News
Year in review: April — Surplus council-owned buildings go under hammer
Campaspe-owned buildings that are identified as surplus to community needs will be closed or sold through the Township Facility Plan (TFP) process and funds re-invested into agreed township projects.
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It is not quite a fire sale, but in the April meeting agenda it was painfully clear Campaspe council has identified buildings it believes should be sold, or closed, in order to meet its financial obligations.
It has, however, decided to seek community input prior to that process starting.
Governance committees of between seven and 11 people will be established in all Campaspe Shire towns.
Community members will be invited to self-nominate for the positions on the committees.
Three staff and three councillors will review the nominations and establish the panels and make recommendations to the mayor and chief executive officer for ratification.
From that point the committees will be provided with a detailed list of council-owned buildings and land in each town, then be asked to recommend what can be “disposed of” and what the proceeds of those sales could be put toward.
50th home-care client
Rochester Elmore District Health Service is delighted to announce it has signed its 50th Home-Care package in Rochester-Elmore and surrounding communities.
To celebrate this achievement, home-care clients and staff from REDHS held a morning tea on Tuesday, April 20.
“Our team has been working very hard to increase our service delivery in this space to meet the increasing demands of our local community,” REDHS chief executive officer Karen Laing said.
REDHS community services manager Susannah Hargreaves reflected on the rapid growth and said, “REDHS commenced supporting Home-Care Packages in 2019, and started with just three local clients.
“Since then we have steadily grown and are thrilled to celebrate signing up our 50th client just three years since starting the service.”
150th for Bridgette Holt
Bridgette Holt’s no-fuss attitude made for an uncomfortable start to her Rochester netball round-three clash with Tatura on Saturday, her 150th A-grade appearance with the club.
She was recognised with life membership — presented by her twin sister, Maddie — of the club prior to taking the court for her milestone match, which ended in a 14-goal win for the Tigerettes and a near best-on-court performance by Holt.
Maddie, the older of the twins by minutes, is usually her partner in crime at the defensive end of the court. The pair, first with Lockington and later with Rochester, have formed a fearsome defensive partnership in the goaling circle during their many years of playing together.
Good Friday Appeal
Campaspe Shire towns have again punched well above their weight in raising more than $150,000 for the 2022 Good Friday Appeal, in support of the Royal Children’s Hospital.
While a final figure has not been confirmed, Echuca Moama was credited with raising a massive $85,372 — to finish seventh on the Regional Tally Board.
The figure is expected to be more than $90,000 once Echuca-Moama Lions Club’s full count is submitted to appeal organisers.
The tally was part of a record total of $22,328,154 — taking the Good Friday Appeal’s 91-year total to more than $421 million.
Regional and rural Victoria raised a remarkable $2,581,661 — this year’s funds supporting the Children’s Cancer Centre and CARE (4 Kids) to provide cancer allied health resources, education and supportive care programs.
Candidates target Independent at forum
Coalition candidates for Nicholls, Sam Birrell and Steve Brooks, played their trump card at last week’s candidate forum by suggesting an independent was not the answer for the region.
The pair said there was potential for the Nicholls electorate to be left without a voice if an independent candidate was to be elected to represent the region in federal parliament.
More than 100 people packed Poppies at the Moama RSL for the forum and many watched the forum from a live Facebook feed on the Riverine Herald website.
It was hard to decide a winner on the night, as candidates spent only a few minutes introducing themselves before being allocated only one minute to answer nine broad questions that were posed by the forum’s mediator Nathan Bibby.
Both Mr Birrell and Mr Brooks, who will represent the National and Liberal parties at the election, underlined the fact that a federal member not aligned to a party would not be able to achieve an outcome for the electorate.
New Echuca-Moama bridge named
Dhungala is the name of the new Echuca-Moama Bridge Project, which was opened to traffic yesterday morning by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, months ahead of schedule.
He and Victorian Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allen were the key figures in opening the new Murray and Campaspe River bridges, named in recognition of the region’s rich and proud Indigenous heritage.
The new Murray River crossing will be known as Dhungala Bridge and the new Campaspe River crossing will be called Yakoa Bridge — with Dhungala and Yakoa the respective names in Yorta Yorta language for the Murray and Campaspe rivers.
Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation, Moama Local Aboriginal Land Council and Cummeragunja Local Aboriginal Land Council collaborated to name the Dhungala Bridge with Yorta Yorta Nation endorsing the name for the new Campaspe River crossing.
Mr Joyce, who is Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Minister, said the completion of the project was another example of the Coalition government delivering for regional Australia.
Campaspe News