Charity work was the theme of June as the Neale Daniher-inspired Big Freeze event at the MCG continued to inspire regional areas. Kyabram Junior Football Club had its own event, and not long afterwards, Mick Simpson began another of his famous treks to Melbourne to raise awareness of dementia. A school bus route made headlines when it was blacklisted by the Victorian Department of Education, and the Rochester community received good news when Campaspe Shire Council back-flipped on an earlier decision and provided funding for new lights at the recreation reserve. In sporting news, Brownlow Medallist Dane Swan was a star for Merrigum in a thrilling win, and Lancaster was on track to win a second successive Kyabram district league premiership.
Big Freeze raises $10k
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Twenty volunteers, or in some cases nominees, were submerged in freezing water at Kyabram Recreation Reserve for the Kyabram Junior Football Club’s Big Freeze event.
The club had doubled its fundraising expectations by the Monday before and was going to keep its fundraising channels open until after the Big Freeze 9 at the MCG.
One of the organisers, Melissa Roberts, said the club initially wanted to raise $5000, so to more than double that was a wonderful result.
Kyabram café owner Rocky Papalia went into the freezing water dressed as his hero, Elvis, with a large amount of cash handed over for the right to send him under.
“We had teachers, business people, coaches and quite a few with MND stories,” Mrs Roberts said.
“We thank the community for having me involved and for getting around such a great cause.”
Mick’s on the road again
Merrigum Primary School children were the first to provide inspiration for Kyabram dementia campaigner Mick Simpson as he completed the initial leg of his 12-day Walk for Dementia.
The population of the tiny school, along with Merrigum Lions, turned out in force as Mr Simpson completed the four-hour leg from Kyabram to Merrigum to start his 184km trek from Kyabram’s Allan St Memorial Gardens to the steps of Parliament House in Spring St, Melbourne.
It is the second occasion that Mr Simpson has attempted the walk, having raised $8000 last year. A significantly increased response to this year’s event has him aiming to raise $20,000 — supporting not only the Goulburn Valley and Campaspe dementia group, which is now meeting monthly in Kyabram, but also research into childhood dementia.
The walk continued to Tatura before the third leg of the journey ended at Murchison.
Mr Simpson walked through Nagambie and Seymour, then continued to Broadford and Kilmore before reaching the outer suburbs of Melbourne.
Eventually, he met state Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh on the steps of Parliament House.
Mr Walsh was about to embark on a physical challenge of his own, tackling the Kokoda Trail only a month later. He provided Mr Simpson with his ‘’running’’ shoes for the event, while his wife, Liz Spicer (chaplain at Kyabram P-12 College), provided the blessing of the walk.
Wombats back-to-back plan
Girgarre coach Brendan Baumann’s assessment of Lancaster proved spot-on a few months after his team was thrashed by the eventual 2023 premier.
He said he had few doubts he had witnessed this season’s Kyabram district league’s premiership side in action after Lancaster beat his team by 126 points.
His exact words were, “They will win it (the flag) again”.
In late September, he was proved correct when the Wombats humbled Nagambie in the final match of the season.
Girgarre was powerless trying to stop the marauding Wombats, with centreman Zac Cerrone kicking 10 goals in the demolition.
The Wombats bombarded the goals relentlessly for most of the game and kicked 23.24 while holding the home side to 4.2.
This score was kicked in the last quarter after Girgarre was kept scoreless for three quarters.
Cerrone was unstoppable, while another nine players led by Jamie Scapin, with three goals, also hit the scoreboard bullseye in the one-sided affair.
Lancaster blew Girgarre off the park in the first term with the wind at its back and kicked 8.9 to nil.
Lancaster coach Tom Davies said four walk-up starts in Lancaster’s best side (Ricky Thomson, Jake Mills, Cam Simpson and Zaid Besim) didn’t play but would hopefully start returning in the second half of the season.
Goddard Rd at Wyuna was blacklisted by the Victorian Department of Education and Walters Passenger Service, leaving parents of students who live on the road to ferry their children to either end of the pothole-infested dirt road for daily drop-off and pick-up.
