Mrs Bowman was a member of the last Town of Kyabram council, but she is now regularly at logger heads with the current local government authority — on a variety of issues.
It is a somewhat ironic situation, considering she was at the spearhead of the beast that become the Campaspe Shire when Jeff Kennett’s Victorian Government of the day reduced the number of municipalities from 210 to 78.
The 1600 elected councillors were sacked and replaced with commissioners who ushered in the new council framework.
Twenty five years after she was elected as the first mayor of the newly formed Campaspe Shire — in March 1997 — Mrs Bowman now leads the Kyabram Deakin Residents Ratepayers and Development Group.
And she is one of the thorns in the side of the current administration as she constantly seeks a “fair go’’ for the town she has served in such distinguished fashion.
Campaspe Shire was formed in 1995 from the amalgamation of the Town of Kyabram, City of Echuca, Shire of Deakin (Tongala), Shire of Rochester, Shire of Waranga and part of the Shire of Rodney.
Mrs Bowman told the Free Press it was at the suggestion of former National Country Party leader Tom Tehan, that she steered her Kyabram based council toward Campaspe rather than Shepparton.
It is a decision which she says has not been of great benefit to the town, as it struggles for its “fair share’’ of attention from the local government authority.
Mrs Bowman recently received a response to her latest correspondence to the shire, which was a seven-point document with a particular focus on the disappointing customer service experiences of the KDRRADG membership.
Mrs Bowman said most people had experienced red tape and problems dealing with government agencies, but her group was aware of “several poor experiences’’ when dealing with some Campaspe staff seeking planning and permit information.
“It got so bad that it soured their decisions to build a house that needed to be in Echuca and they went to Moama instead. One was a commerical business,” Mrs Bowman said.
Mrs Bowman described the Campaspe Shire budget as a well presented, clear and concise document.
“It is also a document that doesn’t appear to have much of interest to the ratepayers on the outer reaches of the shire,” she said.
Mrs Bowman is president of the KDRRADG group and leads monthly discussion on subjects concerning the town (fourth Wednesday) at 7pm in the Kyabram seniors building on Lake Rd.
The club’s next meeting will be Wednesday, July 27.
