Front page news: May 23-29, 2007-2015
A snapshot of news from across the years
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May 25, 2007: Wimmera politicians have used State Parliament to throw their support behind the former committee of the Lake Charlegrark Recreation Reserve.
Member for Western Victoria, David Koch, told parliament this week ‘it was a needless use of a sledgehammer to crack a walnut’.
A Department of Primary Industries solicitor prosecuted Roy Pretlove in Horsham Magistrate’s Court this month on advice from Parks Victoria which manages the lakebed. His offence was planting a barley crop in the lakebed.
‘‘Mr Pretlove was charged with disturbing the dry lakebed for cultivation purposes although, along with other volunteer committee members, he has been a long time steward of the reserve,’’ Mr Koch said.
‘‘Crop proceeds helped raise much-needed funds for the on-going maintenance of the reserve and along with the tens of thousands of dollars from hard-won grants and local contributions, the committee has saved the government thousands of dollars in maintaining this public reserve.
“This action raises fears that the government will now cost-shift its responsibilities for managing this reserve onto local government and it threatens the continuation of other volunteer reserve committees.’’
May 26, 2008: Police found a Melbourne man alive and well near Lake Albacutya yesterday after an exhaustive air and ground search of the Big Desert, Wyperfeld and Little Desert national parks.
The family of Sunbury man David McCormack, 49, reported him missing after failing to return home on Friday night after a week-long camping trip in the area.
Mr McCormack’s wife raised the alarm, concerned for her husband’s welfare after being unable to reach him on his mobile phone since she last spoke to him on Monday evening last week.
Rainbow Leading Senior Constable Tony Clark said police from Rainbow, Hopetoun, Nhill and Harrow and a police helicopter crew began looking for Mr McCormack on Saturday.
‘‘The area from Lake Hindmarsh to Lake Albacutya, and the Wyperfeld National Park was searched as well as the eastern and central blocks of the Little Desert National Park,’’ he said.
‘‘But we were forced to call off the search as night fell at about 5.30pm.’’
A police helicopter and two fixed-wing Australia Search and Rescue aircraft resumed the search at 8am yesterday, scanning the Big Desert and the extremities of Wyperfeld National Park and the remaining areas of the Little Desert.
Snr Const Clark said the police helicopter crew spotted a man and a stationary vehicle on Milmed Rock Track at Round Swamp, about 60 kilometres north-west of Rainbow, almost three hours into the search operation.
May 28, 2008: Horsham Regional Art Gallery will continue to display two works by controversial Australian photographer Bill Henson.
Curator Adam Harding has asked Wimmera residents to view the works and make up their own minds.
‘‘I would encourage people to come to the gallery and view the work for themselves,’’ Mr Harding said.
‘‘Art galleries should be a place of ideas.’’
Henson’s work has caused national headlines this week. His subject matter often includes naked or semi-naked adolescents.
Police are investigating Henson pictures at a private Sydney gallery, Newcastle Regional Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Albury Regional Gallery has taken down three of Henson’s pictures after complaints from the public about the Images.
Mr Harding said the controversy and police interest that Henson’s work had received in Melbourne and Sydney had yet to reach Horsham.
‘‘We have received no complains about our photographs and have had no calls from the police,’’ Mr Harding said.
‘‘And we don’t expect any either.’’
May 29, 2009: A Horsham medical centre and Horsham Rural City Council have pleaded with VicRoads to change a section of Baillie Street to a 50 kilometres an hour zone for pedestrian safety.
Ongoing issues with pedestrians crossing Baillie Street between Urquhart and Firebrace streets has prompted the calls to change the section of the Western Highway from 60kmh to 50kmh.
Lister House Medical Clinic practice manager Leanne Schilling said the clinic’s partners had written to VicRoads and had meetings with the council asking for the speed limit to be changed to 50.
‘‘Fifty kilometres would slow down the traffic and slow down the hoons,’’ she said.
‘‘We have people doing u-turns out the front and the trucks don’t help either. There have been plenty of near misses.’’
