THE North Central Review was recognised with two awards at the Victorian Country Press Association annual awards on Friday night.
Journalist Colin MacGillivray’s story about Wallan basketball import Arcaim Lallemand won Best Sports Story in the 6000-plus circulation category.
The Review also won Best House Ad (open) for its adverts highlighting Deakin University’s Media innovation and civic future of Australia’s country press project.
Designed by the Review’s graphic designer Paul Mackay, the advertising campaign included four adverts focusing on why regional newspapers are important to their communities.
General manager/editor Lauren Duffy attended the awards ceremony at the RACV Club in Melbourne, where regional newspapers across Victoria were recognised for journalism, photography, advertising and newspaper excellence.
“We are a small team producing a lot of local content, competing against much larger organisations, especially in the category of 6000-plus circulation,” she said.
“It’s great recognition of our team’s work, and we congratulate all winners and finalists on the night.”
The Review General manager/ editor Lauren Duffy with Pagemasters business development manager Brendan McDonald at the VCPA awards night.
A LONG-AWAITED diamond interchange on the Hume Freeway at Wallan’s Watson Street has taken another step towards reality, receiving bipartisan support ahead of the November 26 state election.
Shadow Minister for Transport Infrastructure Matt Bach joined Liberal candidates Richard Welch, Yan Yean, and Bikram Singh, Kalkallo, with Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell last week to match Labor’s $130 million pledge for the project a week earlier.
The project would see a duplication of Watson Street, along with south-facing on and off ramps joining the Hume Freeway to complement the existing north-facing ramps.
The diamond interchange requires funding from the state and federal governments, with the Federal Government committing $50 million for the project.
Dr Bach questioned Labor’s commitment to the project at the state level, noting it had not been funded in the past three Victorian budgets.
Earlier this month Deputy Premier Jacinta Allen blamed the former Federal Government for a lack of progress on the interchange, but Dr Bach said the responsibility rested with the State Government.
“Respectfully, my message to people in Kalkallo and Yan Yean is that Labor’s announcement is fake. They say this every single time,” he said.
Mr Welch said with Wallan’s population growing, Watson Street was carrying a dangerous volume of traffic.
Responding to claims from Ms Allen that the former Federal Government released less than one per cent of the $50 million promised for the ramps, Mr Welch said the Deputy Premier had been ‘misleading’.
“The funding was milestone-based, and they never got past the first milestone. It’s misleading to say the funding wasn’t there, because they didn’t deliver their part,” he said.
“Now, three weeks out from an election, suddenly they’ve found the money they need to contribute.”
Mr Singh said the ramps would be his ‘first priority’ if elected, while Ms Lovell said the Liberal Party had the will to complete the project.
“The State Government is the authority that builds this infrastructure, and they have to fund it and have the will to deliver it, but they haven’t had that,” she said.
“A Matthew Guy-led Liberal government will have the will to deliver this for the community.”
Mitchell Shire Council Mayor Bill Chisholm welcomed the Coalition’s commitment.
“It means we now have bipartisan support for this essential project,” he said.
“Our community has been waiting too long, we look forward to seeing construction commence imminently, but more importantly, the delivery of the finished product.
“While this is a wonderful announcement, Watson Street is the first of many key pieces of infrastructure we need to support our growing community.”
ROADS, employment and the proposed Wallan quarry were among the issues debated by six aspiring members for the Kalkallo and Yan Yean electorates at last week’s North Central Review candidates’ forum.
The Review invited candidates from both electorates to speak at the forum at Wallan Secondary College, with the town set to be split between the two seats.
In attendance for Kalkallo candidates were Ros Spence, the current Labor Member for Yuroke, independent Callum French, the Animal Justice Party’s Frances Lowe and Sergio Monsalve Tobon for the Victorian Socialists.
The Yan Yean candidates were Labor’s Lauren Kathage and the Liberals’ Richard Welch.
All candidates responded to a series of pre-registered questions, with time at the end for the audience of about 50 people to ask their own questions.
