Thank you Kyabram
Kyabram’s footballers and town tradies got a special mention in a huge ‘‘thank you’’ gesture from the Rochester community in a moving ceremony prior to the GVL opening round game at Rochester on Saturday.
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The Kyabram Good Samaritans were singled out for praise for their ongoing support since Rochester was devastated by a flooding Campaspe River last October.
Rochester was also particularly pleased and grateful with the support given to the initiative of footy fans and well wishers financing season membership tickets of the Rochester Football Netball Club for the residents of town to support their footballers and help in the healing and rebonding process.
The ceremony even commanded national coverage with Channel 9 featuring it as a major news item in its Saturday night national news coverage and the Sunday Herald Sun devoting two pages to the plight of Rochester residents since the flood.
Noisy season opener
There was a huge crowd at the Rochester-Kyabram game and the noise was deafening at times.
But it wasn’t the supporters making most of the din.
It was hundreds of corellas who have decided home are the trees on the Campaspe River, which adjoins the Rochester reserve.
One local said the corellas had not saved up for the opening round of the GVL, but had been around for a long time, irritating locals with their continual screeching.
‘‘But they are more welcome than a flooded river I can assure you,’’ he was quick to add.
Low temperatures arrive
Kyabram has received 8mm of rain so far for April as temperatures dipped to the second lowest minimum reading of 7.8ºC for the year on Sunday.
Maximum temperatures on the weekend did not get to 20ºC with 19.1ºC on Saturday and a chilly 17.3ºC on Sunday, the lowest maximum temperature so far this year.
Kyabram’s yearly rainfall figure now stands at 79.4mm.
Ryan clan celebrates
Kyabram’s Ryan clan celebrated a feature race win with their trotter Little Miss Lilly at Melton on Saturday night.
Little Miss Lilly claimed the $50,000 Home Grown Classic final for three-year-old fillies.
Kyabramites Brendan (1Q), Peter, Francis and Kevin and another brother, Dennis, are in the syndicate which races the filly who is trained by their cousin, Shepparton trainer Patrick Ryan.
The boys aren’t saying much, but with Little Miss Lilly paying $19 for the win it was observed their pockets may have matched the size of their smiles when Little Miss Piggy held off all challengers over the concluding stages.
Moama Lights tickets
Tickets are now on sale for the Moama Lights spectacular, which runs from June 30 to July 23 this year.
Set against the backdrop of Moama’s Horseshoe Lagoon it will be the third instalment and will usher visitors through a brand new experience, celebrating the history and natural beauty of Moama-Echuca through an evocative sea of colours, movement and sound.
To purchase your tickets, visit www.123tix.com.au/events/profile/1756
All-Aussie Ute Muster
It’s a whose-who of all-Australian entertainers for this year’s Deni Ute Muster.
John Williamson, Jessica Maubouy, Lee Kernaghan, Adam Harvey and Beccy Cole and Missy Higgins are just a few names booked to entertain the throngs from September 29 to September 30.
Up in smoke
A crop of tobacco discovered at Bunbartha on March 30 has literally gone up in smoke.
The crop with a potential valued of $19 million and weighing more than 11 tonnes was seized and destroyed by Australian Taxation officers,.
Four separate plots were found on the property after a tip-off by the community.
Investigations are continuing.
Bridge closure challenged
Down at Nagambie the closed Kirwans Bridge diagnosis has been challenged by the Kirwans Bridge Action Group pushing for its reopening.
Strathbogie Council’s claim the bridge was “structurally compromised and not safe for vehicles” and would be closed until further notice was described by an Action Group spokesperson as being “ridiculous”.
Strathbogie Council wants to close the bridge indefinitely with either a replica needing to be built or extensive repairs carried out to the existing 133-year-old historic wooden bridge before it could be reopened.
The bridge has been closed since the floods last October and the action group is not happy council is not listening to the concerns of residents greatly inconvenienced by its closure.
Did you know?
1. Russia has more surface area than Pluto. Seem impossible? Just think of those 11 time zones.
2. The heart of a shrimp is located in its head.
3. Slugs have not one, not two, not three... but four noses.
4. It takes a sloth two to four weeks to digest food. They actually have the slowest metabolic system of any mammal.
FAMOUS KYABRAM PEOPLE
RICHARD FARLEIGH
Richard Farleigh is an Australian private investor and reality television personality born Richard Buckland Smith in Kyabram in 1960.
Kyabram had fewer than 5000 residents at the time, but it boasted the newly opened Kyabram District Memorial Community Hospital, and it was here on November 9 that Richard Buckland Smith was born.
His father, Richard Geddes Smith, was probably just passing through Kyabram at the time of the birth, as his occupation is variously described as shearer, opal miner and seasonal labourer. His mother, the former Millicent Duggan, had already borne much, including seven other children.
He was raised by a foster family in Sydney and attended Narwee Boys’ High School, excelled at maths and then won a scholarship to study economics at the University of NSW.
After graduating with honours in the early 1980s, he worked at the Reserve Bank of Australia, then joined Bankers Trust Australia in Sydney when 23 as an investment banker and trader, where he stayed for 10 years.
He is a member of the Business Review Weekly Rich 200 list, a list of the 200 wealthiest Australian individuals.
The Rich 200 list estimated his personal wealth at about A$160,000,000.