Forty students from Kyabram P-12 College and St Augustine’s College were affected by the decision, which was laid squarely at the feet of a “slow-to-act” Campaspe Shire Council.
Paul Mennen, who was among four fathers who met with state Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh on Goddard Rd (only a week after the bus route had been altered), said he understood the decision of the department and bus company but did not understand how the situation had gotten to this point.
Such is the corrugated nature of Goddard Rd, which also has a series of potentially tyre-popping potholes, that between McNee Rd and McBain Rd a makeshift laneway has been created by traffic choosing to avoid the centre of the road.
And just around the corner, on Wilson Rd, there is an almost-traffic-stopping series of potholes which, after recent rain, are filled with water.
No buses travel along Wilson Rd, but now the north-south running Goddard Rd has also joined the list of roads not serviced by school buses.
Buses are stopping at the corner of Finlay and Goddard, along with the corner of the Murray Valley Hwy and Goddard, then using Trevaskis Rd instead of the traditional route in order to ferry the children to a collectable point for their parents.
Great Dane a Bulldog
Collingwood Brownlow Medallist and 258-game premiership player Dane Swan became the toast of Merrigum Football Netball Club when he helped to lift the team to a four-point win in a one-off match for the Bulldogs that drew a “finals-type crowd” to the Merrigum Recreation Reserve.
Club president Andrew Parkinson, himself smitten by Swan’s presence as a lifelong Collingwood supporter, said everyone at the football club, including the players, walked a bit taller on the day.
Swan was also the star attraction off the field, speaking to club sponsors before the game and then the main man at an event that attracted more than 250 people on Saturday night.
Parkinson said the three-time Magpies best-and-fairest winner was very accommodating, and nothing was too much trouble.
Rochester lights coup
A $306,000 commitment by Campaspe Shire Council to Rochester Recreation Reserve for the installation of 300-lux lighting will allow Rochester to host Goulburn Valley league night games this season.
Council voted 5-2 to include the project in the 2023-24 budget after the recreation reserve management committee announced it was on the verge of receiving a $520,000 Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action grant.
Council endorsed the allocation of funds towards not only the Rochester Recreation Reserve Moon Oval lighting project, but also $180,000 for the replacement of the Mt Pleasant netball courts at Toolleen.
Campaspe Shire Mayor Rob Amos said it was a great outcome for both communities and that council was committed to supporting facilities that were so well used.
Kyabram’s upgrade of the Wilf Cox Community Complex remains on council’s planning table, but is not yet fully funded.
“Both committees of management (Rochester and Toolleen) have done a great job in successfully applying for Flood-Recovery Grants through the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, but there was a shortfall in funding to complete both projects,” Cr Amos said.
“Councillors felt the best course of action was to allocate funds through the budget process for these projects to ensure their successful completion.”
Echcua is the Campaspe crime capital
Crime statistics for 2023 revealed Echuca as the hub of criminal activity in Campaspe Shire.
The major population centre of the shire had a 20 per cent increase in criminal incidents, having the major influence on a 16.1 per cent shire-wide increase.
The increase was almost three times the state increase in total crime, which was 5.6 per cent, with 361,140 incidents reported in the 12 months ending March 2023.
Kyabram accounts for only 15 per cent of all criminal incidents in the shire.
There were 439 criminal acts in Kyabram in 2022-23, among a total of 2802 for the shire — 1708 of those in Echuca.
Echuca had 342 more crimes in the past 12 months than were reported in 2022.
Kyabram’s population of 7416 (ABS figures from the 2021 census) represents 19 per cent of the 38,735 Campaspe Shire population, so, at least by the numbers, the township has a better per-capita criminal activity result than the shire’s biggest town.
Echuca has a population of 15,056 (38.86 per cent of the shire) and its crime figure represented 60 per cent of the total crime reported for the year.
Campaspe was 13th highest for the total number of criminal incidents per 100,000 residents in all Victorian local government areas.
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