An early point of contention was the completion of a diamond interchange on the Hume Freeway at Watson Street in Wallan, with both Labor and the Liberals announcing $130 million pledges to build south-facing entry and exit ramps in the past week.
Mr Welch questioned Labor’s commitment to getting the project done after not funding the project for the past eight years, but Ms Spence hit back, saying it was a ‘priority project’ and the Federal Government had delivered less than $400,000 of $50 million pledged in 2020.
Richard Welch questioned Labor’s commitment to getting the diamond interchange project done.
Mr Welch said the funding had been milestone-based, and the State Government did not receive funding because it had yet to commence construction.
Ms Spence said there were no milestones, calling Mr Welch’s statement ‘an absolute lie’.
Ms Kathage accused the Liberals of copying Labor’s plans for the ramp, while the other candidates voiced their support for the project.
Mr French said if he was elected as an independent and held the balance of power in the Victorian Parliament, he would use his influence to make the ramps a priority, while Mr Monsalve Tobon said the only way to do it was by mobilising people on the ground.
Bypass battle
A Wallan-Kilmore bypass was also on the agenda, with Ms Lowe drawing attention to the lack of progress on the project for decades.
“If you vote for me, I’ll shout loudly and constantly to get this moving again. The regions aren’t a priority for this government, and this has to be drawn to attention,” she said.
Ms Frances Lowe said she would ‘shout loudly and constantly’ on community matters if elected.
Mr French said he believed the bypass needed to divert traffic away from Wallan as well as Kilmore, while Mr Monsalve Tobon advocated for the expansion of Victoria’s train network, taking more trucks off the road.
Mr French shared his potential solutions to traffic congestion in Wallan and Kilmore.
Ms Spence said voters had ‘made it very clear’ they wanted a Wallan bypass and she would represent their views if elected.
Anti-quarry stances
All but the Labor candidates said they would oppose the quarry, which is proposed to be built south of the town.
With a final decision about the quarry’s future resting with Planning Minister Lizzie Blandthorn, Ms Kathage and Ms Spence said they would represent the community’s views, but stopped short of saying they were against the project.
“I’m not going to make false promises that I can’t keep. My job is to make sure that the responsible minister is aware of the views of the community and I am to be a conduit. That might not be the yes or no that you want, but that’s the role that I’ve taken,” she said.
“This matter will not be determined by caucus. Cabinet will not vote on it. The responsible minister is the decision maker, so the decision maker needs to be made aware.”
Ms Ros Spence said it would be her job to make the responsible minister aware of the views of the community if elected.
Mr Welch described the quarry as ‘an open wound to the community’ but said he had sympathy for the prospective quarry operator, Conundrum Holdings.
“I agree that the company itself has done nothing but try to protect its rights, and it’s an honourable company. It’s not its fault that the world has changed before the quarry has started,” he said.
“We should not have a quarry in a residential area, and I think that’s consistent with any other policy in any other area in Victoria.
“This is one of those complex issues where you just need the grown-ups in the room to stand up and come to an amicable solution for everybody.”
Ms Lowe labelled the project ‘an environmental disaster’ that would bring dust, noise pollution and traffic congestion to Wallan.
“They are saying it will bring jobs to the area – only 29 jobs, and the effects will last for 30 years or more. What happens when we finish quarrying the rock and we’ve got a massive hole?” she said.
Mr Monsalve Tobon and Mr French also opposed the project, although Mr French said it was not an issue he would campaign on as ‘the business [had] done nothing wrong’.
Mr Monsalve Tobon opposed the Wallan quarry.
Employment prospects
Large-scale employment opportunities were hotly debated, with a range of views on how best to create jobs for the rapidly growing region.
Ms Kathage said Labor initiatives such as free TAFE courses would help people gain the skills they needed to find stable employment, while Ms Spence said the government was supporting council to create employment precincts through planning.
Mr Welch favoured the building of a planned Beveridge Interstate Freight Terminal, BIFT, labelling it a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity to create 20,000 jobs’.
