Vic

Picnic Racing will feature at Mansfield on Sunday January 9 with a Summer festival of family fun. The Mansfield Hygain Cup meeting will feature thrilling racing, a host of entertainment and fabulous catering.

Workers from the EPIC (Employment Preparation and Inclusion in the Community) program have been assisting in the restoration of Porcupine Village since July this year. The group, which rotates its participants through the village twice a week, initially began by clearing out the historic buildings, and are now focused on doing a number of other jobs around the place, including yard work.

The community is awaiting follow up from local Member for Bendigo West, Maree Edwards, regarding the petition to close local wetlands to recreational duck shooting and instead make them a sanctuary for the threatened species which call them home. The petition attracted just under 500 signatures, mostly local, compared to a petition by shooters to have duck shooting remain which obtained 21 signatures (11 local).  

You may have noticed the new window display with artfully displayed bandages, band-aids and defibrillators at 22 High Street. Nurse Nicole Gleeson, started Rhythm First Aid three years ago, a training company delivering first aid training of the highest quality in a captivating and fun environment. Rhythm First Aid delivers first-aid courses to schools, parents, and businesses around Victoria.

Kirstin Nicholson. Celebrity Chef, Manu Feildel dropped in recently to sample some of the local produce. Feildel was in the region as part of the Cohuna and District Progress Association’s (CDPA) Chef and Chandeliers Gala held on Saturday night. On Saturday morning, Manu and CDPA representative, Keith Link, toured the region by helicopter, visiting properties and sampling the region’s produce.

Kirstin Nicholson. The Cohuna community was treated to a gala event at the weekend which involved a host of celebrities, fine dining and entertainment. The Apiam Chef and Chandeliers Gala was organised by the Cohuna and District Progress Association (CDPA) and over 200 guests attended the event at the Memorial Hall where they dined on a meal prepared by celebrity chef, Manu Feildel, using produce from the region.

Kendall Jennings. Local doctor, Tharindu Uyanage, will be missed at the hospital and the cricket field. Yet, he has left the pitch in style, collecting the highest batting score against Kerang with 39 runs, capturing 3 wickets from his 7 overs and 5 balls, and taking a catch in the field.

Member for Wannon, Dan Tehan said he was delighted to launch the 160 km world-class hiking trail Grampians Peaks Trail, starting at Mt Zero in the north, passing through Halls Gap and with highlights including Redman Bluff, Major Mitchell Plateau and Mt Abrupt before reaching Dunkeld in the south.

Commended in the Local History Small Publication Award, 2019 Victorian Community History Award. This award recognises the best small publications or or e-books which feature Victorian local, cultural or social history. The fascinating story of the establishment and development of the Art Gallery of Ballarat has been told in a book by noted Ballarat historian Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter.

The professional association for forest scientists, growers and managers in Australia has expressed its concern at the escalating Victorian forest wars, saying changes are desperately needed in the way the State’s forests are managed. Forestry Australia Vice President Dr Michelle Freeman said the escalating situation in Victoria shows the State’s current approach to forest management is simply not working.

Today marks a significant milestone for Phillip Island Nature Park and the very popular little penguins − which were put on the map as a must-see experience 100 years ago today ... Penguin numbers on the island have almost tripled since the mid-1980s − from 12,000 to around 32,000 breeding birds today thanks to extensive conservation work.

Last Sunday Maldon Preschool unveiled their beautiful decorative mosaic. Located at the front of the preschool the mosaic pays tribute to the local area and Mt Tarrengower.   The two metre long project is the culmination of art sessions at the preschool with the children, as well as community outreach activities and incorporates links to families of the region and the local environment.

Last Saturday proved ideal for the second of SteamPacket’s railway platform Blues Masters gigs. The Master this time being the Mistress of the Blues Guitar, Fiona Boyes, who accomplishes the almost impossible task of singing highly expressive lyrics while playing highly complex blues licks at the same time with astonishing ease. (Something B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton never mastered. They sing, then they play: or vice versa.)

Apart from brief periods during April, May and August the Maldon Museum has been closed to the public for most of this past year. Volunteer activities have continued during this time however, and much has been achieved behind the scenes in the way of conservation, cataloguing and indexing. The planned re-opening of the museum is eagerly awaited by the museum’s volunteers who have created a special informative display of Maldon’s mines from days long gone.  

A Victorian farmer has received a donation of a critical 22,500L tank and water to help assist in the recovery from drought thanks to the #FinishWaterWaste initiative. Almost half of Australia’s farms are serviced by the Murray-Darling Basin’s Victorian waterways, including dairy farmer Fiona Rourke’s property near Shepparton.

Kirstin Nicholson. The district was filled with the sights and sounds of 110 motorbikes and 44 cars on the weekend, all part of the Gannawarra Memorial Toy Run (GMTR). The toy run was organised by John Webb and his team for the Combined Churches group. Toys and money collected on the day, and in the collection bins around the district, will be used for hampers to be distributed across the district in December.  

Ruth Arthur. On Monday, following a call from my sister, Diane, that she thought there might be a photo opportunity in Moulamein not seen before, I travelled to see her and the new experience for Moulamein that was about to happen.