turn on Telopea Way were backed up for hundreds of metres.

In order to allow one vehicle at a time from Anson Street to turn left on to the Northern Distributor and then right at Telopea Way, truck drivers and other motorists lined up on the distributor were leaving a gap in the traffic.

However the gap was not always sufficient for the car turning to have enough room to move into the right lane to turn right, leaving cars in the path of oncoming traffic potentially travelling at 70km/h on the distributor.

A four-hour siege in Blayney came to a peaceful end on November 3 after police negotiators managed to talk around a 40-year-old man who had barricaded himself inside an Ogilvy Street property.

Chifley Police District commander superintendent Peter O'Brien confirmed the siege came to an end around 2.15pm after negotiators got the man to come outside and turn himself into police.

Supt O'Brien said the man has been wanted by police in relation to an alleged domestic violence incident and serious traffic offences.

"He was tracked down by police in Blayney and then barricaded himself inside a unit," he said.

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