“The BIFT is this region’s key opportunity for large-scale employment and drawing further capital investment to the area so the economic development continues in concert with the population,” he said.
Mr Welch said Labor’s preference for a Western Interstate Freight Terminal, WIFT, in Melbourne’s west would put the project at risk.
But Ms Spence said it was not an either/or proposition.
“There is no question that both the WIFT and the BIFT are both needed. The issue is which one happens first,” she said.
“The freight demand when they were compared against each other was higher in the west at the moment. For that freight to come to the north would involve thousands of trucks coming on the road, which would be incredibly problematic.”
Mr Monsalve Tobon said he favoured the expansion of State Government jobs in the areas of healthcare and education.
“The biggest employer in Victoria is actually the State Government. By expanding health and education and resourcing it properly, you can create a whole bunch of jobs that are well paid and stable,” he said.
Seymour Community Wellbeing Hub, a priority project for Mitchell Shire Council, is yet to receive a funding commitment from any party ahead of the state election.
More than 50 people flocked to the Seymour Salvation Army Hall on Tuesday to hear candidates for the seat of Euroa speak ahead of the November 26 state election.
While all candidates threw their support behind the hub project, which will provide a range of health and mental health services to Seymour and surrounding region, there has been no pledges of money for the project.
Liberal candidate Brad Hearn, Nationals’ Annabelle Cleeland, and Labor’s Angela Tough each spoke glowingly about the proposed project – all being previously briefed on the importance of the hub by Mitchell Shire Council representatives.
The council, health services and the community have long been pushing for the project, with the recent floods in Seymour placing even greater importance on the ability to provide adequate support services to residents of the northern part of the Mitchell Shire.
The hub is planned to bring together several health services in the Seymour community, giving up to 10,000 people access to integrated health and mental health support.
Ms Tough said there was ‘not a case against’ the hub.
“It’s a great initiative and I think we can see the sense of a one-stop shop model through the Orange Door initiative, which is a Labor initiative based on the Royal Commission into Family Violence,” she said.
Ms Cleeland said the Nationals committed funding for the project ahead of May’s federal election but the pledge was not matched by Labor, which won government.
“With significant projects like this, it is a third, a third and a third in many cases between local, state and federal [governments],” she said.
“What I’ve been working on the past few months are personal stories and case studies speaking to all the service providers that would benefit … to make sure if I am elected I could be a really powerful advocate to highlight the urgency of this investment, at the same time, pushing the Federal Government to make sure we all come to the party on this.”
Mr Hearn called the Seymour hub ‘a great project’.
“Our state debt is the same as Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania combined. We’re seeing that investment into healthcare is extremely limited in the next few years,” he said.
“We’re fighting for positive change for our communities and better mental health support, because we know what’s here now is not adequate and not servicing our communities.”
The three major party candidates were joined by candidate hopeful Luke Downing, who had planned to stand as an independent, but failed to register his candidacy with the Victorian Electoral Commission before last week’s cut-off.
The Kilmore bypass was a key issue raised at the forum, along with health services, education and Seymour’s flood recovery. Mr Hearn called the Kilmore bypass ‘a great project that has been on the backburner for too long’.
“Cindy McLeish, the former Member for Seymour … had this fully funded eight years ago, and now we’re sitting here waiting and saying ‘what’s happened? Where’s the money gone?” he said.
“We’ve committed $300 million to ensuring that the Kilmore bypass is complete. I know that doesn’t complete the whole puzzle of the Kilmore Wallan bypass, but it makes an investment into our electorate.”
Labor’s Angela Tough said she understood the community’s frustration.
“When [Member for Northern Victoria] Jaclyn Symes got into office eight years ago and looked for the money that Cindy McLeish had promised, there was a big black hole there – it hadn’t actually been funded,” she said.
“A couple of weeks ago $30 million was announced for the roundabout at the Wandong Road and Northern Highway intersection. Departmental argy bargy is underway about the actual route, and once there is an overlay for the whole route it will be funded.”