May 24, 2010: Wimmera gaming venues have spent more than $15 million to secure poker machine licences from the State Government.
Provisional figures released on Thursday show Horsham Sports and Community Club paid the third highest price in the state for each machine at $125,539 during an auction on May 10.
The club paid $4,770,482 for 38 licences at auction and $2,009,014 for 40 licences in a pre-auction club offer.
The Mail-Times understands that under terms of the sale the club must pay a five per cent deposit on its $6,779,496 bill now and the balance over a five-year period from delivery of the machines in August 2012.
All community clubs were offered a pre-auction deal of 40 machines at a rate decided upon depending on the club’s revenue.
If clubs wanted more machines, they had to buy them at auction.
May 26, 2010: Horsham Mayor Michael Ryan will meet a Horsham architect about a new design for the Horsham Town Hall redevelopment.
At a public forum on Monday night, architect Cameron Reid questioned the planned redevelopment design and told the council he didn’t think it was listening to what the community wanted.
‘‘The architecture is the issue. The link between the art deco and the proposed style — there is a big disconnection between the two,’’ he said.
Mr Reid said he could create a design to satisfy everyone.
Mr Reid told the Mail-Times yesterday he was working on a design which would retain the town hall with an auditorium to the rear.
‘‘I would be happy to work with the nominated architect. I’m doing this of my own accord as a Horsham resident,’’ he said.
May 27, 2011: VicRoads has ruled out reinstating a community-preferred route for the future Western Highway Horsham bypass.
Bypass consultation group, One Horsham, called for Option 2 to be returned to the table after more than 200 people voted in support of the route at a public meeting in Haven this week.
The route, suggested by the community in 2008, would exit the Western Highway south of Horsham, pass through Dooen and reconnect to the highway at Wail.
VicRoads regional director Ewen Nevett said Option 2 was ruled out during investigations into the 14 options developed in phase one of the bypass study.
He said independent consultant AECOM found the option contradicted the project objectives to improve transport efficiency for heavy vehicles and the safety of motorists and pedestrians in Horsham.
“On completion of preliminary investigations on Option 2, AECOM found that this option would bypass or sever an unreasonable length of rural farm land either side of the town where the existing Western Highway is satisfactory and has the capacity to be duplicated in the future,” he said.
“A large number of local roads would also be severed and it would be very expensive to construct, much more than the five options nominated in the report.”
Mr Nevett also defended the five short-listed options following revelations Option 12 traversed an Aboriginal burial ground.
May 23, 2012: Horsham Rural City Council plans to sub-divide land at Natimuk to address a housing shortage.
Councillors had a heated debate at Monday’s council meeting about sub-dividing council-owned properties at Natimuk for development.
The properties include one in Lake Avenue, originally bought by the Shire of Arapiles to use as a depot, and one in Sisson Street behind the Natimuk fire station.
Council corporate and economic director Tony Bawden said there was an increased demand for residential properties in Natimuk, but a limited supply of appropriately-zoned land.
He said council had three options: develop the properties itself by subdividing and selling both sites; complete a sub-division design for a development application and sell the properties to a developer; or council could sell the properties to a developer to sell.
The council decided to seek public comment through Natimuk Advisory Committee and Natimuk Progress Association.
Cr Gary Bird said the first two options would create more unnecessary work for council staff who were already ‘snowed under’.
“I don’t believe that our job and our core business is to be running around doing sub-divisions,” he said.
May 25, 2012: Business and union leaders have warned Stawell and Ararat residents a grim economic future could be on the horizon.
The caution comes with the shut-down of the Ararat Prison work site, leaving contractors owed thousands of dollars, and now Stawell Gold Mine and its 300-strong workforce face an uncertain future as gold deposits dwindle.
Gold mine owner Troy Cole said the mine’s underground operations looked set to be wrapped up within the next 12 to 18 months.
Mr Cole did not speculate how long the mine would keep operating after that time, but he said there would be job opportunities for employees at mines at Fosterville near Bendigo and in the Northern Territory.
