Lloyd Polkinghorne, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper
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A rich history at Myall
Sunday, May 7 saw a strong crowd gather at Myall for the unveiling of the Myall Historical Timeline and Myall Remembers service personnel honour board. The day was the fifth attempt to hold the event since 2019. With the pandemic behind us and the flood water receded, attendees braved the frigid conditions to soak up the rich recent history and live music.
Local producers excited as micro abattoir draws closer
Eight years after its inception and almost 12 months after construction began, the Murray Plains Meat Co-Operative’s micro abattoir is reaching the final stages of licensing approval. The project will enable producers to have full control of the supply chain to ensure the ethical treatment of their animals and to value add their produce.
Just add water, again
While Victoria wrestles with the federal government over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Sustainable Diversion Limit project, the delivery of held environmental water ramps up to flood Gunbower Forest again. Described as the ‘Special Sauce’ by North Central Catchment Management Authority (NCCMA), held environmental water will be used to irrigate the forest following two flooding events in 2022, an irrigation event and the following wide-scale major flooding. It’s not tree or canopy health that is driving the NCCMA’s call for water this time around but food for water birds.
Covid-19 vaccine class action
A class action, organised and crowd-funded by Queensland GP Dr Melissa McCann, is taking aim at the Commonwealth government and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), along with a number of senior public servants, alleging negligence, breach of statutory duty and misfeasance in public office. The suit alleges that the respondents approved the vaccines “with no proper or reasonable evidentiary or logical basis to reasonably determine the vaccines to be safe, effective and possessing a positive risk-benefit profile.”
Funding fears halt projects
Reports have surfaced that Victorian Water Minister, Harriet Shing, has halted work on several of the nine Victorian Murray floodplain restoration projects, due to fears the federal government will not reimburse it for the work ... Irrigators now fear that Federal Minister Plibersek will now push on with further buybacks, adding to the current round of buybacks, all bringing with them perverse social, economic and environmental impacts.
Banks ignore community concerns, shut more branches
As our immediate community comes to terms with the Bendigo and Adelaide Banks’ decision to rip bank services from Barham, Cohuna and Pyramid Hill, three of 16 agency closures the Better Big Bank is implementing, the Finance Sector Union (FSU) is calling on the major banks to stop closing bank branches in metropolitan and regional areas while a Senate Inquiry into Regional Branch Closures is underway ... The FSU stated NAB refuses to acknowledge community concerns and has announced branches at Jeparit and Inverloch in Victoria will close. Branches at Boonah, Qld and Queanbeyan, NSW will also be shut down.
Community rallies as ‘better bank’ cashes out
More than 250 people gathered like David taking on the might of Goliath ... Event organiser, Andrew Gibbs, gave a passionate speech to the crowd as he expressed the disgust and injustice of the decision by the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to close 16 agencies, including Pyramid Hill, Cohuna and Barham.