Nationals candiate Annabelle Cleeland said the lack of progress on the bypass had been ‘devastating’ for the Kilmore community.
“There is community fatigue and distrust for the current government because they’ve been neglecting them,” she said.
“That in current budget there is no money allocated towards the project says a lot.
“You’ve got a health and safety issue, an economic challenge and one of the most historically beautiful towns in our community crumbling around someone who lives five minutes down the road. It’s not happening under Labor.”
Flood recovery
Support for Seymour residents and businesses affected by recent flooding was also discussed, with the prospect of a flood levee to protect the town re-examined.
Mr Hearn said the delay of the State Government in declaring the floods a natural disaster hampered the aid the town was able to receive.
“One thing you can count on with a Liberal government is that we’ll call it a natural disaster when there’s a natural disaster. We’ll make sure support is readily available when it needs to be, not wait,” he said.
Ms Cleeland also called the slow response ‘really disappointing’, noting that the Seymour Football Netball Club led recovery efforts in lieu of government assistance.
She said she was in favour of re-examining the need for a flood levee.
“Maybe people are not quite ready to say the words flood levee, but they’re saying there are businesses on the main street that were in the midst of expanding that chose not to, or looking at the insurance challenges of the region,” she said.
“If you look at the finances [the levee was projected to cost] about $22 million. When you look at the clean-up bill, this is extreme. This will be hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the region.
“That smaller investment for a flood levee, if it has the potential for buildings and homes to be insured, I think it’s a conversation that we really have to have, but it has to be one that’s led by our community.”
Ms Tough said she would be guided by community sentiment on a levee.
“Flood mitigation is something that has to be carefully considered. A small levee that was put in a town in Queensland cost $26 million – a much, much smaller place than Seymour – so we’re not talking about small amounts of money,” she said.
“If this is something the Seymour community drives and pushes for, it will have to be a combination of community consultation and experts working out that answer.”
Ballot draws for candidates across Victoria on Friday decided the order of which the candidates would appear on the ballot papers, with Ms Tough taking the first position for Euroa.
Animal Justice Party candidate Elaine Haddock was second, with Ms Cleeland third, Mr Hearn fourth, the Greens’ James Bennett fifth, Family First Victoria’s Paul Bachelor sixth and Freedom Party of Victoria’s Raymond Rowbotham seventh.
Macedon Ranges Shire Council is asking its community, sporting clubs, associations, and groups to round up their representatives and advocate all political parties to commit on stage two of the Macedon Ranges Regional Sport Precinct.
The council’s call comes after Liberal candidate for Macedon Dominic Bonanno, a Macedon Ranges Shire councillor currently on temporary leave, made a $9.5 million to complete stage two.
Federal Member for McEwen Rob Mitchell has already made a Federal Government commitment of $15 million for stage two of the Gisborne project.
Macedon Ranges Mayor Jennifer Anderson said there was uncertainty on whether the funding was secured.
“Stage one construction is underway and on track to be completed late next year, but without the final funding required to complete stage two, the project won’t include a number of important sporting and community facilities and features,” she said.
“With many of our stadium facilities already at, or nearing capacity, having a brand new sports precinct based in the Macedon Ranges will mean so many of our residents won’t have to travel outside of the shire to enjoy community sport.”
Stage two will include three additional courts, change rooms, cricket nets, function room, additional car parking, practise oval, outdoor multi-sport courts, additional sports pavilion amenities and landscaping.
Cr Anderson said the community and council have worked long-term to turn the 15-hectare regional sports park into a reality.
“The local community and council have been working tirelessly for many years to deliver a legacy precinct for this region; and we need everyone’s help to spread the word and call on all candidates to commit to supporting stage two if elected,” she said.
Cr Anderson said the facility needed to be ready to use for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
“The sooner we can secure the balance of funds, we can get the ball rolling on the detailed design, tendering for a construction contractor, coordinating all the necessary permits and approvals while stage one is being completed and ultimately, deliver this vital community infrastructure sooner,” she said.