Crocodile Gold recently bought the gold mine and executives told staff and the community last week the mine was entering a ‘transition phase’.
Mr Cole did not say when the mine would close.
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union mining and energy president Luke van der Meulen said the mine’s closure would have a devastating effect on the community and employees were worried for their future.
May 28, 2012: Jeparit has been left without its newsagency and electrical goods and hardware dealer after the Roy Street business went up in flames on Thursday night.
It is the owners’ second disaster in a year after their former business in Natimuk flooded last year.
CFA and Horsham police investigators found an electrical fault in a light in the shop’s front window caused the fire.
CFA crews were called to the blaze at 9.13pm and two pumps, five tankers and 21 fire-fighters spent an hour putting it out.
Horsham CFA operations officer Peter Bell said the fire did most damage to the front of the store, before moving to the back.
A neighbouring milk bar suffered smoke and water damage.
Owners Daryl and Rhonda Holden bought the Jeparit business in December after moving from Natimuk.
Mrs Holden said she was alerted to the fire when someone banged on her door at 9.30pm.
May 29, 2013: Horsham Golf Club has reached a confidential settlement with Powercor and received compensation for losses after the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
The trial to determine how much compensation Powercor must pay the club began in Horsham Supreme Court on Monday and was scheduled to run for four weeks.
The case was settled overnight Monday.
The primary issue involved the loss sustained when fire destroyed the golf clubhouse and loss of profits the club suffered. The club claimed ‘damages at large’ without a figure specified.
Maddens Lawyers principal Brendan Pendergast represented Horsham Golf Club.
He said the golf club members were relieved the case was settled.
He said the respective parties opened the case on Monday.
May 26, 2014: Wimmera Development Association has secured funding to advance a world-first project that will convert pulse grain waste into protein powder for a food additive.
The State Government will contribute $60,000 for the project’s second stage – to investigate the potential for a processing factory in the Wimmera.
The initial stage involved trial processing of pulse grain waste.
Association executive director Jo Bourke said the project aimed to extract protein from red lentils and faba beans.
“Most of the protein powder that you get in Australia is dairy protein from milk which a lot of people can’t have because they’re allergic,” she said.
Mrs Bourke said the powder produced from the lentils and faba beans was tasteless and odourless.
“The food companies are really interested in it because it is a non-allergen and it’s soluble,” she said.
May 28, 2014: Three western Victorian councils stand to lose millions of dollars because of uncertainty in the green energy sector.
Ararat Mayor Paul Hooper said the Federal Government’s ongoing Renewable Energy Target review had made investors planning wind farms in Ararat Rural City Council, Northern Grampians Shire Council and Pyrenees Shire Council skittish.
“We have five wind farms between the three municipalities that are either proposed or in the planning stage,” he said.
“They are worth $2 billion in investment, $1 million a year in rates, 50 full-time employment jobs and a quarter of a million dollars a year in community grants. All of this is at risk because of the RET review.”
One of the planned wind farms is the $450-million Ararat Wind Farm.
The development, about 17 kilometres north-east of Ararat, will consist of up to 75 turbines.
Five of the turbines will fall within Northern Grampians Shire.
The remainder will be in Ararat Rural City.
“It’s shovel ready,” Cr Hooper said.
But he said the project would be canned if RES Australia, the wind farm developer, could not see benefit in it.
“It would go a long way to solving some of our sustainability issues,” he said.
May 29, 2015: Member for Mallee Andrew Broad says repeat perpetrators of domestic violence should be placed on a register similar to that for sex offenders.
Mr Broad made this statement while urging the federal government to bring forward a commitment to start a national awareness campaign targeting domestic violence in Federal Parliament this week.
‘‘I think there is a legitimate discussion about having a domestic violence offenders register, just like a sex offenders register,’’ he said.
‘‘Name and shame these scum, and have GPS ankle bands for those who are repeat offenders.’’
Mr Broad said he wanted a national awareness campaign for domestic violence to be trialled in his electorate.
‘‘I understand the campaign is not expected to start until January 2016. I want that campaign to start sooner,’’ he said.