Home Blog Page 1127

Nix to name change

Ian Blyth
-
0
Nix to name change

THE unexpected change of name of one of the stations on the Mernda rail extension has received a less than enthusiastic response from residents.

Originally named Marymede, the station has morphed into Middle Gorge – which strangely is located some 7.8 kilometres away in Yarrambat.

The Mernda Rail Alliance is leading the charge to have the name changed back to Marymede or something more appropriate to its location.

A popular suggestion on the Alliance’s Facebook page is the renaming Marymede to South Morang – the location, until 1959, of the original South Morang Station.

This would necessitate the current South Morang being renamed Plenty Valley (or something similar). Mill Park was one suggestion.

City of Whittlesea councillor, Cr Tom Joseph has also suggested The Lakes.

Residents first heard of the new name when the Andrews Government announced that the $600 million Mernda Rail Extension is six months ahead of schedule, with the first test trains to Mernda to be running by the end of September.

Acting Premier and Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan, joined Member for Mill Park Lily D’Ambrosio and Member for Yan Yean Danielle Green in Mernda to announce train testing will begin earlier than expected. The Minister also revealed the names of the three new stations as – Mernda, Hawkstowe and Middle Gorge.

The announcement, while bringing a positive reaction regarding the earlier completion date, created a not unpredictable storm over the name change.

Mernda Rail Alliance spokesperson, Darren Peters, said that the name change was never raised in any of the reference group meetings he had attended.

“Middle Gorge was never discussed. No wonder the community is upset,” Mr Peters said.
Linda Watson wrote on the Alliance Facebook page: “Happy with Marymede. It’s what we all call the station now. Middle Gorge sounds like something out of a Harry Potter movie.”

“Just leave things and names alone. Too many silly bureaucrats with nothing to do on April Fool’s Day,” John Egan contributed.

The three new stations, irrespective of their name, are expected to cater for up to 8,000 commuters a day, helping ease congestion along Plenty Road.

A new shared user path will connect the stations and provide alternative transport options. Perhaps foot traffic when the trains are late?

Passenger trains will begin after a testing and commissioning period, with details of dates and timetables to be finalised in coming months.

Romsey park named

The North Central Review
-
0
Romsey park named

THE name of the new community park located at the former Romsey Primary School site is “Romsey Ecotherapy Park”.

The name was chosen from 25 names submitted by community members and groups, including the Greater Romsey All Abilities Park (GRAAP) committee.

GRAAP submitted two names – Romsey Ecotherapy Park and Romsey Sensory Discovery Park – and no objections from the community were received in response to the alternate names.

East Ward councillor, Cr Bill West moved a motion at the March council meeting that council endorses the name Romsey Ecotherapy Park for the new community facility.

“This is a wonderful facility for Romsey and I congratulate the GRAAP committee on the excellent work it has done to bring this community park to a reality,” Cr West said.

Works have begun on the project to transform the historic 150-year-old school building into a community health centre, surrounded by the park.

Over the years residents have expressed a desire for the old school site to remain as a place where the community could continue to gather and where links between community members could be strengthened and this project responds to that wish.

The project is valued at $3.2 million for the former school building and the community park.

The Romsey project has been the focus of significant work among a broad range of partners including Cobaw Community Health, the Greater Romsey All Abilities Park group and council.

The former school building is currently being renovated and extended for its new role a community health centre.  The design prominently features the historic school building, with a rear extension abutting the planned parkland. It is expected the building work will be completed in mid-2018.

The council appointed landscape architects ran several consultation activities in Romsey to gather community ideas for the park and the architect incorporated many of these ideas into the park concept plan. The landscape plan includes an active play zone, a picnic space, an events space, a water play area and a sensory therapeutic space.

The community park is the fourth community park delivered by council in partnership with the community. All previous parks—Gisborne Adventure Playground, Woodend Children’s Park and Kyneton Community Park have been named by the committee or community group involved.

The Romsey park is different in that it has triggered a formal naming process due to the introduction of formal naming rules.

Council is the naming authority under the Naming Rules for Places in Victoria. The naming rules are provided for under the Geographic Place Names Act 1998 and compliance with the naming rules is mandatory for all local governments in accordance with the Act.

Wallder’s Cafe progressing

The North Central Review
-
0
Wallder’s Cafe progressing

WALLDER’S Café in Kilmore is on the verge of re-opening.

The restaurant’s manager Phulpreep Singh confirmed to the North Central Review that the repairs had all been approved.

“Everything is ready to go and now we are just waiting on the Mitchell Shire Council to help with the final piece,” he said.

“We need to close the foot path. We are waiting on permission. It is a heritage building so it has taken a little while but we are close.”

The establishment was rocked last month when a vehicle rolled across the road, up the gutter and through two posts to strike the front window of the shop.

No one was hurt as Wallder’s was closed, but tradesmen were on hand to help board up the damage.

Resort for change

The North Central Review
-
0
Resort for change

By Brooke Haffenden

COMMUNITY reactions have been mixed following the announcement that a planning permit application has been lodged to transform Trawool Valley Resort into a Respite and Recovery Centre.

The application before council by EACH Social and Community Health proposes to use the facility as a voluntary residential program for men and women with drug and alcohol problems who have already participated in the rehabilitation process.

The permit before council seeks to accommodate a maximum of 40 clients in a 24-hour staffed home. Initially, the facility will house 20 clients and work up to 40 clients over two years.

The programs run between three to four months depending on the personal circumstances of the client.

The application, which was lodged in late 2017, is open to public consultation until Friday, April 6.

The Seymour We Want group posted an announcement on its Facebook page last week, only to be met with mixed reactions from the community.

Many residents such as Elyse Perry were “outraged” with a Respite and Recovery Centre adjoining properties where children reside.

“The community need to look at the bigger picture here, it’s not just a rehab centre; it adjoins properties in which children reside, its location is too close to a town that already has a drug problem,” Ms Perry said.

Other community members such as Natasha Monaghan supported the application and said they hoped the facility will make more of a “positive change”.

The North Central Review can also reveal that Trawool has been targeted over the application, with one man defacing property and attending at the resort, yelling at diners and causing a disturbance.

CEO of EACH Peter Ruzyla told the North Central Review that EACH has provided an integrated range of health, disability, counselling, community mental health and social housing services across eastern Australia for more than 40 years.

Mr Ruzyla explained the ‘Resi Rehab’ is for people who are clean and fully detoxed, and need some time to get their lives back on track.

“We see this as a really important opportunity for people to turn their life around,” he said.
“Being in a rural environment is definitely regarded as therapeutic. The combination of therapy, meaningful occupation and social support, as we provide in other such settings, produces life-changing results.”

Addressing the community’s concerns, Mr Ruzyla said EACH is “not naïve” and is “very vigilant” in managing adherence to the rules, including a one strike policy.

“We need to remember also that people with addictions come from all walks of life and from metropolitan and rural areas – no-one and no family is immune,” Mr Ruzyla said.

“I hope that the local community will be generous and open minded about the needs for such a facility (since Victoria has the lowest number of beds per population) and recognise that these are well managed and do not pose a threat; in fact, they are more likely to become a community asset as they become known as a centre for recovery.”

Mitchell Shire Council Acting CEO Mary Agostino said council will consider the application and “make a decision based on its planning merits”.

For more information on how to make a submission to council regarding the application visit the Mitchell Shire website.

Green thumbs reap gardening glory

The North Central Review
-
0
Green thumbs reap gardening glory
garden comp winner sylvia b
Silvia’s garden. ​

RESIDENTS across the district are being celebrated for their gardening glory.

The results for the City of Whittlesea annual garden competition are in and six talented green thumbs have been awarded more than $2000 worth of prizes for their entries into this year’s competition.

The competition acknowledges the efforts of residents in the categories of ‘Best Front Garden’ and ‘Best Edible Garden’.

Each garden was judged by an expert panel, including City of Whittlesea Mayor Kris Pavlidis, assessing innovative colour schemes, interesting foliage combinations as well as the amount and quality of the fruit and vegetables produced.

This year’s best front garden was awarded to Carol Fournaris from Doreen. Cr Pavlidis said Carol’s garden was a stand out.

garden comp winner sylvia
Award winning garden: Silvia Vong, joint winner of best edible garden. ​

“Carol’s garden uses many unusual native plants along with favourite trees and flowers to create a beautiful low maintenance garden,” Cr Pavlidis said.

“Thank you to all the entrants for allowing us into your private patch of paradise. The passion, skill and tradition in these gardens are gems in our community which would be wonderful to document for future reference.”

The edible garden category was a close competition, with judges unable to split the top gardens and three equal first prizes awarded.

Equal first place was awarded to Silvia Vong from South Morang, Con Karamallis from Lalor and Peter Lambropoulos from Mill Park.

Silvia’s garden is a half-acre with sprawling hot houses full of vegetables and enough fruit and nut trees to cover two new house blocks.

New Romsey tankers

The North Central Review
-
0
New Romsey tankers

THE Romsey Fire Brigade has welcomed two new firefighting appliances to its fleet.
The first was a new CFA owned and issued 4.4C Heavy Tanker.

This new tanker replaced the Brigade’s 3.4C tanker which was transferred to the Clarkefield Fire Brigade. The 4.4C Heavy Tanker came fully stowed with all firefighting equipment and has already started responding to emergency calls.

Captain Nic Needham said the brigade was extremely fortunate to have received these two new appliances during the recent fire danger period.

Both appliances were recently on show for the community to inspect at a Community Safety BBQ held outside the Romsey IGA Supermarket on the March 24.

“The Brigade undertook several months of intensive training to ensure that we were ready to operate our new Heavy Tanker.” Captain Needham said.

“Not only does it drive differently, but there are additional safety features, apparatus and pumping procedures which all operational members were required to become familiar with and complete specific training.”

The second new addition was the Brigade’s upgraded Forward Control Vehicle (FCV).
This appliance was able to be purchased after the Brigade successfully received funding as part of the 2017/18 VESEP funding program made available by the state government.

“Our updated FCV is utilised to support the Brigade and district as and when required. It has a range of functions from incident command and control, to support and crew transport. The FCV purchased was a 2018 Ford Ranger XLT which had a custom-built service body fitted by MFI Body Builders in place of a tub and canopy,” Captain Needham said.

“The addition of a new service body allowes the Brigade to safely stow and transport our quick fill pump and hose, chain saw, generator and other apparatus designed to support the Brigade and district.”

The Community Safety message the Brigade was keen to pass onto our local community was to ensure that come end of day light savings, all residents need to remember to change their clock, change their battery in their smoke detector, Brigade Community Safety Coordinator and Fire Fighter Kyle Cozens explained.

“It is important for all residents to recognise the importance of having an operational smoke alarm as they save lives,” Ms Cozens said.

“At this Community Safety presentation the Brigade was also able to show off its recently purchased Marquee and BBQ which was made possible after we were successful in receiving funding thanks to the Macedon Ranges Shire Council.

“These two items will enable the brigade to directly and professionally engage more with our Community.”

While Romsey and indeed most the state, received significant rain fall as the Community Safety Presentation was underway, the Brigade members’ spirits were lifted thanks to Romsey IGA Store Manager Craig Hendrickson who presented to the Brigade a cheque for $2,204.78 which is part of IGA’s Community Chest Program.

“This generous donation couldn’t have come at a more ideal time” Captain Needham said.

“While the Brigade was fortunate to receive funding under the VESEP program to purchase and upgrade our FCV, some late minute changes to the service body saw the cost blow out by about $4000.

“Receiving this donation from IGA will allow the Brigade to direct funds raised by the community directly back into the community.”

“It has also been an extremely busy time for the brigade over the last 12 months with the addition of five new firefighters.

“We have also purchased two new Defibrillators which was again made possible by the generous community donations the Brigade receives in its collection tins located at various business throughout Romsey.”

Time to speak out

The North Central Review
-
0
Time to speak out

By Brooke Haffenden

A 14-YEAR-OLD author and campaigner visited St Mary’s Primary School in Whittlesea last week with a powerful message for the students.

Attending the school, Monique Mastrobattista shone a light on bullying and told students the most important thing to do was to speak up.

The author of My Discreet Bully, opened up to students about her own experience. At age 13, Monique fell down some stairs at school and was left with a badly bruised face. Posting photos on herself on snapchat, she told her friends she had been hurt.

She never could have imagined that bullies would spread the photos. In scenes reminiscent of Mean Girls, the students used the photos to taunt Monique.

Monique told the Whittlesea Review she developed a stutter and her grades slipped. With the school failing to take action, Monique sought help from a psychologist and from there the book evolved.

“I saw a psychologist because I was quite sad I had been bullied and I had a really bad stutter for about three weeks and that’s when the book kind of evolved,” Monique said.
“I could talk but it wasn’t as clear as I would like so I started writing out my feelings that eventually the book formed.”

Fighting back against bullying, Monique is using her book to help spread awareness and assist victims of bullying.

“I knew when I was getting bullied that it was not a very good place to be in time. I figured it was probably a really good idea to do a book and help other children,” she said.

“It’s probably easier for a child to relate to another kid that it is for an adult telling a kid. It’s still effective, but maybe kids feel more comfortable with someone their own age.”

For the students, Monique said the best thing they could do was speak up against bullying.
“The best thing to do is just speak to your parents. If it is on social media you can block the person, take your evidence – your screenshots – and show the school,” Monique advised.

“Speak to your school and parents and try and resolve the issue. If that doesn’t work you can take it further.

“(Speaking up) is probably the most efficient way then people will get the message you’re not going to take their bullying anymore.”

Students, teachers and parents from St Mary’s Primary School welcomed Monique and her message. Principal Phillip Smith said Monique’s visit, which coincided with the school’s activities for Say No to Bullying Week and Harmony Day, was insightful for students.

“We thought it was really good for the students to hear that from someone closer to her age, rather than just us adults and parents talking to them about it. The fact that she’s only 14 and our Grade 6’s are 11, she was 13 when she wrote the book it’s pretty amazing at that age that she had that sort of insight,” he said.

Mr Smith said he was happy to see parents attending the event as it’s necessary for parents to have a conversation with their children about bullying.

“I think when you’ve got parents and children talking about these messages certainly it helps with preventing bullying but also helps children who are going through it to deal with it better,” Mr Smith continued.

Mr Smith reiterated Monique’s message and said people who are bullying need to keep telling people until someone hears.

“Don’t give up the first time you’ve told someone… you’ve got to keep that message going until you find someone who will listen to you and support you,” Mr Smith said.

“Don’t keep it to yourself. Speak out and tell someone.”

If you or someone you know is the victim of bullying, contact Kid’s Helpline on 1800 551 800.

Prestigious Property

The North Central Review
-
0
Prestigious Property

Kilmore 3 Peppercorn Court

From the moment you walk through the front door this stunning property will appeal to all members of the family.

With not a thing to be done, this property has every feature that you are looking for in a home. Set on a 1000 sqm. allotment with 5 robed bedrooms or fifth as study, full ensuite to main, large formal lounge, hostess kitchen with 900 ml appliances, sunlit meals and family room opening out on to an expansive all weather alfresco area with remote blinds.

peppercorn court kitchen
3 Peppercorn Court Kitchen

Further highlights of the home include ducted heating, cooling and vacuum, 9’ ceilings, double garage, quality fixtures and fittings and side access to back yard. Step outside to the fully irrigated landscaped gardens, 12m x 6m colorbond shed with concrete floor, power, toilet and spacious kitchen/ bar facilities and large garden shed.

peppercorn court lounge
3 Peppercorn Court Lounge

Auction: Saturday 7th April at 1.30pm
Terms: 10 % Deposit Balance 60 Days

barry plant logo

Gilchrist, Hanson lead Wallan to heroic win

The North Central Review
-
0
Gilchrist, Hanson lead Wallan to heroic win

By Joshua Wells

ONE YEAR after a heartbreaking grand final defeat at the hands of Lancefield Cricket Club, the Wallan District Cricket Club B Grade side has picked themselves up off the canvas to beat St Anthony’s Cricket Club by 128 runs.

The side’s emotional turn around Gisborne and District Cricket victory was made all the sweeter by the fact captain Robbie Fowler showed trust in his bowlers to turn the match – something they did in emphatic fashion.

The St Anthony’s batsmen needed 200 runs to win and sat nicely on 0/50 just after tea, before Scott Gilchrist broke through with his first wicket before Brenton Hanson followed suit with one of his own an over later.

Fowler’s dynamic duo suddenly had them all out for 71 runs taking five wickets each, a testament to the side according to the captain.

“This feeling is amazing, St Anthony’s were absolutely worthy opponents… they were 0/50 and then all of a sudden the flood gates opened,” he said.

“They bowled amazing, the ball swung and we got all the wickets very quickly. They could only manage 21 runs after the fall of their first batsman.

“I have never seen anything like it let alone be part of it.”

After winning the toss and batting first at Greenhill Reserve on Sunday following a Saturday washout, Fowler’s men hit 199 runs before being bowled out after 55 overs.

Then Gilchrist took 5 for 36 runs off 13 overs, with Hanson backing his teammate up with  5 for 33 runs off 13 overs himself.

Newly appointed 2018/19 coach Kieran Atkins hit 50 runs before being bowled to once again lead Wallan on the scoreboard, while opener Brad Regan was caught on 34.

Fowler also said it had been an incredible year for the club as a whole.

Fowler, Gilchrist and Russell Whittingham all had sons in the under 13s and under 15s premierships revealing a bright future for the club.

“The club is in really good shape and having Kieran to take over next year; it has been a great transition,” Fowler said.

“We will now go to the McIntyre Cup and we have the right mix to be competing, this is a great feeling.”

Police blitz officially begins

The North Central Review
-
0
Police blitz officially begins

OPERATION Nexus is underway as Victoria Police aim to stamp out dangerous driving this Easter.

Thousands of motorists will be tested for drugs and alcohol over the long weekend as police saturate Victorian roads, Minister for Police Lisa Neville revealed.

The first of a new fleet of 10 state-of-the-art alcohol and drug buses will join the existing fleet to target drivers who are putting lives at risk.

Operation Nexus began at midnight with police to also focus on speeding, failure to wear a seatbelt, fatigue and distraction.

Ms Neville said thousands of drivers will be stopped.

“Police will be out in force this Easter long weekend — targeting drivers who are speeding, distracted and drug and alcohol impaired to reduce road trauma,” she said.

“If you are tired and fatigued, stop and take a break – we want all Victorians to arrive home safely to their families as they travel across the state.

“We don’t want to see any more lives lost on our roads because of those making poor choices when they get behind the wheel.”

1...1,1261,1271,128...1,146Page 1,127 of 1,146