THE Kilmore International School, TKIS, name was revived on Thursday as teachers and staff came together to celebrate the 2022 graduation class after a tumultuous year.
Spearheaded by TKIS teacher Megan Santarossa and International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, IBDP, coordinator Deanna Krilis, the night was a celebration of the students’ resilience and achievements following their final year 12 exams last week.
The night was also an opportunity for students and families to reconnect after completing the IBDP at different schools following the closure of the school in July.
“There have been so many challenges that we didn’t expect, and there’s always challenges but we’ve kind of been hit with things that we didn’t know how to overcome and didn’t initially know how to meet,” Ms Krilis said.
“Tonight’s celebration is evidence of how we actually achieved all of this, because there are representatives here, there are parents, there are teachers, the graduates are here, members of the Ivanhoe Grammar staff are here, and that’s how we did it. We actually had to pull together as a community.
“To have everyone here tonight to celebrate, it’s not just another graduation – it’s a celebration of something that we almost didn’t think we could actually pull off.”
In attendance were Ivanhoe Grammar School principal Gerard Foley, head of Plenty campus Fiona Devlin and IBDP coordinator Nicholas Mercer, who all played a significant role in accommodating many year 12 students and staff from TKIS and helped to see them through to final exams earlier this month.
Although results will not be released until early next year, there was a strong sense of relief and accomplishment during the night as graduates, staff and families reflected on the past few months and began looking towards the future.
“You go to school and it’s not just about the grades, it’s not just about going to a class and then coming back, so just to watch them all congregating together and saying ‘how are you going? I haven’t seen you in ages!’ is really nice. We hope those friendships can continue and carry on into their futures,” Ms Krilis said.
She said many of the graduates had displayed some of the long-standing values of TKIS and she was proud to see them complete the IBDP course.
“It proves what we keep talking about with The Kilmore International School, and I know it changed names to Colmont, but these students here graduated from The Kilmore International School. Most of them started in primary school here,” Ms Krilis said.
“They were really thrown into the deep end, and they’ve built those skills of resilience somewhere, they’ve learned this.
“I think that’s what we do as a school, we don’t just teach subjects and work on grades, we actually try to build character and build young adults who can go off into the world and meet every challenge, and these young people have.”
Ms Krilis thanked the community for their continued support during the year.
RETURNED and Services League, RSL, sub-branches across Mitchell, Whittlesea and Macedon Ranges municipalities held a minute of silence on Friday to honour Australia’s fallen soldiers.
Kilmore
A crowd of more than 50 people attended the cenotaph at Kilmore’s Hudson Park to mark the occasion in a ceremony hosted by Kilmore-Wallan RSL.
Sub-branch president Rod Dally spoke of the sacrifice of Australia’s service men and women during World War One, noting the human toll of war.
Whittlesea
In a ceremony at Whittlesea Memorial Arch, community members stood alongside representatives of Whittlesea Secondary College, Whittlesea Primary School and City of Whittlesea to lay wreaths and poppies with RSL members.
Whittlesea RSL vice-president Peter Crook was moved by the number of people who attended on a workday to remember the atrocities of the war.
He said people continued to place flowers to pay respect to the soldiers who gave their lives to the country.
“You’d find during the day people will come and put flower tributes here, and by tonight there will be lots of flowers,” Mr Crook said.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted services for the past two years, Mr Crook said Remembrance Day was important for communities to be reminded of the past.
“The armistice [was] the signing of the treaty that finished the First World War,” he said.
“We follow on from that, and hope we don’t ever have a third great war.”
Romsey, Lancefield
The Romsey/Lancefield RSL sub-branch hosted a Remembrance Day service at the Lancefield cenotaph.
The service was attended and assisted by students from the three primary schools in the area.
As part of the service, President of the Romsey/Lancefield RSL Reinhard Goschiniak read about the lives of two of the thirty two soldiers whose names appear on the Lancefield cenotaph, Chaplain Alfred Ernest Goller and Private William Raymond Summers.
The poem The Solitary Soldier written by John McCosker Order Of Australia (Military Division) was read by Lynne Rodda.
Locals gather for the Remembrance Day service in Lancefield.
Other Remembrance Day services across the region were in Broadford, Seymour and Wallan.
PARENTS and teachers of Kilmore’s closed Colmont School have thrown their weight behind a push to re-register the school under a new administrative team.
The international baccalaureate, IB, school, formerly The Kilmore International School, which was established in 1990, closed its doors in late July after falling more than $6 million in debt and was deregistered by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, VRQA.
Businessman Ayub Khan is leading a campaign to restore the school for 2023, including the revival of The Kilmore International School, TKIS, name.
Mr Khan outlined his plan to save the school at a meeting last month, with a large contingent of parents and teachers impressed by his pitch.
Former IB coordinator Deanna Krilis said she was immediately interested when Mr Khan approached her with his proposal.
“This is a prized educational facility that did not need to shut down. If there is an opportunity for it to reopen, the community deserves it, our children deserve it and our staff deserve it,” she said.
“There is a very high number of teachers and non-teaching staff as well who have struggled to move on. They, like a lot of families, moved to this area and bought houses in this community because they want to invest in their workplace.”
Fellow TKIS teacher Julie Daniells said enduring interest to revive the school was a sign of its special culture.
“With the [TKIS] students, if they need to be brought up, everyone brings them up. If they’re down everyone lifts them. It’s the same for staff too,” she said.
“To have that support and backing from your colleagues and your friends is something that’s really hard to replicate somewhere else.
“It’s an almighty fight to right a wrong and get back what this community deserves, and it’s been going since the day the announcement [of the school’s closure] was made.
“The parents know what their children had when they were here, and they want it back.”
Parents fight for school
School parent Alok Thakur said he believed the school would come back ‘one way or another’.
He said he believed administrators from Vince and Associates initially appointed during Colmont’s collapse had failed to give Mr Khan’s pitch due consideration.
“Early on when we were told this is a private business and we couldn’t do much about it, it didn’t really feel right,” he said.
“Unlike other businesses where the relationship between the client and the business is monetary … this is very different. This is our kids – their future, their academics. It’s non-tangible, but it’s still very valuable; much more valuable than the school itself.
“That was not counted anywhere in this whole equation. They were just looking at it blindly from a business perspective, and that was completely wrong.”
Fellow parent Leight Leigh Eeles said his son had struggled in the public school system before relocating to TKIS, and found it difficult to come to terms with the school’s closure.
He said he initially wrote off the school when its dire financial situation became public, but that Mr Khan’s campaign gave him renewed faith.
“My wife describes the school as a unicorn, so we said, ‘well, the unicorn is gone’,” he said.
“Once we heard there was a plan for a new administrative model, we thought there was hope to open the school again.
“We needed some people with some real skills to run the administrative side, because the skills on the teaching side were there. You couldn’t ask for any more from a teaching perspective and we had the kids who wanted to attend.”
Community benefit
Ms Daniells said the school’s track record of academic excellence, coupled with teachers and families who remained committed to seeing it revived, should give the VRQA reason to support Mr Khan’s bid.
“We’re in a massive growth area and schools should be being built, not closed,” she said.
“We have the capability to reinstate something that will benefit employment in the area and students, not just academically but also on the wellbeing side.
“The money that gets spent in the town is huge for the companies and small businesses that relied on the school, particularly when the international component of it opens up again. It’s not just the school, it is so much bigger than that.”
Nationals candidate for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland met with parents at the school last week, describing its sudden closure as ‘an incredible blow’.
She said she would do whatever she could to support its re-registration.
“The school has a strong academic reputation and has contributed greatly to the community,” she said.
“The process has been incredibly chaotic. I want the Victorian Government to work proactively with teachers and parents so the school can be re-registered.”
Mr Khan described a meeting with VRQA chief executive Jonathan Kaplan earlier this month as ‘productive’ and said he had engaged a specialist lawyer to help with the school’s bid for registration.
He said he had also been in contact with the office of Education Minister Natalie Hutchins.
