Football season started with Kyabram facing Rochester only months after Rochy had been devastated by the October floods. Annual fixtures on the calendar — Good Friday Appeal and Anzac Day — attracted plenty of community attention and support, while Kyabram Fauna Park continued to build on its reputation with a new reptile habitat. Chris Motton was named the new chair of Kyabram District Health Service, Warramunda Village announced its successful accreditation and new Campaspe Shire Council chief executive Pauline Gordon appointed the first of five new directors of the local government authority. At Stanhope, the celebration for 300-gamer Craig Emmett took the form of players wearing specially designed warm-up tops to recognise the feat.
Bombers recruits unveiled
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Kyabram Bombers unveiled three new faces and former club stars to start the Goulburn Valley League season.
The Bombers played Rochester in the opener, and recruits Toby Wooller and Reuben Rode both made their debuts with the club.
Another recruit, Essendon VFL list player Will Golds, wasn’t seen until a month into the 2023 season.
Premiership player Liam Ogden also returned, along with goalkicking forward ace Kyle Mueller, who had played only a few games over the past two years.
Another notable recruit was ex-premiership player Rhys Clark.
He didn’t play in round one but was back in familiar colours for the second-round match against reigning premier Echuca.
Key position player Brad Mangan was another big name returning after missing last season but was also a late starter.
Kyabram coach Paul Newman expected it could take five or six games for the Bombers to gel as a potent unit.
Good Friday Appeal
Fire brigades in Victoria contributed more than $1.5 million to a record-breaking Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.
Kyabram CFA raised $24,367.15, which was included in an overall town total of $31,671 (a figure including online and phone call donations).
Members from the Kyabram Fire Brigade, Merrigum Fire Brigade, Kyabram SES unit and Victoria Police were out in force for the appeal, fire brigade tankers, police and SES signalling their arrival in streets with blaring sirens from 9am.
Appeal co-ordinator Mick Crompton said it was a great community effort.
“A massive thank you to each and every one who volunteered their time to help out with this year’s Good Friday Appeal,” Mr Crompton said.
“The total included donations made direct by the public and money raised from our Woolworths store,” he said.
Reptile habitat launched
Visitors to Kyabram Fauna Park stepped into the new reptile habitat, which provided a close-up experience with Australia’s most remarkable scaly and shelled creatures — in a purpose-built facility.
The reptile habitat welcomed its first visitors in the April school holidays. It features climate-controlled habitats for 14 reptile species and beautiful green tree frogs.
Notable residents include Australia’s inland taipan and south-east Asia’s reticulated python — the world’s most venomous and longest snakes, respectively.
The habitats provide each animal with important social and environmental enrichment opportunities. Visitors can also learn about the species’ crucial role in their native ecosystems.
Park director Lachlan Gordon said the new reptile habitat would attract locals and visitors, boosting tourism in the region.
“Our new reptile habitat will allow even more people to experience the wonder of wildlife and learn about the importance of reptiles in our ecosystems,” Mr Gordon said.
New KDHS board chair
Chris Motton was named the new chair of the Kyabram District Health Service board.
With four generations of the Motton family still living in the town, the former Tongala Primary School student aimed to expand on the health service foundations formed by those before him.
The eldest of four, now managing director of renowned Fenaughty St IT company Advance Computing, grew up on a dairy farm in the 1980s, and after finishing his education at Ky secondary school completed a traineeship at the business he now runs.
Aside from progressing his 20-plus-year business career, Chris has spread his wings to help the community through involvement with the Rotary Club of Kyabram.
He inherited the ‘service’ gene through his grandparents Rex (passed away) and Topsy, along with his parents.
The matriarch of the Motton family is now in her 90s and still living at Kyabram aged-care home Warramunda.
The 41-year-old’s connection to Kyabram health services stretches back to 1958 when his father, Greg, was born at the former Kyabram Hospital site (now Kyabram Club).
Craig Emmett’s 300th
Craig Emmett joined elite company when he became only the third Stanhope player to hit 300 Kyabram District Football League senior games.
The other two 300-gamers were Mark Patten and Albert ‘Banjo’ Patterson.
Emmett did it in style with his own personalised warm-up shirts worn by Stanhope’s senior squad in the lead-up to its 135-point win against Girgarre.
The talented and durable defender just wanted a win on Saturday after the Lions started the season with an 84-point round-one loss to Nagambie.
“I pride myself on my competitiveness. I hate losing,” Emmett said when trying to find words to describe himself as a footballer.
“But that’s in the culture at Stanhope; you turn up and have a crack.”
His journey towards game 300 began in 2004 when as a talented 17-year-old forward he made his senior debut in a dominant Stanhope outfit.
A couple of premiership medals, multiple grand final heartaches, two bouts of being club captain, life membership and a handful of top-five best-and-fairest finishes litter his career.
Having grown up on the family dairy farm only a few hundred metres from the footy ground, you could say Emmett was always destined to play for Stanhope.
Frank’s Anzac Day salute
Frank Lloyd, 98, — the last surviving community member who served in World War II, accepted the salute at Kyabram’s Anzac Day march on Allan St.
He had just turned 18 when he followed the example of his two older brothers and joined the Australian fighting contingent alongside the Allied forces in World War II.
His brothers Godfrey and Henry, who have since died, were also long-serving members of the armed forces.
Frank joined the air force in 1943 and was invited to be guest of honour at the service.
Frank’s daughter Sheryl travelled from the Yarra Valley to attend the service, which was also attended by eight of his grandchildren and five of his great-grandchildren.
The former flight mechanic came to Kyabram in 1979 and has family living in Kyabram and Shepparton.
He was one of 10 children, but only he and a 92-year-old sister remain alive. She still lives in the same Ringwood street the family grew up in during the 1940s.
Frank carried his old air force hat in one hand and clasped his chest as the former servicemen and women, along with those honouring family members and community groups, marched past him in the early morning commemoration.
Warramunda ticks boxes
Tongala-raised Warramunda Village chief executive John Clark and board chair Alison Hunter were celebrating the aged-care facility ticking all the boxes in its accreditation process.
Mr Clark, who arrived in an interim role in November 2021 and accepted a five-year term in the role, had overseen the facility moving towards an accreditation process built on 148 royal commission recommendations, where 600 witnesses gave evidence and 10,500 submissions were made about the future of aged care in Australia.
Warramunda’s history is steeped in community involvement, formed after a meeting of community-minded citizens in 1959 where two wings were built after a public appeal in 1960.
The village hit all eight required standards (each having four criteria) during the accreditation process, and was moving quickly to provide a level of aged-care delivery in keeping with the new requirements of the post-COVID-19 era.
CEO recruits ‘dream team’
Campaspe Shire Council made the first of five new executive director appointments by naming Shannon Maynard as the person responsible for overseeing the provision of recovery services to flood-affected residents.
His appointment to director emergency management was followed by the naming of new directors of communities, sustainability, corporate and infrastructure.
The five were reporting directly to chief executive officer Pauline Gordon.
A newcomer to council herself, she appears to be hand-picking her new executive team with the help of Ringwood-based senior management and executive recruitment company Camden Search.
In a council website ‘sales pitch’ to prospective candidates, she opened by saying, “This is my backyard and it could be your backyard, too”.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor