the great southern star

By Jacob de Kunderand Brad Lester

THE redevelopment of Leon-gatha’s central business district has been boosted by news the State Government will fund the design of an alternate heavy ve-hicle route.

Deputy Premier and Gippsland South MLA Peter Ryan announced $270,000 for a detailed planning study yesterday (Monday).

The Leongatha Chamber of Com-merce and Industry, together with South Gippsland Shire Council and the community, have been calling for an alternate route to take trucks and other heavy vehicles out of Bair Street.

That move would make the street

safer, permit commercial development and allow for better car parking.

The route could be two years away, with VicRoads saying such planning would take at least two years.

The funding will totally cover the project.

Mr Ryan said South Gippsland Shire Council and the community had called for the route for years.

“It is a great step forward to now

see it delivered. It is estimated that upto 1000 heavy vehicles pass throughthe Leongatha shopping strip along theSouth Gippsland Highway each day.

“The $270,000 in funding will gotowards planning for a future alternatetruck route that will redirect heavy ve-hicles away from the town centre, andprovide planning certainty for furtherdevelopment within Leongatha.”

Continued on page 3.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2011 - $1.20

State win for CabaretState win for Cabaret

Snowed in at EverestSnowed in at Everest

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Page 4

9-21

THE Lisa Pellin Dancers’ annual concert at Wonthaggi on Sunday was quite literally “Out of this World” .

This was the theme of the concerts – given over matinee and evening shows - with the dancers taking their professional approach to new heights.

The shows exhibited Lisa Pellin Dancers’ overall approach to providing high quality training which culminated in a thoroughly enjoyable and authentic performance.

Hundreds of performers, from tiny tots to seniors, mixed their wonderful performances all on one stage, with the crowd wanting to come back for more.

More photos in next week’s Star.

Pretty in pink: performing My Boy Lol-lipop at the concert were, back from left: Emma-Kate Hill-Smith, Amber Walker, Georgia Crebbin and Louise Janssen. Front: Claudia Leys and Emily Bowcher.

Out of this

world

Out of this

world

BREAKTHROUGHLeongatha CBD closer to being truck-free

“THE STAR”, Tuesday, December 13, 2011

WONTHAGGI The-atrical Group is offi -cially among the best in Victoria, after win-ning the major award at the Music Theatre Guild Awards on Saturday.

The group’s production of Cabaret this year was named Production of the Year, a prize jointly shared by Ballarat’s Leading Note Theatre for The Boy From Oz.

Cabaret director Colin Mitchell shared the best director gong with the Ballarat director, Stephen O’Neil.

WTG won six Guild awards from 14 nomina-tions, just a week after suc-cess at the Gippsland As-sociated Theatres awards.

WTG cast wowed the capacity audience at the Frankston Arts Centre with Cabaret’s opening number, Willkommen to get the evening’s perfor-mances off with a bang.

It was the fi rst of 18 excellent performances on the night, from groups and schools right across Victoria.

The performances showcased the fantastic

Cabaret best in Victoria

degree of talent currently treading the boards in am-ateur theatre.

The awards are judged from more than 100 pro-ductions staged by the guild’s 90 member compa-nies in 2011.

In accepting the pro-duction award, WTG pres-ident David Wall spoke

of the remarkable journey that had brought the group to this point.

Only eight years ago the group struggled to at-tract a cast for its shows, and now it was seen as among the best non pro-fessional theatre compa-nies in Victoria.

Mr Wall also spoke of

the enormous amount of teamwork that is required to mount a successful pro-duction and paid tribute to director Mr Mitchell, mu-sical director Carmel Slat-er, choreographer Bron Kalos, to Sophie Cuttriss “who played a key role in getting the costuming just right”, to John Cut-

Stunning feat: grand performances by Will Hanley and Britt Lewis helped Wonthaggi Theatrical Group to win Victoria’s musical production of the year with Cabaret.

triss “who made the iconicCabaret sign a workingreality”, and the cast, or-chestra, crew and off stagesupport teams that broughtit all together.

Mr Wall concludedby thanking all the “longsuffering families andfriends” and the “magnifi -cent Wonthaggi commu-nity” for their support.

Speaking after the cer-emony, Mr Wall comment-ed that both joint winnerswere from regional Vic-toria rather than metro-politan Melbourne, whichshows just what talent andskill there is out beyondthe end of the tramlines.

Mr Mitchell also wonBest Wardrobe Award for his Cabaret costume designs.

Elly Poletti won theBest Female Performer ina Supporting Role, and theGladys Moncrieff Awardfor First Performance in aFeatured Role, for her por-trayal of Fraulein Kost thesailors’ friend.

Britt Lewis (Sally Bowles) was another win-ner, as joint winner (withGeorgia Wilkinson fromBabirra’s West Side Story)of the Junior Performerin an Open ProductionAward.

Vibrant community deserves grantsBy Tessa Hayward

SOUTH Gippsland Shire Council held its presentation night for the 2011-2012 Com-munity Grants last Wednesday.

Community members from all around the district attended to receive grants and also to congratulate others, in Leongatha.

As her fi rst offi cial role as deputy mayor, Cr Mohya Davies was over-whelmed by how many wonderful programs there are.

“It is an engaging and vibrant community,” she said.

A total of $346,000 was given out to the com-

munity with the maximum amount for one grant be-ing $10,000.

“We had a total of 69 applications, however some missed out but are encouraged to reapply next year,” Cr Davies said.

The 2011-2012 Com-munity Grants round one were presented by the councillors to one rep-resentative from each group.

The calibre of submis-sions was improving and will continue to improve for the second round of grants.

Applications for sec-ond round grants close on February 29.

Full list of recipients and more photos in next week’s Star.

Successful applicants: Lorelle Logan, Cr Bob Newton and May and Norm McPherson were pleased to receive $4000 for the Lions Club Convention in 2012 for Korumburra.

Exciting future: Cr Kieran Kennedy, centre, presented Paul and Robyn Griffi ths with $3000 to go towards the Tour De Tarwin event to be held on Easter Saturday, 2012.

Great upgrade: Pauline John and John Van Wamel were happy with the grant of $3536 towards the Meeniyan Art Gallery’s lighting upgrade.

“THE STAR”, Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - PAGE 3

By Jacob de Kunder and Liam Charles

REZONING of the Korumburra Saleyards site has left everyone involved overjoyed.

South Gippsland Shire Council mayor Warren Raabe received approv-al from the Planning Minister Matthew Guy for Amendment C60 last week, after lodging it with the minister in June.

“Both council and the Korumburra community welcome this announce-ment which will allow the developer to progress his plans expediently,” Cr Raabe said.

The amendment applies to the en-tire area of the former Korumburra Sa-leyards site situated at the intersection of the South Gippsland Highway and Sanders Street, and rezones the land to the Industrial 3 Zone.

That zoning provides for light in-dustrial businesses to be developed on the site, providing a natural extension of the existing industrial precinct.

The minister has made no changes to the amendment which was under-taken in the interests of the community by council.

“The amendment also applies a Design and Development Overlay (Schedule 7 − Korumburra Industrial Area Highway Precinct) to a depth of approximately 100 metres south of the frontage with the South Gippsland Highway,” Cr Raabe said.

“This overlay will ensure that the standard of development in the Koru-mburra Industrial Precinct is of high quality and visually stimulating.

Saleyards progress at last

“It recognises this area as situated at the main gateway to Korumburra, and that the design and layout of buildings and signage should enhance the visual quality and amenity of the gateway.”

Joe Rossi from the Rossi Group owns the site and is pleased the sale-yards have fi nally been rezoned.

“Now we can move on,” he said.“Now we’ve got something to offer

to the interested parties.“In the past we didn’t have any re-

zoning and we couldn’t say ‘Yes, it’s going to be ready in three months, six months, a year, two years’. That was a

problem because people didn’t want to wait around so they moved on to other areas.”

Mr Rossi said the decision will lead to substantial growth in Korumburra.

“It took a while but it should be the beginning of big things to come for Korumburra,” he said.

“We’ve also had 200 acres of farm land rezoned for residential use and we’re looking at doubling the popula-tion of Korumburra by 2026.

“Any investors who want to invest in Korumburra, this is the moment now before prices get out of hand.”

Mr Rossi said the new develop-ments would provide jobs for the less mobile members of the community such as single mothers and teenagers.

“I am a family person with kids of my own and know that these job op-portunities will be great for the kids in the future,” he said.

Korumburra Business Association president and industrial estate business owner David Amor welcomed news of the minister’s decision.

“I am absolutely ecstatic over the minister’s decision,” he said.

Mr Amor has been vocal about the

neglected state of the site. “The days of Jurassic Park are now

over and Joe Rossi now has no excusesto leave to land dilapidated,” he said.

“Korumburra is the gateway toSouth Gippsland and when this eye-sore is gone, tourists will fl ock to theregion.”

Mr Rossi said preparation and clear-ing of the land is now on the cards.

“It goes hand in hand. If you’re go-ing to sell a property, you’re going tohave to prepare it,” he said.

“We’ll apply for a permit for differ-ent uses and we’ll look at it then.”

Mr Amor is excited about the futuredevelopment of the town.

“With new development jobs willbecome available,” he said.

“This is vital if we want to retainthe region’s youth.”

Both Mr Amor and Mr Rossi agreedthat council’s hard work on the issuecould not go unnoticed.

“I am extremely happy with theSouth Gippsland Council’s input in theprocess,” Mr Amor said.

Mr Rossi said: “A big thank yougoes to the council for appointing peo-ple such as Tim Tamlin as CEO andPhil Stone who have been very instru-mental in progressing with a numberof developments in Korumburra.

“We need to give some credit to thecouncil because they get a lot of badpublicity but when it’s good we shouldrecognise it.”

The amendment will come into ef-fect when notice of its approval is pub-lished in the Victorian GovernmentGazette. This is expected to take placewithin the coming fortnight.

Just ecstatic: Korumburra Business Association president David Amor is overjoyed with the rezoning of the Korumburra Saleyards site.

By Simone Short

POLICE are calling on the public to help fi nd a woman who robbed a Leongatha store armed with a syringe.

Detectives have released photographs taken from security footage in a bid to fi nd the offender.

Wonthaggi Criminal Investigation Unit has had several witnesses come for-ward and provide valuable evidence to investigators.

The offender entered Swanlee Craft in Bair Street around 2.25pm on Thurs-day, December 1 and threat-ened the shop assistant with a syringe she claimed to be fi lled with blood, before de-manding money.

Detective Senior Con-stable Syd Hadley said it is now evident the offender ran from the scene in a northerly direction along Bair Street, past McCa-rtin’s Hotel to the intersec-tion with McCartin Street.“A short time later she was seen to run to a waiting car in McCartin Street and get into the back seat,” he said.

“Information supplied to police indicates the vehicle

Do you know this wom-an?: police are seeking information from the public to help identify the woman in this photo.

Police close in on robber

was driven by a male person with a second male seated in the front passenger seat. The vehicle then drove from that location west on McCartin Street towards Inverloch.”

Police investigations have identifi ed numerous suspects and have discount-ed their involvement in the offence.

Information can be treat-ed as confi dential if the call-er wishes and can be given to detectives at Wonthaggi CIU on 5672 2761 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333000.

Continued from page 1.Mr Ryan said the com-

prehensive planning study would look at route options and planning provisions to support the project.

“This important study will look at preferred options for the alternative truck route and subsequent intersection upgrades and requirements,” he said.

“The study will include survey work, specialist in-vestigations, the develop-ment of concept designs, community consultation and cost estimates.

“In addition, it will con-sider the need for a Planning Scheme Amendment to add a Public Acquisition Overlay to the South Gippsland Plan-

ning Scheme to protect the preferred alignment.”

Hughes and Long streets are possible routes.

Leongatha Chamber of Commerce president Darryl McGannon welcomed the announcement.

“It is good news that they’ve allocated funding for the study. It’s the fi rst step in a long process but it is only the fi rst step,” he said.

“We’ve certainly been pushing for a long while and we just need to keep pushing on now.”

South Gippsland Shire Council mayor Cr Warren Raabe said the news was “great”.

“It’s just the study phase and we don’t want people to

get confused with the design phase versus the construction phase,” he said.

“We were confi dent that money would come eventu-ally, but it gets the ball rolling and you can’t build anything until it’s fully designed.

“It means we can now look at freeing up more car parking spots and just the whole town planning side of

thing changes now that this is occurring.”

VicRoads regional direc-tor Patricia Liew last week, said VicRoads had con-sidered the possible route through Hughes and Long streets in long term plan-ning for the South Gippsland Highway.

The need for a route was identifi ed in a traffi c man-

agement study undertakenby South Gippsland ShireCouncil in 2008.

“If funded, the planningprocess would take up to twoyears to complete as it wouldinclude a planning schemeamendment to reserve theland for the route.”

The comprehensive Vi-cRoads planning study wouldcommence early in 2012.

Leongatha CBD closer to being truck-free


sampling local cuisine, such as yak cheese.

Acute altitude sickness claims many victims on the long slog to base camp. The Donohues witnessed sev-eral helicopters ferrying gravely ill tourists back to the safety of Kath-mandu.

In fact, most of the walk was staged over 5000m above sea level. In comparison, Australia’s high-est mountain, Mount Kosciusz-ko is 2228m tall, a relative min-now compared to the peaks of the Himalayas.

With Nepal in the virtual grip of winter, the mercury regularly plum-meted to minus 15 degrees at night. As a result, one morning the squat toilet was completely frozen when the Donohues arose. According to Anthea, “it was a rather uncomfort-able experience.”

The Donohues were helped by a team of Sherpa, whom Anthea de-scribed as a “warm and giving peo-ple.”

The Donohues successfully made the climb to base camp, which stands at a staggering 5357m above sea level.

Since the climbing season was draw-ing to a close the site was relatively empty, except for a group of disap-pointed Spanish mountaineers, who had failed to summit Chomolungma.

With no plans to venture any fur-ther, the Donohues left base camp, winding their way back through mountain valleys, dotted with ancient glaciers and rimmed with colourful Buddhist prayer fl ags, to the village of Lukla.

The sudden onset of a thick Hi-malayan fog stranded the Donohues in Lukla for three days. The airport

VICROADS have re-sponded to truck safety issues by conducting roadworthy checks on large vehicles in Leon-gatha last Thursday.

The safety tests were held as part of a three day opera-tion that also included Yarra-gon and Grantville.

Police from Melbourne’s Heavy Vehicle Unit, Bass Coast Highway Patrol as well as Leongatha helped VicRoads transport safety service offi cers look over the vehicles at the Leongatha Recreation Reserve.

“We need to bring the roadworthy standard up to make people aware of how their trucks should be operat-

ing,” Vicroads offi cer Peter Gallus said.

A shaker was used to de-tect faults in trucks’ brakes, load weights and suspension.

Lawrie Hatching of Fleet-check, who operated the ma-chinery during the day, said generally only around 10 per cent of trucks passed the shaker’s test.

Twenty trucks were found to be unroadworthy. Five drivers were deemed to have fatigue as a result of excess driving. Mr Gallus reported many minor indiscretions, such as using mobile phones while driving and not wear-ing seatbelts.

VicRoads have also con-ducted operations focused on speed and fatigue.

Truck safety tested

Testing, testing: VicRoads transport safety ser-vice offi cer Peter Gallus was prepared to test plenty of trucks on Thursday.

in Lukla was recently ranked themost dangerous airport in the world,so the fog was a stroke of luck as theDonohues did not have to fl y out fromthere.

They were not alone though. Morethan 3000 tourists were left to wait onthe roof of the world, sparking fearsof food and water shortages in Nepal-ese government and media circles.

Lukla is only serviced by air orby foot. There are no taxis or publicbuses to speak of. In a bid to maketheir fl ight back to Tullamarine, theDonohues were forced to leave theirluggage in Lukla, trekking a furthertwo hours to a nearby settlement,where a rescue helicopter whiskedthem to another village.

Anthea described the heli-fl ightas “absolutely breathtaking.” On anairport that could only be describedas sub-par by Nepalese standards, theDonohues boarded a 16-seat planefor Kathmandu. Anthea made sure torecite a few quiet Hail Marys on thedescent into the capital.

By the time they reached Kath-mandu they had long missed theirfl ight back to Melbourne. They areyet to be reunited with their luggage,which will be arriving shortly.

With its civil war in the distantpast, Nepal is quickly emerging as atourist Mecca. The Donohues “thor-oughly recommend the trip” to anyadventurous couples keen on celebrat-ing their 25th wedding anniversary on the roof of the world.

They have their sights set on a re-turn trek to Nepal’s Annapurna in thenear future.

By Liam Charles

WHEN most couples book a trip for their 25th wedding an-niversary, Nepal is usually not on the top of their lists.

However, Anthea and Keith Donohue of Wonthaggi decided to by-pass the Barossa Valley this year, for a once in a life-time trip to the roof of the world.

When the couple arrived in the bustling Nepalese capital of Kath-mandu, they were not greeted by sun-shine, but rather bone chilling winds, sweeping in from Siberia.

The capital, referred to as the “Land of the Gods,” is sprinkled with many picturesque monasteries and World Heritage sites. Markets line the streets, where the bargain-hunter can fi nd cheap silk, wool and paper products.

After spending two days in the for-mer seat of the Nepalese monarchy, the Donohues fl ew to the city of Lukla to join their tour group.

According to Anthea, the small group was “a mixture of Australian and British tourists.” Their destina-tion was none other than the Mount Everest Base Camp.

The trek to Base Camp wound its way through some of planet earth’s most spectacular scenery, with views to the mountain Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay so famously con-quered in 1953.

Along the route, the couple stayed in small lodges, where they tried to acclimatise to the altitude, as well as

Base camp: the Donohues celebrate reaching Mount Everest Base Camp.


By Jacob de Kunder and Liam Charles

SHOPPERS and re-tailers have called for better parking in Ko-rumburra and Wont-haggi in a bid to boost business.

Upgrades to the Koru-mburra CBD over the last 10 years have resulted in the loss of 13 car-parks in Commercial Street.

Wonthaggi shoppers are fi nding parks hard to fi nd and are turning to shopping at quieter times in the hope of securing parking.

The Star recently re-ported how parking short-ages in Leongatha were affecting businesses in the premium festive trading period.

Korumburra business people are losing business and say tourists are passing through town.

Korumburra Business Association president Da-vid Amor said the loss of car parks hasn’t been prop-erly compensated for.

“This loss of car parks makes it very hard for a person going through the main street to just pull in and grab what they need,” he said.

Parking shortage grips towns

“We have had the car-park between Kelly’s (Bak-ery) and the post offi ce put in a few years ago, but all the locals know if you park in there, chances are you’re going to end up with a dent or scratch.”

Other parking in Koru-mburra is available but not well signed.

“There are massive car parks behind the shops (Little Commercial Street) but unless you’re a lo-cal, you don’t know about them,” Mr Amor said.

“The other issue with this parking is access. They say that trucks and cars with caravans can fi t through there but you physically cannot get around it unless you’re on completely the wrong side of the road.”

Heather Walker from Heather’s Cafe, Craft and Wool in Commercial Street said that parking in Koru-mburra is odd.

“You either get the cus-tomers coming in saying that no one’s around and

there are parks everywhere, or it’s the opposite and it’s packed and no one can get a park,” she said.

Ms Walker also agreed signage directing driv-ers to the parking in Little Commercial Street was insuffi cient.

“There’s a lot of park-ing in behind the shops but the visibility of signage to direct people out the back is not great,” she said.

“It’s a lot easier for dis-abled people to get in and out of their cars in a car-park like the one out the back, but once you’re in your wheelchair or on your crutches, it’s a long hike around to the shops on the bottom side.”

Mr Amor said: “We do need to have some severe changes made with the parking in Korumburra and work with the council to get something that works for everyone.

“We’re trying to make Korumburra the halfway point between Melbourne

and the Prom, so it has to be tourist friendly to help out the traders.”

Wonthaggi is rapidly expanding, but despite this increase in population and retail activity, fi nding a car-park is next to impossible.

Local residents now go to extreme lengths to fi nd a car park. For example, Ella Andrighetto shops late in the day to beat the mad rush for a park.

Dairy farmer Janine Atherton also struggles to fi nd an empty space Monday to Friday. Janette Swainston from Wonthaggi

Home Collections and Giftsis extremely frustrated bythe one hour restrictions onparking in the central busi-ness district. According toMs Swainston, these la-borious time limits restrictthe ability of shoppers tobrowse in her shop.

Swathes of local trad-ers are now calling for boldsolutions to Wonthaggi’sparking nightmare. JanineFlemming, the proprietorof Wonthaggi Offi cesmart,suggested that a multisto-rey or underground car-park may be the answer tothe parking crisis.

What’s going on?: shoppers Margaret Griffi n and Jill Yates express their frustration at the parking situation in Wonthaggi.

By Simone Short

THE DELAYED comple-tion of the Wonthaggi Desal-ination Plant has extended the presence of hundreds of workers in the Bass Coast, resulting in an economic bo-nus for businesses.

Ninety-one per cent of business-es surveyed as part of the Westpac Bass Coast Economic Monitor are positive about their performance in the coming 12 months, despite a small drop in the previous quarter.

The latest report recorded a 1.7 per cent decline in average growth rate for business throughout the September quarter, despite an ad-dition of 462 workers to the desal project.

Up to 600 workers were ex-pected to fi nish work at the plant by the end of December.

Bass Coast Shire Council CEO Alan Bawden said the continuation of construction would benefi t local businesses.

“Because the desalination proj-ect is still continuing, the antici-pated winding down won’t occur until much later, so we’ll still see the impact of the large construction

force,” he said.“Originally it was supposed to

fi nish last month, so the work force would have been demobilised be-tween now and March (next year).

“Now there’s clearly indication there’ll be many hundreds of con-struction workers here for another 12 months. We’ve already man-aged a lot of the impacts of that, and we’ve proved we can do that.”

But beyond desal construc-tion, the CEO believes there is still “strong underlying growth” for Bass Coast businesses related to population growth.

“We are the fastest growing community in regional Victoria and with that brings ongoing activ-ity in housing, construction, sales and other services,” Mr Bawden said.

“We’ve noticed in our own construction sector that a lot of our building companies have been struggling to get staff and have lost employees to desal.

“As we see some of those em-ployees return to the local commu-nity, we’ll see the local construs-tion sector strengthened.

Mr Bawden said an easing of the skill’s shortage will benefi t lo-cal businesses.

The impact of tourism in the

current quarter would most like-ly see a strong growth in sales and employment, as well as im-prove struggling accommodation numbers.

The monitor reported the aver-age mid-week occupancy rate for accommodation being 28 per cent compared to a rating of 58 per cent for the same time last year, while the weekend rate was 27 per cent down on last year.

In the real estate sector, Mr Bawden said the opening up of land in Wonthaggi North and east of the town for residential, com-mercial and industrial purposes would aid business performance over the next few years.

“All of the agreements are now in place for that, so we’ll start to see action happen on some of those sites earlier in the new year,” he said.

Wonthaggi Stockdale and Leg-go Real Estate principal Pat Barry said while they experienced a quiet September quarter, business picked up in November and the beginning of December.

Only two per cent of rental properties were vacant, despite an eight per cent decrease in proper-ties rented to desal workers.

“Vacancy rate in a country town

of two per cent is very good,” Mr Barry said.

“It’s normally around four or fi ve per cent, which we’ve had at previous times, but it was often a refl ection of homes not being up to the standard required.”

The average rental price mar-ginally decreased, but Mr Barry said the completion of the desal plant would not see prices plum-met in 2012.

“We certainly feel that in the new year at one stage, although we’re not sure when it will be, there will be a reshuffl ing of prices and properties in the market, but there will be no massive drops, not at all,” he said.

“There is a bit of confusion as the two speed market is every-where, including properties. Some landlords kept rental properties at conservative rates throughout the desal, and they might even go up, while a number of other proper-ties from desal rentals will have to meet the market.”

Mr Barry said tenants will also have a wider range of properties to choose from in the near future, with the majority of higher quality family homes currently leased to desal workers.

Desal delay benefi ts business


School to open in 2012

ONE hundred and fi f-teen years of rich his-tory came to a close on Tuesday night, as the Lord Brassey Ma-sonic Lodge was offi -cially closed.

With an ageing and decreasing member population, it was a sad occasion for the 38 Le-ongatha freemasons, especially 60 year mem-ber and past master Bob Leslie.

“The lodge was a way of life. You were taught all sorts of things from how to behave both in public and private.

“There was good fel-lowship, and I made some very good friends, as you do when you’ve been in-volved for 60 years.”

They were joined by members from Coal Creek, Outtrim and Powlett River lodges.

Mr Leslie and close friend and 70 year mem-ber Tom Parsons had the job of carrying the lodge’s charter from the Masonic Hall.

“It was a bit sentimen-tal. It’s the end of 115

years of an organisation inLeongatha,” he said.

The charter will be tak-en to Melbourne and can-celled. But it will return tothe area and be placed inone of the district’s otherlodges.

“A number of membersare joining Outtrim Lodge.It will go back in its frameand go up somewhere inthe building at Korumbur-ra,” Mr Leslie said.

“Some members aregoing to Mirboo Northand some to Wonthaggi.Four of them will retire alltogether.”

The Masonic Hallwill also be stripped ofits name, and will be soldafter consultation from aMelbourne lodge member.

“It’s the end of an era,but as I said to someonethe other day it’s only abuilding. A building withplenty of good memories,”Mr Leslie said.

The funds will be do-nated to the head offi cein Melbourne, and usedto build new, or repair oldlodges.

Supporting mates: Wal Leijen, Ken Barnes andKevin Holden of the Powlett River lodge came tobid farewell to their Lord Brassey counterparts.

SHOPPERS turned out for Christmas gift ideas and goodies for themselves at the Mirboo North market on Saturday.

Baromi Park was fi lled with an array of present possibilities, from plants and toys, to household goods, clothing and pet furniture.

Plus there was a fi ne selection of produce, plants and kitchenware to meet everyday needs.

Market tempts festive shoppers

Dressing up: Mirboo North’s Kylie Dawson and daughter Holly explore the clothing racks.

Freemasons say goodbye

Sad to see it go: Bill Gillespie, Norm Burchell, Tom Parsons and Bob Leslie at the fi nal lodge meeting.

Fiona McKenzie, said the two will offer unbounded enthusiasm and energy for their exciting fi rst year.“It was quite a compre-hensive process looking for people with unique skills and experience as there’s not a lot of people who have experience in an alternative education set-ting,” she said.

“Sarah’s had experi-ence in an alternative school in Western Aus-tralia and now she’s in a conventional setting, she understands the expecta-tions of our school.”

Ms McKenzie said Ms Wanstall, who has taught in the past, decided to home school her daugh-ters after the school didn’t open this year, and had al-ways intended to only be a parent involved in open-ing the school.

“She hadn’t thought about being a teacher but it has just been a really transformative year for her, re-learning the possi-bilities of education,” she said.

Both key mentors were very excited to be a part of the new school; fi ve of their own children in total

will be enrolled there, in-cluding Ms Wanstall’s two daughters.

“It will be great work-ing democratically with the children in partner-ships,” she said.

With orientation scheduled for February 6 next year, the Depart-ment of Sustainability and Environment is currently working on lease docu-ments, enabling the school to use the site of the for-mer Koonwarra Primary School for 15 years.

Planning and building permits are in the pipeline in the lead up to school registration.

Ms McKenzie said staff had been in the class-room from “dawn to dusk” over the weekend, bring-ing abstract ideas together to see what day one would look like.

“A core aspect was de-veloped over the weekend, as well as organising our key mentors,” she said.

“Each family will be allocated a key mentor, who will be their go-to person and look after the child’s pastoral care needs as well as their personal learning plan.

By Simone Short

KOONWARRA Vil-lage School took an-other step forward last weekend in prep-aration for the big opening for the 2012 school year.

Interested families and students were invited to a public information ses-sion on Sunday afternoon,

giving parents a chance to discuss enrolment and their children’s education needs with staff members.

Two teachers have been appointed for next year; Sarah Maclean, who currently resides in Ham-ilton in western Victoria, and Hadassah Wanstall from Inverloch.

Both teachers have experience in alternative education environments and school co-ordinator,

“Their mentor will work with them for the en-tire time they’re at school, because it takes time for a teacher to really get to know a child on a person-al level and identify their gaps in knowledge, how they like to learn and the most effective way to give instructions.”

Orientation will see different students come on different days, spending

time with the teachers and leaning about the different areas of the school.

“We’ll also explain to the kids the balance of different instructions and the tools they’ll need to apply themselves to their personal learning,” Ms McKenzie said.

“We’re calling it our pilot year, when we’ll re-ally be developing the culture of the school. We

don’t expect students toarrive on the fi rst day andmake perfect choices onhow to use their time; inthe beginning, the ideais to let those boundariesout further as they becomemore confi dent aboutmaking good choices.”

The school currentlyhas 27 children enrolledfor 2012.

Meeting the new staff: having a chat at the information day are, from left,Sarah Maclean, Katrina Interlandi, Hadassah Wanstall, Jerara Interlandi, LilyInterlandi, Isobella Standfi eld, Josh Standfi eld, Tracey Standfi eld, and FionaMcKenzie.


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Reason to smile: members of the Milpara Community House Creative Writ-ers released their story book CD at the Rotary Art Gallery in Korumburra on Saturday. The CD features poems and tales written about life experiences, imaginary events and observations of life. Showing off their new CD and books published in previous years are front, from left: Sue Cashin and George Silverbauer. Back: Shirley Chalmers, Anthea Spehr, Jacinta Hudson, Carole Davis, Judith Watson, Helen Taylor and tutor Kerry Coutts. More photos and full story in next week’s Star.

Writers launch CD to acclaim

By Brad Lester

SOUTH Gippsland Shire is un-likely to be governed by state rural development rules if the State Government does not adopt council’s Rural Land Use Strategy by December 31.

That date is when the existing plan-ning rules – the C51 planning scheme amendment – are due to expire.

South Gippsland Shire Council’s director of development services Phil Stone said the State Government was unlikely to let the municipality revert to state Farming Zone rules that de-mand all applications for houses in the zone have an agricultural purpose.

Council is still waiting for Planning Minister Matthew Guy to approve or reject the Rural Land Use Strategy, which will set a new direction for ru-ral development.

“We have had meetings with the bureaucrats in Spring Street and we are just waiting for them to get back to us,” Mr Stone said.

“(Mayor) Warren (Raabe) has made a few phone calls but we have not had anything offi cial about wheth-er it would be done by December 31 or whether C51 would be extended.”

Council is still operating under the C51 amendment and if the Rural Strategy is not in place by December 31, Mr Guy could instruct council to continue with C51 for now.

“We would just like the State Gov-ernment to push it through because it has had enough consultation already and should be moved forward,” Mr Stone said.

“Given the Coalition had a policy platform of giving greater policy con-trol back to local government, council would encourage the State Govern-ment to get on with it.”

Mr Stone said reverting to the state standard policy would be a “step back-wards” from the “unique” develop-ment opportunities C51 offers.

“That would restrict the develop-ment of dwellings on rural properties. It would mean that any size develop-

ments would have to justify the link between the dwelling and agricul-ture,” he said.

South Gippsland could be one of the most subdivided rural municipali-ties in Victoria, Mr Stone said.

Council has not experienced a rush of planning permit applications to meet the December 31 deadline. That, Mr Stone said, indicates people are generally satisfi ed with the Rural Land Use Strategy.

“If the new rural strategy was seen by the community as being more re-strictive and therefore unfair, you would expect a rush under C51, but because we have not got a rush, it’s more anecdotal evidence that it’s go-ing to be a step forward,” he said.

“The rural strategy gives more fl ex-ibility to people who have got small lots in the Rural Zone.”

A spokesperson for Mr Guy did not respond to The Star before going to print.

Debate about rural planning has raged around the council table and in the community for many years, and many people have been left with land they are unable to build on due to on-going changes to planning rules. The Rural Land Use Strategy, while not pleasing everyone, would give stabil-ity at least.

The strategy could attract more people to South Gippsland, seeking to build on small acreages.

“I believe the rural strategy will encourage more people into the area because we will have greater freedom for development in South Gippsland Shire than elsewhere in Victoria,” Mr Stone said.

Council’s expanded planning team continues to work through a backlog of permit applications.

“Our priority has been getting the old applications out. There are some that are reasonably old because of the complexity of them but they are mini-mal,” Mr Stone said.

Rural strategy hopes rise


WONTHAGGI was alive with music last week as Wonthaggi Secondary College’s McBride Campus hosted the 26th an-nual South Gippsland Schools Music Pro-gram Camp.

More than 150 students from Leongatha, Mirboo North, Korumburra, Wont-haggi and South Gippsland secondary colleges, and Leongatha and Foster pri-mary schools joined music teachers, performers and enthusiasts for three days of musical magic.

The days were fi lled with tutorials and band re-hearsals, with all the work going towards the Thurs-day night concert for fam-ily and friends at the Won-thaggi Union Community Arts Centre to fi nish off

Music camp going strong

the camp.The concert bands were

led by highly regarded Melbourne band leaders and educators Sue Bradley and Sam Boon, while Syd Jackson directed Beat it.

This year, staff wel-comed Alwaynne Strentz to lead the stage band, and

a number of past students as tutors and an enthusi-astic line-up of fi rst time tutors to lead the differ-ent groups throughout the camp.

This year marked the fi nal music camp for Neil Gracey (program co-ordi-nator), as he is leaving at

the end of the year to takeup a teaching position inMelbourne for 2012.

He would like to thankall staff, students and fami-lies of the program and thewider community for theirsupport over the years andwishes the program all thebest for the future.

Play it loud: Anthony Foon and Mitchell Sanders were giving it all on their trumpets at the music camp.

POLICE BRIEFSPOLICE BRIEFSmonsed to court at a laterdate for a number of associ-ated traffi c charges.

Police encourage wit-nesses to the incident to con-tact the Bass Coast HighwayPatrol on 5672 1222.

Shed fi reA BURN off went wronglast Tuesday when a smallfi re got out of control, burn-ing down a shed on a Koon-warra property.

A sudden wind causedthe fi re to jump a fence, caus-ing a shed to catch fi re anddestroying a square baler.

Both Leongatha andKoonwarra CFA attendedthe scene, with Leongathavolunteers wearing breath-ing apparatus masks whilegetting the fi re under con-trol. CFA personnel wereat the scene for around twohours until the blaze wascontrolled.

ATV stolenA FOUR wheel all-terrainvehicle has been stolen froma property on the Bass High-way just out of Inverloch.

The owner parked twoHonda ATVs in front of hishouse under the verandahwith the keys left in theignition.

Police believe the offend-ers most likely pushed one ofthe ATVs to the road beforeloading it onto the back of aute or truck, as the ownersdid not hear anything duringthe night. The ATV is valuedat $6000 and is red, with a50 litre red spray tank fi ttedto the back and a spotlight.

Anyone with informa-tion regarding the theft isencouraged to contact Inver-loch Police on 5674 1202.

Bus crashBASS Coast Highway Patrolis investigating the cause ofa collision between a V/Linebus and a car last Wednes-day night.

The accident occurredaround 7.15pm just west ofKorumburra on the SouthGippsland Highway.

There were no injuriesin the collision, however thecar was extensively dam-aged. Anyone who mayhave witnessed the accidentis encouraged to contact theBass Coast Highway Patrolon 5672 1222.

Police chaseA POLICE pursuit occurred through the streets of Le-ongatha on Sunday after the driver of a Holden Bar-ina attempted to run from offi cers.

Leongatha Police no-

ticed the Barina pull up at Evans Petroleum on Bair Street with neither the driver nor the passenger wearing seatbelts. The occupants of the car sped off after notic-ing police, who followed the vehicle to a private address.

Police were able to iden-tify and interview the driver at the scene. The Barina was impounded for 30 days un-der the hoon law legislation for evading police and ex-cessive speed.

The driver will be sum-


YOORALLA Leongatha’s clients attended a fi re safety day in Ruby last Thursday.

They received a talk from Ruby Fire Brigade captain Darren Harda-cre before unleashing giant hoses and inspecting the truck.

But the important message of fi re safety was not lost.

“They’ve been discussing safety in the home, what to do if a fi re occurs and maintenance things as well,” Yooralla group leader Megan Perks said.

“Darren’s also touched on what

to do if they see a fi re while travel-ling. It’s an important skill for these guys. A lot of them live indepen-dently, some even in rural areas.”

The Ruby Fire Brigade offered the demonstration at no cost to Yooralla.

YOORALLA Leongatha’s clients attended a fi re safety day in Ruby last Thursday.

They received a talk from Ruby

But the important message of fi re safety was not lost.

“They’ve been discussing safety in the home, what to do if a fi re occurs and maintenance things as

to do if they see a fi re while travel-ling. It’s an important skill for these guys. A lot of them live indepen-dently, some even in rural areas.”

Fire message delivered

By Simone Short

THE message is sim-ple this bushfi re sea-son – personal sur-vival is the aim.

A fi re ready session held by the Wonthaggi CFA last Wednesday night informed people across the Bass Coast about how to prepare for bushfi res.

Many were concerned fi re plans and prepara-tions had changed since the devastating 2009 bushfi res, when many lives were lost.

Peter Richards, who took over as manager of the Cape Paterson Cara-van Park in September with his wife Samantha, said he was preparing for a busy holiday season.

“I want to know what I need to do in case I have to evacuate,” he said.

The session was run by CFA community liai-son bushfi re engagement offi cers David Walters and Peter Walters, with the support of Brian Mar-tin from Parks Victoria, Wonthaggi CFA captain Kim O’Connor and lieu-tenant Peter Dell, and James Bremner from Bass Coast Shire Council.

David explained fi re ban levels, with usually only four or fi ve ‘extreme’ or ‘code red’ days a year.

“On these days, your fi rst priority is to leave,” he said.

“Ninety-nine per cent of houses are undefend-able and if you decide to stay, it should only be if you are both physically and mentally fi t.”

He encouraged resi-dents to fi nd neighbour-hood safer places to go to, rather than stay at home during high risk times.

“Do not put elderly family members, children or even teenagers through the trauma of defending a property,” he said.

“Go to a safer place as

Safety comes fi rst at Wonthaggi

soon as possible, whether it be the night before or before 10am the next day.”

David encouraged residents to form a com-munity Fire Guard group or take part in a fi re plan workshop.

Peter said everyone should have a plan not just to leave, but where to go and how to get there, as well as having survival kits and important docu-ments and possessions packed and ready to go.

“People who do not leave and have a plan suf-fer the consequences,” he said.

“Always leave early; if you are caught by a bush-fi re in a car, the chance of survival is less than 10 per cent.”

James said the council had been preparing for the fi re season by under-taking roadside slashing, working on the foreshore and bushland reserves and working with the CFA.

“We’ve also been do-ing fi re hazard inspections of properties, making sure

residential land and blocks are tidy leading into the fi re season,” he said.

“We’ve already sent out 900 messages to resi-dents asking them to tidy up their land.”

Free property assess-ments to help residents develop a bushfi re surviv-al plan are also available.

Bookings can be made by contacting Angus Mair on 0407 518 340.

Fire safety: at the fi re safety event were Brian Martin from Parks Victoria, James Bremner from Bass Coast Shire Council, CFA engagement offi cer Da-vid Walters, Cape Paterson Caravan Park manager Peter Richards, CFA cap-tain Kim O’Connor and Peter Walters, a CFA engagement offi cer.

Fire ready: Yooralla’s Ronnie Layton, Emily Ardley, Kate Rennie, Nick Green, Brodie James, Mitchell Price, Mycalie James, Adam Simurina and Dale Olierook with Ruby Fire Brigade captain Darren Hardacre.


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THE Leongatha and District Historical Society fi nished a busy year with a pleasant lunch at the home of Pat and Jim Spinks on December 3. The Mechanics’ Institute Museum will close on De-cember 16 and re-open on January 3.

During all of January, the museum will open Monday to Friday from noon to 4pm. The next exhibition will be on the history of Leongatha High, Tech and Secondary College.

The society needs a navy blue and a grey boxed pleated tunic, and other items of school uniform to borrow for the display. If anyone can provide these items, please contact the society on 5662 2492 or 5668 6304. TARWIN Lower Primary School students are out and about, as part of the RENEE Maskell and Melissa

McRae’s Relay For Life team, The Summer Lovers, held a Relay For Life fundraising dinner at the Rainbow Palace Chinese Restaurant, Korum-burra recently.

A raffl e and an auction raised $2350. Relay For Life is a fundraising initiative for the Cancer Council. About 60 people attended the fundraiser. Kate Browne spoke about her battles with breast cancer and the effect it had on herself, friends and family.

Further fundraising events are planned ahead of the Relay For Life at the Dumbalk Recreation Reserve on April 21-22.

Last chance: volun-teer fi re-fi ghter Paul Norton from the Le-ongatha South fi re bri-gade with a Christmas tree for sale in front of the pumper.

RUBY, Leongatha South and Koon-warra fi re brigades are selling Christ-mas trees again with all profi t going to the three stations.

They will be selling out of the Leongatha sta-tion this Saturday, De-cember 17, from 8.30am through to 4pm or until sold out.

Trees range from four to seven feet, are shaped to the traditional conical shape and are $40 each.

school’s bike education program organised by teacher Jenni Cox. Stu-dents will ride to the Venus Bay Community Centre for lunch on Wednesday, December 21 and parent helpers are needed. Con-tact the school if you can lend a hand.

MARY MacKillop Catho-lic Regional College is re-minding students to donate non-perishable goods to the Christmas Giving Tree.The school will then pass the donations on to any lo-cal people in need of assis-tance for Christmas through St Vinnie’s. Items are to be placed under the Christmas tree in the junior school.

THE Fish Creek Carols will be held on Sunday, December 18 from 7pm. It will feature a nativity play, all your favourite carols and a Christmas giving tree, so please bring a gift to place under the tree. Everybody is welcome.

THE Coeliac Disease Sup-port Group will be holding their Christmas Luncheon at the Royal Hotel Loch.

The lunch will be on Thursday, December 15 at noon. Cost is $30 per person which gets you a full gluten free buffet.

All are welcome so book with Sybil on 5659 4446 or for more information call Libby Smith

on 0419 581 381.

ENTRIES are closing for Wonthaggi Tyre Power’s Christmas giveaway. Get your entries in before De-cember 14 to win a new set of free tyres for your car. The winner will be drawn on December 16. See the ad for more information.

THE sounds of Christmas will ring out from the Inver-loch Community Hub on Wednesday, December 21. The Inverloch Community Carols event will be held from 7.30pm. Kate Lind-say, 3MFM presenter, will lead the evening, featuring music from the Inverloch Jazz Society, U3A choir and Stringz. The evening is organised by the churches of Inverloch and spon-sored by Bass Coast Shire Council.

DEDICATED volunteers are needed to care for local waterways. Waterwatch Victoria volunteers col-lect monthly water qual-ity data from waterways and their data is used to help waterway managers understand regional wa-terways and highlight any decline in water quality.

To fi nd out more, can contact West Gippsland Waterwatch Coordinator Nicole Russell on 1300 094 262 or visit www.vic.wa-terwatch.org.au Sharing her tale: Kate Browne spoke

about her experience with breast cancer.

SCULPTURE in the Vineyard kicked off on Sunday with an excellent crowd viewing some great art from 20 exhibitors.

Cr Jennie Dean performed the opening at Koonwarra’s Lyre Bird Hill Winery, helped by sculptor John Mutsaers.

The crowd enjoyed wood fi red pizzas from Paradise Pizza, music and a selection of wines by host Lyre Bird Hill Winery.

The exhibition continues daily from 10am until 5pm until January 29. All works are for sale.

Sculpture showcase

Colourful: Cr Jennie Dean and John Mut-saers admire this work from Patricia Hill.


By Simone Short

IT CAME down to the luck of the draw during the Bass Coast Shire Council mayoral election last Wednesday night.

Councillor Veronica Dowman was elected mayor for a second con-secutive year during the statutory meeting.

She did however, come close to missing out altogether when the vot-ing system required two out of three nominated councillors on two votes each to select a card at random.

That act alone would determine whether or not they would remain in the race for mayor.

With Cr Peter Paul sitting safe on three votes, Cr Dowman managed to avoid the ‘defeated’ card, omitting Cr Ross Smith from the elections.

The incumbent mayor was voted in with four votes over Cr Paul’s three, while Cr John Duscher was elected deputy mayor without opposition.

Cr Dowman said it was an honour to be elected Bass Coast mayor and thanked her fellow councillors for their support.

“I would like to thank my fellow councillors for giving me their confi -dence for another year,” she said.

“I look forward to the oppor-tunity to continue to serve all our ratepayers.

“I am also looking forward to working with our new deputy mayor, Cr John Duscher and I congratulate him on his appointment.”

Cr Dowman acknowledged the outgoing deputy mayor, Cr Gareth Barlow for being a conscientious and hard working deputy.

The mayor said there was much work

to be done in the coming 12 months and many challenges lay ahead for the council.

She identifi ed a list of goals for the council’s fi nal 10 months in offi ce, in-cluding increasing effi ciency; strong advocacy; a strategic and careful ap-proach to borrowings; continued dia-logue with farmers and other commu-nity groups; buying land to secure the future recreational needs of Phillip Island; and delivering projects such as the Bass Coast Education Precinct, Cowes Town Square development and the Bass Coast Cultural Precinct.

Cr Duscher was recently acknowl-edged by the Municipal Association of Victoria for 25 years of service in local government.

Cr Duscher was fi rst elected to Bass Coast Shire Council in 1996 and is a former mayor, both of Bass Coast and the Borough of Wonthaggi.

Council CEO Allan Bawden con-gratulated the councillors on their appointments.

“Two thousand and twelve will present many challenges as the coun-cil continues to plan for a growing community, the wind-down of the desalination project and preparing for the October 2012 council election,” he said.

Council delegates for external committees were also elected at the meeting, including representatives on the Gippsland Local Government Network, Municipal Association of Victoria and the Sea Change Task Force.

Cr Dowman will sit as mayor for a slightly shorter term than usual, with council elections to be held on Octo-ber 27 next year.

Cr Dowman does it again

Second term for Bass Coast mayor: council CEO Alan Bawden congratulates Cr Veronica Dowman for being elected as mayor for her second consecutive year, and 2012 deputy mayor Cr John Duscher.

BIN covers appeared in the CBD of Leon-gatha over the weekend, enhancing the town.

South Gippsland Shire Council acquired 30 covers from another council and refurbished the covers.

So far, 24 covers have been installed on Leongatha bins.

An extension of the initiative to other towns will de-pend on future budgets, council spokesperson Jeannie Hicks said.

Town beautifi ed


Today: Open 9am to 6pm. Monday 19/12: Open 9am to 7pm.

Wednesday 14/12: Open 9am to 6pm. Tuesday 20/12: Open 9am to 7pm.

Thursday 15/12: Open 9am to 7pm. Wednesday 21/12: Open 9am to 7pm.

Friday 16/12: Open 9am to 9pm. Thursday 22/12: Open 9am to 7pm.

Saturday 17/12: Open 9am to 6pm. Friday 23/12: Open 9am to 9pm.

Sunday 18/12: Open 9am to 5pm. Saturday 24/12: Open 8am to 6pm.

Target Country Leongatha extended trading hours.SANTAPHOTOS

at Target Country

Leongatha.

Tuesday 13/12

until Saturday 24/12

See in-store

for details.

Letters guidelinesALL letters should be kept to 400 words or less.The Star reserves the right to edit all letters for length and style. Writer’s details, including full name, address and phone number (not for publication), must be included.

VOXVOXPOP!

E D I T O R I A L

THE Baillieu Govern-ment is misleading the public regarding its school maintenance audit.

I AM very concerned that the Baillieu Government has underfunded early intervention child pro-tection programs in 13 service providers across Gippsland, placing local children at risk.

The Baillieu Government has failed to provide additional funding for the Child FIRST program despite a signifi cant in-crease in demand across the state. Child FIRST provides early in-tervention services to prevent the escalation of problems in families identifi ed as being at risk.

By failing to invest in early intervention programs like Child FIRST, the Baillieu Gov-

Schools lose $481 million

In an attempt to disguise the Baillieu Government’s cruel and callous cuts to the education bud-get, Coalition members of parlia-ment are misleading Victorians claiming that its maintenance audit is something new.

In fact all the Minister for Education Martin Dixon and his Coalition members had to do was

pick up the phone and call the Department of Education for the latest audit results.

The Department of Education audits schools on their mainte-nance requirements on a regular basis and for the Baillieu Gov-ernment to act like this is a some-thing new is very misleading.

The Education Minister is taking teachers, parents and stu-dents for fools if he thinks that he can divert attention away from the $481 million cuts to educa-tion announced in this year’s State Budget.

In addition to these cuts, the Baillieu Government has halved the budget for school building projects, slashed $50 million from the Victorian Certifi cate of Applied Learning (VCAL) pro-gram, and is refusing to honour its commitment to make Vic-torian teachers the highest paid

in Australia. The former Labor Govern-

ment was committed to ensuring all Victorian students received a world-class education in 21st century facilities.

That is why we committed to the Victorian Schools Plan – a 10 year plan to rebuild, modernise or renovate every government school in the state by 2016-17.

The Baillieu Government has no plan for education, no plan for skills, no plan for infrastructure investment, and no plan for re-gional Victoria.

This Government has taken the wrecking ball to education and thousands of kids will be left on an educational scrap-heap as a result.

Rob Hulls, Shadow Victorian

Education Minister.

Children at risk ernment is forcing more familiesinto DHS child protection, plac-ing more stress on the system.Despite more families accessingChild FIRST, Community Ser-vices Minister Mary Wooldridgehas failed to increase the num-ber of places for Child FIRST.The result will be inevitable– more children placed at risk.This comes on the back of MsWooldridge’s failure to rule outspecialist infant protective offi -cers losing their jobs as part of herrestructuring of the department.Ms Wooldridge needs to actnow to provide the fundingneeded for early interventionprograms and guarantee staffwon’t be cut to keep Victoria’smost vulnerable children out ofharm’s way.

Luke DonnellanMP, Shadow Minister for

Child Safety.

THE revised Aquatic Strategy scheduled to be presented to South Gippsland Shire Council’s December meeting will be delayed.

The strategy will now not go before council until February.

The plan details the criteria determining the future of pools at Leongatha, Korumburra, Poowong, Mirboo North, Foster and Toora.

Council CEO Tim Tamlin apologised for the

delay but is determined the strategy accurately refl ects the considerations of both council and the many people who submitted comments.

“After the submission hearings, we went back to the drawing board to undertake further fi nancial analysis so that we could report back to the community on the cost impact to maintain the status quo, that is, what it would represent as a percentage rate increase,” he said.

“We were completing the report for the

December meeting agenda and a fi nal internal audit uncovered an error in the fi nancial analysis.

“Unfortunately we are not able to fi x the error in time for the community to consider the report and make submissions to council prior to the meeting on December 21.

“Meantime, we encourage everyone to enjoy the pools during the holiday season, and we look forward to presenting the report at the February council meeting.”

Aquatic strategy delayedSOUTH Gippsland Shire Council has start-ed rehabilitation work on repairing a road affected by a landslip earlier this year.

The Foster–Mirboo North Road could be open as early as Christmas, if fi ne weather permits construction crews to complete the works.

The slip occurred as a result of heavy rainfall earlier in the year and works were delayed until the site dried out suffi ciently.

The State Government provided funding to council as part of its natural disaster relief funding.

Road to re-open

How are you handling the stress of Christmas?

IT is not too bad. I started shopping early as that is the only way to do it. It is best to be organised.

Joan Wild, Leongatha

I have done all my shopping, so I’m not stressed. It is much easier to get it all done a few weeks early.

Lesa Fraser, Mirboo North

I don’t feel stressed. My shop-ping is all done and I am now looking forward to happy times at Christmas.

Maureen Sivyer, Korumburra

No, I’m not stressed. I got my shopping done early. Now I’m looking forward to get-ting together with family.

Margaret Hook, Pound Creek

IT WAS the news the people of Leongatha and South Gippsland had been waiting for.

The State Government yesterday (Monday) announced $270,000 for the design for a heavy vehicle alternate route for Leongatha.

The Leongatha Chamber of Commerce and Industry and council have long championed the cause for this new route, which would divert trucks and other heavy vehicles away from Bair Street.

What’s more, both the State Government and South Gippsland Shire Council have confi rmed the amount provided by the government would cover every cost of the project.

In this case, the project will ultimately benefi t the state by leading to improved safety in the town and improved effi ciency of transport. Trucks and other heavy vehicles will not have to negotiate the tight intersections at Anderson and Roughead streets, and Roughead and Bair streets, slowing their trip.

Trucks supporting the dairy and livestock industries regularly travel through Bair Street, with Murray Goulburn’s factory in town and the VLE Leongatha livestock just out of town.

As it stands, Bair Street has a fi ne collection of shops, but there are empty buildings and car-parking is limited, with drivers typically having to reverse park with trucks bearing down on them. The risk associated with that no doubt deters many people from shopping there.

The State Government and particularly our local member, Peter Ryan, are to be applauded for backing this project with dollars.

Funding welcome


CHRISTMAS magic will come to the stage in Leongatha this Saturday night (December 17) at Carols in the Drome.

The South Coast Singers will per-form, complemented by choirs from Leongatha and St Laurence’s primary schools, and South Coast Christian College.

Local singers Josh Gardiner, Elly Poletti, Aaron Gale, Emmi Latham

and Mitchell Scrimshaw will join fea-ture artist from Tasmania, Stephen At-kins, on stage.

The South Gippsland Shire Brass Band will play carols and modern favourites.

The event will be presented by the Combined Churches of Leongatha at the Leongatha Velodrome. Guest com-peres will be Meags and Deaksy from 3GG radio.

Children dressed in their favourite

Christmas costume can win prizes. BYO candles, and chair or blanket. Entertainment will start at 6pm.

Carols begin at 7.30pm and the night will end with a spectacular fi re-works display.

The event is supported by South Gippsland Shire Council, South Coast Christian College, The Star, Gippsland Audio Visual, Stockdale and Leggo Leongatha, and 3GG.

Landcare says “thank you”PEOPLE with a pas-sion for the environ-ment were thanked by the South Gippsland Landcare Network last Thursday.

Sponsors gathered for lunch in Leongatha to cel-ebrate a year of achievement by the network’s staff and volunteers.

They won three major awards and were nominated for another three, much to the admiration of said net-work co-ordinator, Belinda Brennan.

“We could not have done this without the help and sup-port of you all,” she said.

McMillan MP Rus-sell Broadbent paid tribute to Landcarers across the country.

“I fi nd Landcare a very easy topic to talk about in par-liament because every time I hit the road, I see the work that Landcare has done,” he said.

Mr Broadbent said the Landcare movement has contributed to improving the atmosphere in Australia.

“You can smell you (Landcarers) and you do not smell too badly. You do not smell like fertiliser. You smell like new growth and opportunity,” he said.

“Individuals are making a real difference on the ground and making a real difference to the atmosphere that we breathe and walk in.”

The MP urged people to support Landcare’s sponsors wherever possible.

South Gippsland Shire Council’s Cr Jennie Deane said around her home town of Loch, Landcare had re-stored bare hills to forested land.

The sponsors recogn-ised were Michael’s Supa IGA supermarkets, South

Gippsland Water, West Gippsland Catchment Man-agement Authority, South Gippsland Shire Council, Mr Broadbent, HVP Plantations, Landcare Australia, Innova-tive Creations, and The Star and South Gippsland Senti-nel-Times newspapers.

The network received: • the Parks Victoria Envi-

ronment and Sustainability Award at the 2011 Regional Achievement and Commu-nity Awards;

• Citipower and Pow-ercor Landcare Network Award; and

• Ms Brennan won the Australian Government Lo-cal Landcare facilitator/co-ordinator award.

The network was also highly commended in the:

• Toshiba Landcare Com-munity Group Award (Fish Creek Landcare Group);

• Australian Government Individual Landcarer Award (Jean Carnell, network board member); and

• DPI Sustainable Farm-ing Award – West Gippsland (Graeme and Rosemary Trease. Rosemary is a net-work board member).

Prize-money from the awards will go towards a Landcare Week event in September next year. The network has 712 family members across 18 groups.

The lunch included the launch of the network’s an-nual report for 2010-11.

Network projects in-clude: One Million Trees, Friends of the Strzelecki Ko-alas, Quoll Corridor, Support and Landcare Group, and pest plant and animal control programs.

The lunch was held in Meeting Room One, Memo-rial Hall.

► More photos in Social Scene on pages 48 and 49.

Aiming high: McMillan MP Russell Broadbent and South Gippsland Landcare Network co-ordi-nator Belinda Brennan with some of the network’s awards.

CHRISTMAS magic will come to the stage in Leongatha this Saturday night (December 17) at Carols in the Drome.

jture artist from Tasmania, Stephen At-kins, on stage.

The South Gippsland Shire Brass Band will play carols and modern

pBYO candles, and chair or blanket. Entertainment will start at 6pm.

Carols begin at 7.30pm and the night will end with a spectacular fire

Come all ye faithfulCHRISTMAS magic will come and Mitchell Scriim hhshaw will join fea- Christmas costume can win prizes.

Ready to play: singers Josh Gardiner and Emmi Latham will join the South Gippsland Shire Brass Band for Carols in the Drome this Saturday. The band is represented by Ralph Christensen, Nancy Jones, Phil and Aidan Richards, and Paul Stampton.


“She wanted to do it again straight away. She was very excited,” mum Kathy said.

Mike Coulter, the man who approached Caysie’s mother Kathy after read-ing her story in the Herald Sun earlier this year, is the person to thank for help-ing Caysie overcome her fears.

He wanted to do some-thing to give a positive aspect to the situation and give her something fun to think about rather than horrendous and painful.

“It was amazing. We can’t thank Mike enough,” Kathy said.

“He organised every-thing. He got in touch with Cheltenham Primary School and found a tree to abseil down.”

Cheltenham Primary School got right behind Caysie. Students chanted her name as she went up

in the cherry picker andcounted down as she wasabout to jump.

“For students who hadnever met Caysie before,they were incredibly sup-portive,” Kathy said.

Before going to theschool, Caysie attendeda training session at theCheltenham Trees Depotto learn how to use a har-ness and maintain a safedistance from the tree.

Even though it waspouring rain Caysie lovedthe experience.

Caysie tandem abseileddown the tree with Mike.

Caysie and her motherKathy would like to thankher friends, CheltenhamPrimary School and Chel-tenham Trees Depot for alltheir amazing support.

“It has been fantastic.We never expected thismuch support,” Kathysaid.

“She wanted to do it again straight away. She was very excited,” mum Kathy said.

in the cherry picker and counted down as she was about to jump.

“For students who had

Caysie climbsto beat fear

By Tessa Hayward

CAYSIE Clark has overcome her fear of heights after falling from a tree in March.

The brave Leongatha girl abseiled down a 13 metre high tree at Chelten-ham Primary School.

After fracturing her skull and spine, suffer-ing a collapsed lung, torn ligaments in her neck and broken toes and fi ngers, Caysie confronted her fear head on and had the best time while doing so.Student reaction: Cheltenham Primary School students got behind Caysie Clark and cheered her on.

Dangerous trees: Mike Coulter has taught CaysieClark that proper abseiling equipment is a mustwhen coming down a big tree.

THE Department of Treasury and Financeplans to sell the former Mirboo North PoliceStation.

The station became surplus to its needs when the newpolice station was built on Ridgway in 2007.

The department is seeking a rezoning from PublicUse Zone 1 to Residential 1 Zone in preparation for thesale.

South Gippsland Shire Council chief executive offi cerTim Tamlin will use his delegated powers to requestauthorisation from the Planning Minister to commence aPlanning Scheme Amendment (PSA).

“The property is a comfortable brick house set withina garden that matches the character of the area, so theresidential 1 zoning is a suitable amendment,” PaulStampton, council’s strategic planning and developmentmanager said.

“Given the minor nature of the PSA and the absenceof a January council meeting, the use of the delegatedpowers means the public exhibition process could start,possibly in mid to late January to allow local residents toconsider the amendment.”

To ensure that adequate public consultation occurs,the normal exhibition period would be extended to sixweeks.

A full report will be made to a council meeting earlyin 2012, with a subsequent council meeting to hearsubmissions and determine the PSA.

The brick building at 16 Baromi Road was morerecently used as the recovery centre following the 2009fi res.

Old station to be sold


DJINTA DJINTA winery has won a silver medal in the prestigious 2011 Renault Concours des Vins du Victo-ria for its estate grown 2008 Classique Bubbles.

The 2008 Classique Bubbles is a unique blend of estate grown Mar-sanne and Roussanne grapes that are actually two very old world white varietals originating from France.

“We are absolutely honoured to have been judged amongst the best in Victoria with the likes of bet-ter known wineries such as Brown Brothers and Mount William Winer-ies,” owners Eleonor and Alex Biro said.

The 21st annual Concours was a great success, with only 96 partici-pating vineyards/wineries and 339 different wines.

The Sparkling Wine section had 39 entries, with only seven awards presented.

“It was very overwhelming. The show was held at Etihad Stadium and was judged by all French judg-es,” Eleonor said.

The panel of judges was chaired by Bernard Burtschy for the second year in a row.

The 2008 Classique Bubbles has a complex array of aromas and fl avours including honey dew mel-on, quince and fi g, which are very intense.

It has a well balanced palate witha lively and long persistent fi nish, adelightful and refreshing drink.

“It is being carefully stored andaged on extended lees to further en-hance its potential,” Eleonor said.

Guests are welcome at the wineryand the de Vine Restaurant wherethey will have to settle for savouringthe 2009 Classique Bubbles, whichalso tantalises the taste buds.

However, guests can celebrateNew Year’s Eve in style with an ala carte dinner and a complimentaryglass of the silver medal winner onarrival.

Djinta djinta is located at 10 Ste-vens Road, Kardella South and canbe contacted on 5658 1163.

Fantastic achievement: Eleonor Biro and her daughters Steph and Alison overlook the beautiful sur-roundings and vineyard at djinta djinta winery, with their newly acquired silver medal award.

Winery celebrates prestigious win

Touching base: South Gippsland Shire Councillor David Lewis met with constituents at the Old Shire Hall at Mirboo North on Saturday. Among the issues raised included rural and urban planning, the draft pools strategy, local by-laws, road safety and the proposed Stony Creek broiler farm planning permit application set for next week’s council meeting. Ron Brown (left) of Turtons Creek was keen to talk about his vision for a lake to be created on the creek for recreational use and water storage.


LEONGATHA’S Education Precinct is weeks away from a new bus loop and shelters.

The current bus loop on the east side of the precinct will soon become two loops.

The project, currently under construction, will cater for the primary school, secondary college and TAFE.

Leongatha Secondary College vice princi-pal Greg Ellt said that it would be much safer.

“This should make it much easier for the students and bus drivers,” he said.

“Given the fact the primary school had shifted on site with their new buildings, there was a need to get the buses off Ogilvy Street/Nerrena Road because it was creating a bit of a traffi c hazard, and was not all that safe for students.

“It means all of the buses can be parked

and off the road.”The project was originally meant to be

done at the beginning of the year but insteadstarted in fourth term.

“It was a project that was probably delayedin its starting time, but is now ahead of sched-ule,” Mr Ellt said.

“It will give us a chance to have a couple ofweeks of trial run, even though the number ofstudents will be less.”

The project has been organised by theTransport Management Group, with the StateGovernment funding the $1 million project.

“We will co-ordinate the schools to havedifferent fi nishing times so that the primarystudents can be on the buses before the sec-ondary kids fi ll the shelters,” Mr Ellt said.

“It should be a massive improvement onwhat we had before.”

LEONGATHA’S Education Precinct is weeks away from a new bus loop and shelters

and off the road.”The project was originally meant to be

done at the beginning of the year but instead

Kids to fi ll bus loop soon

p

New stop: construction of the Leongatha Education Precinct’s new bus loop is almost fi n-ished. Leongatha Secondary vice principal Greg Ellt is happy with the progress and so areYear 10 students Renee Eddy, Sam Wilson, Amy Eagan and Alkira Riley.

by Liam Charles

AMPLE rain is good news for South Gippsland’s water storage levels.

After the recent soak, reservoirs at Lance Creek, Ruby Creek, Coalition Creek, Deep Creek, Little Bass and Battery Creek are all at 100 per cent capacity.

South Gippsland Water managing director Steve Ev-ans said: “This period is usually marked by a lull in sup-plies, so the recent wet weather is certainly welcome.”

Indeed, in December 2006, levels plummeted across the shire. Ruby Creek reservoir stood at a mere 14 per-cent, while the larger Lance Creek was only at 40 per-cent of its capacity.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, this wet weather is the direct result of a La Nina event.

In a La Nina event, sea surface temperatures in the western Pacifi c and Australia are warmer than usual.

The warm water gathered on Australia’s east coast is a source of atmospheric convection and is associated with higher precipitation. The strong easterlies also direct moisture towards eastern Australia, resulting in heavier than average rainfall.

Despite this gift from the heavens, permanent water saving rules are still in place. These include bans on us-ing non-tigger nozzles and hosing down paved areas.

Manual watering systems can only be used between 8pm and 10am, while automatic watering systems can only be used between 10pm and 10am. Applications also need to be fi led with local authorities in order to fi ll pools over 2000 litres capacity.

Storages full

By Tessa Hayward

WINTER is meant to be when all the rain falls, not in November.

This was not the case in November 2011.

Leongatha had 170.4mm of rain over 16 days.This is almost double last year’s November total of 86.2mm of rain over nine days.

“The weather is still like winter, only the temperature is a little higher,” Leongatha rainfall recorder Kay Puru said.

The cumulative total of rainfall in Leongatha this year is 1094.4mm.

“It is also the most monthly rain we have had in a very long time,” Kay said.

The rainfall in Ruby was

even higher, with 176.5mmof rain over 16 days. Lastyear Ruby had 127mm ofrain over 17 days.

“Several thunderstormsthroughout the month addedto the monthly total,” Rubyrainfall recorder MargeryRobson said.

The cumulative totalso far for Ruby this year is1146.5mm.

Fish Creek rainfall re-corder Neville Bucklandsaid November was the sec-ond most days rain record-ed this year, as 129.5mmfell over 18 days bring-ing the cumulative total to1305mm.

The average for themonth of November is70mm so it has been anextremely wet Novembercompared to others.

Rainfall doubles tally


LEONGATHA Chamber of Commerce and Indus-try Inc members decided to do something a bit dif-ferent this Christmas.

Instead of collecting stamps at different businesses, local shoppers can now enter the draw to win a Christmas tree full of vouchers to their local stores.

Kelvin Johns Bedding and Chamber of Commerce and Industry member Kathy Smith said, “If you purchase some-thing from any of the partici-pating stores, you can go in the draw to win.”

Kathy said 17 vouchers have been put on the tree so

far with more to come, and the vouchers are worth up $50.

There is a variety of shops participating, supporting the town and promoting local businesses.

“Chamber of Commerce and Industry members are very keen to participate, as is every-body else,” Kathy said.

There has been plenty of interest with the draw.

Local shopper Judy Camer-on entered the draw after buy-ing something at Leongatha’s NewsXpress.

“I prefer to shop locally,” she said.

The Christmas tree voucher draw fi nishes on Friday, De-cember 23, so get in quick and

make sure your name is in the draw.

There is also the Christmas window decoration competi-tion which will be judged on Wednesday, December 14.

Hair Bairs’ Sandra Flem-ing said three residents from Woorayl Lodge will be the judges and the winner will be announced at the Chamber’s Christmas dinner.

“The windows are already looking beautiful,” Sandra said.

So get in the Christmas spir-it by entering the draw to win a Christmas tree full of vouchers and for business owners, deco-rate your shop windows to the best of your ability.

Shopping local: Leongatha Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc member Kathy Smith has the Christmas voucher tree on display at Kelvin Johns Bedding.

Tree full of vouchers

Gifts galore: AW Smith and Sons Gifts and Homewares employees Sarah Riley and Kellie Smith show off a range of Christmas decora-tions the store has on offer, as well as a wide array of gifts perfect for the festive season.


ARE you looking for a present for a family mem-ber, friend or colleague?

Nagels Pharmacy is the place to go as they have a wide range of gift ideas.

The photo centre is now making multipage calendars 8x12inch just in time for Christ-mas at a great price of $24.95.

The calendars can feature your own photos and can be customised to suit what you want.

“We also do various canvas prints in different sizes, which are great gift ideas,” Nagels Phar-macy’s Belinda Zurma said.

There is a great range of Fu-jifi lm and Ricoh cameras avail-able with plenty of accessories to complement them.

“On every Wednesday we have a special on 6x4 inch dig-ital prints for 14 cents each,” Belinda said.

Polaroid cameras and bin-oculars are also available.

If a camera is not the present you are after, perhaps a perfume or skin care package could do the trick.

Nagels Pharmacy’s Jo Fen-nell said there are lots of skin care and fragrance packages available for Christmas.

“They are really good value, you can choose your favourite fragrance with a bonus body cream,” she said.

These packages can save customers money and that is an extra bonus at Christmas time.

Exclusive to Estee Lauder are Michael Kors mini make up packs. They are a once off of-fer, so get in quick before they all run out.

These gift ideas are perfect and for more information on the cameras available see Nagels Pharmacy’s advertisement on page 17.

Gift ideas for everyone

Say cheese: Belinda Zurma and Hannah Stallard said there is a wide range of Fujifi lm and Ricoh cameras available for Christmas at Nagels Pharmacy.

Perfume packages: fragrance packs are extremely popular over Christmas due to the greatdeals available, according to Nagels Pharmacy’s Jo Fennell.


NewsXpress Leongatha’s Nicole Whiteside, Jess Price and Jenny Flynn have a wide range of Christmas gift ideas available in the lead up to Christmas. They have Christmas cards, wrapping paper and presents for every sort of person.

Christmas time is here: the team at Capeview Mitre 10, Leongatha is spreading the cheer this festive season. Ben Davey and Janet Nicholson show off the Christmas lights on offer, for anyone looking to jazz up their house.

NewsXpress Leongatha’s Nicole Whiteside, Jess Price and Jenny Flynn have a widerange of Christmas gift ideas available in the lead up to Christmas. They have Christmascards, wrapping paper and presents for every sort of person.

Festive spirit


THE latter half of 2011 has been a horror period on Austra-lia’s roads.

As South Gippsland residents pre-pare to head off to the coast this sum-mer, local law enforcement offi cials have warned drivers to take care.

In order to maximise your car’s

safety features before the big trip up north, Solar-Gard should be at the top of your list.

The team at B. and L. Window Tint-ing in Leongatha is South Gippsland’s premier destination for the application of Solar-Gard.

According to business owner Bren-dan Hemming, “Solar-Gard drastically

reduces glare from the sun, increasing visibility and making driving safer.”

This innovative product helps to hold glass together when shattered, preventing dangerous shards of glass harming automobile occupants in the event of an accident.

In addition, cars with Solar-Gard are 60 per cent cooler on hot summer

days, providing welcome relief from the Australian sun.

This revolutionary technology also blocks 99 per cent of harmful UVA and UVB rays, reducing your likelihood of developing deadly melanomas and skin cancer.

Not only is Solar-Gard a sleek look for your car, it increases privacy, re-

ducing theft of valuables. You can contact Brendan for

a quote regarding applying Solar-Guard to your car on 0408 623 411 or5662 3411.

The team at B. and L. WindowTinting, located at 8 Tilson Court, isalso available to meet all your othertinting needs.

Clear shield: B. and L. Window Tinting apprentice Nicholas Stewart will endeavour to ensure your carhas the protection it needs from the blistering Australian sun.

Do you have Solar-Gard?


IMAGINE having a new generation V6 turbo-diesel engine underneath the top of the range Nissan Navara ST-X 550.

The results are a major performance advan-tage over its four-cylinder turbo-diesel rivals, with no appreciable fuel consumption penalty.

The new high technology direct injection 3.0 litre engine produces a class leading 170 kW power and a hefty 550 Nm torque from a low 1750 rpm.

On the road, this vehicle sails across bitu-men and fl ies over gravel, and was quick to stop when an echidna decided to cross the road.

The new Nissan Navara ST-X 550 has a long list of ad-ditional equipment from tub lin-ers, a hard tonneau cover complete with remote central locking to privacy glass and V6 badges.

The new V6 engine will rein-force the Nissan Navara as one of the best performers in its category by a signifi cant mar-gin, raising the benchmark for refi nement and technology, economy and emissions.

In addition, the engine helps provide strong towing performance, having a 3000 kilogram limit.

The Navara is one of the cornerstones of the Nissan range in Australia and a ma-jor force in the dual cab 4x4 market.

It is a very smooth ride and handles any inclination easily.

The power in the vehicle is very noticeable and is perfect for a tradie on work sites.

The new engine is the ultimate expressionof technological advancement, offering excep-tional smoothness, impressive economy andlow emissions.

With so much capacity for effortless towing,the Navara ST-X550 will become the defaultchoice for customers who think big when itcomes to outdoor activities.class leading 170

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Leading power: the potent engine underneath is just the start of the great features of the new Navara.

Australia’s most powerful tradie

Above: Sleek and smooth: sitting comfortably on the road, the Nissan Navara ST-X 550 boasts unique ad-ditional features.


VICTORIA POLICE recently launched their Summer Stay campaign.

The campaign, which will run until January 8, will “target factors that contribute to the road toll such as drug and alcohol use,” Deputy Premier and Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Peter Ryan said.

Aside from drugs, alco-

hol and speed, there is one silent killer on our roads that is often neglected: poor tyres.

According to a report commissioned by the RACV, more than 500,000 used tyres were imported into Australia in 2010.

The report revealed that 30 per cent of these tyres were un-roadworthy. Ac-cording to Andrew Stew-art from Stewart’s Tyres

Safety fi rst: Andrew Stewart from Stewart’s Tyres in Leongatha notes the importance of good quality tyres.

VICTORIA POLICE recently launched th i S St

hol and speed, there is one silent killer on our roads that is often neglected:

Are your tyres safe?in Leongatha, “worn out tyres are hidden dangers.”

Andrew said shabby tyres make for longer stop-ping distances and will skid on wet surfaces.

Another study con-ducted by manufacturer Bridgestone reported that poor quality tyres also lead to higher fuel costs, by as much as three to fi ve cents per gallon.

Andrew will be offer-ing his customers a freetyre check over the Christ-mas period, for anyoneconcerned about the safetyof their tread before theyhead off on their summerholiday.

The team at Stewart’sTyres can be contacted on5662 3679 for all your tyreneeds.

MAKE travel fun and comfortable for your children these Christmas holidays.

The RACV suggests taking plenty of rest stops when driving for a long time, and keep an eye out for parks or playgrounds so children can run and play safely.

Don’t forget your children are there. Be sure to talk and sing with them, or play a music or story CD or tape to help the time pass more quickly.

Giving children toys to play with can help reduce the monotony of travel.

Choose comfortable clothing for a child to travel in, and make sure it is suitable for the temperature inside the car.

To guarantee children stay safe, remove any loose items that can be thrown around in a crash. Cargo barriers in station wagons, hatchbacks and vans are vital.

When removing children from the car, be sure to use the rear kerbside (left) door so that children are not exiting into traffi c and can accidently run into the path of oncoming vehicles.

Make holiday travel fun for kids


THE owner of South Gippsland Cars and Offroad, Glenn Markley, has some amazing deals this holiday season.

He is South Gippsland’s premier retailer of ARB 4×4 accessories.

ARB products, which are manufactured in Aus-tralia, are built to withstand the ruthless conditions of the great Australian outback, with its endless corru-gated roads and extreme temperatures. An ARB prod-uct may be the perfect gift for the four-wheel drive enthusiast this Christmas.

Mr Markley is now offering customers who buy one ARB air locker a free high output air compressor.

People who buy two air lockers are entitled to re-ceive a free air compressor, as well as a tyre infl ation kit, speedy seal tyre repair kit, E-Z defl ator and infl a-tor with gauge.

Deals such these simply cannot be matched in the region. In addition to this offer, consumers who purchase any ARB fridge freezer will receive a free ARB transit bag valued at $168. Old Man Emu nitro-charger sports shock absorbers also come with a free Leatherman super-tool valued at over $159.95.

Mr Markley also stocks a range of other lines, including GME’s world-class radio communication systems and Black Widow storage units, the industry leader in four-wheel drive storage.

It should be noted that Black Widow products are also 100 per cent Australian owned and made, so they are built to last forever.

South Gippsland Cars and Offroad, which is cel-ebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is located at 2 Tilson Court, Leongatha.

Mr Markley and his experienced team can be con-tacted on 5662 5554.

Anniversary: Clint Bordonaro and Glen Markley are celebrating the 10th an-niversary of South Gippsland Cars and Offroad this December.

THE owner of South Gippsland Cars and Offroad, Glenn Markley, has some amazing deals this holiday season.

Mega deals for 4WD fans

GAS fi tters are beingwarned to be aware ofthe dangers of workingwith Liquid PetroleumGas (LPG) and to followsimple safety steps tominimise the risk of seri-ous injury to themselvesor others.

NSW Fair Trading isconducting an informationcampaign. Fair Trading Com-missioner Rod Stowe said allgasfi tters need to be aware thatexposure to LPG is dangerousand that they must conducta thorough risk assessmentevery time they work with oraround the gas.

“LPG is a highly volatilesubstance and concentrationsas low as two percent will in-fl ame the air,” he said.

“LPG is heavier than airand will travel along fl oorsand settle in low spots.

At high concentrations,LPG displaces air to causeasphyxiation and the bu-tane component of LPG hasthe potential to cause toxiceffects.”

The Gas Supply (Con-sumer Safety) Regulation2004 sets out the requirementsfor working on gas installa-tions, however the licensedinstaller must also assess allaspects of risk for the work tobe performed safely.

“Ensure appropriate super-vision and inform others onsite of the potential hazards,”Mr Stowe said.

For more information, visit the Fair Trading websiteat www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au or call 13 32 20.

Safety fi rst with LPG


Planning for a bushfire may not be at the top of your agendaduring the busy Christmasseason. But if you are spendingtime with family and friends, theholidays are an ideal time todiscuss what you will need to do if a bushfire threatens yourcommunity.

Research shows that preparingand planning for a bushfire areimportant first steps in ensuringyour family stays safe. Writing abushfire survival plan, discussingit with your family andpractising your plan will helpyou make informed decisionsabout what to do and where togo before, during and after abushfire emergency.

While preparing your bushfiresafety plan, make sure youunderstand the Fire DangerRating system and what itmeans to you. Fire DangerRatings predict how a bushfirewould behave in your area.There are six ratings: low-moderate, high, very high,severe, extreme, and Code Red.The higher the rating, the moredangerous the conditions.

Fire Danger Ratings are issueddaily by the CFA and aredisplayed on roadside signsacross Victoria. They are alsoavailable on the CFA websitecfa.vic.gov.au and will bebroadcast on radio and TVweather forecasts during thesummer fire season.

Importantly, Fire DangerRatings are triggers to act. If youlive in a high-risk fire area (nearbush, grassland or along thecoast), talk to your family aboutthe actions you will take to avoidfire on a day of Severe, Extreme,or Code Red Fire DangerRating. Your triggers to leave,where you will go, and the routeto get there should also beincluded in your plan.

If you live in a high-risk area,leaving early on the night beforeor early in the morning on theday of an Extreme or Code RedFire Danger Rating is always thesafest option.

Leaving early is the safest optionif you are elderly, living with adisability, or require assistance torelocate to avoid a bushfire.Consider your local options andnetworks when preparing yourbushfire survival plan, and askyour family, friends or neighboursto help you leave early.

I also urge everyone to reachout to those who are isolated inyour community. They may needyour help to prepare, plan andsurvive.

To download a bushfire survivalplan and comprehensiveFireReady Kit, visit the CFAwebsite cfa.vic.gov.au or phonethe Victorian Bushfire InformationLine on 1800 240 667.

Craig LapsleyFire Services Commissioner, Victoria

A message from Victoria’s Fire Services Commissioner, Craig Lapsley

Are you ready to act if a bush or

grass fire threatenedyour neighbourhood?

By Tessa Hayward

MARY MacKillop Catholic Regional College will be un-dergoing some major changes over summer and the begin-ning of the 2012 school year.

The school now has 520 stu-dents enrolled and major upgrades to the driveway and toilet blocks are planned.

“The driveway has been a prob-lem for the past four to fi ve years due to potholes and age, but the problem has been exacerbated since 17 buses now pick up and drop kids off,” prin-cipal Michael Delaney said.

Since Leongatha Primary School

moved to their new location, the number of buses coming to Mary MacKillop has doubled.

“The purpose of the driveway is to separate the parents pick up/drop off and the bus pick up/drop off,” Mr Delaney said.

The plan is to have more room for the buses to pick up and drop off students and re-locate the area where students can be picked up and dropped off by parents.

The new area for parents’ collec-tion will be on the other driveway behind the gym.

Internal walls at the toilet blocks have rotted and new toilet facili-ties will accommodate up to 720 students.

“We have been really cautious

with money over the past four to fi ve years, but these improvements are going towards the next generation of students as well as current students,” Mr Delaney said.

“We were hoping for Catholic Capital grants last year but we were unsuccessful.”

In 2012 there will be 108 Year 7 students and four Year 7 classrooms.

Five portables have been added to the school to accommodate the increase in student numbers and will be refurbished before school starts in 2012.

“The school is growing so we must be doing something right; it is a testament to the teachers, parents and students,” Mr Delaney said.

Signifi cant updates: Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College principal Michael Delaney is ex-cited about works to take place at the school over summer.

Exciting times ahead

by Liam Charles

GRADE 6 students at Leongatha Primary School are preparing to make one of the greatest transi-tions in their young lives.

In 2012 they will leave primary school for the jungle of secondary college.

The occasion will be marked by a graduation ceremony on December 21 at 7pm.

Students will enjoy one last supper together before they part ways in the new year.

Three Grade 6 students sat down with The Star on the eve of their gradu-ation to recount memories and future dreams. According to bubbly student Ally Martin, the camps were the high-light of her seven years at Leongatha

Primary School. In her words, “the Melbourne trip

was amazing.” Aspiring footballer Jack Dunn

said learning how to surf at Wilsons Promontory was his most cherished memory.

Talented young writer Chelsea Hoffman had fond recollections of her Grade 3 teacher, Ms Burns.

Jack wholeheartedly agreed: “She was by the far the best teacher I have had, or probably ever will have.”

Chelsea was looking forward to meeting new friends next year, whilst Ally and Jack were eager to start sub-jects such as woodwork, metallurgy and cooking.

Ally stated that “she couldn’t wait” to don her new uniform next year. In the future she has her eyes set on a ca-reer in hairdressing.

Kids look to life’s next stage

Celebrations: Chelsea Hoffman, Jack Dunn and Ally Martin rejoice after fi nishing their primary education.

THE 2012 South Gippsland Relay for Life is off to a great start, with a generous donation of $2060 from Michael’s IGA supermarkets.

The South Gippsland Relay for Life committee would like to thank Michael’s IGA and all the caring shoppers who donated their award points to the South Gippsland Relay for Life on market days in 2011.

Cancer Council Victoria is urging South Gippsland residents to take to the track on Saturday, April 21 at Dumbalk and join what local organisers hope will be the biggest fundraising event South Gippsland has ever seen.

The South Gippsland Relay For Life is an overnight event where teams of 10 or more take turns to keep a baton moving around the Dumbalk Recreation Reserve for the duration of the event.

The South Gippsland Relay For Life

is a unique opportunity to bring the com-munity together to celebrate cancer survi-vors, remember loved ones lost and fi ght back against cancer.

Funds raised at Relay For Life help the Cancer Council provide support services and resources for local cancer patients and their families.

Funds also support critical cancer research and community education pro-grams designed to teach people how to reduce their risk of developing cancer.

“At Relay For Life, people bring their tents and camp overnight as a community. There will be free entertainment, games the kids can play and even spot prizes,” Walter Aich, committee chairman, said.

So get your team organised and join the fun.

For more information about South Gippsland Relay For Life, visit www.re-layforlife.org.au or call 1300 65 65 85.

Relay launched with donation

Behind the event: South Gippsland Relay for Life committee members, front, from left: Chris Oliver, Leanne Larkin and Karen Lawson. Back: Sue Heron, Marg Cantwell, Walter Aich, Mary Trease and Robert Bruce.

Cr Warren Raabe

Mayor’s message

IT’S NICE to be re-elected to the mayoral role and I appre-ciate the vote of confi dence from my fellow councillors. I’m delighted to welcome Cr Mohya Davies as our new deputy mayor. She has enormous passion for community and is committed to serving South Gippsland well.

A letter from the Minister for Planning to say the saleyard rezoning (C60) has fi nally been approved has made my day.

I thank the Minister for expediting the approval of this amendment, and look forward to further announcements in the near future regarding our Rural Land Use Strategy and the rezoning of land at the Prom Gate.

The Gippsland Local Government Network continues to be a collaborative lobbying body for the six Gippsland councils, and it recently presented its budget submissions to our local politicians.

Much focus has been placed on gaining improvements to the V/Line train service to Bairnsdale. This may seem irrelevant for South Gippsland but it’s not. Strengthened services from the city end will benefi t us in many ways, particularly out to Dandenong and Pakenham, from where a signifi cant number of our residents commute to the city.

We already have intense development pressure from the western end of the shire which will utilise these services.

Council’s community grants were presented to successful applicants last Wednesday and it is such a worthwhile program and partnership to maintain.

On Wednesday we will welcome, possibly 10 residents as new Australians at our citizenship ceremony.

We all benefi t from the cultural diversity and skills that they bring to our communities. What amazing opportunities there are these days to celebrate our differences, both on our own doorstep and further afi eld.

We take it for granted now that within a 50km radius we can eat at Thai, Japanese, Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants; and that our children are learning new languages and cultures well beyond the meagre feast of Latin, French and German offered to anyone over 50 in their school days. Australia still is the lucky country!

Cr Warren Raabe,Mayor.


Leongatha

Beaurepaires14 Anderson St, Leongatha 03 5662 237110% off Dunlop, Goodyear & Sava car,

4WD and light truck tyres, car and 4WD

wheel alignments, and any set of 4 tyre

and wheel packages*

* Not available with any other offers and discount applies off the best negotiated price.

Carino’s Café & Wine Bar4-18 Smith St, Leongatha 03 5662 236610% off the total food bill*

* Not valid in conjunction with any other offer or promotion. Offer valid for one discount per membership.

Classic Car Rentals 7 Leslie Crt, Leongatha 03 5662 090010% off weekend rates*

* Eligible drivers, full licence and credit card payment.

Great Southern Outdoors1 Bair St, Leongatha 03 5662 261510% off storewide

Lucinda Estate 108 Parr St, Leongatha 0417 337 27010% discount off wine purchases at cellar door*

15% discount off wine purchases of 12 bottles

or more at cellar door*

*Not in conjunction with any other discounts or promotion.

Lulu Clothing & Cosmetics14 McCartin St, Leongatha 03 5662 227210% discount*

*Excludes sale items and footwear.

Stadium 4 Cinema14-18 Smith St, Leongatha 03 5662 5762See a movie for just $11.50 any Tuesday*

* Not valid for 3D fi lms, special events or in conjunction with any other offer or promotion. Not valid on public holidays. Not valid for fi lms advertised as no free tickets during school holidays. Offer valid for one discount per membership.

Please visit www.stadiumcinema.com.au.

Toyworld19 Bair St, Leongatha 03 5662 331510% off*

*Excludes outdoor play equipment, bikes and Lego.

Nearby Areas

A Maze’ N Things1805 Phillip Island Rd, Cowes 03 5952 228310% off any admission ticket*

*Not to be used with any other offer.

Inverloch Boat ChartersLot 2 Treadwells Rd, Inverloch 03 5674 558810% discount

Koonwarra Foodstore & EmporiumCnr Koala Dve & Sth Gippsland Hwy, Koonwarra 03 5664 2285One complimentary tea or coffee with any

bottled produce purchase over $50 and 10%

discount on any purchase over $100

La Bella Gifts & Homewares140 Graham St, Wonthaggi 03 5672 481210% off jewellery, giftware, homeware

and clothing* *Excludes sale items.

O’Donnell Optical101 Graham St, Wonthaggi 03 5672 29772/74 Chapel St, Cowes 03 5952 577120% off all products

Phillip Island Chocolate Factory930 Phillip Island Rd, Newhaven 03 5956 660025% off admission to Pannys Amazing World

of Chocolates*

*Applies to full price admission only. No other discounts apply.

RACV Inverloch Resort70 Cape Paterson-Inverloch Rd, Inverloch 03 5674 0000RACV members save at least 20% on regular

accommodation rates year round at RACV

Inverloch Resort

Rhyll Trout & Bush Tucker Farm36 Rhyll-Newhaven Rd, Rhyll 03 5956 92510% off admission and rod hire*

*Not valid with any other offer.

Scotts Clothing10 A’Beckett St, Inverloch 03 5674 335510% discount

Toyworld62/64 McBride Ave, Wonthaggi 03 5672 37610% off*

*Excludes outdoor play equipment, bikes and Lego.

Wildlife Coast CruisesDeparts Cowes jetty 1300 763 73920% off full priced adult and child prices*

*Offer only valid for Seal and Twilight cruises only. Not to be used with any other offer.

Windy Ridge Vineyard & Winery527 Fish Creek-Foster Rd, Foster 03 5682 203510% discount at cellar door*

*6 bottle minimum, Not valid with any other offers.

Where to Show Your RACV Card & Save in Leongatha.

When you’re a member of RACV you automatically have access to the world’s largest member benefi t program – Show Your Card & Save.By simply showing your RACV card at a variety of partner organisations, you will receive discounts and special offers everyday. Here are just some of the places you can save around your area.

There are many more places where you can save in Inverloch, Leongatha, Phillip Island, Wonthaggi and other nearby areas. For a full list of partners, please refer to the brochure available at the RACV Wonthaggi Shop or visit racv.com.au/sycas

For more information visit the RACV

Wonthaggi Shop or racv.com.au/sycas


IT WAS “Lights, cam-era, action!” in Bass Coast last week when a fi lm crew from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image captured the district as part of a project showcasing regional Victoria.

Covering three dif-ferent shires every year, ACMI decided it was the Bass Coast’s turn to be documented, with two fi lm crews spending four days fi lming around the region.

Producer Csilla Csong-ray said council’s com-munity planning facilita-tor, Chabrelle Chisholm, had been “phenomenal” in working on the project with ACMI.

“She has completely embraced working with the community to provide us with 25 story ideas for fi lming,” she said.

“David and I re-searched all of these sto-ries and chose nine of them to turn into short 10 minute fi lms.”

Ms Csongray said de-spite already fi lming South Gippsland two years ago, ACMI recognised Bass Coast was a different shire to its neighbour.

“We wanted to do a seaside area and a place in Victoria we hadn’t been before,” she said.

“The Bass Coast is a very diverse place, with a

Bass Coast caught on camera

Remembering The Ripple: Inverloch local, Alan Woodbridge, talks about thehistory of the ship, just one of nine stories fi lmed around the Bass Coast.

different lifestyle to South Gippsland.”

On Thursday morning, two subjects of these short documentaries were fi lmed in Inverloch; the Rocket Shed and The Ripple boat replica.

The fi lm crew inter-viewed Inverloch resi-dents Eulalie Brewster and Alan Woodbridge, who each spoke about the historical background and personal stories behind the attractions.

“The stories we fi lm are incredibly inspiring, whether they be farmers, primary school teachers or just members of the local community,” Ms Csong-ray said.

“Eulalie was a brilliant story teller; we just put her in front of the camera and she spoke for 20 minutes without having to stop once.”

Mr Woodbridge was also no stranger to being in the spotlight, having been interviewed on ABC local radio in the past, among others.

Phillip Island and Bass were also locations for the fi lm crew over the four days.

Ms Chisholm said the fi lms will be screened in Wonthaggi next year, as well as made available for loan from ACMI’s video on demand collection.

“For many years,

ACMI has been working with regional communities to document their stories in fi lm,” she said.

“The regional fi lming program has been success-ful because they involve local residents in telling their own stories.

“The mini-documen-taries will be added to ACMI’s archive collec-tion as a permanent record of life in regional areas, contributing to Australia’s identity.”

The project is support-ed by Art Victoria’s Major Touring Initiative and the fi lms will be available for viewing online and kept in the ACMI collection.

Bass Coast in the spotlight: Inverloch local, Eulalie Brewster, (second from left) contributed to a documentary about the Rocket Shed, along with fi lm crew Mike Kenneally, producer Csilla Csongray, and Matt Blackwood from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

Mayor’s messageCr Veronica Dowman

I AM delighted to have been elected mayor for a second term. I look forward to another year of working with our community and leading discussion and decision making on important projects and policies with my fellow councillors.

This year we have had many suc-cesses and some challenging moments. I have learned so much about Bass Coast – the council and the community. This coming year will again present council with vexing questions and complex is-sues that often require compromise by all parties, to fi nd a suitable resolution.

I feel confi dent that we are creating policies to manage Bass Coast’s con-tinued growth. We are now the fastest growing shire in regional Victoria and fi fth fastest in the state.

Entering my second term as mayor, a major challenge for 2011-12 is to continue to meet the growing demand for works and services from our com-munity and the large number of visitors

to our shire.In order to ensure that council has

the capacity and capability to respond to these needs, council is undertaking a 10 year business plan and every directorate across council is involved in a process to assess the ongoing relevance and fi nan-cial sustainability of all our services.

Offi cers are looking at individual services to ensure they remain relevant to our community and are delivered in a cost effective manner. The plan is de-signed to, amongst other things, ensure that rates and charges are affordable for our ratepayers and we can provide the services required by our community.

Ensuring that we are putting the foun-dations in place to manage the growth of our shire and expectations of our constit-uents is key to a sustainable future and is a challenge that I am looking forward to as mayor.

Cr Veronica Dowman,Mayor.


place to shop for all one’s festive goodies.

The association thanks the following businesses for their support and help: Allaway Industries, Your Style Store, Hopwoods Repairs, Jenny’s Picture This Framed, Korumburra Florist, Richard Oldham of Australia Post, Shane McGrath Accountants, Cafe 61, Commonwealth Bank, D.A. Auto Repairs, Austral Hotel, Gippsland Sports and Spinal, Korumburra Video and Smokes, Whitelaw Antiques, Bendigo Bank, Stockdale and Leggo, Blueprint Taxation, Lay Hankin Insurance, Burra Sports and Cycle,

Korumburra Plumbers, Retire and Wealth, Korumburra Newsagency, Sentinel-Times, Steve Blogg Industries, Jumbunna Engineering, Taranto Glass, R.T. and H.F Beavis, Countrywide Clothing, Kellys Bakery, Cleaning Solutions, Korumburra Building Supplies, Korumburra Hotel, Rod Cosson Dairy and Treasures to Scrap.

Thanks to $2 Shop Korumburra, Taryn, Koringal Ladies, Korumburra Scouts, beggs2differ, Psycho Wombat, Wonthaggi Citizens Band, Linda and Ken, Stacie and the one with the beard, Trevor.

Christmas spirit shared in KorumburraSANTA Claus was a busy model at the Ko-rumburra Family Fun Day recently.

The big man in the red suit featured in more than 400 photographs with children, after arriving in a sidecar motorbike.

Kids were lured by jumping castles, an animal zoo, games, railway trolley, showbags and food.

Prizes were offered to children who took part in the best dressed as Christmas, best hand-made Christmas stocking and a colouring competition.

Entertainment was provided by the Wonthaggi Citizens Band, Psycho Wombat and a rock’n’roll group, as well as the band beggs2differ.

The event was held by the Korumburra Business Association and showcased why Korumburra is a great

Fun for all: Ruby and Jai Atkins prove that brothers and sisters needn’t fi ght at the Korumburra Family Fun Day.

Master mechanic: South Gippsland Railway’s mechanical manager Terry Franklin made sure theservice arrived on time.

Happy trio: Korumburra’s Makayla, Breelle and Haylea Ringeri had a great day at the KorumburraFamily Fun Day.

CHILDREN celebrated Christ-mas at Korumburra Kindergar-ten last Thursday.

Kids recited an array of Christmas classics, such as Santa’s Christmas Workshop. Teacher Julie Osmond led the chorus. Speaking about the occa-sion, she said: “It was a great opportu-nity for the students to showcase their many talents.”

After the carols, students pre-sented their parents with a portfolio of their work. The portfolio contained a number of artistic masterpieces the children created during the year.

CHILDREN celebrated Christ-mas at Korumburra Kindergar-ten last Thursday.

Kids recited an array of Christmas

Kids can’t wait for SantaKinder Christmas: Melissa Donohue shares a quiet moment at Koru-mburra Kindergarten’s Christmas celebrations with Ben Fowler and sons, Callum and Jack.


Periodic charmPeriodic charmTHIS sought after home in McCartin Street is available through Stockdale & Leggo Leongatha. See page 36 for more details.


CENTRALLY located 10 minutes’ drive to both

Leongatha and Korumburra, this 90 acre property is ex-tremely private and peaceful.

The three-year-old brick home is located in a sheltered position on the property, and is very deceiving from the outside.

The house boasts four spacious bedrooms with built-in robes, the

master with a walk-in robe and large en suite.

A good sized kitchen with large electric oven and gas cook top ad-joins a dining area.

The lounge is central and is heat-ed and cooled by a reverse cycle split system.

Also, a second large sitting room or parents’ retreat, where a second reverse cycle split system has been installed is available.

Outside, various shedding in-cludes chook pen, vegie garden andcarport.

The land is undulating to hillcountry with good tracks throughthe six paddocks; water includesfi ve dams, and frontage to WilkurCreek.

Currently the land is leased for$11,000 per annum which couldcontinue, however vacant posses-sion is available if you choose.

Private and peaceful

FAIRBANKLocation: Calder & Cameron’s RdBedrooms: 4Bathrooms: 2Price: $585,000Agent: Elders LeongathaContact: Zel Svenson 0438 636 290 or Don Olden 0417 805 312

GALMARA Country Cot-tage is situated two kilo-

metres from the centre of Ko-rumburra and is on 2.78 acres of land.

This characteristic cottage boasts four bedrooms, a cosy lounge with wood heating and split cycle air con-ditioning and heating system.

There is a separate kitchen/dining area with windows overlooking the

paddocks and farmland. Most structural work has been

done, like stumping, wiring, roof. All there is to do is add your fi n-

ishing touches. The property boasts approxi-

mately 30 fruit trees, a green house, lovely treed area on the block and four paddocks for stock such as cattle or horses.

Town water is connected as well as rain water for the house.

The land is 2.78 acres which isgenerally fl at with a gentle rise, withhighly fertile soil, suitable for growinganything or grazing horses, cattle.

Galmara is an easy walk to theSecondary College and is within twokilometres from the town centre ofKorumburra.

Opportunities to purchase smallacre properties with character and po-sition in this price range are rare.

‘Galmara’ country cottage

KORUMBURRALocation: 10 Harris RoadBedrooms: 4Bathrooms: 1Price: $375,000Agent: Elders Real EstateContact: Don Olden 0417 805 312 or 5658 1894


Town Edge Acre

19 Old Thorpdale Road $515,000

Quality brick homestead, deep verandas, amidst �� 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 2 bthrms, farmhouse kitchen, garaging for 2+ cars & other shedding.

MIRBOO NORTH

The Best So Far! Shingler’s RidgeWith a country-fresh façade of weatherboards, verandas and Colourbond roof, this gorgeous new home is now complete. Enjoying full northern frontage to the green belt that passes its boundary, this newest Kohlman house has the now-reknown hallmarks internally: semi vaulted ceilings, stunning �� !fencing.

19 Floraston Drive $345,000 - $360,000

LEONGATHAINSPECT Sun 12.00 - 12.30pm

Love The Views! 5 Acre Fantasy!

1630 Meeniyan - Mirboo North Road $475,000 - $525,000

"��#��$ ��with huge open plan living. New kitchen, laundry & bathroom, 3 BRs. Orchard & dam. Big shed + workshop. Close to Meeniyan, Leongatha & M. Nth.

MARDAN

Koonwarra Calm

83 - 85 Kookaburra Drive $450,000 - $485,000

On 1+ acre on a country lane, this 4 br, 2 bathroom, 2 living zone home has many commendable features! Outdoors is a big garage/workshop & sep. paddock for Mr Ed or a few farmyard friends.

KOONWARRA

Perfect Land, Perfect Price!

220 Martins Road $185,000 - $215,000

This perfect parcel of land, with very gentle fall, is smack dab in the middle of glorious rural surroundings, & is provided with a Planning Permit, fenced boundaries, quality pasture, a dam, & power.

MEENIYAN

‘Ferndale Cottage’

12 Old Thorpdale Road $280,000 - $300,000

‘Ferndale Cottage’ is an original timber cutter’s cottage set on an acre of landscaped gardens & lawns. Perfect for full- or part-time living, it has also been used as charming self-cater tourist accomm.

MIRBOO NORTH

Prom Country5668 1660Mirboo Nth 5662 3100 @fnpromcountry

www.promcountryre.com.au

Town House – In Town, and a Real house!The word “townhouse” really applies here! It IS in town, and it’s sized to be a REAL house. With 3 ��!'�� maintenance-free, compact allotment. Enjoy outdoor living in a private north facing courtyard, or �� (�� (�� )�� stainless appliances, direct in-home access, carport and garage, and more.

1/11 Grandridge East $260,000 - $280,000

INSPECT Sat 11.00 - 11.30am

Prestige Acre on Town Edge. The House, The Shed, The Land!Here’s a quality property in true “Australian Homestead” style. A striking pavilion-style entertainment ��(�� *��5�� area that’s usable all year round. Black granite kitchen, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, gracious “step ��(�5��6�� (��7�� (��$��doors and service pit. Walk to Leongatha’s centre: the convenience factor here is outstanding.

57 Brown Street $580,000 - $620,000

LEONGATHAINSPECT Sat 1.00 - 1.30pm

Four Acre Fabulous Farmlet!8�� #�� 9�� 7��#��(��and four bedrooms (plus spacious, fully self contained bungalow with separate living area and large bedroom). Country kitchen, covered outdoor areas, spacious living room, tall ceilings, hardwood �� #� �� #� ��(��=��minutes to Leongatha township. Huge lifestyle appeal.

990 Ruby Arawata Road $450,000 - $495,000

��

Ultra Modern Contemporary

79 Thorpdale Road $590,000 - $640,000

Superbly designed & crafted residence is in harmony with its environment, set on 4 acres complete with its own wetlands & woodlot. Perfectly appointed interior, & manicured, natural surrounds.

MIRBOO NORTH

kaz hughes0417 516 998

allen bartlett0417 274 624

lisa williams0438 133 385

janine pepyat0409 292 808

Leongatha

SOLD -

Another Wanted!

4 Acres, Views of Thousands!When your desire is for SPACE, this beautifully presented home, with stunning outlooks, on a fertile �� 9��(� ��#��J�� 97rumpus, generous family room, big hostess kitchen and roomy meals area. Four bedrooms (two king-sized), 2 bathrooms huge laundry, and sheltered enclosed barbecue area. Double lockup brick garage !(��(�� #� ��V��!7��

330 Mt Vernon Road $430,000 - $450,000

BERRYS CREEK NEW PRICEINSPECT Sat 12.00 - 12.30pm

Colour Your World!

1325 Boolarra - Mirboo North Road $440,000 - $465,000

10 acres with 3BR + study home. North-easterly ��!�� paddocks & central laneway. On a sealed road, walk to Boolarra’s facilities!

BOOLARRA

Magic of Mardan

L3 1465 Mardan Road $180,000 - $195,000

Brilliant 2.5ac parcel amongst the best of South �� X��Y=��(��(��coast, bitumen road frontage, power provided, new fencing, planning permit, and near level home site.

MARDAN

Let the Light Shine In!

69 McKitterick Street $225,000 - $250,000

Light and bright, elevated brick home where the rooms are big. Roomy kitchen with pantry, 2 spacious living areas, 2 huge bedrooms single garage. Walk to shops and bus! A little beauty!

MEENIYAN

Make This Your Castle!

31 Brown Street $250,000 - $275,000

6 ��Z��(��(��$��(�� [��and split system aircon. Covered pergola, decked pool, single garage & carport. Walk to town centre.

LEONGATHA

UNDER CONTRACT

Another Wanted!

INSPECT Sun 11.00 - 11.30am

INSPECT Sat 11.00 - 11.30am

RUBY

MIRBOO NORTH \6[]8^�8\�


STOCKDALE & Leggo Leongatha has just list-

ed a beautifully positioned home in the very sought after McCartin Street.

Only 250metres to the shopping precinct, the property is ideal for a retiree wanting an easy walk to the shops and the convenience of all the

essentials at your doorstep. The home has many periodic

features from the high ceilings, pic-ture rails, ornate ceiling roses and sash windows.

The kitchen has been updated with an abundance of cupboard space, large pantry, gas cook top and an electric wall oven.

The living area is also quite spa-

cious, with a huge dining area and lounge room.

Outside is a covered barbecue accessed via a sliding door from the dining area.

A private back yard consists of a large lock up shed with rear access.

Currently it is rented to an ex-cellent tenant returning $270 per week.

LEONGATHALocation: 96 McCartin StreetBedrooms: 3Bathrooms: 1Price: $325,000Agent: Stockdale & Leggo LeongathaContact: 5662 5800

TOCKDALE & Leggo Leongatha has just list-

ed a beautifully positioned home in the very sought after

essentials at your doorstep. The home has many periodic

features from the high ceilings, pic-ture rails, ornate ceiling roses and sash windows

cious, with a huge dining area and lounge room.

Outside is a covered barbecue accessed via a sliding door from the dining area

Yesteryear’s charm

DON’T judge this book by its cover, as there is more than

meets the eye on these four fantas-tic acres.

When your desire is for lots of space, this beautifully presented and maintained family home will satisfy.

Set to appreciate stunning outlooks, both of hills, pastures and manicured garden sur-rounds, it is set atop a fertile and accessible four acres, ideal for horses or farm animals.

This home has enough big rooms to sat-isfy the variety of uses that today’s modern family demands.

This unusually expansive home com-prises a spacious lounge with sunny north-ern aspects, a massive four square metre rumpus room, currently used as a dining hall but a full sized snooker table would have space to spare, plus a generous family room with wood fi red heater.

In addition, a generous hostess kitchen, updated with new bench tops and stainless steel appliances including a fi ve-burner hot-plate, is the absolute centre of all the living spaces.

It overlooks a big meals area with room for an extended dining table.

Four bedrooms, two are king-sized and

two bathrooms, one is fully and beautifullyrenovated, the other is impeccable.

The huge laundry and sheltered enclosedrear porch area complete the under roof linespaces.

Quality inclusions throughout includeexpanses of gleaming diagonally laid ce-ramic tiles, new carpets to most areas, highceilings with detailed cornices, tailor-madewindow furnishings, split system air condi-tioners, and ‘Warm-Crete’ fl oor heating tokitchen and meals room.

Meticulously maintained inside and out,the property has new fencing, a plus-sizeddouble garage with internal workshop,concrete driveway, and ample water tankstorage.

Additional water is available to theproperty, for stock purposes, from a springfed dam on the neighbouring farm.

Away from highway noise and posi-tioned roughly half way between Leongathaand Mirboo North, the location offers achoice of schools and work from both areas,it is commutable to both the Latrobe Valleyand Wonthaggi.

The kids and the in-laws will be happywith this getaway; it has all the comforts ofa home.

Far more than meets the eye

BERRY’S CREEKLocation: 330 Mt Vernon RoadBedroom: 4Bathroom: 2Price: $430,000 - $450,000Agent: Prom Country First NationalContact: Allen Bartlett 0417 274 624


THIS impressive well es-tablished family home is

in a very sought after loca-tion, with an easy stroll to the beach.

Boasting four generous bed-rooms, main with en suite and huge

walk-in robe, two living areas, and large kitchen with pantry, dish-washer and breakfast bar, it is sure to catch the eye.

The home is set on just over a quarter acre, which includes ma-ture cottage garden, trees, double lock up garage with full access to

rear leading to a workshop/single garage.

With beautifully established gar-dens you will be sure to entertain and enjoy this exclusive Inverloch residence.

Inspections by appointment welcome.

The great entertainer in a great location

INVERLOCHLocation: 24 Florida AvenueBedrooms: 4Bathrooms: 2Price: $749,000Agent: Alex Scott and Staff InverlochContact: 5674 1111

SITUATED in a very private location, thisfully fenced property is the most appealing

home in the street.The home has three separate elements with the down-

stairs boasting large open plan living with carpets andtiles, country kitchen and bathroom.

Upstairs features two large bedrooms with views overAnderson Inlet.

Just across the private courtyard is a separate unit fea-turing a large bedroom and two storage rooms, one ofwhich is designed to be converted to a fourth bedroom,the plumbing is in place to allow the installation of anen suite.

This property is perfect for extended families or formum and dad to get some peace and quiet, with the kidshaving their own separate space away from the mainhouse!

To complete the picture, the property boasts two boresand is within walking distance to beach number three.

This unique home will appeal to the most discern-ing buyer who doesn’t want an ordinary run-of-the-millhome.

Unique home bursting with character

VENUS BAYLocation: 8 Amanda CrescentBedrooms: 3Bathrooms: 1Price: $279,000Agent: Alex Scott and Staff, Venus BayContact: 5663 7111


FIRST time offered, this qual-ity built, three bedroom brick

home is situated in Claydon Close, a small court centrally located to schools, parkland and sports grounds.

There is a sense of space walking in the front door, with open plan living ar-eas including a large lounge, with reverse cycle air conditioner, overlooking the de-lightful gardens.

The lounge can be closed off with glass sliding doors to the adjoining fam-ily and dining areas with gas heating and tiled fl oor.

The neat and tidy kitchen has lots of

cupboards above and below benches and views to the garden.

All three bedrooms have built-in robes, the master bedroom with an en suite.

The bathroom has a separate shower and there is plenty of cupboard and stor-age space available in the wide passage.

Outside are the delightful gardens with mature trees and of course there is the vegie patch and garden shed.

There are wide verandahs and sun-blinds to keep the house cool in summer.

The large elevated block has rear lane access and would suit retirees, fi rst home buyers or investors, as it is very realisti-cally priced.

LEONGATHALocation: 3 Claydon CloseBedrooms: 3Bathrooms: 2Price: $285,000Agent: SEJ LeongathaContact: 5662 4033, Lyle Miller 0408 515 665 or Barry Redmond 0418 515 666

Delightful gardens


ANGLICAN: Tuesday, December 13: 7pm St Andrew’s, Dumbalk / St David’s, Meeniyan Fellowship.Wednesday, December 14: 11am St Peter’s Mid-Week HC.Friday, December 16: 7.30pm St David’s, Meeniyan HC.Sunday, December 18: 8am St Pe-ter’s HC; 10am St Peter’s Contem-porary Worship with HC.ST MARY’S ANGLICAN CHURCH: Mirboo North. Phone 5668 1346. Holy Communion 8.30am: Worship and Sunday School 10am.ST PAUL’S ANGLICAN CHURCH: Korumburra: Sunday 9.30am and Wednesday 11.30am. Poowong: Second and fourth Sundays, 11am.ST GEORGE’S ANGLICAN CHURCH: Wonthaggi. Sunday, 10.30am: Holy Communion & Sunday School; Monday, 7.30pm: Holy Communion; Wednesday, 8.45am: Christian prayer & medi-tation, 10am: Holy Communion.CHURCH OF ASCENSION: Inverloch, Sunday, 9am: Holy Communion & Sunday School; Tuesday, 9am: Christian prayer & meditation; 10am: Holy Com-munion; Thursday 7.30pm: Holy Communion. 5th Sunday services, alternating at Wonthaggi & Inver-loch, contact Rev Bruce Charles for details, 5672 3984.ASSEMBLIES OF GOD: Prom Coast Community Church Inc. - Foster Community House, Sta-tion Street, 10am: Sunday. Sunday School and Creche operates. Pas-tor Bill Watson 5686 2248.A.O.G. Inverloch - Cnr Bear and McIntosh Street, Inverloch. Sun-day Service 10am; Imagine Christ-mas Day Service 9am. Contact: Jeff Robertson, 0418 125 832 or Imagine Burwood 9888 7466.Korumburra Southern Hills A.O.G. - 4 Mine Rd, 10am and 6pm: Sunday. Also Children’s Church and Creche. Contact: Pas-tor Vic Butera 5655 2478. Youth: Neville Stuart ph. 0407 343 219.Leongatha South Gippsland Liberty Fellowship - 17 Michael Place, Leongatha.Sunday services: 11 am and 7pm. Office: 5662 3100.Wonthaggi A.O.G. - Billson Street, 10am: Sunday. Contact: Pastor Barry Smith 5672 3984.CHRISTIAN REVIVAL CRUSADE: 40 Hughes Street, Leongatha. Sunday, Morning Service 10.30 am: Inspirational Service, 6.30pm: Children’s Church 10.30am: Home cells weekly. For all enqui-ries contact 5664 5455.THE CHURCH AT ARCHIES CREEK: Meeting every Sunday at Archies Creek. Morning Com-munion Service 11 am: Evening

Holy Spirit Revival 6pm: Phone: Ps. Chris Chetland 5674 3867 or 5672 4660.SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST: Saturdays, Church service 10am., Leongatha Sabbath School - 11.30am. CATHOLIC: St Laurence’s Parish Leon-gatha: 5 pm Mass Saturday, 11am Mass Sunday.Tarwin Lower: In St Andrew’s Union Church, 5pm winter, 6pm summer Mass Saturday. Meeniyan: 9.30am Mass, 1st, 3rd, 5th Sundays and 11am, 2nd and 4th Sundays.Mirboo North: 11am Mass, 1st, 3rd, 5th Sundays and 9.30am Mass, 2nd and 4th Sundays.St. Joseph’s Parish Korumburra: 9.30am Sunday Mass.Loch: 5pm/6pm Daylight saving Sunday Mass. Wonthaggi: Saturday evening 6.30pm: Evening Mass; Sunday, 10.30am: Mass. Inverloch: Sun-day 9 am: Mass.KORUMBURRA’S AGLOW: First Monday every month at Korum-burra Day Centre, Korumburra Hospital, Bridge St., Korumburra at 7.45pm. Inquiries phone 5657 2214.GIPPSLAND CHRISTIAN FEL-LOWSHIP: Strongly family ori-ented church meets at The Grain Store, Mirboo North, Sundays: 4-5.10pm Communion, 5.15-6pm Bible Studies for Adults, Youth and Children. Friday evenings: Home Fellowships 7.30pm; Youth Ac-tivities. Enquiries: 5668 2226 Bob Stevens.SALVATION ARMY LEONGATHA COMMUNITY CHURCH meets at 52 Anderson Street (South Gippsland Highway) - Sunday: Family Worship at 10am: Kid’s Club - Tuesday, 4 - 5pm; mainly music, Thursday 10am. All wel-come. Please contact Captain Claire Emerton or Lieutenant Ra-chael Collins, ph. 5662 5122.SALVATION ARMY WONTHAGGI COMMUNITY CHURCH meets at 149 McKenzie Street every Sun-day at 11am for Family Worship. Kids' Club - every Tuesday at 4 pm, Women's Group - Wednes-day at 1.30pm, and Playgroup - Friday 9.30am. Evening Ladies' Fellowship - First Monday each month and Youth Groups held monthly. All welcome. Please con-tact Lt. Robyn and Max Lean. Ph. 5672 1228.PRESBYTERIAN: Weekly Wor-ship Service 10am Sunday, corner Bent and Turner Streets, Leon-gatha. Phone Rev. Dr D. Clarnette 0409 236 981 or elder Col Rump 5662 2107. CHRISTIAN REFORMED

CHURCH: Reformed Church meeting at the corner of Peart and Brown Streets. Sunday family ser-vice at 10.30am. (10am daylight saving time), creche and Sunday School available. 7.30pm service: All Sunday evenings except 1st Sunday of the month, 5pm service. Fortnightly youth activities. Home Bible Fellowship groups. Contact 5662 2527. UNITING CHURCH: Leongatha: Sunday, December 18, 10am (HC). Tarwin Lower: 10.30am. Mirboo North: 9.30am. Meeniyan: 10am. Wonthaggi: Sunday 9.30am, Family Service, all welcome. In-verloch: Sunday 11am: Korum-burra: Sunday, 9.30am: Rev. Pas-tors Gavin and Sue Sharp, 5655 1997. Arawata: 11.30am 1st & 3rd Sundays. Kongwak: 11.30am 4th Sunday.BAPTIST CHURCH KORUM-BURRA: 39 Mine Rd, Korum-burra. Service and Sunday School 10.30am. Pastor Ian Wilkinson. Phone 5658 1366.BAPTIST CHURCH WONTHAGGI: Cnr McBride & Broome Crescent, Wonthaggi. Morning Service & Children’s Activities, Sunday 10am. Weekly activities see www.wonbaptist.org.au, Pastor Geoff Pegler 5672 4769.MEENIYAN CHRISTIAN FEL-LOWSHIP: Sunday, 10am: Meeni-yan Youth Club Hall. COMBINED CHURCHES WONT-HAGGI / INVERLOCH: 4th Sun-day each month at 7pm.SCOTS PIONEER CHURCH: Mardan South. Pleasant Sunday Afternoons on the last Sunday of each month at 2pm. See occasion-al ad in this paper for details. For enquiries phone 9853 6627.FISH CREEK UNION CHURCH: 1st & 3rd Sundays, 9am; 2nd & 4th Sundays, 7pm. Contacts: Fran Grimes 5683 2650, Sue Poletti 5663 6325.

Church Times

CRYPTIC PUZZLE NO. 8303ACROSS

6. A vital incentive! (4,2,4). 8. Land and take to accountagain (4). 9. Concluding it will wear well (4). 10. Be criti-cal of the Spanish jurors (5). 11. A man who bugs you?(4). 12.Have it come back to call for again (9). 16. Thetruth about phoney hair restorers? (4,5). 20. It’s a loudcolour for him (4). 22. Become a competitor and make arecord (5). 23. The safety device you complain of (4). 24.He comes back with a new love (4). 25. Good reason forsaying a patient will pull through? (6,4).

DOWN1. Am I right in the head? Is that a sailor with a cutlass?(6). 2. Also intend to surround the soldiers (7). 3. DriveCleo off when the policeman comes in (6). 4. The fare togo to the country from town? (6). 5. A region, it is true,many to go to (5). 7. Is heard to snap “Stop!” (5). 13. Ameasure some feel loth to take (3). 14. Did father dupehim? (7). 15. Results in the turf being taken up (5). 17.Having to dress is a fag, you say (6). 18. Standing up,now, call for bravery (6). 19. Desire for a T-shirt that’squite ridiculous (6). 21. Send out East, which is stupid(5).

QUICK PUZZLE NO. 8303

ACROSS6. Plant (5-5)8. Catch (4)9. Repose (4)

10. Astonish (5)11. Hurry (4)12. Vital (9)16. Shaky (9)20. Garden pest (4)22. Swift (5)23. Promise (4)24. Tale (4)25. Great (10)

DOWN1. Stroke (6)2. Hide (7)3. Tell (6)4. Material (6)5. Bury (5)7. Stop (5)

13. Anger (3)14. Nuts (7)15. Obvious (5)17. Tore (6)18. Infuriate (6)19. False (6)21. Jar (5)

ARIES - March 21 - April 20This weekend finds you accepting offbeat invitations. You are unexpectedly outspoken, which can lead to rewards at home and work.TAURUS - April 21 - May 22A bolder Taurus delights friends and admirers and the week fi nds you surrounded by both. This is a good time to learn a new skill or brush up on a favourite hobby.GEMINI - May 23 - June 21Renovations and repair tasks are spotlighted, but avoid shortcuts and experimentation. Young relatives seek your guidance. A romantic renewal makes you feel better about yourself.CANCER - June 22 - July 22Travel plans that may have been put on hold, could be reactivated. A pet project is launched, thanks to the backing of an anonymous supporter. Public speaking earns your applause.LEO - July 23 - August 22Real estate transactions may prove favourable but don’t avoid asking questions. An aloof relative becomes much more agreeable. The ro-mantic situation requires much diplomacy and some compromise.VIRGO - August 23 - September 22The direct approach may not add to your popularity, but it leads to answers - and subsequent solutions. A travel dream is starting to materialise. In romance, the trend is positive.LIBRA - September 23 - October 22This week begins on a romantically upbeat note. Your confi dence grows when your project receives approval from a respected friend. Creative writing is highlighted.SCORPIO - October 23 - November 21Diligence at the workplace, brings recognition from a prestigious corner. Your independent nature retreats temporarily and you could become involved in various joint ventures.SAGITTARIUS - November 22 - December 22A career or academic goal is inching closer, but your dedication is vital. A loved one sees your point of view more clearly. A rival at work is willing to compromise.CAPRICORN - December 23 - January 20You enjoy hosting spontaneous gatherings and selecting your guest list proves an unexpected challenge. The week also favours laying the groundwork for a major new project.AQUARIUS - January 21 - February 19If ever you had to play the role of diplomat, this is the week. Feuding and touchy family surround you. Peace returns after the weekend and romance remains cheerful.PISCES - February 20 - March 20Attention to detail is important, especially in your professional dealings. Adventurous side trips are highlighted. A romantic un-certainty proves unfounded. Your partner is much more open.BIRTHDAY THIS WEEKEquality is your trademark and you fi ght for fairness. Watch out for that vain streak. Becoming more practical could lead to key career strides. Next year sees your creativity emerging and extending.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

LEONGATHA’s only medical clinic is turning to the public for ideas about better meeting the community’s health needs.

Leongatha Healthcare Services has established a community forum to receive feedback about the quality of care offered by the service, the community’s perception of the clinic and how the service can improve.

The clinic is also seeking to address the ongoing problem of chronic doctor shortages in the region.

Leongatha Healthcare Services has

applied for government funding to build an extra fi ve consulting rooms at its Koonwarra Road clinic and should soon know the result of that application.

More than 1000 patients are seen by doctors at Leongatha Healthcare Services’ three clinics each week and receptionists answer about 800 phone calls.

The fi rst forum held at the Koonwarra Road clinic recently was attended by Cathy Matthews, Jim Murray, doctors Hugh and Lesley Chisholm, pharmacist Brett Nagel, Star editor Brad Lester, practice manager Judy Robb and facilitated by Helen Zuidema.

Clinic probes community

Offering input: participants in Leongatha Healthcare Services’ fi rst community forum recently, from left: Dr Lesley Chisholm, Brett Nagel, Dr Hugh Chisholm, Jim Murray, facilitator Helen Zuidema, Cathy Matthews and practice manager Judy Robb.

THE Wonthaggi Agricultural, Pastoral and Horticultural Society will receive a $1078 grant from the State Govern-ment to help improve the Bass Coast Agricultural Show.

Bass MLA Ken Smith said agri-cultural and pastoral shows were a rich and valued event on the yearly calendar, providing a focus on agri-culture, craftsmanship and skilled animal handling.

“It takes a lot of work each year by a small team of dedicated volun-teers to organise the show and the Coalition Government is proud to support these volunteers by investing in grants to help improve facilities,” Mr Smith said.

He said Wonthaggi Agricultural,

Pastoral and Horticultural Society had successfully applied for $1078 to purchase pedestal/portable fans for show day and purchase portable seat-ing for exhibitions.

The society will contribute $1 for every $2 provided by the government.

“The Agricultural and Pastoral Society Grants Program is part of the Victorian Coalition Government’s commitment to rural and regional Victoria,” Mr Smith said.

“We have also reversed the re-strictive changes Labor made to pub-lic holidays which removed councils’ ability to choose their own public holiday.

“Our agricultural and pastoral shows were missing out on valuable turnover because Labor’s one-size-fi ts-all approach resulted in declining

attendance. “This program gives further sup-

port to our shows by funding im-provements to facilities that would otherwise not be upgraded.”

Mr Smith congratulated mem-bers of the Wonthaggi Agricultural, Pastoral and Horticultural Society committee for their commitment to hosting the show.

“I encourage all members of the community to support the show next year. The Wonthaggi Show, or Bass Coast Summer Show as it is known as, is a fantastic event which involves a great number of community groups, businesses and volunteers,” he said.

“The show is being held on January 14, 2012 and is looking set to be a bumper one this time, with the organisers busy making fi nal arrangements.”

Funding to boost show

K O R U M B U R R A pharmacist Davin Field has been praised for helping South Gippslanders breathe easily.

He has provided expert advice to participants of the BREATHE program run by Gippsland Southern Health Service (GSHS) for the past year and was presented with a certifi cate of appreciation for his efforts.

The BREATHE program is an eight-week respiratory rehabilitation program that runs for two hours every Friday morning at the Koru-

mburra Hospital.Respiratory problems

affect the lungs, sinuses, throat and even the ears and include disorders such as sleep apnoea, asthma, bron-chitis, pneumonia, allergies, emphysema, shortness of breath and coughs.

The program consists of a range of exercises, relax-ation techniques and health education to help people deal with their breathing problems. Clients are sup-ported by a team of profes-sionals including a respira-tory nurse, physiotherapist, dietitian, occupational ther-apist and social worker.

GSHS’s respiratory nurse and program co-ordinator, Kylie Alger said the BREATHE Program is available to anyone with a respiratory problem and people with oxygen are en-couraged to attend.

“The program provides advice and knowledge on your underlying breathing condition including the ef-fects of medication and its delivery, energy, sleep, so-cial activities and the stress that these limitations place on your life,” Ms Alger said.

She said participants in the BREATHE program

have benefi ted from havingMr Field on hand to provideexpert health advice andeducation.

“The BREATHE pro-gram has been bolstered byDavin who has generouslygiven his valuable time totalk about respiratory prob-lems, answer individualquestions and provide prac-tical advice on how to userespiratory puffers, relieversand preventers,” Ms Algersaid. To fi nd out more aboutthe BREATHE programcontact Ms Alger at Koru-mburra Hospital on 56542777.

Pharmacist offers breath of relief


A YOUNG artist quickly gain-ing acclaim in the arts world will exhibit at Gecko Studio Gallery, Fish Creek.

Sarah Dingwall presents quiet down, a collection of new paper and glass works, from December 18 to January 21.

The exhibition opens on Sunday, December 18 from 2-5pm.

“quiet down is an attempt to slow down and wonder about things. To fi nd stillness, question ideas and lose worries. Simplify like a child; listen up to the small wonders,” she said.

The 24-year-old from Mount Martha held her fi rst exhibition at Gecko in 2010 when she shared the exhibition space, but this time around Sarah has the space to herself.

The gallery’s Michael Lester is looking forward to her second show.

“We have some inkling of what to expect but there will still be lots of surprises,” he said.

“After Sarah’s fi rst show, we started stocking Sarah’s glass rings, ‘little houses’: glass enclosures that hang on a cord with a small item en-capsulated – moss, a butterfl y wing,

a grass head or the like.”The gallery then offered mes-

sages in a bottle – a little slip of text cut from an old book enclosed in a narrow tube of glass.

“More recently Sarah has sup-plied us with all manner of weird and wonderful objects: magnify-ing rings, fi shbowl rings, miniature vases, sleeping fox pendants and fox head rings, ‘all-seeing’ rings and pendants featuring an eye, tiny vial necklaces and toadstool cap rings,” Michael said.

Some of Sarah’s other creations are frosted glass pods fi lled with coloured sand that hang on the wall, specimen domes which are blown and hot sculpted, glass enclosing found materials and moss bubbles: live moss in blown glass vessels.

“Then there are the paper col-lage works. All very imaginative and mysterious; there is an ineffable quality about these works with the clever interplay between the image and text that is pure charm,” Michael said.

“There will be all of these plus much more but like everyone, we will have to wait to see what Sarah

has in store for us. I know there is some form of installation involved as I had to measure up a beam in the ceiling for Sarah.”

Sarah’s fi rst show was a great success, with many works sold.

“We have had a good number of people expressing interest in this up-coming show,” Michael said.

“We have timed the exhibition to open before Christmas as Sarah’s works are eminently suited as gifts or as an indulgence for oneself.”

Sarah completed her Bachelor of Fine Art with a major in glass in 2009, at Monash University in Melbourne. She has long been interested in the properties that are unique to glass – its magnifi cation, clarity and permanence.

Sarah works with glass though a couple of processes – glassblowing and fl ameworking. She has always been fond of shiny things, things that look edible. And if they can be worn - that’s even better.

The artist has found that glass and nature can go hand-in-hand, complementing each other, making a fi ne pair.

Admire, ponder in stillness

Glass fl air: Three Feathered Birds.

The artist: Sarah Dingwall.Complementary: Sarah Dingwall’s Boy, a match-ing piece to Girl.Thought provoking: Girl by Sarah Dingwall.

KORUMBURRA’S Community Park and Museum is a fun fi lled day out, with an events program and a friendly atmosphere.

While wandering the park, visit and chat to the wanderful volunteers in Devlin’s General Store, and O’Gilpins Drapery.

Stop in at the spinning ladies and blacksmith for demonstrations, learn about mining in the mine museum and explore a variety of domestic dwellings.

As you stroll through the grounds, say hello to Edward and Edwina the resident emus, and feed the ducks and water birds on the lake.

Grab a light lunch or Devonshire tea at the cafe next to the lake, or take a ride on the bush tramway and visit the horses

that reside down on the farm.The Coal Creek Community Gallery,

with its ever-changing exhibitions by professional artists and community groups, is popular with visitors.

The exhibitions The Ships That Shaped Australia from the Maritime Museum of Victoria, is scheduled for February 2012, and the Australian Masters’ Fine Art Investment Exhibition and Seminar, as well as information session in May 2012 where works by some of the country’s fi nest painters, including Sir Sidney Nolan, Sir William Dobell, John Olsen, Charles Blackman, John Perceval, Arthur Boyd and Sir Russell Drysdale, will be available for sale.

At Coal Creek, everything old is new again.

Coal Creek a big day outUp high: kids will love the bush tramway at Coal Creek.

MORE than 200 people attended Mirboo North’s annual Idol competition at the pool recently.

The townspeople were keen to show their support behind a pool they feared was in danger of closing earlier this year.

Solar heating meant the pool water was warm enough for swimmers and everyone enjoyed Nessie, the infl atable monster.

There was a hiccup in the preparations for Idol when it was discovered that the requested stage had been double booked, but thankfully the ever resourceful organiser called on some local assistance and a potato truck appeared as a great substitute.

South Gippsland Shire Councillor David Lewis offi cially opened the proceedings at 2pm, and Megan Harris, from 3GG was MC.

Winners were: Primary Section

First: Hayley Brown; Second: Emily Chessum; Third: Aimee Williams.

Secondary Section First: Double Collision

(Ashleigh Parker, Sinead Allen, Elliyah Salenger and Alyce Reiske); Second: Harriet Bates; Third: Joel Johnson (dance number).

Open Section First: Paul Evans; Second:

Kelly Ellington; Third: Michael McDonald.

Idol backs pool


Volunteer honour: Peter Carruthers received a 10 year medal recognis-ing his tireless service to the Leongatha Fire Brigade. Mr Carruthers was presented with the medal by CFA operations offi cer David Chugg. Mr Carruthers joined the Leongatha brigade after existing members encouraged him to participate and he held the role of communications offi cer for four years. He has enjoyed the friendships within the brigade and the community involvement.

Peter praised

THERE seems to be an inex-haustible supply of accomplished musicians in West and South Gippsland.

Though the list of past performers at Scots Pioneer Church, Mardan South, is a long and impressive one, Wendy McIn-doe, when organising the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon for November, was able to en-gage three vocalists who had not been to Mardan before.

They were Sue Coad, Barbara Jeffrey and Tracey Withall, all from the Yarram area. Accompanying themselves on string instruments and together with Pat West of Leongatha, who after some limb fractures had regained her mastery as organist, they produced The Sounds of Christmas.

Barbara Jeffrey, singer, songwriter and Celtic harpist, who is preparing her second solo album, played the harp and sang carols as well as some of her own compositions, and also gave a beautiful rendering of Danny Boy.

Tracey Withall with a background in nursing, uses her musical talents to moti-vate her charges to sing and by singing to remember the past.

At Mardan she also brought back

memories as she sang some charming du-ets with Sue Coad.

In her talk, Sue reminisced about a German Christmas as it was celebrated in her home when she was a child.

By way of illustration she produced an advent wreath with four candles, lit the candles and raised the wreath up high for all to see.

Rev Alan Dyall who as so many times before presided over the proceedings, suggested the candles represented hope, love, joy and peace respectively for the four Sundays of Advent.

Sue then sang some fi ne old German carols, Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen among them.

As some secular Christmas songs, such as Jingle Bells, and favourite carols, such as Silent Night, were not neglected, the proceedings took more than their reg-ulation hour, but no one seemed to mind.

In fact, most attendees stayed on for a Christmassy afternoon tea in the hall.

This was the last Pleasant Sunday Af-ternoon of the year. Resumption in 2012 is likely to be on the last Sunday of March.

European infl uence: Barbara Jeffrey with a Celticharp.

Carols by the light of four candles

German songs: singer Sue Coad underneath the advent wreath and Reverend Alan Dyall in the background.

THE late Frank Eeles loved Inverloch and Wonthaggi and its surrounds.

As a young boy, he hunted, fi shed and spent his whole life in the bush or on the water whenever he could get the chance.

Frank knew every fi sh-ing spot and every bit of scrub that would have a fox in it for 50 miles around.

Frank became well known from Yanakie to Nyora and farmers would welcome Frank onto their property to shoot or fi sh or just have a chat, as he had done for more than 70 years.

Frank had many friends, lived his life his way, and enjoyed a long and fulfi lling life. His was a unique character, and maintained his personality to the very end.

He will be sadly missed by his family and friends.

Francis Clifford Eeles was born on December 21, 1922 and passed away on November 24, 2011 aged 88.

He was the third of four children to Anthony and Margaret Anne Eeles, who immigrated to Australia in 1919 with their fi rst child Harold.

Anthony was a cabinet-maker and French polisher and found employment on Blacks Station at Tarwin Lower.

Frank was about three when the work at Blacks Station ended and the family moved to Dudley on the western edge of Wonthaggi, where his fa-ther began working in the new coal mines training apprentices.

Frank began his school life at a small school in Dudley, near the historical mine site that is on the side of the Bass Highway at the western entrance to Wont-haggi today.

A number of small tim-ber cottages and tents led up over the hill towards

Community man: the late Frank Eeles.

“SO MUCH to see, so much to do. Enjoy it don’t spoil it!” is the key message for summer visitors including young people celebrating the end of school in Bass Coast.

Bass Coast Shire Council communi-ty safety manager Philippa O’Halloran said council and other partnering agen-cies were sending a clear message to school leavers that Bass Coast is not a place for partying to the extreme.

“This year, we looked for ways to encourage young visitors to get out and enjoy the unique experiences that the shire has to offer,” she said.

“Council, with other partners, de-veloped the Youth Privilege Card which has been provided to all school leavers who registered with the council.

“One week into the peak time for school leavers visiting Bass Coast, our message seems to be getting through to most visitors. So far there have only

been a few incidents, and we will con-tinue to monitor the situation for the next couple of weeks.”

Mrs O’Halloran said most school leavers holiday at Inverloch and Phillip Island. “Our message this year has been to encourage young people to appreci-ate and enjoy the natural attractions of the area.

“School leavers who have registered also have access to holiday information that explains how to enjoy their time here and what they should do to look after themselves and their friends,” she said.

“There are still a few more weeks of celebration for school leavers and if residents or visitors have any concerns then please report them to police by phoning 000.”

For more information about Bass Coast Shire Council’s Summer Safety program contact their Community Safety team on 1300 BCOAST (226 278).

Safety messages working

Frank loved his community• OBITUARY

Wonthaggi. One night, one of the houses caved into a mine tunnel running underneath.

After the occupants of the cottage were rescued by removing a section of the roof that was now at ground level, it was decided that the commu-nity should move to safer ground and relocated to where South Dudley is today.

Frank grew up in South Dudley and used to recall how he and his brother Angus and their mates had a wonderful childhood fi shing in the summer, and hunting rabbits and foxes in the winter.

Frank went to Wont-haggi Technical School until gaining a carpentry apprenticeship with the State Coal Mine in 1937 at 14.

His father died and his mother moved to East Melbourne for employ-ment. Frank moved into lodgings at Mrs Hor-rocks’s Two Views Guest House in Inverloch, where he lived until he enlisted in the armed forces after fi n-ishing his apprenticeship.

He enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force in 1941 and trained as a fl ight engineer in various aircraft such as the Cat-alina Flying Boats, which were able to take off and land on water.

Frank became a lead-ing aircraftman and fought

in New Guinea and with American ground forces in the South Pacifi c islands for the duration of the war, and returned home to Aus-tralia upon discharge in 1946.

He moved to Mel-bourne for employment as a carpenter until fi nally working for a long period of time for Inge Broth-ers, a large construction company.

Frank became a fore-man and built residential and commercial buildings around what was then the outer suburbs of Balwyn, Heidelberg and Doncaster.

In the 1950s, Frank was foreman in charge of building the chapel at the Mercy Hospital and the Seminary at Glen Wa-verley, now the police academy.

Frank became engaged to Betty Ullathorne from Inverloch, and they were married at Camberwell in Melbourne in 1950.

The couple bought a house block in North Bal-wyn in 1958 and Frank built a lovely three bed-room house.

They had a daughter, Judith Anne, in 1956, then a son Craig Francis in 1961.

Frank was also a grand-father, having a grand-daughter named Elle, born in 1989.

Frank and Betty raised their family in North Balw-yn until 1966 when Frank suffered a serious eye in-jury in a work accident. He was unable to work for some period of time so he and Betty decided to move back to Inverloch to take over the local service sta-tion run by Betty’s elderly mother Lucy Ullathorne.

Frank soon became a well known fi gure in the town of what was then only 700 people.

He restarted the In-verloch Taxi Service and would drive the taxi at night after working in the service station during the day.

Frank became a Jus-tice of The Peace in the late ’70s and helped many people in the district over the following years.

Frank was a member of the Inverloch Foreshore Committee responsible for the foreshore camping areas at Screw Creek and along Ramsey Boulevard and out to Flat Rocks.

Frank used to recall how in the late sixties and early seventies up to 20,000 campers would set up throughout these camp-ing areas over the Christ-mas and new year period.

Frank worked at Ullys Service Station in Inver-loch until 1982 when he semi retired and moved to a property at Venus Street, Inverloch, where he re-mained until 2010.

Frank gained part time employment at Dowsons Service Station in Wont-haggi in 1987 and contin-ued to work there two days a week until 2007, when at the age of 84 he thought it time to retire.

By the time he retired, he had become well known around Wonthaggi as well as Inverloch.

Between 1983 and 2007 Frank also worked voluntarily at the State Coal Mine tourist attrac-tion in Wonthaggi, tak-ing groups of people on underground tours of the coal mine.

His knowledge of the underground network of mine tunnels and other historical facts was a huge asset.

Frank was a regular at the Anglican Church Sunday service and loved being a part of the church community. He was al-ways happy to assist the Anglican Church Op Shop with pick-ups of furniture.

He was still able to live at home with assistance for a further two years un-til moving into Seahaven aged care home a year ago.

THE Department of Sustainability and Envi-ronment (DSE) is reminding Victorian wildlife licence-holders to renew their licence.

All wildlife licences have a common expiry date of September 30 and licence-holders were sent a renewal notice in September this year.

However, in September there were 13,500 Victorian wildlife licences registered with DSE. Now, in November, there are 10,571 – a difference of almost 3000.

An annual basic licence costs $53.70 and an advanced licence costs $146.60.

Anyone who observes unlawful or suspicious activity involving wildlife should contact DSE on 136 186.

Renew wildlife licence


By Matt Dunn

EVERY now and again a band comes alongthat changes everything.

Stepping Stones is such a band. The tight knit ensemble of Steve Canning, Drew

Arnup, Emily Drysdale, Corran Djuric, Russell Parke,Lisa Blackman, Emily Ardley, Emma Derrick, Will Smith,Riley Smith, Ronnie Layton and guests were rocking outrecently when they provided musical entertainment tocelebrate International Day of People with a Disabilityat Inverloch.

The day offered people with a disability the chanceto try all sorts of different activities, including beachvolleyball, kiting, sand sculpting, fi shing, rock pooling,sailing, windsurfi ng and kayaking.

Stepping Stones was formed at the U Music Cafe inLeongatha (behind the Uniting Church). The not-for-profi t program offers musical tuition as well as lessonsin song writing.

The group is always looking for new members andvolunteers.

Facilitator Anne-Marie Becu said the cafe comes toloud life on a Friday.

“The players get all kinds of wonderful things outof this – music, social interaction. It’s a really beautifulafternoon. It gets people who’ve never had a chance totry an instrument a go,” she said.

“It’s a really evolving program.”For details of the U Music Cafe call 5659 2385.

y

By Matt Dunn

EVERY now and again a band comes along

Musicians rock beach-side

Rocking out: Russell Parke tells it how it is to an inspired Stepping Stones set at Inverloch recently.

Ronnie Layton: the creative bass player was on song.

Keeping the beat: Riley Smith kept the beat as Stepping Stones went into overdrive.

THE much antici-pated Wonthaggi Centennial Centre is ready for visitors.

The centre will be open on Thursday, December 15 from 10am to noon, ahead of the offi cial opening of the centre early next year.

Bass Coast mayor Cr Veronica Dowman said the open day is an opportunity to be amongst the fi rst peo-ple to enjoy the new centre.The new centre represents the fi nal part of Wonthag-gi’s Centenary celebrations and has been a joint project between the Rotary Club of Wonthaggi and Bass Coast Shire Council.

“The building is a new landmark for the town and a fi tting legacy of an historical milestone in our history,” Cr Dowman said.

This new expansive building houses the Won-thaggi Visitor Information Centre, relocated from Watt Street. The centre also contains a meeting space which can be booked by community members and organisations for meetings and functions.

“It is symbolic that this visitor information centre features a display about the State Coal Mine, cele-brating the mining history of Wonthaggi and inviting people to experience the Mine today,” Cr Dowman said.

“Wonthaggi was founded on mining and

Centennial centre to open for inspection

All done: tradespeople put the fi nishing touches on landscaping at the new Wonthaggi Centennial Centre.100 years later this centre welcomes people to our town to share this experi-ence, and many of our other attractions.

“This centre well and truly puts Wonthaggi on the map as a place that has so much to explore.”

Neville Goodwin, presi-dent of the Rotary Club of Wonthaggi, said the club was delighted to see the new centre completed. “It is a number of years since we approached council to work together on this project, and we are very pleased to see the new centre open.

“It provides a great new facility for visitors to the region and the Wonthaggi community. The Rotary Club is proud to have played

a part in making it happen,” Mr Goodwin said.

Council’s community and economic development director, Steven Piasente, said the centre was designed by Caroline McPhee, a local architect who won a design competition.

“You can’t miss this striking building as you ap-proach Wonthaggi on the Bass Highway. The char-coal coloured exterior is eye catching and is all part of a well thought through design.

“The centre incorpo-rates the look and feel of a coal mine, making the link to Wonthaggi’s coal mining past. We are very pleased with the way the new build-ing has come together and

that the project has been completed on time and within budget.

“Visitor information centre staff and volunteers are very excited to be work-ing in a new centre and are ready for the busy summer holiday season.”

The $1.5 million Wont-haggi Centennial Centre was jointly funded by the Feder-al Government through the Regional and Local Com-munity Infrastructure Pro-gram ($1.1million), the State Government Sustainable Small Towns Development Fund ($300,000), Wont-haggi Rotary ($30,000) and Bass Coast Shire Council ($185,000).

LACHLAN Robin Jason Cooke was born on November 25 at Leongatha Memo-rial Hospital. He is the second child for Jason and Jacinta Cooke of Leongatha. Lachlan is a brother to Jesse, 3.

By Simone Short

THERE are plenty of things a good brass band should have: plenty of cornets, good tone and perfect harmony.

White ants however, don’t quite make the list.

After rehearsing in their current band room for 34 years, the Wonthaggi Citizens Band has fi nally decided an upgrade is required.

The fi rst band room was built just over 100 years ago, with the band celebrating its centenary last year.

In 1977, they received a new building from the Friendly Society, but committee member Paul Jamieson, who is overseeing the development, said almost four decades later they’d reached their limit when it came to extensions and additions.

“We’ve added toilets, a library and doubled the size of the hall and started looking at adding another extension in 2014,” he said.

“But then the Coalition Government promised us $80,000 if they were elected and when you add that to around $120,000 of our own funds, a brand new building was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

Bass Coast Shire Council offered to buy the land and building at one stage, but Mr Jamieson said as the band owns the site, it was not practical for them to sell.

Secretary Chris Longstaff said a new room would give the band more valuable

storage space, as well as an increased re-hearsal area.

“It is currently infested with white ants, so any thought of a rebuild or addition to it would not be practical,” he said.

“We feel with the funds that have come our way, we can afford to do a rebuild and take us into the next century.”

With a wide range of age-groups in-volved in the band, lasting into the next century is just what the band needs.

The youngest player is only 10-years-old, while the oldest is 81.

President Mike Kershaw said a lot of people were guarantors of the initial build-ing and a new one would continue their legacy.

As well as grants and savings, the band will raise money through holding concerts and is also receiving support from local businesses.

“Time donated by sub-contractors and other support has helped to reduce costs and the band hopes to meet any shortfall necessary by selling bricks to the public,” Mr Jamieson said.

“We’re currently waiting on a plan-ning permit through the council and hope to start building in the next six to 12 months.”

The new facilities also won’t need constant repairs and high maintenance, as required by the current building.

The band will seek alternate facilities to use for rehearsals while their building is under construction.

Band plays for the future

Plans for a new room: Wonthaggi Citizens Band vice-president Fred Heesh, committee member Paul Jamieson and president Mike Kershaw study the plans for a much needed brand new band room.


Meals roster

(Leongatha)A. Heide & S. Smith and South Gippsland Shire Council (all week), K. Davis & E. Derrick (Mon, Wed, Thur, Fri) and Na-tional Bank (Tues) will be responsible for the deliv-ery of meals on wheels, the week beginning De-cember 19, 2011.

ALMOST three years on from the horrendous Black Satur-day bushfi res, nine students from Marysville Primary School were given an oppor-tunity to enjoy a week off.

The staff from Camp Rumbug at Foster North covered the costs of

a three day camp, which involved a range of activities from swing-ing ropes, archery and commando courses.

The Grade 5 and 6 children’s bright smiles warmed the hearts of the camp staff, especially owner and director Ben Wallis.

“They’re a regular client with us

here, so it’s good to be able to givesomething back to them after whatthey’ve been through,” he said.

“We really appreciate the sup-port from Lilydale Primary Schoolas well. They’ve been kind enoughto let Maryville share the camp forthree days.”

ALMOST three years on from the horrendous Black Satur-day bushfi res, nine students from Marysville Primary

a three day camp, which involved a range of activities from swing-ing ropes, archery and commando courses.

Th G d 5 d 6 hild ’

here, so it’s good to be able to give something back to them after whatthey’ve been through,” he said.

“We really appreciate the sup-

Rumbug reaches out

Easy as you like: Jessie of Marysville Primarytakes it easy on the giant swing.

Roping them in: Ian Sutton (rear) shows the Marysville students and teacher Diana Hill (front) how to do some rope tricks. Nailed it: Charlie from Lilydale Primary School

shows off his skills in the archery activity.

GRAFFITI is something that nobody wants to see.

Leading Senior Constable Brett Godden from the Latrobe Valley Safer Communities Unit may have a productive way to de-ter vandals and also catch them.

He co-ordinates the Morwell Neighbourhood Watch and Safer Communities Group’s (NHW/SCG) Anti-Graffi ti Team which is made up of willing volunteers.

“Gerard Traynor and Betty Glass lead the team and do all the recording and cleaning them-selves,” Leading S/C Godden said.

“It’s a system that works re-ally well in Morwell.”

Volunteers record the graffi ti when it is reported, take a photo of the ‘tag’, then clean off the surface.

“This deters vandals from re-offending if they know it will just be cleaned off,” Leading S/C Godden said.

“It’s also a great way to know which of the graffi ti artists are still tagging property.”

The system helped catch a vandal and connect him with over 60 different graffi ti tags around Morwell.

“If anybody with some time on their hands would like to vol-unteer, maybe we can get a simi-lar program up and running in South Gippsland and Bass Coast towns,” Leading S/C Godden said.

“This system works for me and can be adapted to run well with local police stations in the area.

“I will gladly help out in get-ting a program like this off the ground in South Gippsland and Bass Coast.”

Bass Coast Shire Council in-frastructure director, Felicity Sist, was not open to having this initia-tive in the shire.

“It is unlikely that council would choose to have a volunteer run graffi ti removal team, as this work would need to be closely supervised. The team would need to be trained and we would need to ensure occupational health and

safety and risk obligations were met,” she said.

“Currently graffi ti removal in Bass Coast is undertaken by council’s public amenity cleaning contractor: a local fi rm that em-ploys local people.

“Council has a number of ar-eas that use volunteers and we really value the work that they do. They work in areas such as environment, visitor information services, community services and community committees.”

Director of community servic-es at the South Gippsland Shire Council, Jan Martin said that council would welcome the idea.

“First of all I don’t think South Gippsland has a particular prob-lem with graffi ti, like some other communities. It’s not splashed around and there’s a real sense of community pride here,” she said.

“If there was a community group that wants to take owner-ship of graffi ti removal, then of course the council would be open to looking at how we could look at that group. We’d want it to be

an initiative from a community group.

“Volunteers doing it would generate an improved sense of town and community pride. Why wouldn’t we support something like that?”

The program would not be without its restrictions though.

“We would defi nitely want to have some parameters of what buildings graffi ti was removed from,” Ms Martin said.

“Decisions would have to be made as to whether it was coun-cil’s public places or if it extend-ed into private properties, there’d have to be protocol and proce-dures established that would be agreed upon.

“I think the important thing from our point of view is that it would need to be community driven.”

If you’re interested in taking part in such a program contact Leading S/C Brett Godden on 5131 5085.

Police call for graffi ti task force

By Liam Charles

ENVIRONMENTAL issues are currently at the forefront of the national debate.

In Canberra, a battle is raging over the Gillard Government’s new carbon tax and a plan to forcibly acquire thousands of gi-galitres from irrigators for

environmental fl ows in the Murray Darling Basin.

Despite the question-able benefi ts of these poli-cies, there is one ground-breaking environmental project in Australia that will undoubtedly benefi t the citizenry.

It is located right in the heart of Bass Coast Shire. It is the Cape Paterson Ecovillage, the brainchild

of entrepreneur Brendan Condon.

The company behind the project launched its Zero Carbon Study to wide acclaim at the Alternative Technology Association in Melbourne recently.

The report was offi cial-ly launched by Bass MLA Ken Smith, before more than 70 guests, including representatives from Bass

Pays to be green: carbon studyCoast Shire Council, Vic-torian housing industry and superannuation funds, as well as residents.

According to Mr Con-don: “The fi ndings from this study have the poten-tial to positively impact the lives of individuals across Victoria and radi-cally reshape the built environment.

“With electricity prices rising due to new Fed-eral and State government mandates, Gippslanders are looking to pinch every penny.”

Mr Condon believes the answer may lie in new green developments, such as the Cape Paterson Ecovillage.

Its carbon-neutral dwellings contain state of the art green technology, such as solar photovol-taics, space heating and cooling systems, evacu-ated tube solar hot water

systems and 10,000 litrerainwater tanks.

The buildings are de-signed to accommodatebreakthrough technology,such as the electric car.The savings these innova-tions unleash is dramatic.

According to the study,when compared to an or-dinary new home, theseground-breaking neweco-technologies provideinvestment returns of be-tween 5.9 per cent and 10per cent after tax based onfuture energy and watersavings.

The study also notesthat “cumulative savingson energy bills and mort-gage payments could ex-ceed $300,000.”

Construction of modelhomes is expected to startin 2012, with houses goingon the market in the latterhalf of that year.


A STRONG, new force is building in the wine produc-ing region of South Gippsland as local producers recognise there is strength in numbers.

With a cool, wet climate perfect for producing fi ne chardonnays and long lived pinot noir, South Gippsland is gaining recognition in the wine world, with many local vineyards taking out prestigious awards.

To assemble the best examples of these two varieties to present to the wine trade and general public alike, the South Gippsland Wine Inc was formed with the intention of sending a clear message of regional excellence.

The group also shows a united and professional front, demonstrating South Gippsland as a cohesive force in cool-

Wine group gains fl avour

Stylish occasion: Michael Turton, cellar master at Archies on the Creek with wine-maker Marcus Satchell, Rick Lacy from Purple Hen Vineyard and John Ellis from Bellvale Wines at the inaugural South Gippsland Wine Inc dinner.

PARKS Victoria aims to recom-mence the Spartina control pro-gram in South Gippsland.

The agency will join with Melbourne Water and West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA) to spray the weed around the coastal areas of Corner Inlet, Anderson Inlet, Bass River estuary and Tooradin.

The Spartina control operation will involve large-scale spraying approach-es, including helicopter, boat, hover-craft, quad-bike as well as on foot.

The program has been in operation for several years now to ensure land, estuary and coastal public lands are treated for Spartina.

Parks Victoria ranger in charge South Gippsland, Gerard Delaney, said these local bays and estuaries host one of the world’ s most diverse and unique marine environments, covering a com-plex network of ecological communi-ties, from sandy beach and saltmarsh, through to mangroves, seagrass mead-ows and open water.

“Within this Victorian Embayments

bioregion, Corner Inlet, Western Port, and Port Phillip Bay are three interna-tionally-recognised Ramsar sites that provide critical feeding and roosting habitats for migratory waders and the Orange-bellied Parrot”, Mr Delaney said.

“It also has the southernmost occur-rence of White Mangroves, and the mi-gratory bird routes of the East Asian – Australasian and West Pacifi c Flyways lie in range.”

One of the main threats to the Ram-sar sites within this bioregion is the spread of Spartina (also known as Rice Grass or Cordgrass) in its intertidal ar-eas.

This is an aggressively invasive weed introduced in the 1920s to combat coastal erosion and reclaim mud fl ats. Back then, it wasn’t widely understood that the mud fl ats were part of a delicate ecosystem, and that Spartina would se-riously degrade its waterbird habitat by smothering critical feeding and roost-ing areas.

Nor was it known that Spartina would compete with the indigenous

plants, alter the natural hydrology and sedimentation patterns, and in turn limit habitats of fi sh species and restrict wa-terways.

WGCMA CEO Martin Fuller said: “Spartina control is one of the key projects undertaken to help improve the health of Corner Inlet as part of the Corner Inlet Connections program. Working in partnership with other or-ganisations helps us to achieve more effective control of a weed which has a signifi cant impact on our coastal areas.”

As Spartina is biologically well-equipped for rapid spread, an effective control program requires community involvement and collaboration.

If you believe you have Spartina on your property and would like it includ-ed in the treatment program, please call Les Leunig at Parks Victoria Foster on 5683 9001 or Steve Llewellyn at Mel-bourne Water on 9237 3942.

For further information, contact the Parks Victoria Information Centre on 13 19 63 or visit www.parks.vic.gov.au

Spartina to be tackled on coast

All fronts: authorities will spray Spartina from the water and the air.

climate viticulture.The inaugural

South Gippsland Wine Showcase was held at Archies on the Creek in the form of a degustation dinner recently.

Flights of the fi nest wines were matched to fi ne local produce, bringing together for the fi rst time the owner/operators of 10

top vineyards. Included were

Bellvale, Caledonia Australis, Clare de Lune, djinta djinta, Lithostylis, Lucinda Estate, Mardan Hills, Purple Hen, Waratah Hills and Windy Ridge, representing a region from Phillip Island to Foster and Korumburra to Inverloch.

With many new and emerging vineyards not yet having their own cellar doors established, Archies on the Creek is proud to be able to support South Gippsland Wine Inc by showcasing their wines in their impressive cellar, and looks forward to hosting the group’s fi rst trade show in January.

THE South Gippsland branch of the Liberal Party held its annual general meeting at the Leongatha RSL recently.

Geoff Dean was elected as president, Jo Carter as female vice-president and Richard Jackson as male vice-president. Betty Benson was named secretary and John Kurrle treasurer. Members are working toward a special night, Russell at the Rustle (RSL).

Instead of throwing your slippers at the television or shouting at the radio or screwing the paper up in frustration, for $10 people are welcome to come along, listen, ask questions and enjoy a supper with federal Liberal MP for McMillan, Russell Broadbent on Wednesday night, February 22.

Liberals name leader

Coastal board seeks membersNOMINATIONS are being sought for vacant positions on the Gippsland Coastal Board.

Department of Sustainability and Environment regional director, Mike Timpano, is seeking new ideas.

“The Gippsland Coastal Board ensures co-ordination, planning and management of the coast and marine environment throughout the coastal region, from San Remo to Malla-coota, helping to preserve the envi-

ronmental, conservation and recre-ational values of the public land and marine waters,” he said.

“Regional coastal boards work closely with the Victorian Coastal Council to provide the strategic di-rection and co-ordination of coastal planning for Victoria’s 2000km of coastline.

Boards comprise a mix of mem-bers with particular expertise and qualifi cations, and members who are experienced in stakeholder relations

and community engagement. Coastal Board members meet a

minimum of fi ve times per year and decision-making is supported by board subcommittees.

Expressions of interest close on Wednesday, December 14 at 5pm. Additional information and applica-tion forms can be obtained from the Department of Sustainability and Environment website, www.dse.vic.gov.au/onboard

FOSTER Primary School stu-dents were busking their way to a small fortune last week.

But no one was singing, juggling or playing guitar. Instead the students were on the mic, reading the world their favourite books – with the support of Foster’s Little Bookshop.

A guitar case full of coins – not to mention one $20 note – was testament to their success.

School councillor Alex Ellis described the busking as a “novel way to raise money”.

“It really encourages reading, helps us express our core shared values and establishes a link with the local community,” she said.

The collected money will be channelled back into the school, with plans for a major upgrade of the Grade 3/4 facilities.

Buskers read out loud

Well read: Foster Primary School’s Ethan Burrow, Ashley Cripps, Mad-ison Thompson, Gracie Thorburn, Bella Thorpe and Josie Cockerill did some busking to raise vital funds for their school.

All set: before the Wont-haggi Community Garden Celebration Day, some of the members of Headway Gippsland’s Wonthaggi So-cial Support Group got to-gether to erect the Headway sign on their Wonthaggi Community Garden plot. The sign writing was done by Carren and her son Grant. Pictured here are proud members Bruce, Carren, Brian, Martin, co-ordinator Lyndon, John and Sandra.


Retail backing: the team from Michael’s Supa IGA supermar-kets in Leongatha and Korumburra, Landcare sponsors. From left: John Markham, Chris O’Leary and Vince Andronaco.

What a night: from left, Karen Garner, Sheryl Harris, Marg Tattersall and Christine Skicko catch up at the GAT awards, the night of nights in theatre for the region.

Friendly: Christine Skicko and Peter McAlpine soak up the fun at the the-atre awards in Trafalgar recently.

Arts guru: the ABC’s arts commenta-tor Barry Whitehead chats with Break a Leg’s Daniel Clancy at the theatre awards.

Social times: Rhonda Melhuish and Lindy Waldron soak up the atmosphere at the GAT awards.

Theatre talk: from left, Judy Wilson, Peter McAlpine, Britt Lewis and Will Hanley talk shop at the theatre awards.

Across the board: they came from everywhere for the theatre awards night, from left, Dianne Paragreen, Peter McAlpine, Karen Garner and Sheryl Harris.

Lyric celebrates: director of Jekyll and Hyde, Nathan Eva, caught up with his leading ladies Brodie Dorling and Liz Barry at the Gippsland Associated Theatre awards.

Corner Inlet men: South Gippsland Landcare Network board member Arie Bos chats with South Gippsland Water’s environment officer Martin Chatfield at the Landcare sponsors lunch last Thursday.

Top level: Dawn Marotti, treasurer of the South Gippsland Landcare Net-work, shares her experiences with Landcare Australia’s Amy Gillett (left) and Christina Maloney.

Theatre followers: Cheryl Connor and Jo Stringer were out and about at the theatre awards in Trafalgar.


• Care to Dance, Leongatha• South Gippsland Landcare Network sponsors lunch, Leongatha• Wonthaggi Christmas festivities• Gippsland Associated Theatre awards, Trafalgar• International Day of People with a Disability, Leongatha and Inverloch

Cute: the young elephants dance group proved a real hit at the Care to Dance event in Leon-gatha. From left: Phoebe Collins, Alicia McGrath and Remy Jams.

The Tucans: ready to hit the stage are, from left, Dukota Kemp, Matilda Fall and Montana Kranen.

Walk tall: friendly giraffes at the dance concert were Alfie and Sullie Herbert, pictured with Merrin Giles (centre).

Tribal dancers: some of the senior group performing at the Care to Dance concert were, from left: Georgia Riseley, Aimee O’Loughlin, Abbie Watchorn and Renee Eddy.

Drum beat: Emily Ardley bashes away on the drums on International Day of People with a Disability cel-ebrations in Leongatha recently.

Clowning around: Pockets the clown made an appearance at the Wonthaggi Business Association’s Christmas festivities.

Colourful Parrots: the Jungle Rhythm theme of the dance concert provided some great costumes. Back, from left: Molly Kent, Courtney Allen, Ella Lyons, Isla Hickey, Chelsea Markley. Front: Kasey Stoops, Sophie Allen, Ainslee Logan, Ruby Box, Zahli Charlton and Alicia Marshman.

Ready to ride: Sean Subritzky gets some lessons on a windsurfer as part of the Inverloch celebrations of International Day of People with a Disability recently.

Lunch-time do: South Gippsland Land-care Network board member Jean Car-nell touches base with Tina Paterson of Westpac Bank in Leongatha and Amy Waters, Innovative Creations graphic design.

Man talk: South Gippsland Landcare Network board members Mark Walters and Rob Jones (both at left) chat with Phill McGarry of the West Gippsland Catchment Management Au-thority and South Gippsland Water’s John Anderson.

The leads: Sahari was played by Janie Gordon, left, while the role of Trick-ster went to Helen Brew.


By Jane Ross

MARIA Armistead had never heard of Al-lambee Reserve before she met Jeff Gray.

He was working in Melbourne and raising cattle and calves part-time on his hilly acre-age in South Gippsland.

One day, he asked Maria if she’d like to “come to the farm for lunch”.

She was very taken with its beauty – and with the farming practices as he explained them to her.

“I realised what he was doing was special.

“I had no farming experience but I soaked it like a sponge.”

The times were tough. There was drought and Jeff was selling his cattle for next to nothing, but the couple de-cided to move to the farm permanently, to see if they could make it work.

They shifted on the weekend of the Black Saturday bushfi res, so the launch of their full-time farming life was fraught.

Knowing the growing market for chemical-free pro-duce, Maria had a brilliant idea.

“Let’s try and sell the meat online.”The response surprised them both and so Gippsland

Pasturefed Meat was born. Jeff and Maria augment their online business by attending farmers’ markets where the aroma of their sizzling gourmet sausages draws the crowds. They have supported the fl edgling Coal Creek Farmers Market in Korumburra, watching it grow in 12 months to, as Maria said, “having the reputation of being a really good accredited farmers’ market”.

Jeff and Maria’s farm is not registered as certifi ed or-ganic, but the couple practise organic farming methods and call themselves biological farmers.

Unusually, they grow three kinds of animals.“It’s a lot of hard work!” Maria declared.Their sheep, cattle and pigs are free range and, with the

kindness and care they receive, are stress free.Maria is so fond of them, she used to wave them a sad

“goodbye” every time Jeff took a truckload to the abattoir. But she got over that pretty quickly.

“Now I say there goes three kilos of sausages!”She was so interested in the farm and farming prac-

tices, she did a lot of research, ever thirsty to learn more. She undertook a BeefCheque course, and she and Jeff use

their own microscope to test compost and soil

for fertility, looking for worms, good bacteria and fungi and other nutri-ents. Seasol fer-tiliser and com-post teas (an old technique) are used on the pasture.

Jeff and Ma-ria breed and raise

Belgian Blue cross cattle. They’ve cho-

sen the breed for its lean, tender cuts which

are low in cholesterol. Their website says Belgian

Blue beef is highly sought after by butchers as its double muscling

produces more of the better cuts such as rump steak.

The meat is suited to stir fries, grilling or quick bar-becues and roasts. The cattle feed only on pasture, giving a sweeter and milder fl avour. Young calves remain with their mothers indefi nitely and are paddock weaned when they’re ready. Jeff takes them to the abattoir when they’re around a year old.

Meat is delivered free in the metropolitan area, pack-aged and snap frozen. Regional customers can contact Jeff and Maria on [email protected]

The couple does all the animal handling and don’t use dogs, to keep the creatures as stress free as possible.

The old English Wessex Saddleback pigs are bred on the farm. The breed is rare and listed as critically endangered.

Jeff and Maria’s breeding stock is registered with The Australian Pig Breeders Association Limited.

Their Gippsland Pasturefed Meat website says saddle-backs are well suited to a free-range environment and are considered one of the best eating pigs. They are on a sepa-rate section of the Allambee Reserve farm and, according to Maria, are “extremely diffi cult and demanding”.

“That’s why there are so few free range pig farmers.”Maria said you have to think like a pig in order to be

able to manage them. Their tails aren’t docked, nor are their teeth clipped and nose rings are not used, so the pigs can dig and play in the mud.

The sheep are much easier.Jeff and Maria carry a small herd of Black Faced Suf-

folk, known for their succulent meat, rather than for their wool. Lambs are born all black, slowly changing as they grow to white with a black face and feet.

Maria said this has been a bad year for lambing.“The mud here is pretty bad and we’ve lost quite a few

because of the conditions. It’s been very wet underfoot.”

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By Jane Ross

Couple favours biological approach

Popular: Jeff Gray and Maria Armistead are a welcome part of the Coal CreekFarmers’ Market. Their gourmet sausages are delicious!

Breed: a Belgian Blue bull on the Allambee Reserve farm. The breed produces lean and tender meat.

Hard workers: Maria Armistead and Jeff Gray on their Allambee Reserve farm.

Rare: the endangered Wessex Saddleback pigs are valued for their top meat.

SOUTH Gippsland Water is cur-rently investigating the theft of water from fi re hydrants across the region.

This theft is not only illegal but is causing damage to South Gippsland Water assets which, in times of emer-gency, are imperative for our emergency services.

Over recent weeks, South Gipps-land Water has received numerous de-tailed reports of water theft from fi re hydrants.

The corporation is currently inves-tigating these reports. Many of these reports are of companies who use bulk water as part of their work.

These companies and any other or-ganisations or people who require bulk

water should use South Gippsland Wa-ter’s standpipes, negating the need for anyone other than the emergency serv-ices to use hydrants.

South Gippsland Water has a number of standpipes across the region where water carriers can access bulk water. Anyone wishing to use these standpipes should contact South Gippsland Water on 1300 851 636 who will draw up a supply agreement and provide the car-rier with access.

South Gippsland Water wishes to remind individuals and businesses that it is illegal to use a fi re hydrant for pur-poses other than fi re-fi ghting, and that it will seek to press charges where wa-ter is stolen or damage has occurred to assets.

Fire hydrants stolen


By Tessa Hayward

GRADE 6 students from around the dis-trict attended Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College’s ori-entation day as part of the transition process to Year 7, last week.

The program is a really valuable way of helping kids settle in at the start of semester one next year, at the Leongatha school.

Junior school co-ordi-nator Tara Cox said they received a lot of positive feedback from students and parents.

“They were very pleased. It was a really suc-cessful day,” she said.

The 2012 Year 7 students were put into groups for the day to get to know students from other schools.

Ms Cox said: “The tran-sition program really helps the students as it gets them used to how the school op-erates and they get to meet some current students.”

The transition program will continue into the start of next year with an excur-sion to Inverloch and the Year 7 camp.

Ms Cox would like to acknowledge the wonderful job the Year 7 class captains did in assisting the Grade 6s.

“They were very mature and took on the responsibil-ity,” she said.

Big adventure: Renee Mizza and Hayley Flynn are excited about becoming Year 7 students at Mary MacKillop next year.

Students settle into high school

New territory: Josh Hayward, Zac Vandelft, Trent Westaway, Lachie Thom-as, Brock Watchorn and Teneisha Lee-Brown explore one of the Year 7classrooms.

New friends: Olivia Howell, Hannah Carew and Jack Norton had a fantastictime meeting their classmates for next year at Mary MacKillop Catholic Re-gional College.

Activities galore: Gabrielle Holian, Cassidy Bowman, Jakeb Stahl and Tyson Chandler participated in an activity at the Grade 6 orientation day.

WARATAH Beach Surf Life Sav-ing Club received a generous do-nation from the Toora and District Community Bank Branch and Fos-ter Branch.

A grant of $3000 from the bank branch-es was put towards a new infl atable rescue boat motor.

Club president Julian Meagher said the club was extremely grateful to the banks.

“Volunteering is a costly business. Our insurance bill alone is over $10,000 so the club relies on grants and fundraising to en-sure we can continue to operate and keep our equipment in top condition,” he said.

“Unfortunately there is a misperception in the community that we already get a lot of support from the State Government or through council.

“While they do contribute, we are most reliant on our members and the community to help raise the funds needed to keep us on the beach ready to save lives.”

Mr Meagher said assistance provided

through the Bendigo Bank and other grants was vital in ensuring they can retire old and damaged equipment.

“The sun, surf and sand do take their toll all too quickly,” he said.

“Motors last about three years and boats start to deteriorate after fi ve years, so we are always on the lookout for sponsors and grants that we can use to help offset the cost of replacement.”

Toora manager John Stone and Foster branch manager Allison Drury were pleased to present Mr Meagher with the cheque.

“The bank is delighted to be able to as-sist our volunteer and community groups to continue their worthwhile work,” he said.

“It is another measure of the bank’s com-mitment and willingness to be an important part of the community by contributing back into our community.”

With last weekend the start of the life saving season, the club has taken delivery of the motor fully set up and ready to go in the surf.

Community bank to the rescue

Supporting life savers: Waratah Beach Surf Life Saving Club president Julian Meagher receives a cheque from Toora and District Community Bank Branch manager John Stone and Foster branch manager Allison Drury.

by Liam Charles

THE Bass Coast Special-ist School will receive fund-ing for a welfare offi cer next yesar.

Bass MLA Ken Smith announced the State Government would fund the position at the Wonthaggi school.

The school was among the fi rst to receive funding for a welfare offi cer, after the Coalition upheld its $124.4 million election promise to fund an additional 150 welfare offi cers over the next four years.

Under the Coalition’s plan, in time, every Victorian primary school will have access to a specialised welfare offi cer. The position is de-signed to help stamp out bullying and provide much needed support to struggling students and families. Principal Sue Campbell said this was “fantastic news” for the recently minted Bass Coast Specialist School, with benefi ts fl owing to “the entire community.”

Education Minister Martin Dixon recently noted the primary welfare offi cer scheme has “widespread sup-port” among Victorian principals,

with “enormous improvements being recorded in student behaviour and learning.”

The Primary Welfare Offi cer Ini-tiative is one of a number of initia-tives the Victorian Government has committed to in order to crush the scourge of bullying.

Under the $10.5 million eSmart initiative, South Gippsland schools will receive additional funding to tackle cyber bulling. A further $2 million has been committed to help teachers manage classroom behav-iour, through vigorous professional development.

Welfare offi cer bound for school

KORUMBURRA’S caravan waste point is looking for a new keeper of the key.

Doug Appleton from the Korumburra Showgrounds Committee said the site has to be locked at all times.

“As part of the deal with South Gippsland Water we have to have the lid locked,” he said.

“Otherwise we might have people dumping all kinds of harmful chemicals down there which can ruin the treatment plants.”

The key for the dump point is currently kept at the Korumburra Tourist Park which is situated on the op-posite side of the town to the dump point at the show-grounds complex.

“We’ve had people com-plain about having to travel to the caravan park and not being able to turn around in their RVs and going out of

their way to return the key again,” Mr Appleton said.

“I have already ap-proached some businesses but they didn’t want to take on the responsibility.”

South Gippsland Shire Council’s manager of cus-tomer relations Christian Stefani said the dump point is great for the town.

“By having the dump point, it gets people to stop, refuel, grab something to eat and spend money in Korumburra while they’re there,” he said.

“We just need someone who is available during day-light hours who can hang on to the key,” Mr Appleton said.

“Preferably situated close to the showgrounds and dump point would be best.”

If you are interested in holding the key please contact Doug Appleton on 5655 2923.

Volunteer needed From pages pastHistorical snippets from The StarOne year ago,

December 14, 2010FORMER AFL foot-

ballers Matthew Lloyd and Tony Shaw cycled through Leongatha last Friday. The stars were riding from Tra-ralgon to Inverloch as part of the Yooralla Great Vic Trek fundraiser.

****A STEADY stream of

South Gippslanders are continuing to switch to digital television.

Five years ago, December 12, 2006

ANOTHER hot week-end has further stressed Leongatha’s meager water supplies, with the holding barely hovering at 15 per cent of its capacity.

****THIS Saturday will be

a sad day for the commu-nity of Bena. Residents,

past and present, will gather to say goodbye to Bena Primary School, number 3062.

10 years ago, December 18, 2001

LEONGATHA is ex-periencing a development boom that will escalate next year.

****CHANGES to VCE

assessment didn’t faze South Gippsland’s 2001 crop of Year 12s – they have fi nished with some of the best school results yet.

30 years ago, December 15, 1981

WILSONS Promon-tory staff are preparing to cater for a ‘tent town’ as big as Leongatha over this Christmas period.


MARK Lindsay of Inverloch is $2000 richer after losing 10.2 per cent body fat.

He won I Choose Awesome’s spring 12 week challenge, with more people than ever involved at the Inverloch health centre.

Of the 140 entrants, 80 completed the challenge, with 400kg of fat being the fi nal amount of weight lost by all who fi nished.

The average amount of weight lost by each competitor was 5kg over the course of the 12 weeks - an absolutely phenomenal effort by all involved.

In second place nipping at Mark’s heels was Trevor Foon of Wonthaggi, who lost 10 per cent body fat. Brook Love lost 8.6 per cent body fat to place third.

The presentation afternoon was held at the Inlet Hotel at Inverloch recently.

Other notable award recipients were: Aaron Rigby (most weight lost male, 18kg), Gabe Windsor (most weight lost female, 12kg), Sam Wightman (awesome lifestyle

transformation), Jenny ‘Team Leader’ Mulqueeny (awesome attitude), Lawrence Donald (awesome commitment) and Georgina Stanlake (awesome body transformation).

I Choose Awesome director Kallum Fidoe said: “I know it’s cliché, but the real winner today was everyone’s health. We are just so proud of everyone who got involved and the healthy changes they have been able to successfully apply to their lives over the past 12 weeks.

“Now is the easy part - maintaining those changes. The whole point of the challenge itself is to get people adopting healthier lifestyle habits and making people aware of the impact food has on their body.

“By eating right and exercising we dramatically start to improve our quality of living.

What was really overwhelming for the I Choose Awesome team to see, was the way in which the changes that challengers had made had subsequently infl uenced that of their families and friends.

“That is the contagious effect

Awesome health has on people” fellow director Benjamin Selby-Hele said.

“This is why we love what we do and are so inspired by everyone who did the challenge and those that we see every day in our gym,” added a third director, Nikki Croft.

The team at I Choose Awesome now turn their attention to their next challenge that will see teachers and schools come together, collectively, to begin to adopt healthier habits, with a teachers’ challenge commencing at the start of next year.

With Leongatha Secondary College already on board, the door is open to all schools wanting a healthier and more effi cient school culture and work force. For enquiries call I Choose Awesome 5674 6577 or visit www.ichooseawesome.com.au.

The fi rst challenge of 2012 will look to commence early in term one, 2012. I Choose Awesome Summer Bootcamp classes begin on January 2 every morning from 8am at Pensioners Point, Inverloch until January 22.

Mark eats, exercises his way to $2000

Superb physique: I Choose Awesome directors Benjamin Selby-Hele, KallumFidoe and Nikki Croft with 12 week challenge winner Mark Lindsay (secondfrom left).

IT’S getting cosy in the recep-tions at Newhaven College as Christmas approaches.

Each year, long-time teacher John Ward encourages students, staff and families of the college to donate a gift.

Presents are placed under a Christmas tree in the reception areas of each of the school’s campuses, and as the collection grows, visitors fi nd it harder and harder

to fi nd a place to sit.The gifts are given to the Salvation

Army in Wonthaggi for distribution to needy families throughout South Gippsland.

The collection is now in its twelfth year and each year the number of families donating increases, ensuring the Wardy’s Christmas tree tradition of giving to those less fortunate remains alive and well.

Students love to give

Helping hands: admiring the many gifts in Newhaven College’s reception area are teacher John Ward with students Ashleigh Simpson, Sophie Scott and Jaidyn Burgess.

A CLINICAL trial in-volving people from across the whole of Gippsland has been so successful that the target number has been increased.

That was the news delivered at the fi rst year celebration of the AS-PREE (ASPirin in Reduc-ing Events in the Elderly) study.

The project will test whether taking aspirin contributes to good health in the elderly and help to determine if aspirin should be prescribed to all healthy people over 70 years of age.

It is the largest ever primary prevention trial to take place in Australia and while Gippslanders have responded extremely well to date, more people are needed to take part.

“We have been so suc-cessful in our fi rst year, thanks to people being willing to participate, that our initial target of 300 participants has risen to 500,” one of the trial co-ordinators, Judith Woods, said.

Ms Woods praised the willingness of Gippsland

Aspirin study reaches milestone

Willing volunteers: trial participants who joined the celebration included, from left, Jim Welsh from Yallourn Heights, Jim Park from Mardan South, Helen Vos from Leongatha, Robert Mathieson from Trafalgar and James Geary from Leongatha.people to be involved in the project.

About 80 of the 250 patients already taking part in the trial attended the celebration, which in-cluded an update on the project, a presentation from Professor Helen Bar-tlett, Pro Vice Chancel-lor of Monash University Gippsland and a chance to catch up with other partici-pants over afternoon tea.

Led by researchers at Monash University in Melbourne, the ASPREE

study needs to recruit 12,500 healthy Australians over 70 years of age before the end of 2013, including the 500 participants from the Gippsland area.

The ASPREE study will be complemented by an initiative from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientifi c and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to develop a biobank of more than 10,000 blood samples from healthy ASPREE participants.

The ASPREE Healthy

Ageing Biobank will in-vestigate factors that may contribute to healthy age-ing and older - onset dis-eases such as heart dis-ease, dementia and some cancers.

To fi nd out more about participating in the AS-PREE study, please call local clinical trial co-or-dinators Judith Woods on 5122 7555 and Jane Weed-ing on 5122 7556 or call 1800 728 745 or visit the website for further infor-mation www.aspree.org.

BOATERS are being urged to check their vessels before launching this summer.

Inverloch Police advise boaters to ensure their boat works and has necessary safety equipment, such as life jackets and fl ares.

Leading Senior Constable Shaun Stirton said even stale fuel can re-sult in a boat stalling and people be-ing stranded at sea.

“People leave their boat in the shed for six months and they have not checked the fuel. Flares are out of date, batteries are corroded and their licence has expired,” he said.

Boaters must familiarise them-selves with the conditions of wa-terways, particularly the Anderson Inlet entrance where a dangerous bar has resulted in vessels capsizing in the past.

“At high tide there is a nice clear passage but at low tide it’s a bit tricky,” Leading S/C Stirton said.

Mariners should be aware of speed restrictions imposed in the inlet, particularly the fi ve knot limit when travelling near people.

“There is just a lot more water-craft on the inlet and at low tide, the inlet loses about two-thirds of its water,” Leading S/C Stirton said.

Kayaking has become popular and more children are paddling across to sandbanks, sharing the water with jetskis, wind-surfers and kite-surfers.

“We don’t have a big summer and everyone wants to use the beach at once, so they just need to be a bit mindful of each other,” Leading S/C Andy Schrape said.

Water police will be in the re-gion in January, as will offi cers

from Transport Safety Victoria.Leading S/C Schrape urged

beach-goers to swim safely and learn CPR in the event of a drowning.

He is also drowning prevention offi cer for the Inverloch Surf Life Saving Club, and said the club, as well as YMCAs at Leongatha and Wonthaggi, offer courses.

“Alcohol and water don’t mix. People have parties around the wa-ter, whether it be by a pool or an inland waterway, and need to be aware of their surroundings,” Lead-ing S/C Schrape said.

Home pools are also a drown-ing risk and Leading S/C Schrape encouraged people to visit the web-sites www.homepoolsafety.com.au or www.keepwatch.com.au to learn drowning prevention tips.

Police plea for boat safety

KIDS love the water.But the question is, dur-

ing summer, are they water ready?

And more importantly, are you?

Young children can fall into a pool or spa and drown very quickly, so properly maintained safety barriers around pools are a vital mea-sure to help secure the safety not only of the home-own-ers’ toddlers, but also those of friends and neighbours.

“It is law that safety barri-ers are installed to restrict ac-cess to swimming pools and spas with a depth of greater than 300mm on private resi-dential properties in Victo-ria,” explained Matthew Pat-terson, council’s municipal building surveyor.

“The responsibility for installation applies to all home-owners with a pool or spa, regardless of whether they have children living there or not.”

South Gippsland Shire Council offi cers are cur-rently conducting audits of swimming pools and spas to ensure property owners

are complying with their obligations.

“The most common problem we fi nd are gates that are not self closing and self latching,” Mr Patterson said.

“Another is items like outdoor furniture or barbe-cues left in the vicinity that children can use as footholds to climb over the pool fence.

“Never underestimate the tenacity of a determined child - it is no great chal-lenge for them to pull a plas-tic chair over to the fence!”

If you have a pool or spa, make sure barriers restrict toddlers from entering the pool area. When children are in the pool area, make sure there is constant adult supervision – not just the oc-casional glance.

If the adult leaves the pool area, even for a short time, they should always take the child with them.

Once suitable compliant safety barriers have been installed, it is imperative that owners ensure the bar-riers are maintained so they continue to work properly

- there is no point having afence if children can climbit or if the gate has been leftpropped open.

Furthermore, remembera fence is no substitute foradequate supervision, andsupervision means constantvisual contact, not just theoccasional glance whilereading or talking.

In order to be waterready, remember: supervi-sion means constant visualcontact; supervision meanstaking children from a swim-ming pool/spa with you ifyou leave the area, even ifonly for a moment; supervi-sion includes ensuring thatsafety barriers such as gatesand doors are not left openby children, in poor mainte-nance, or propped open.

A free brochure outlin-ing the swimming pool andspa barrier requirements canbe obtained from council re-ception.

If you are unsure thatyour barrier is compliant andwould like council to inspectit, please call the buildingdepartment on 5662 9212.

Are your kids water ready?


A VINTAGE farm wagon built in Korumburra in the 1920s has returned home to be appropriately housed in the Boston Carriage Works build-ing at Coal Creek Community Park and Museum.

Made by the Boston Carriage Works to a German design at their Radovick Street premises, the wag-on features four wheels with twin shafts.

“It was designed for heavy farm work, and for the carriage of general produce such as stock feed, potatoes, onions and any other products that needed farm transport,” said Doug Boston, son of the manufacturer and a current member of the Coal Creek

Curatorial Advisory Committee. “It was made by my father Har-

old for Loch farmer Harold Wallace who used it until the 1960s when it was sold to Gordon Phillips of Heath Hill.

“Gordon was a keen Clydesdale horse man, and he used the wagon with his horses for local street pa-rades and also paraded it at the Royal Melbourne Show on many occasions.”

After Gordon’s death, the wagon was taken to Gympie in Queensland and stored under cover for many years.

The Phillips family then donated it to Coal Creek and Mr Boston has generously paid for its transportation back to Korumburra.

“The condition of the wagon is

remarkable for its age,’ said a de-lighted Rowena Ashley, Coal Creek co-ordinator.

“The paintwork is still original and the iron work in the wagon is a fi ne example of the skills of the blacksmith of the time.”

The iron work was all hand forged, shaped and welded in the smithy’s forge at Boston’s.

“Items like this affi rm Coal Creek’s important role as a reposi-tory of South Gippsland’s fascinat-ing heritage for present and future generations,” Ms Ashley said.

“We are extremely appreciative of this generous support from the Phillips family and Mr Boston. It is bound to be of interest to visitors as well as the local community.”

Vintage wagon returns home

Back home: members of the Coal Creek Curatorial Advisory Committee,David Tattersall, Doug Boston and Alwyn Miche with newly appointed CoalCreek curator Kate Stuart, and the wagon. Absent: Cr Bob Newton.

KORUMBURRA Playgroup will have their last session at Milpara Community House at 21 Shell-cott’s Road, Korumburra on Friday, December 16. Playgroup is a great opportunity for parents and children to make new friends.

****Milpara Community House at 21 Shellcott’s

Road, Korumburra would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year. Milpara will close on Thursday, December 22 at 1pm and reopen on Monday, January 23, 2012. During this time the Centrelink agency will be open on Tuesdays from 10am to 2pm and Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 1pm.

****Keep posted for class details in 2012. Along

with our usual core classes, look for details of Small Business Victoria Workshops, Introduction to Community Services, Lifeskills for Women, Work Readiness, Tai Chi and an information session on the South Gippsland Community Register.

Milpara Community House news KORUMBURRA Primary School was

presented with a cheque for $6000 from Michael’s Supa IGA recently.

Principal Bill Jeffs and school captains Nick Wylie and Maddie Bensley received the cheque from Michael’s Supa IGA Korumburra manager Craig Marinus.

“We’re very grateful for this donation,” Mr Jeffs said.

The donation will be used to enhance play areas around the school.

“This money will go towards putting a re-bound and climbing wall enclosure in between the two playgrounds,” he said.

“It’s something we’ve wanted for a while and will ensure that balls used in the area won’t be a threat to the general populous of the school.”

The project is estimated to cost around $16,000, with further funds from the school council.

“This should not only be great for the kids but improve the look of our school greatly,” Mr Jeffs said.

KORUMBURRA Primary School was presented with a cheque for $6000 from Michael’s Supa IGA recently.

Principal Bill Jeffs and school captains

Thanks for donation, IGA

Grateful: principal Bill Jeffs and school captains Nick Wylie and Maddie Bensley re-ceived the donation from Michael’s Supa IGA Korumburra manager Craig Marinus.


It’s been a shocking year for safety on Victorian farms with many families left mourning the loss of a loved one this Christmas. This must be a wake-up call for everybody working on the land.

Entrenched work practices formed over many years can put people at serious risk. And the incorrect use or poor maintenance of vehicles or machinery often lies at the heart of farming fatalities.

Safety is about constantly reassessing the way things are done instead of saying ‘we always do it this way’. Systems should be reviewed; machinery should be rechecked; people should be encouraged to speak up about safety concerns.

A basic checklist for farmers:Make sure machines are properly guarded.

Always turn machinery off and release stored energy before making adjustments.

Get all machinery properly serviced and maintained.

Fit safety devices such as rollover protection, seat belts and crush protection.

Wear the right helmets and safety gear.

If working alone, tell someone where you’ll be and stay in regular contact.

Get free safety adviceDownload your ‘15 Minute Farm Safety Check Form’ and other important safety information from worksafe.vic.gov.auor call WorkSafe’s Advisory Service on1800 136 089.

Now’s the time to make your farm a less dangerous place to work to ensure that the New Year is a safe year.

41% of workplace deaths happen on farms.

COMPETITION for lean dairy cows was the highlight of what was mostly a cheaper market.

Behind the much big-ger penning was a large offering of bullocks. There were 350 young cattle, and 1347 grown cattle penned, and the quality was very mixed.

All of the regular buy-ers were present, but in a lot of cases prices were 2c to 6c/kg cheaper. Only a few vealers sold well, and the leanest one score cows were fi rm to 2c/kg easier.

The penning of 51 veal-ers saw the lighter weights sell the best, making 197c to 235c/kg. Heavier veal-ers sold to a similar top price, but will have better dressing percentages.

There was 30 steers and 135 heifers sold, and their quality, shape and weight were very mixed. The best steers sold from 190c to 196c, and light to medium weight heifers fetched be-tween 155c and 180c/kg.

One sale of good qual-ity achieved 205c, but most good quality heavier heifers sold from 165c to 186c/kg.

Good quality and heavy weight was the feature of the 940 grown steers and bullocks penned. Weaker demand saw most sell from 4c to 7c cheaper, which saw the best quality prime bullocks make 176c

• VLE LEONGATHA

Bullocks roll into 190c/kg. The steers mouthed 0 to 2 teeth made be-tween 188c and 196c/kg.

Manufacturing bullocks comprised mostly of extraheavy ox and very heavy Friesian bullocks, which soldbetween 167c and 179c the best quality, and 155c to170c/kg for better quality Friesians.

Most of the 450 cows were 2c to 5c/kg cheaper, andthis saw the better quality beef cows sell from 145c to162c, but very good quality Friesians sold equally as wellfrom 158c to 162c/kg. Most other cows made between115c and 145c, which created a carcass weight price av-erage estimated to be around 305c/kg.

Another very large penning of 76 bulls sold mostlyfrom 158c to 187c, and were 1c to 5c/kg cheaper.

Wednesday, December 7 BULLOCKS21 A. Dyke, Drumdlemara 572kg 195.6 $112021 J. Perczyk, Leongatha 565kg 195.2 $110421 B.F. & D.M. Summers, Fish Creek 615kg 195.0 $120015 D.G. & K. Mancarella, Mirboo North 620kg 194.6 $120610 J.R. Kallady, Won Wron 573kg 194.0 $11113 T. Taylor, Inverloch 566kg 193.2 $1094STEERS1 M.E. & K. Triantafyllou, Woodside 365kg 235.0 $8571 Vuillerman Past Co, Yanakie 340kg 233.6 $7941 B. Olsen, Poowong East 350kg 232.6 $8141 P.M., J.A. & V.R. Johnston, Mirboo North 355kg 231.0 $8201 D. O’Donnell, Dollar 202kg 209.6 $4241 D.C. & D.C. Wylie, Korumburra 355kg 200.6 $712COWS1 J. & K. Hilliar, Mirboo North 465kg 165.0 $7676 C. McCraw, Yanakie 755kg 162.2 $12242 P.A. Petersen, Fish Creek 667kg 161.2 $10762 P.G. & R.A. Fort, Poowong 645kg 160.0 $10322 B. Gilpin, Woodleigh 677kg 160.0 $10841 S. & B. Beasley, Toora 660kg 159.2 $1050HEIFERS2 M.E. & K. Triantafyllou, Woodside 345kg 229.6 $7943 P.M., J.A. & V.R. Johnston, Mirboo North 335kg 218.6 $7321 D. O’Donnell, Dollar 202kg 209.6 $4242 G.T. & C. Cummaudo, Mirboo North 415kg 205.0 $8501 Vuillerman Past Co, Yanakie 330kg 205.0 $6761 R.W. & J.P. Elsum, Dumbalk 160kg 200.0 $320BULLS1 W. Reid, Leongatha 935kg 186.6 $17441 W.A. & D.M. Joyce, Corinella 1040kg 182.0 $18921 G.T. & C. Cummaudo, Mirboo North 725kg 180.0 $13051 G. & M. Hill, Poowong 910kg 175.0 $15921 S. Anderson, San Remo 900kg 175.0 $15751 C. & L. Jeffs, Won Wron 865kg 174.6 $1510

THE Reviva range of fertilisers was developed by Browns Fer-tilisers’ qualifi ed agronomists to kickstart pastures coming out of the wet winter condition.

The fertilisers have particular em-phasis on nitrogen, potassium and sul-phur, according to agronomist at the Le-ongatha fi rm, Stuart McNaughton.

For every fi ve tonnes of Reviva pur-chased, customers obtained a ticket into the draw to win a fantastic prize.

Customers who bought Reviva en-joyed a relaxing barbecue and a beer at Browns Fertilisers Leongatha depot where the winner was drawn recently.

The lucky winners of fi rst prize were Graeme and Nina Allen from Nerrena. Graeme and Jenny Cope from Tarwin took out second prize and Russ White from Leongatha South pocketed third.

Graeme and Nina will spend two nights at the Hilton on the Park and en-joy two days of centre court action at the Australian Open Tennis in Melbourne.

Reason to smile: Stuart McNaughton, manager/agronomist of Browns Fertilisers, congratulates Graeme and Nina Allen, the winners of the Browns Fertilisers Spring Reviva campaign.

Allens win Reviva prize


VLE LEONGATHAKOONWARRA

1. Alex Scott 2. Rodwells 3. Landmark 4. David Phelan & Co 5. Elders 6. SEJ

Sale Draw

Upcoming SalesLEONGATHA

Wednesday, December 14Prime Sale - 8.30am

Thursday, December 15Store Sale - 10am

Friday, December 16Sheep Sale - 11am

PAKENHAMMonday, December 19

Prime Sale - 8amTuesday, December 20

Export Sale - 8am Thursday, January 5

Store Sale - 10am

December 14, 15 & 16

BRENDAN Phy-land’s Krowera beef farm hosted Bass Coast Landcare Net-work’s most recent fi eld day.

Thanks to several knowledgeable speakers, the fi eld day delivered its promise of ‘demystifying lime and carbon farming’.

Jess Horton from the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) explained the fundamentals of soil carbon, including the biological, chemical and physical processes that en-able carbon to be created and stored in the soil.

Importantly, she dis-cussed the role that soil carbon plays in productive farming businesses, and the management practices that can infl uence soil car-bon levels.

Jess also demonstrated the value of nutrient bud-geting (in conjunction with soil testing) for un-derstanding the soil’s real nutrient requirements.

“Many farm soils al-ready have high levels of nutrients, particularly phosphorus,” she said.

“The key to unlocking those nutrients is often a pH issue, rather than the application of additional nutrients.

“This knowledge can prevent farmers wast-ing large amounts of money on unnecessary fertilisers.”

Landholders can ob-tain free nutrient bud-gets through the network

and the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority.

The DPI’s Tim John-son then spoke about the ‘hidden giant’ of Vic-torian agriculture– soil acidifi cation.

Tim described the pro-cesses that cause soil acid-ifi cation, and how they are accelerated by normal farming practices such as exporting product off-farm and fertilising.

Currently, the most im-mediate and effective neu-tralising strategy available to farmers is the addition of lime to the soil.

Tim explained some important concepts, in particular the composition and effective neutralising value of the most widely used limes in Victoria.

Lime producers, Peter McCluskey and Trevor Tovey, were then able to expand on the different properties of each type of lime, and give an interest-ing overview of the lime industry.

After a barbecue fea-turing delicious Gippsland beef, Brendan described the management practices that have transformed his 80 acre ‘turn-out’ block into a showcase property.

These include fenc-ing out and revegetating almost 20 per cent of the property (remnants, wa-terways and the steepest slopes and gullies), ro-tational grazing and the application of lime and chicken litter.

An alkaline product,

Understanding carbon

chicken litter has gone from a ‘cheap and nasty waste product’ to a highly sought after natural ferti-liser. Brendan stockpiles the chicken litter in sum-mer and arranges for it to be spread in early autumn when it is safe for machin-ery to travel across the farm. Even so, he says, there are some paddocks which he will never be able to fertilise safely. As a result, these areas are used to cut and later, feed out, hay and silage.

Participants were then treated to a farm walk, during which Nick Dudley from the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority gave an exten-sive and interactive over-view of the new Carbon

Farming Initiative. Using information pro-

vided earlier by Brendan, Nick estimated the fi nan-cial benefi ts that would fl ow to Brendan (whose property is ‘carbon posi-tive’) as a result of partici-pating in the initiative.

It soon became clear that there are more ques-tions than answers about the extent to which farm-ers can benefi t from par-ticipating in the initiative.

However, the produc-tion benefi ts of increasing soil carbon levels were more than evident in Bren-dan’s lush pasture, sleek cattle and impressive shel-ter belts.

The biodiversity and aesthetic value of his fenced off and reveg-

etated remnants were also commented on by all participants.

The fi eld day was funded through Caring for Our Country and both the WGCMA Healthy Soils, Sustainable Farms Project and the Powlett Project’s Improving Landscape Scale Change Through On-Ground Action Project.

For more information about these projects, cop-ies of the fi eld day notes, or other Landcare initia-tives, please contact Lisa Wangman on 5951 3329 or [email protected]. Famers inter-ested in undertaking soil trials and nutrient budget-ing please contact your lo-cal Landcare Network.

The team: some of the Bass Coast Landcare Network team out at Krowera were, from left, Lorrain Murray, Geoff Trease, Paul Speirs, Kelly Nichols and (front) Oliver Hibbert.

GIPPSLAND dairy farmers have been warned that facial eczema – a condition seen across Gippsland in autumn this year – may cause serious health concerns for cattle again this summer-autumn.

The warm and wet conditions, and high pasture growth currently being seen in the region favour growth of the fungus that can multiply in pas-ture and produce toxic spores.

When grazed by cattle, these toxic spores cause liver damage, and in some animals, photosensitisation.

A series of information sessions for dairy farmers is being held by Dairy Australia across the region. Experts will provide the latest infor-mation on identifi cation of periods of pasture toxicity, and effective and safe control and prevention of the condition.

Dairy Australia has acted swiftly by forming a group of Australian and New Zealand experts to review all the current knowledge on facial eczema and setting up an early warning sys-tem for Gippsland dairy farmers this summer-autumn.

Dairy Australia’s Feed2Milk pro-gram leader Dr Steve Little said more than 20 “sentinel” farms across the region will be regularly monitored for pasture levels of the fungal spores which cause facial eczema.

Local farmers will be able to keep track of developments in their area and be ready to act swiftly once spore levels are on the rise.

“This is the fi rst time such a pas-ture spore monitoring program has been piloted in Australia,” Dr Little said.

“We will have the results from the sentinel farms updated weekly on the Dairy Australia website, so farm-ers will be able to track exactly what is happening and make an informed choice as to the facial eczema strat-egy for their farm.”

Dr Little said the current humid conditions might be good for grow-ing pasture, but were also suitable for growth of the fungus Pithomy-ces chartarum, which under spe-cial conditions could then produce toxic spores, which cows eat while grazing.

Ryegrass pasture is the ideal en-vironment for the fungus, because it produces lots of dead litter on which the fungus can thrive.

“This summer and autumn is shap-ing up as ideal conditions for facial eczema problems, and early interven-tion is critical,” Dr Little said.

The main strategy used for control and prevention of facial eczema is zinc supplementation. Ensuring cows receive the correct daily dosage is vital as too little will not provide full protection and too much will be toxic to the animal.

“Facial eczema is a serious issue for the dairy industry as it affects cow productivity, health and welfare,” Dr Little said.

“Farmers need to work closely with their stockfeed company, vet and nutrition adviser to ensure their zinc

supplementation program is effective and safe.”

GippsDairy executive offi cer Dr Danielle Auldist said GippsDairy contacted Dairy Australia about de-veloping a strategy to control the problem.

“Through our networks in the lo-cal region, we identifi ed a worrying trend in facial eczema cases,” Dr Auldist said.

“Dairy Australia swung its re-sources behind it straight away and we have been able to produce an ef-fective strategy to tackle the issue in Gippsland.

“It’s a great example of how the dairy levy is used directly to help farmers and help keep the industry productive and our cows healthy.”

Information sessions will be held at:

• Trafalgar Footy Club: 11.30am to 1.30pm, Thursday, December 15;

• Maffra DPI building: 7pm to 9pm, Thursday, December 15;

• Club Hotel, Yarram: 11.30am to 1.30pm, Friday, December 16.

Sessions will also be held in Le-ongatha and Drouin in early January.

Lunch/supper will be provided. Please RSVP for catering purpos-

es to Melanie at GippsDairy Phone 5624 3900, email: execu-

[email protected] Sentinel farm pasture spore

counts and general information of facial eczema will be available from www.dairyaustralia.com.au/facialec-zema, commencing the third week of December.

Farmers warned of facial eczema


Christopher D. Longstaff , SolicitorLEGAL ASSISTANT / SECRETARYA position will be available from late February 2012 for a minimum of 12 months. The successful applicant, whilst not necessarily having legal experience, must have exceptional communication skills, display a friendly personality, and have profi cient computer abilities.

All applications are to be mailed to:Chris Longstaff

Solicitor63 McBride AvenueWonthaggi Vic. 3995

Applications close: 31st December 2011

situations vacant situations vacant

Staff EducatorRegistered Nurse - Division 1 Grade 4

48 hours per fortnightWe are seeking a suitably experienced and qualifi ed Registered Nurse to work within the Education Team at Gippsland Southern Health Service. This position reports to the Director of Nursing and provides support to all sites and areas of the organisation when required. This is a challenging role that would suit an experienced Registered Nurse who has excellent communication skills.

Key selection criteria/qualifi cations:Essential• Extensive clinical experience in acute and/or

residential care.• Certifi cate IV in Workplace Training & Assessment

or an undertaking to complete this.• Ability to be able to communicate effectively at all levels.• The ability to be able to plan, develop and evaluate

education programs to achieve best practice. • Able to enhance professional growth through the

provision of high quality clinical learning and education based practice.

• Evidence of ongoing self development.• Initiative, personal drive and the ability to work both

independently and in a team environment.• Computer skills - Word and Excel.Desirable• A post graduate education qualifi cation (or working

towards same).• Advanced life support qualifi cations.

GSHS offers a comprehensive orientation program on commencement of employment. All staff have access to excellent staff mentoring, education and support programs. Salary Packaging is available to all permanent staff. All applicants will be required to supply a current satisfactory police check.

If you are interested in joining a supportive and pro-gressive team, please contact the Executive Assistant, Dianna Mollica on 5667 5504 to obtain an application kit and position description or download from the website www.gshs.com.au.

Applicants are also encouraged to contact Neil Langstaff on 5667 5507 to discuss the employment opportunities at GSHS.

Completed application kits can be forwarded by Thursday 15th December 2011 to:-

Neil Langstaff Director of Nursing

Inpatient/Residential CareGippsland Southern Health Service

Private Bag 13LEONGATHA 3953

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITYMary MacKillop Catholic Regional College

South Gippsland

FINANCE OFFICER - ACCOUNTS PAYABLE Part time (0.6 FTE)

Commencing 24 January 2012Mary MacKillop CRC is seeking to employ a suitably experienced Accounts Payable person to work in their Finance Department. The successful application must be able to demonstrate an active commitment to the ethos of a Catholic school.The Finance Officer will manage all aspects of payments to external suppliers and provide financial accounting support to the Business Manager.Salary and conditions will be as per the Victorian Catholic Education Multi Employer Agreement 2008.Further details regarding the position can be found on the College website: www.mackillopleongatha.catholic.edu.auApplications will be accepted by email, mail or fax and must be submitted by 12 noon on Wednesday, 21st December 2011 Email: [email protected]: 03 5662 2131Mailing address:The Business ManagerMary MacKillop Catholic Regional CollegePrivate Bag 7LEONGATHA VIC 3953Enquiries should be directed to the Business Manager, Helen OrrTelephone: 03 5662 4255


Building a Healthy Community

BCCHS seeks expressions of interest from suitably qualifi ed registered nurses for these new roles being developed in Bass Coast Shire

Endorsed Nurse Practitioner & Nurse Practitioner Candidate

in Aged Care 1.0 EFT and 0.4 EFT

The successful applicants will be required to develop and implement the role that provides a collaborative health needs service for the aged community residing within the Bass Coast shire.

Masters in Nursing (Nurse Practitioner) or equivalent Masters standing leading to endorsement as a Nurse Practitioner.

These positions will commence in March-April 2012. Remuneration as per award.

Enquiries can be directed to Rae Davies, Manager Client Services. To obtain a position description and an employment application form, please telephone reception on 5671 9200 or refer to our website: www.bcchs.com.au

Applications close 5 pm, 20 December 2011 and should be addressed to: Bass Coast Community Health ServiceHR Administrator1 Back Beach RoadSan Remo Vic 3925 or by email to: [email protected]

Teacher Aid for 2012St Joseph’s School requires an enthusiastic happy person to work with children, under the supervision of a class teacher, for (0.6) 18 hours a week.

Special requirements• Be prepared to undergo a Criminal Record Check.

Role Description / CriteriaApplicants must be able to demonstrate capabilities in the following areas:

• to assist with education activities, under the supervision of a teacher

• to display confi dentiality, tact, reliability and sensitivity to students and their families

• to communicate effectively and display a high level of interpersonal skills to function as an effective team member

• have a willingness to undertake specifi c training to enhance student support as necessary

• to support the Catholic ethos of St Joseph’s SchoolQualifi cations in the area of educational support would be an advantage as would experience in the fi eld, how-ever not a necessity. Award wages will apply.Applications in writing, including a resumé and the names and contact details of three phone referees, should be sent to the principal.

For further information contact the principal:Mr Greg Synan

St Joseph’s Primary School1-3 Bridge Street, KORUMBURRA VIC 3950

Enquiries welcome, please call (03) 5655 2040APPLICATIONS CLOSE: Thursday 22nd December

ST JOSEPH’S SCHOOL

KORUMBURRA


Are expanding!We require a range of staff.

Venus Bay Café Qualified Chef ~ Waitresses & Waiters

Apprentice Chef ~ Kitchen Hands

Kilcunda Bistro Sous Chef ~ Qualified Chef

Apprentice Chef ~ Kitchen HandIf you have experience and enthusiasm

Please call Karen 03 5678 7034 Email your resume to: [email protected]

WATER INDUSTRY TRAINEESHIP:WATER TREATMENT

University not your thing?Looking for a career in a dynamic industry?Want to kick start a career through a traineeship?Want nationally recognised accreditation, yet stay based in your local region?South Gippsland Water has the job for you! Water Treatment Traineeship: 2 years, Full time, Contract.South Gippsland Water is looking for a year 12 school leaver or similar, from our local region, who is interested in kick starting a career in the water industry. Upon completion the successful applicant will have a nationally recognised qualifi cation in Water Industry Operations - Treatment. Based in our central western area ranging across Leongatha/ Korumburra / Wonthaggi, the traineeship will include the completion of Certifi cate II and III in Water Industry Operations through the Water Industry Training Centre. At the completion of the traineeship the successful applicant will be fully qualifi ed to operate a water treatment plant. Desired Attributes:

• A motivated self starter• Reasonable degree of physical fi tness• Ability to operate plant and equipment• Demonstrated skills with regards to tool use• A basic understanding of/or interest in chemistry and maths• A current manual drivers licence• No current qualifi cation/prior training

Trainee wage band B ($17,584.20 - $23,712 p.a.). All training costs, equipment and protective clothing will be provided by South Gippsland Water.A position description and further information is available on our website: www.sgwater.com.au or by calling Paula Smith 03 5682 0403.Applications close Tuesday 31st Jan 2012Email [email protected] or post to:Human Resources CoordinatorSouth Gippsland WaterPO Box 102 Foster Vic 3960

• For further information and copies of position description visit our careers page www.lchs.com.au/careers.

• Applicants must address the Selection Criteria and lodge their application online.• No late or hard copy applications will be accepted.

Better health, Better lifestyles, Stronger communities

1800 242 696 www.lchs.com.au

Latrobe Community Health Service is one of the largest community health providers in Victoria. We provide professional and career development, salary packaging, an employee assistance program, work life balance and much more.

We are currently offering the following career opportunity:

HACC Training Coordinator- 1638456 Hours per fortnight, fi xed term part-time, Morwell

Latrobe Community Health Service currently has a fi xed term part-time vacancy until August 2012 in our People and Culture Team for a HACC Training Coordinator. The responsibilities for this role will include identifying and prioritising, in consultation with the region, the training needs of Gippsland Home and Community Care (HACC) agencies and arranging training programs to meet these needs.

For this role we are looking for a Learning and Development professional with:• A strong knowledge of adult learning practices and principles• Ability to develop, source, organise and cost training programs• Demonstrated ability in managing quality teaching and learning programs• Excellent community liaison and consultation skills

A high level of oral and written communication skills is essential, as is a tertiary qualifi cation in education or a health and community services related fi eld and signifi cant experience working in a training related role.

If you would like to have a positive impact on the community and work with a highly sought after employer then this may be the perfect position for you.

Applications close 4:30pm Monday 19 December 2011 ZO121885

Building a Healthy Community

BCCHS seeks expressions of interest from a suitably qualifi ed person to join our busy nursing team.

Project Worker Nurse Practitioner Aged Care Model

Part time 0.5 EFT 5 month contract

The successful applicant will be required to develop and implement a Nurse Practitioner Aged Care Model in line with BCCHS strategic direction, working closely with management and funding body requirements.

A post graduate qualifi cation in community nursing and experience in project work would be advantageous.

Remuneration as per award.

Enquiries can be directed to Rae Davies, Manager Client Services. To obtain a position description and an employment application form, please telephone reception on 5671 9200 or refer to our website: www.bcchs.com.au

Applications close 5 pm, 20 December 2011 and should be addressed to: Bass Coast Community Health ServiceHR Administrator1 Back Beach RoadSan Remo Vic 3925 or by email to: [email protected]

School Focused Youth Service Co-OrdinatorFamily Resource Centre

Community Development Worker Class 2B Yr 6Full-Time Position Until 30th June 2012

Applications are invited for an experienced Social Worker, Welfare Worker, Teacher or equivalent with demonstrated administrative expertise, current informed knowledge of best practice in education and welfare.

The successful applicant will be responsible for the administration of brokerage funds used to meet service gaps in addressing the needs of ‘at risk’ young people. Working autonomously the Co-Ordinator will liaise with schools, community agencies and all levels of government.

This role requires extensive travel within South Gippsland and beyond. Applicants must possess a current Victorian Driver’s Licence.

Car, laptop and salary packaging available.

Enquiries (56713278) and written applications with CV to:Noel Sibly,Manager Family Resource Centre,Bass Coast Regional Health,PO Box 120, Wonthaggi Vic 3995www.bcrh.com.au

Applications close 30th December 2011

We currently have a full time position available working Saturday - Wednesday, in our retail hardware division. We require someone who has excellent customer service, is computer literate, and willing to learn all aspects of the hardware industry. Public holiday work will be required at times.

Please forward applications to:Capeview Mitre10, Attention Ben Davey

Lot 2 Cusack Road, Leongathaor email [email protected]

Applications close December 16

LEONGATHA FULL TIME


A part-time position (5 hours) exists at the ‘Star’ for a typesetter

Working Mondays from 10am - 3pm, the successful applicant will be typing up and formatting weekend

sport. A fast typing speed is essential.

The position also involves compiling stories and photos on computer to complete pages using

Adobe Indesign.

Computer knowledge using Adobe Indesign or similar publication software would be an

advantage.

On the job training will be provided.

Email applications to: Manager, Tony [email protected]

or for enquiries phone 0407 528 192

TYPESETTERsituations vacant situations vacant

Café Attendants• Permanent Part Time • 15 hours per week• $24.20 per hourDo you enjoy customer service?Do you love working with food?

This is an ideal opportunity to bring your customer service skills to our friendly team at Coal Creek Community Park & Museum located in Korumburra.

You will be required to work part time Thursday to Monday. Your responsibilities will be to provide quick, friendly service to customers, including sandwhich making and the operation of coffee machines and all other facets of food and beverage services.

A Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate along with a satisfactory Police and Working with Children Check is a requirement of this role.

Enquiries to Rowena Ashley, Coal Creek Coordinator, or Suzanne Conlan, Customer Service Officer on (03) 5655 1811, regarding this role.

All applicants must submit an Employment Application form and address the selection criteria outlined in the position description, by 5pm Wednesday 4 January 2012.

Further information and a position description is available from Human Resources or visit our website, www.southgipplsand.vic.gov.au

South GippslandShire Council

www.southgippsland.vic.gov.au

EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTASSOCIATE NURSE UNIT MANAGER

0.8 EFTApplications are invited for this position. Generous terms of employment, and Public Sector remuneration – including Salary packaging options.

Required attributes:• Applicants must have a commitment to continuous

quality improvement.• Registered Nurse with APHRA• Able to demonstrate excellence in advanced clinical

practice and knowledge• Current Police Check from the Victorian Police

Department

Desirable attributes:• Post-graduate qualifi cations• Abilities in leadership, communication, problem

solving, and quality improvement• Adaptability to different working environments

ContactFor further information, please contact Kerryn Griffi ths, Deputy Director of Nursing on 03 5671 3222.

Written application with current Curriculum Vitae, including 3 referees, should be forwarded to Ms. Janet Lodge, Director of Nursing, Bass Coast Regional Health, Graham Street, Wonthaggi Victoria, 3995. Email [email protected]

Applications close Tuesday 20th December 2011

We have a vacancy for a driver in our company.Please forward details of relevant experience

and expressions of interest.Full confi dentiality is guaranteed.

BERRYMAN’S BUS LINESPO Box 14

Fish Creek 3959

School Bus Driversituations vacant situations vacant

PANEL BEATER

Full timeIN WONTHAGGI AREA

Contact Peter 5662 5123

Mob: 0422 403 912

WEED CONTROL Top wages for reliable man.Choose your own worktimes for absentee owner.Mirboo area. Contact Keith0414-228038, please leavename and contact number.

situations vacant


DRIVERS WANTEDCasual Coach Driver

For V/Line services in Leongatha / Inverloch and Yarram areas

Minimum heavy rigid licence required.Weekend and shift hours required.

For more information contact Allan atWesternport Roadlines on telephone 0417 881 749


INVITATION TO TENDERThe West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority is inviting tenders for the sale of the following vehicle:2010 Hilux 4X4 SR 3.0L Diesel Manual Single Cab - XUP 112White, Manual, 3.0lt, 4 cylinder turbo diesel 4x4 fitted with air conditioning, snorkel, tow bar, steel tray, cruise control, tinted windows, Cooper all terrain tyres, bull bar.Odometer reading approximately 17,000Kms. Registered until 30th June, 2012, Roadworthy Certificate will be provided.The vehicle can be inspected at 16 Hotham Street, Traralgon by arrangement with Robyn Dossett on 1300 094 262, during office hours on Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st December, 2011.Tenders should include GST and MUST be emailed to [email protected] posted to: Tenders

West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority

P.O. Box 1374 Traralgon 3844.Tenders close 4pm on Friday 23rd December, 2011

tenders tenders

Publication DatesTuesday, December 20

Deadlines remain the same

* * * * * * * * * *

Monday, December 26(The paper will be out from 6am at all outlets)

Deadline noon Thursday, December 22 for all adverts and stories

* * * * * * * * * *

Wednesday, January 4(The paper will be available from 6am)Classifi eds and sport can be lodged by

Tuesday, January 3 until 12 noon

36 McCartin Street, LeongathaPhone 5662 2294

public notices public notices

PUBLIC NOTICE: WATER ACT 1989 (VIC)VARIATION TO PERMANENT WATER SAVING PLANSouth Gippsland WaterSouth Gippsland Water has varied its Permanent Water Saving Plan in accordance with a variation approved by the Minister for Water. The varied Permanent Water Saving Plan includes varied restrictions and prohibitions on the use of water. These restrictions and prohibitions, known as ‘permanent water saving rules’, apply at all times, whether or not any stage of restrictions is in force (under South Gippsland Water’s Water Restriction By-law). Equivalent permanent water saving rules are being implemented across Victoria. South Gippsland Water, in accordance with s170E of the Water Act 1989, gives notice that from 1.00am on 16 December 2011 the following permanent water saving rules apply within its water supply district:

The permanent water saving rules do not apply to the use of:• recycled or reclaimed water;• greywater; • stormwater; or• rainwater collected in a storage tank provided it is not supplemented

by water supplied by South Gippsland Water or another water corporation,

as defi ned in the Permanent Water Saving Plan.The complete Permanent Water Saving Plan, including the permanent water saving rules, applicable defi nitions and information regarding Water Use Plans, are available from South Gippsland Water.For further information on the permanent water saving rules, staged restrictions and water resource management, please contact South Gippsland Water. Customer Service: 1300 851 636 or visit www.sgwater.com.au

USEHand-held hose

Residentialor commercialgardens andlawns

Publicgardens andlawns and playing surfaces

Fountains and water features

Cleaning of hard surfaces

RULEWater from a hand-held hose must not be used for any purpose (whether or not the use is subject to a permanent water saving rule) at any time unless the hose:

• is fi tted with a trigger nozzle; and• is leak-free.

A residential or commercial garden or lawn cannot be watered except:

• with a hand-held hose, bucket or watering can at any time; or

• by means of a watering system between the hours of 6 pm 10 am on any day.

A public garden or lawn area or a playing surface cannot be watered except:

• with a hand-held hose, bucket or watering can at any time; or

• by means of a watering system fi tted with a rain or soil moisture sensor between the hours of 6 pm 10 am on any day; or

• in accordance with an approved Water Use Plan.

Water cannot be used in a fountain or a water feature unless the fountain or water feature recirculates the water.

Water cannot be used to clean hard surfaces (including, driveways, paths, concrete, tiles, timber decking) except:

• where cleaning is required as a result of an accident, fi re, health hazard, safety hazard or other emergency; or

• if staining to the surface has developed and then only once a season; or

• in the course of construction or renovation,and then only by means of:

• a high pressure water cleaning device;• or if such a device is not available, a hand-held hose or

a bucket.

NYORA PUBLIC HALL INCNotice is given of a

PUBLIC MEETINGTo be held at the Nyora Public HallOn Wednesday 18th January 2012

Commencing at 7.30pmThe purpose of the meeting is to nominate no less than three (3) or more than nine (9) persons as the Committee of Management for the Nyora Public Hall for a term of three years. The current committee’s term will expire on 26th January 2012.All positions will be declared open and nominations will be accepted prior to or on the night. Nominations from women are encouraged.Further information, nomination forms and nominee declaration forms may be obtained by contacting your local Department of Sustainability and Environment offi ce or at the meeting. For further enquiries please contact the secretary Sylvia Casey on 5659 0089.

public notices public notices

BOARD OF MANAGEMENT APPOINTMENTS

Gippsland Southern Health Service faces an exciting and challenging period of facility redevelopment. Due to routine retirements, the opportunity exists for committed local community members to join the Board of Manage-ment and make a positive contribution to the provision of high quality health service in South Gippsland. These positions will be appointed from July 1, 2012.

Applications are sought from people with a long-term commitment to and involvement in their local commu-nities. Skills and expertise in business management, legal issues, people management and/or organisation change will be highly regarded.

Recommendations are made by the Minister and formal appointments are made by the Governor in Council, having regard for the need to ensure that the Board includes a balance of expertise in areas such as business and management, community knowledge, health, fi nance, law, human resources, etc.

Be involved and make a difference!For further information on these honorary positions and to obtain an application form, please contact Dianna Mollica, Executive Assistant on 5667 5504 or the application form and relevant background information can be downloaded from www.health.vic.gov.au/governance.

Applications close on Friday, December 23, 2011 and should be addressed to Mr David Harvey, President, Gippsland Southern Health Service,

Private Bag 13, Leongatha VIC 3953.

hallamhallampenthousepenthousepenthouse

7 rimfire dr. hallam9702 4744

pc

a 4

60

9b

make us your1 stop

day time special$ 70 $ 70

st

personal personal

An opportunity exists for a suitably qualifi ed person to join our Kitchens Production team. You will be responsible for the day to day running of our CNC router producing kitchen components.

The successful applicant will have excellent communi-cation skills, punctuality, reliability and be able to work in a busy team environment. Applicants should have competent computer skills with the ability to learn in house programs. Capeview is committed to providing you with ongoing training and support to ensure your success. Position commences January 16, 2012.

Applications close on Friday, December 16 and should be forwarded to:

Peter Sheerin C/- Capeview Building ProductsPO Box 115, Wonthaggi 3995

JOINERY MACHINE OPERATOR (CNC ROUTER)

Berries You PickHERBERT HILL BERRY FARM

in Leongatha5 Sawyer Street

SATURDAY & SUNDAYOpen all day

MONDAY - FRIDAYby appointment

Phone 5662 4801

CHIROPRACTORGarry Harrison19 Moonah Street

Cape PatersonMondayTuesdayThursday

FridayBy appointment

Ph: 5674 8290

CHIROPRACTORNORMAN G.

VRADENBURG“NON-FORCE

PRACTITIONER”28 Reilly Street,

INVERLOCHHOURS - Monday, Tuesday,

Thursday and Friday by appointment

Phone and fax 5674 3666South Gippsland

Chiropractic Services & Adjunctive Therapies P/L

public notices

BOAT LICENCE COURSE

Jetski endorsementincluded

INVERLOCHMonday December 19

6pm - 10.15pmBookings essential

Phone SEAL Diving Services 5174 3434

Approved MSV courseAustralian Boating College.

Provider No. 3399

public noticesMeeniyan Area

Community Shop50% off sale

All items in shop except those in display

cabinetTuesday December 13

to Wednesday December 21 inclusive

public notices

Email your [email protected]

SINGLE person seeks midweek self contained accommodation in close to Leongatha. Ph: 0431-380089.

accommodationBULLS for hire, Angus,Friesian, Hereford, Limoand Jerseys. All tested. Ph:0447-331762.

for hire

3 BEDROOM house on farm, Stony Creek area. Call 0418-561290.

LEONGATHA 3 bdrm house close to schools, park and CBD. No pets. 3 bdrm house, close to schools, med centre. R/cycle air cond. No pets. Contact SEJ 5662-4033.

VENUS BAY - house, short stroll to beach and shops, sleeps 7. Permanent rental also available. Contact: 0408-320001.

for rent ROOM for rent at Meeniyan.5664-0213.

room to let

for sale

Classified advertising

closes 12 noon Mondays

5 ACRES Leongatha / Dumbalk, with shed, suit weekender, hobby farmer with few animals. $4,000 per year. Only 4WD access. Ph: 0432-572226, ask for Jag.

for lease

Classified advertising closes 12 noon Mondays


Spartina control program 2011 – ground and aerial operationsParks Victoria is committed to protecting and enhancing the natural values of parks and reserves across the state. Examples of this conservation management include the control of introduced plant and animal species which can impact on these values.

Parks Victoria, Birds Australia, Melbourne Water, Victorian Wader Study Group and the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority have joined forces to help eradicate Spartina, a major environmental grass weed of estuarine wetlands in Victoria.

Spartina represents a major threat to the feeding grounds of water birds and fish stocks by changing the natural processes of these estuaries.

Aerial and ground spraying of Spartina will commence on Wednesday 7 December 2011 at the following locations:

• Corner Inlet Ramsar Site (including Corner Inlet Marine and Coastal Park, Nooramunga Marine and Coastal Park and Corner Inlet Marine National Park)

• Shallow Inlet Marine and Coastal Park

• Anderson Inlet Wildlife Management Cooperative Area

• Western Port Ramsar Site (including the Bass River and Reef Island Nature Conservation Reserve and Moody’s Inlet)

Operational details may be obtained by calling Parks Victoria on 13 1963.

Parks Victoriaadvises...

mitch43839

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST FOR USE OFRECYCLED WATER, TOORASouth Gippsland Water is undertaking a program to move away from being dependant on outfalls into Corner Inlet from treatment plants at Welshpool, Toora and Foster. Water is to be recycled by benefi cially using it for irrigation for agricultural fodder and crop production. The Welshpool outfall is closed and planning is underway to augment the Foster Wastewater Treatment plant and provide an irrigation site.The Corporation has recently approved works to reconfi gure the treatment lagoons at Toora to provide winter storage capacity to enable the entire plant output to be irrigated in the summer period.Expressions of interest are now sought from persons with potential irrigation sites situated within a 4 km radius of the Toora Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bucklands Road and to enter into a long term agreement with South Gippsland Water for the Corporation to supply up to 30ML of Class C reclaimed water for irrigation or other suitable purpose. Expressions of interest should include the following information:

• Name and contact details of the applicant• Location and sketch map of property on which the reclaimed water would

be used• Purpose for which the water would be used and proposed means of the

application of irrigation water to the site• The anticipated annual period of irrigation and application rates • Proposed length of term of agreement with South Gippsland Water for

supply of waterFurther information can be obtained from Amy Love, telephone 03 5682 0418 or email [email protected]

Expressions of interest in writing including a sketch map of property location should be lodged by Friday January 13th 2012 addressed to South Gippsland Water, PO Box 102 Foster 3960.

public notices public notices public notices

VACUUMCLEANER

RepairsDUST BAGS

SalesFREE QUOTES

WONTHAGGI SEWING CENTRE167 Graham Street, Wonthaggi

(opp. Ritchies IGA)

5672 3127

BORDER COLLIE pups (5), 8 weeks old, vaccinated, $250 each. Nerrena. Ph: 0427-647213.

DRUM KIT DXP Pioneer series, 5 piece, wine red, new snake skin, brand new cymbals, $350. Ph: 0438-637612.

ELECTRIC 4 wheel Broadway scooter - medium, 5 years old, fully enclosed, silver, good condition $2,000. Ph: 5674-1687, 0488-724449.

FEDERATION style single beds (2), timber frames and slats, $70 each. “Bunkers” low-line corner bunk with underbed chest of drawers, $200 lot. Set of drawers with bookshelf $100, 1 bedside table $10, 1 gas 4-burner BBQ $10. Ph: 5664-9294, 0400-909227.

for sale for sale for sale

ISA BROWN pullets, point of lay, free range, beautiful and quiet, $20 or price neg. for quantity. Ph: 0417-143218.

ISA BROWN pullets, 17 weeks, fully immunised, not debeaked, $20 each. Taking orders now. Trade-ins welcome. Pick up on Friday, December 9 between 3-5pm at the old Korumburra Saleyards. Chook food available on the day. Unwanted animals taken, other animals for sale. Animals From The Farm, call Mark 0419-425257 or 5629-9685.

RAMS - black faced Suffolk, 6 mths old, $140 each. Ph: 5664-4387.

livestock

FREE CAR REMOVALWill pay up to $300

for complete carBuyers of scrap metal

All machineryBins provided

Bass Coast Metal Recyclers5672 2946

0417 556 593

used vehicles

FORD FALCON BA 2004, sports suspension, skirts, rear spoiler, 17” alloy wheels, tinted windows, one owner, full service history, $6,990. Ph: 0428-160095.

BERRIES, BERRIES Pick your own at Yileen Berry Farm. Open every day, 1345 Yarragon-Leongatha Road, Hallston. Ph: 5668-5268.

BOAT Savage 4.8, 60hp Merc., ex cond, $21,000. Ph: 5662-4457.

for sale

FREEPick-up and delivery in

Leongatha/Meeniyan areas

for MOTOR MOWERS,

CHAINSAWS AND

STATIONARY

ENGINES ETC.Repairs and services

Phone JOHN GOULD

5664 0012

free

garage salesLEONGATHA 11 Steele Street, Saturday December 17, 8am - 1pm. Household items, candles and accessories.

BOB BURDEKINis celebrating his

90TH BIRTHDAYOn Sunday

December 18At the RSL HallMirboo North

At 1.30pmAll friends are welcome

birthdays

HOUSTON (Elliott) - Rob and Katrina are thrilled to announce the arrival of Taj Archer (7lb 1oz) on December 5. A baby brother for Chance to play with.

LAYTON - Benson Kenneth. Tim, Jodie and William of Wilhelm welcome the early arrival of their second son and brother, Benson Kenneth, born at Dandenong Hospital on 30.11.11. Thanks to members of the Lang Lang CERT team and Grantville Ambulance Service, Doctors Chisholm and Linton and midwives from Leongatha Hospital. Extra special thanks to Sal and big brother Wilhelm.

births

IRELAND - PERCZYK John and Jacqueline Taylor, with Graeme and Kris Ireland would like to announce with pleasure the engagement of Dave and Cleo. All our love and God’s Richest Blessings.

engagements

WENDY STAYNER0409 259 195 03 9785 9186

marriage celebrant

Jenny MilkinsAll areas - 5672 3123

[email protected]

CAM ABOODLeongatha5662 4191

BREEDIN (nee Muir) - Lorna Jessie. Passed away December 7, 2011. Loved and loving wife of Jeff for 69 years. Cherished mother and mother-in-law of Paul (dec) and Heather, Phil and Bev, Julie and Colin. Adored Nan B of 8 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.

Thank you for a lifetime of love.

FREENE - Bruce Albert. 24.02.1940 - 09.12.2011 Passed away at Alchera House, Korumburra. Son of Albert and Olive (both dec). Brother of Winifred (dec), Donald and Robert. Soul mate to Rita.

Peace at last.

HELMS - Robert Gordon (Bob). Passed away peacefully at Koorooman House, Leongatha on December 11, 2011. Aged 79 years. Loved brother of Bill and cherished uncle of Charles, David, Peter and Sharon. Great uncle of Jesse, Kyra and Camille.

Sleep now and fi nally be at peace and rest in loving memory.

MADEX - Peter. Brother to Ross, brother-in-law to Lorraine. Uncle Pete to Thomas and Laura.

We will always remember you.

MADEX - Peter Stanley. 14.01.1955 - 05.12.2011 Taken from us suddenly, no chance for goodbyes. Loved brother of Susan, brother-in-law of Bruce. Godfather to Rowan and uncle to Dylan.

Pete you were my big brother - not stepbrother or half brother - just my brother. I idolised you when I was young; if you loved surfi ng, I loved surfi ng; if you loved certain music or brand in clothes, so did I. I couldn’t wait for you and Zayde to visit. This is how I choose to remember you, my handsome surfi e brother. xx

MADEX - Peter. Remembering the good times, Marg. A mate gone too soon. Rest in peace.

Alice, Oz, Josh, Jas, Holly, Patrick, Jess, Mick, Tom, Ron, Trish, Maydia and Greta.

deaths deaths

JOSEPH and Mary travelled to Bethlehem to register for the census. While they were there the time came for the baby to be born.

message of hope

FIREWOOD, redgum & local wood, Ph 0408-980-711, A/H 5662-5175

HAY MOWER Fella SM320, 3m cut, VGC, one owner, 5 y.o. $5,500. Ph: 0432-555269.

HAY size 6x4, behind the bailer, $44 inc. GST. Graeme 0427-634233.

HAY - Rye and clover, rounds behind baler, $44 inc. GST, Glengarry. Phone Jason 0417-058319. Inspection welcome.

HAY - small square bales, $7 each. Fully shedded, suitable for horses, never been wet. Quality guaranteed. Mardan - 5664-1320, 0428-999691.

HEN HOUSES - suit 6-7 hens. Ring Denis 5664-2443.

JAYCO camper trailer, 1982, in good condition, sleeps six, four-burner stove and oven, three-way fridge, full annexe, reg till Feb 2012, $8,500 ONO. Ph: 5662-3748.

2250 litre round poly water tank $450; Porta Potti 165 $75; Warrior 210mm twin bar sliding compound saw $75; Midi Jolly electric chainsaw sharpener $75; electric centrifugal water pump $20; large quantity shade mesh $30; Hamilton tree planter $50; Gallagher electric fence tester and fault fi nder $75. Ph: 0412-735158.

MITSUBISHI 2001 station wagon, auto, 200,000km, well serviced, maintained and reliable, $5,000 ONO. Ph: 5662-5415.

MOBILITY SCOOTER electric - Pride Celebrity X four wheel. Excellent condition, swivel chair and canvas carrybag, $2,000. Contact Lance 0409-426042.

SLEEPERS, treated pine, 200x50x2.4 $12.10 each, 200x75x2.4 $16.75 each. Free delivery for pack lots. Phone Joe 0417-530662.

STOVE Omega upright, 600mm, white, electric, fan forced oven and grill, 4 hotplates. Excellent condition $120. Nerrena 5664-9295.

SUZUKI GSXR 600, 1997, reg. GE761, 36,500km. Ex condition $5,200. 0419-343568.

SUZUKI EIGER 400 quad, good condition $1,500. Ph: 0429-675145.

TIMBER - kiln dried blackwood, clear pine, silver wattle. Most sizes for furniture and craft. Also builder’s graded structural pine. Phone 5681-2261.

used vehiclesHOLDEN CRUZE AWD, 5 speed man. 2002, fi rst rego 2003 (SBJ309), one owner, 109,000km, Suzuki motor, RWC, $6,800 ONO. 5662-2842, 0427-300537.

funerals

MADEX - The GravesideFuneral Service for MrPeter Stanley Madex, lateof Inverloch and formerlyof Meeniyan will be heldat the Meeniyan Cemeteryon Wednesday December14, 2011 commencing at10.30am.

BREEDIN - The GravesideFuneral Service tocelebrate the life of thelate Mrs Lorna JessieBreedin will be held at theLeongatha Lawn Cemeteryon Tuesday, December 13,2011 at 11am.

HELMS - The FuneralService for the late MrRobert Gordon Helmswill be held at the UnitingChurch, Geale Street, Meeniyan on FridayDecember 16, 2011 commencing at 2pm. Private cremation. In lieu of fl owers, donationsmay be made to theWoorayl Lodge, Leongatha.Envelopes will be availableat the service.

FREENE - The FuneralService to celebrate thelife of the late Mr BruceAlbert Freene will be heldat our Leongatha Chapel(cnr South Gippsland Hwyand Bellingham St) onWednesday December 14,2011 at 1.30pm. Private Cremation. No fl owers by requestplease, in lieu donationsmay be made to theDiabetes Foundation.Envelopes will be availableat the service.

MADEX - Peter Stanley. 14.01.1955 - 05.12.2011 Aged 56 years. Suddenly at home inInverloch. Formerly of Meeniyan. Son of Shirley and JohnCook and Alf Madex(dec). Brother to Rossand Lorraine, Wayne andSue, Susan and Bruce andfamilies. Finally at peace.

Caring for our Community,personal dignifi ed service

to all areas

5662 2717Pre-need Funeral Plans available

Offi ce and Chapel: 24 Anderson Street, [email protected]

MEMBER OFAUSTRALIAN FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION

Paul & Margaret Beck proprietors

deaths deaths


TIDESAt Port Phillip Heads

DECEMBERTime height

(metres)

0608 1.451206 0.301904 1.34

0225 1.590807 0.591411 1.332003 0.22

0301 1.600845 0.541453 1.352039 0.24

0339 1.600922 0.491535 1.362116 0.27

0415 1.581000 0.441619 1.362156 0.33

0528 1.501121 0.341800 1.342328 0.50

20TUE

14WED

15THUR

16FRI

17SAT

18SUN

19MON

All times shown in24 hour clock

0001 - 1200..................AM1201 - 2400..................PM

Add one hour fordaylight saving

Here is an easy guide to tides in your area.To determine tides for a partic-ular area, add or subtract peri-ods of times as shown below.

Earlier MinutesApollo Bay ...........................25King Island (Grassy) ...........10King Island (Surprise Bay) ....40King Island (Franklin) ...........40Lakes Entrance .................... 170Lorne ...................................... 20Mallacoota Inlet .................... 158Rip Bank ................................ 15Snowy River Entrance ......... 170_______________________ Cape Schanck, Flinders, Morn-ington Ocean Beaches, Seal Rocks, Venus Bay, Waratah Bay, Woolamai ....... nil_________________________Later MinutesAltona ................................... 195Barwon Heads Bridge ........... 15Carrum ................................. 195Corinella ................................. 68Cowes Pier ............................. 50Dromana .............................. 195Frankston ............................. 195Geelong ............................... 210Hastings ................................. 66Hovell Pile ............................ 195Inverloch Pier ......................... 15Melbourne ............................ 200Mornington ........................... 195Newhaven Jetty ..................... 30No. 1 West Channel (Annulus) ........................... 50No. 2 South Channel Light .... 70No. 8 South Channel Light .. 150Port Albert Pier ...................... 90Portarlington Pier ................. 190Portsea Pier ........................... 80Port Welshpool (Rabbit Island .................... 10Queenscliffe Pier ................... 30Rhyll ....................................... 60Rosebud ............................... 195Rye Pier ............................... 170St. Leonards Pier ................. 190Sandringham ....................... 195Sorrento Pier ........................ 130Stony Point ............................. 40South Channel Pile Light ..... 190Swan Island Dock ................ 120Tooradin ............................... 105Warneet.................................. 84Williamstown ........................ 200Welshpool Pier ....................... 90

0450 1.541039 0.391706 1.352240 0.41

RESULTS of the ladies monthly medal competition held on Wednesday Decem-ber 7.

Winner Tracey Higginbot-tom 99-35-64.

Down the line: Lynne Winderlich 66 net. Nearest the pin: 4th Rhonda Evans, 16th Wendy Gervasi, NTA 6th Tracey Higginbottom.

MidweekThere were 22 starters for

the midweek competition held on Thursday December 8.

The winner was Phil Gar-lick (25) 37 pts.

Down the line: Ray Mat-thews 36 pts, Mike Higgin-bottom 36 pts, Gary Renwick 35 pts countback.

Birdies: 6th G. Shandley, 13th J. Kus.

Saturday December 10On Saturday there were

45 starters for the Garfi eld / Mirboo North Challenge sponsored by Gordon Grae-me. The CCR was 71.

‘Jabba Jabba Shield’: Gar-fi eld 33.000 d Mirboo North 32.688. Garfi eld best score 39 points - Peter VanderHorst.

Day winner G. Shandley (20) 42, A Grade M. Payne (11) 38.

Down the line: P. Vander-Horst, D. Peacock, J. Hughes, T. Traill, R. Matthews count-back, R. Norton countback.

Nearest the pin / PP: K. Clerks, 6th T. Bradshaw, 13th D. Peacock, 16th M. Mat-thews; 2nd shot 1st J. Hughes.Birdies: 6th G. Shandley, T. Bradshaw, M. Higginbottom; 4th P. VanderHorst.

KorumburraSIXTY-THREE players at-tended the 4B aggregate sta-bleford on Saturday Decem-ber 10, sponsored by House of Golf.

Les Guilfoyle holed out on fi rst hole.

Balls: L. Guilfoyle, K Pope 81, L. and S. Webster 78, E. and M. Hams 77, M. Garnham and R. Young 76, .

Only half the fi eld com-pleted their round due to a severe storm that fl ooded the course.

Putting: 1st L. Guil-foyle, 7th K. Axford, 10th B. Maskell, 13th M. Garnham.

Tuesday’s winner was K. Pope with 40 points.

ON Saturday Leongatha Car Detailing sponsored our stroke event.

The A Grade winner was Greg Fennell with a net 68, B Grade went to Mick Her-rald with another net 65 and C Grade and best score of the day went to Les Wakefi eld with a net 64 on a countback.

Down the line balls went to D. Clemann, T. Burgess who also eagled the 7th and the 11th, P. Challis, D. Dw-yer, T. Ryan, I. Atcheson, C. James, J. Hickey, M. Wood and K. Riseley.

The nearest the pins went to Graeme Winkler and Matt Wilson.

The ladies competition was won by Marg Harris but only after a countback from runner-up Thel Scoble, both net 69.

Balls were won by Ann Poole and Melinda Martin. The ladies’ nearest the pins went to Ann Poole 7th and Pauline Lancaster 17th.

Our Thursday competition went to Rob Gourlay with 40 points, with a ball to Graeme Winkler.

Next Saturday we will play a stableford aggregate event sponsored by R. and J. Spokes.

This Thursday will see the last of our Christmas raffl es,

and I believe we will also see the man in red.

LadiesWe enjoyed our fi rst taste

of summer conditions last week for Jo and Heather’s three ball teams event.

The winning team of Anne Patterson, Anne Grist and Ann Poole, with 38 points had a nar-row win on a countback from Jill Linklater, Thel Scoble and Melinda Martin.

Balls down the line went to Sue Wakefi eld, Marlene Rayson, Marg Higgins, Chris Perrett and Janet Thompson.

The winner of A Grade was Chris Perrett with 42 points, with Sue Wakefi eld being the runner-up on 36 points.

B Grade was taken out by Thel Scoble with 40 points on a countback from Marlene Rayson.

C Grade winner was Inge Giliam with 42 points and Mel Martin was runner-up with 39 points.

Nearest the pin on the eighth was Karin McKen-zie, on the 11th was Marg Harris and the 17th was Jill Linklater.

This week is our fi nal day for the year, sponsored by Pam Byatt. We will assemble at 9am for a 9.30 start, to play nine holes followed by lunch and our presentations.

crossword solutions

CRYPTIC PUZZLE NO. 8303 - SOLUTIONSAcross - 6, Will to live. 8, Ac-re. 9, Last. 10, Pan-el. 11,Mike. 12, Re-collect 16, Bald facts. 20, F-red. 22, Enter.23, Rail. 24, O-wen (rev.). 25, Strong case.Down - 1, P-I-r-ate. 2, Pla-too-n. 3, Co-MP-el. 4, Picnic.5, Real-M. 7, Brake (break). 13, (fe)El-l(oth). 14, Pa-trick.15, Draws (rev.). 17, Attire (a tire). 18, DA-ring. 19, Thirst(anag). 21, Dens-E.

QUICK PUZZLE NO. 8303 - SOLUTIONSAcross - 6, Water-melon. 8, Trap. 9, Rest. 10, Amaze. 11,Rush. 12, Essential. 16, Tremulous. 20, Slug. 22, Rapid.23, Oath. 24, Saga. 25, Tremendous.Down - 1, Caress. 2, Leather. 3, Impart. 4, Alpaca. 5, In-ter. 7, Pause 13, Ire. 14, Almonds. 15, Clear. 17, Ripped.18, Madden. 19, Untrue. 21, Grate.

LeongathaMAGNIFICENT golfi ng conditions for most of the week and some faster fair-ways have resulted in good scores. Perhaps two short-ened holes due to temporary tees are also a factor. Players needed to be on their game to be in the running.

SaturdayThe forecast rain arrived

late in the day but humid conditions beforehand were trying.

The competition was an Irish Four Ball which the club handbook advises is based on the aggregate of the three best stableford scores on each hole.

The winning team with 137 was P. Seth, R. Bryde, L. Paige and R. Elliot. Runners-up on 124 were D. Stubbs, P. Pease, E. Dempsey and M. Griffi ths. Pro pin to Anthony Sparkes and NTP to Russ Williams. Ball winners were G. Mor-rison, P. Hobson and G. Burt on 121, N. Johnson, N. Cairns, R. Williams and R. Brown on 119, W. Norden, R. Paice, F. de Bondt and H. Sedelies on 116 and also on 116 were M. Berry, W. Surman, A. Gibson and G. Mitchell.

TuesdayA fi eld of 45 is not bad on

a Tuesday and is suggestive that some summer golfers are returning to the game.

Dave Vorwerg (16) was best of the A Graders with a countback helping him to win with 39 points. Geoff Maher (20) has been in good form re-cently and had another win in B Grade with a fi ne 42 points.

Nearest the pin on the 14th

to the reliable Doug Clemann

and Craig Dudek hit straight on the 16th. Ball winners were T. McCarthy 39, N. Cairns 38, M. Street 38, G. Morrison 37, J. King 37, J. Lowell 37, J. Arnott 37, A. Clemann 36, A. Edney 36, K. Gardner 36, and B. Gibson 36 countback.

ThursdayFifty-four players and

three grades. A Grade to Alan Adcock(14) with a fi ne 40 points. Col Sperling (25) won B Grade with 41 and Ian Sutherland (31) won C grade with 42. Nearest the pin on the 14th to Jack Cummins and Alan Edney on the 16th. Down the line balls won by Marilyn Williams 41, M. Street 40, J. Arnott 40, P. Hobson 40, M. Herald 39, A. Edney 37, D. Clemann 37, F. Smedley 37, G. Morrison 36, M. Stubbs 36, P.Waters 36, B. Cathie 35, P. Meethan 35(C/B).

A reminder that volun-teers are needed to assist with the summer putting and chip-ping competition.

A big fi eld is already listed for Thurdsay’s Knights Mitsubishi Whiskey Run so phone now if you haven’t booked.

Ladies Saturday December 3Ten ladies competed in a

stroke event which was won by Rita deBondt with a fi ne 92-22-70.

Down the line balls went to Wendy Surman 74 net and Marilyn Williams 75 net.

Wednesday December 7 Thirty-three ladies con-

tested a stroke event gener-ously sponsored by LJ Hook-er. We thank them for their sponsorship.

A Grade - Di Williams - 90-20-70, B Grade - Gwen

Chapman 94-28-66, C Grade - Pam Christensen 114-45-69.

Best 9 in - Marion Bell-ingham 34 net, best 9 out - Dot Stubbs 35 net on a countback from Val Brydon.

Down the line balls: P Pease 70, V Brydon 72, M Griffi ths 72, C Gray 73, L Clark 75, K Hogan 75, A Blundy 76, W Surman 76 on a c/b from 4 others.

Nearest the pins: 14th Marg Danks, 16th Marea Maher.

Nine hole comp: Noreen Williams 21pts, Down the line: Lyle Hawkins 18 points.Sunday December 11

A small fi eld of 13 pairs keenly contested the RM Hodges Mixed 4BBB Stable-ford sponsored by the Hodges Family, and the Annual Tur-key Run

Winners of this presti-gious Board Event in a three way countback were a very excited Steve and Debbie Miller with a fi ne 45 points from Glenn Marsham and Re-becca Wilson and Peter and Sharyn Rayson.

Runners-up: Glenn Mar-sham and Rebecca Wilson 45 points on a countback from Peter and Sharyn Rayson 45 points.

Turkey run winners: Best nine in: Rob Bride and Marg Berry 23 points, best nine out: Peter and Sharyn Rayson 24 points.

Down the line balls went to Nic Cairns and Wendy Brown 44 points, Ed and Anne Poole 43 points, Andy Cairns and Joy Runge 43 points.

Nearest the Pins: 14th: Men - Glen Marsham, La-dies - Anne Poole. 16th: Men - Steve Miller, Ladies - Toni West.

MeeniyanSATURDAY was a single stableford event with the sponsor for the day being Truckie Hughes which is much appreciated.

The A Grade winner was Craig Buckland with 35 points. Runner-up was Col Graeme with 34 points.

The B Grade winner was Peter Riddle with 37 points. The runner-up in B Grade was Craig Buckland with 36 points.

Balls down the line went to Truckie Hughes 36 points, Jim Cusack 35 points, Peter Gornall 33 points, Paul Vandermeer 33 points and Frank Peille with 33 points on a countback. This week we had a busy golf award which was taken out by Will Bullock with 22 points.

Nearest the pin on the eighth was won by Jim Cusack. The pro pin on the 11th was won by Jim Cusack for the second week in a row.

The raffl e winners were Paul Vandermeer and Craig Buckland. The members draw was won by Bill Vandergest who was not there so it jackpots to next week.

Last week’s super 66 winners were ColGraeme and Dave and Noreen Webster. Thisweek’s winners were Brian Dewar and GregHoskin.

Next Friday night is our Christmas party andthe auction for the number one member will beheld so anyone interested needs to be there. Nextweek is a four person ambrose event sponsoredby the Meeniyan Gentlemens Club.

The winner of Tuesday’s single stablefordevent was Wino Reilly with 34 points. Ballsdown the line went to Otto Vandervorm with34 points. Best nine was Col Stewart with 18points.

4B aggregate winners were Bo Fiek andOtto Vandervorm with 67 points. Nearest thepin on the eighth was won by Bo Fiek.

The winner of Thursday’s single stablefordevent was John Walker with 35 points. Ballsdown the line went to Col Stewart with 35points. Best nine was Lloyd Hemphill with 19points.

Nearest the pin on the 14th was won by TonyMcHarg.

A BIG turn out on Wednesday, December 7 for the last medal day for 2011.

Twenty-two ladies hit off on a beautiful sunny day. Section 1 winner and medal went to Veronica Park 69 net.

Section 2 winner Nereda Scholte 71 net. Section 3 Lyn Jennison 73 net.

Best nine - Jan Trease 33.Putting - Faye Smallman 29.Balls down the line: Heather Poletti 71, Marilyn McGeary

74, Gwen Heppell 76, Faye Smallman 76.Congratulations to our 2011 board event winners.Lorraine Eddy ladies singles knock out - Sue Hoskin.R.F. and H.M. Poletti ladies fourball knockout - Veronica

Park and Lyn Jennison.

THE best weather for months greeted the 119 Veterans who played in the last stableford competition of the year.

We welcomed George Thorne from Warragul. George is the recent State President of the VVGA and is a regular and welcome visitor to our district.

The tees were forward and the greens were fast. Indeed the Wonthaggi course was at its very best and the results re-fl ected the fi ne conditions.

Our thanks go to our regu-lar sponsors of the Wonthaggi event, Jean Osbourne and her daughter Lorraine Dowson who presented two beautiful gifts for winner and runners-up.

Their sponsorship is in memory of their husband and father Cliffy Osbourne.

This year we had a co-sponsor in Australian Hearing who offered free hearing tests and a bag of golfi ng goodies all gratefully received.

The winner was John Duscher, (Wonthaggi) who playing off a handicap of 22 came in with 42 points.

John won on a count back

from Alan Wright, (Wonthag-gi, off 25).

We also had a trophy for the over 70’s which was won by Wonthaggi’s Fred Deme-nech, (30) with 41 points.

Nearest the pins went to Jon Smith, (Leongatha), Bill Warren, (Wonthaggi), Doug Adams, (Phillip Island) and Bob Furborough (Wonthaggi) on two, eight, 13 and 17 re-spectively.

After the game the com-batants held wassail and then the AGM.

Next year will see the in-augural ‘player of the year’ competition run in conjunction with our normal events. Sim-ply play in at least six of the 10 stableford competitions and you are in the running.

The winner will have the highest number of points using their best six results.

In our normal competi-tions the fi elds will be divided into A and B Grades and a tro-phy presented to the winner of each grade.

Where else can you have such good companionship, healthy exercise and good

FosterTHE greens have improved quickly and the course has dried right out so playing con-ditions are perfect.

Tuesday Ray Prain (15) had a win

with +4. Down the line balls went to Phil Nightingall (19) and Robert Fulton(15) both on +2. Peter Dight took out the nearest the pin.

Thursday Neil Chandler (23) re-

turned to form to street the fi eld and win with the great score of 46 points - and he even hit one out of bounds in this round. Phil Nightingall (19) continued his consistent form to score a ball with 36 points, and the other ball went to Athol McGrath (16) also with 36 points. Nearest the pin went to Fred Tyers.

Friday Denham Grierson got the

chook with the good score of 22 points, and balls down the line went to John Mathers and John Stone both on 21 points, and Geoff Nott on 19 points. The nearest the pins went to John Mathers and John Stone.

SaturdayWe played a stableford

round for trophies provided by John and Barbara Warren.The excellent scores refl ected the good conditions. Rob Ful-ton (15) won A Grade with 40 points while fabulous Phil Nightingall (19) continued his amazing run to win B Grade with 39 points.

Down the line balls went to Noel Black (seven) and Lloyd McKenzie (10) both on 39 points, Greg Cox (11) and Andrew Naylor (24) both on 38 points, and Peter Wright (20) on 37 points.

The nearest the pins went to Owen Kindellan and Noel Black. The encouragement award was shared by Clarke Gray and Rod Coughlan-Lane on 20 points.

Geoff McKenzie (10) had 35 points and is quickly get-ting back to his old form.

Amazing how some fel-lows will throw in a bit of gamesmanship. Larry Giddy was going quite well with 22 points on the fi rst nine.

However his opponent in the four ball match Kevin Flett gave him a little advice on his grip and swing going down the 10th.

Larry accepted the advice with good grace, but his game deteriorated from that point - and he only had 14 points on the second nine.

But there was some jus-tice, as Larry’s partner Rob Fulton carried him on the second nine and they still won the four ball.Mixed knockout matchplay

The draw for the mixed knockout is now on the board. See if you can organise your matches as soon as possible.

Friday night members’ draw – Steven Bennett was not on hand to collect the $250 cash so the prize will be up to $300 next week. You need to be in the clubhouse between 7 and 8pm to collect the cash in the members draw

Coming events: Tuesday December 13 - stableford; Thursday December 15 - sta-bleford; Friday December 16 - twilight; Saturday Decem-ber 17 - stableford - three ball ambrose. Draw for partners at 10.30 am.

This is also the Christmas break-up and bad dress day. Trophies are provided by SEJ Real Estate.

Woorayl

Meeniyan ladies

South Gippsland veteranstimes for $15 annual member-ship?

You need to be at least 55years of age and a fi nancialmember of one of the SouthGippsland clubs.

Seize your club delegatesand thrust your money uponthem before they escape. Mirboo North

Bal36 poin33 poinPeille wwe had by Will

NeaJim CusJim CusA BIG turn out on Wednesday, December 7 for the last medal

Meeniyan ladies

Winners: Nereda Scholte, winner of Section 2, Veronica Park, winner of Section 1 and Lyn Jen-nison winner of Section 3, celebrate their success.


Leongatha TUESDAY December 6 saw our Division 2 ladies pennant teams travel to Loch and manage to draw with Loch, while Division 3 who went to Inverloch were on the winners’ list, defeating Inverloch overall.

The next round of ladies pennant on Tuesday December 13 will see our Divi-sion 2 ladies at home to Welshpool and our Division 3 also at home to Foster.

This will be the last round before the Christmas / new year break, with the ladies pennant to resume on January 10, 2012.

Tuesday evening saw round fi ve of the business bowls in action and the winners were NAB, The Tradies, Sports 1st, Shire (1) and Shire (2), Murray Goulburn, Tennis Club, Mini Skips, Leongatha New and Used Building Materials, River Bank, Diesel Fuel and Gold.

The ladder after round fi ve sees Gold on top followed by Leongatha New and Used Building Materials, The Tradies, Prom Country 1st National, The Chalkies, Diesel Fuel, Sports 1st then Murphys, Tennis Club, and just tipping into the top 10, Mini Skips.

Next Tuesday evening will see the last of the pre Christmas business bowls with the fi nals being played and the battle of the chal-lenges amongst the rest.

Wednesday December 7 saw 24 play-ers take to the greens in the midweek social bowls, with the winners being B. Fisher (s), M. Carnell and J. Pendergast with two wins plus 22. Runners-up were G. Drury (s), R. Saunders and A. Moore on one win and a draw and plus 14.

Thursday December 8 saw the ladies

four-person medley in action with 14 teamsentered, and the winners were the team of Y.Kee, M. Flett, G. Burge and J. Brown withfour wins 76 points. Runners-up were thePhillip Island team of J. Dykes, R. James, D.Pollock and J. Farmer with four wins plus73 points.

Saturday December 10 men’s pennantstarted off on not a good note, with one ofthe club’s pennant players being in a vehicleaccident, however he is recovering wellaccording to all reports. The club wishesGraham a speedy recovery. Another of theclub’s members is in hospital, and the clubwishes Ted a speedy recovery.

Men’s pennant had a mixed day alsowith our Division 1 teams having an overallwin against Wonthaggi at Wonthaggi. Divi-sion 2 also on the winning list after they hada good win at Meeniyan.

Division 4 however had a bad day at In-verloch and could only manage to win onone rink and lost overall on the day.

Saturday December 17 sees Division 1at home to Phillip Island, Division 2 awayto the Island and Division 4 also at home toPhillip Island Blue. This is the last round be-fore the Christmas / New Year break, withmen’s pennant to resume on January 21,2012.

The next Leongatha affi liated two bowlstriples will be held on Wednesday December21 commencing at 9.30am, with the fi rst ofthe 2012 events to be held on WednesdayJanuary 25.

Until the next report, good bowling -Jackhigh.

South Gippsland pennant bowls

Parlor bowls KORUMBURRA’S social bias bowlers played their fi nal night for 2011 on Monday, December 5 at the Outtrim Hall.

It was a relaxed and fun night as a variety of bowling games were played, with bowlers on each mat winning prizes for their skill and accuracy. It came as no surprise that every bowler won a prize – a testament to the improving skills of this young bowls group.

The three main games of the evening consisted of fi ve ends each, with each end receiving a total of 10 points shared between the four closest bowls to kitty.

With each point counting, the winning team of Ashley van Duffelen, Joe Occhipinti and Arc Gammaldi (94 points) outplayed everyone else to win the major prizes.

Lynn McCord, Connie Occhipinti and Mary Tumino, who were runners-up with 72 points, won the second prizes whilst Lee Armstrong, Joyce

Tarwin Lower bowlsTuesday Pennant saw both Division Two and Division Three record well earned wins.

Saturday Pennant had Division Three winning whilst Division Five lost their game.

On Saturday night was the Christmas breakup with the club being fi lled to overfl owing with merrymakers.

Special thanks to all the ladies who helped on the night.

Everyone had a great night, with George providing wonderful entertainment.

The Christmas hamper was drawn with the winner of the hamper being Trevor Scott, the ham on the bone was won by Wendy Williams, the Cake by Bron Ellen, the pudding by Terry Smith and the champagne and glasses by Jack Charlton.

The club wishes to thank all those who generous-ly donated the prizes that made this such a wonderful fundraiser.

ON Tuesday pennant Division One were hosts to San Remo. The home team found the visitors in very good form and went down on all three rinks.

Away to Foster division three had a win and a draw and won by 10 shots over-all. With good results over the past few weeks they are now in the four.

In the fi nal week before the break, ones are away to Korumburra and threes are home to San Remo.

Social bowls on Wednesday was enjoyed by 17 players. Winners were Don Paterson, Ron Gloster and Kevin Robinson. Kath Brown won the lucky draw.

This Wednesday eve-ning is the fi nal week of our corporate bowls competi-tion with all teams playing off. MGC versus Cooota-mundra, Dumbalk North v Kim and Kev are the top four teams.

Then follows C and L v Double Trouble, Bill and

Ben v Greg and Len, Moos v MacAttack, John and Dianne v Loha, Robo and Thomo v Bruce and Dean.

Saturday pennant was played under threatening skies with all teams getting a result before the heavens opened.

Away to Leongatha Di-vision Two were in a must win game but unfortunately the rain came before the end of play and they went down 55 shots to 60 and slip out of the four.

At home Division Five had a three rink win against Port Welshpool 93 shots to 57 and now move into sec-ond place. Division Six at home to Korumburra were very competitive, winning one rink but going down 46 shots to 55.

This Saturday is the last match before the break. All teams are away - twos to San Remo, fi ves to Fish Creek and sixes to Phillip Island.

Thursday 15 is our Christmas break-up with Red Cross catering. 6.30 for 7pm meal with Santa and carols.

Bowling champs: Wonthaggi Bowling Club president Fred Kellow congrat-ulates Vic Piasente (runner-up) and Graham Jackson (men’s singles champi-on 2011-12) on their splendid efforts during the year. In a great exhibition of bowls on a very quick green, Graham defeated Vic 25 to 22 with a large crowd viewing.

Buffalo indoorON Wednesday December 7 there were 11 players on a nice night which saw four teams, three of three and one of two.

We played three games of eight ends with six bowls, also it was nice to have Col Densley back. There was a countback fourth to third place.

In fourth (DLL) 6 ends, skipper Col Densley, Toni Heldens and Charlie Tumino; third (DLL) 11 ends, skip-per Ian Benson and Mary Tumino; second (LWW), skip-per Peter Heldens, Glenys Pilkington and Joe Occhipinti; fi rst (WWW), skipper Rod McConchie, Carolyn Benson and Joyce Occhipinti.

The best fi rst game Rod 6-4, second Peter 15-6, third Rod 12-1.

We hope to see you all next Wednesday at our Christ-mas break-up at 7.30pm, all welcome. Please ring Caro-lyn Benson on 5663 6270.

InverlochONCE again rain interrupted Saturday’s pennant round, but all games were completed with all games playing more than the 45 ends.

It turned out to be our most successful round for some weeks, with wins in three divisions and a narrow loss in the other. Once again, Division 5 had to forfeit their game through lack of num-bers.

Division 1 travelled to Lang Lang and when their game was called off after about 60 ends, they had wins on two rinks and an over-all lead of eight shots. Mick Bowman’s rink, which has been consistent all season suf-fered a rare 10-21 loss.

Division 2 were home to top four side San Remo and put in another good perfor-mance with wins on Doug Muir’s and Mick Yates’ rinks, but went down by 14 shots on the other to see them fail to get the points by seven shots.

It has been good to see them being a real threat in the last two weeks.

Division 3 were away to Korumburra Gold and when heavy rain and hail hit after playing 56 ends and play was called off, we held a lead of one to take the points.

Bryan Hensleys’ and Trevor Scott’s rinks led all match to win their games by 13 and six shots respectively, but John Hedley’s rink, which has been in good winning form in recent matches, had a bad day against a team that bowled very well, especially their lead, John McVeigh.

Division 4 played fourth -placed Leongatha on our green and despite rain inter-ruptions, completed 75 ends.

They put in their best per-formance for the season with a 22 shot win with good wins on two rinks and on the other rink fell just four shots short.

ResultsDivision 1: Inverloch 60

d Lang Lang 52. W. West (ld), G. Pope (2nd), C. Buc-cilli (3rd), R. Burge (sk) won 29-15. G. Butler (ld), H. Ry-balka (2nd), P. Shaw (3rd), M. Bowman) lost 10-21. D. Rob-erts (ld), N. Hughes (2nd), K .Gardiner (3rd), M. Coram (ks), won 21-16.

Division 2: Inverloch 62 lost to San Remo 69. G. Har-dy (ld), J. Sutcliffe (2nd), R. Haugen (3rd), M. Yates (sk) won 28-26. W. Parks (ld), R. Gostling (2nd), T. Hancock (3rd), D. Muir (sk) won 25-20. G. Vernon (ld), N. Ever-itt (2nd), R. Brevitt (3rd), K .Marriott (sk) lost 9-23.

Division 3: Inverloch 46 d Korumburra (ld) 45. D. Watt (ld), K. Perrett (2nd), J. Mill-er (3rd), J. Hedley (sk) lost 7-20. R. Kee (ld), R. Paynting (2nd), N. Van Grunsven (3rd), T. Scott (sk) won 19-13. K. Cousins (ld), B. Bain (2nd), J. Turner (3rd), B. Hensley (sk), won 20-12.

Division 4: Inverloch 81 d Leongatha 59. D. Pease (ld), H. Dunn (2nd), H. Nation (3rd), M. Cargill (sk) won 20-12. G. Dunlop (ld), B. Griffi n (2nd), M. Johnstone (3rd), R. Delahoy (sk), lost 27-31. R. Pritchard (ld), R. Rees (2nd), B. Growse (3rd), J. Gilfi llan (sk) won 25-11.

Last Thursday saw anoth-er rather small turnout of 18 players to play social bowls. They played two games of 12 ends of three bowl triples. A the end of play there were two teams with 34 points.

The winner was decided on most shots up and the team of E. Leskiewicz (ld), F. Fryer (2nd), and B. Hensley (sk) with 20 shots up. Runners-up with 19 shots up were I. Bull-ock (ld) and A. Moule (2nd) and R. Delahoy (sk).

Last Wednesday evening was the second last week of the eight week series of busi-ness bowls. The winners were ‘The Has Beens’ with 14 shots

ResultsDiv 1: Toora 1-70

lt Korumburra 15-79; Wonthaggi 2-60 lt Leongatha 14-82; Foster 2-48 lt Phillip Island 14-85; Lang Lang 2-52 lt Inverloch 14-60

Div 2: Phillip Island 14-87 d Mirboo North 2-61; Inverloch 4-62 lt San Remo 12-69: Leongatha 14-60 d Meeniyan 2-55: Loch 2-63 lt Wonthaggi 14-66.

Div 3: Tarwin Lower 14-59 d Korumburra Maroon 2-51: Wonthaggi 16-82 d Foster 0-49; Fish Creek 2-59 lt Corinella 14-66; Korumburra Gold 2-45 lt Inverloch 14-46.

Div 4: Phillip Island White 14-58 d Mirboo North 2-47: Inverloch 14-81 d Leongatha 2-59: San Remo 3-52 lt Phillip Island Blue 13-72; Lang Lang 4-48 lt Wonthaggi 12-52.

Div 5: Loch 16-15 d Inverloch 0-0 (forfeit); Meeniyan 16-93 d Port Welshpool 0-57; Tarwin Lower 4-59 lt Fish Creek

12-61. Div 6: Toora 12-45 d

Foster 2-41; Phillip Island 14-42 d Corinella 0-20; Wonthaggi 14-57 d San Remo 0-36; Meeniyan 2-46 lt Korumburra 12-55.

Denis Stanes’ ‘Kiss of death’ tips for next week’s round are:

In Division 1, Leongatha (home) will have no trouble in defeating Phillip Island by 18 shots.

Wonthaggi (home) in a surprise win over Inverloch by four shots. Lang Lang (home) to win by 12 shots over Korumburra, whilst the battle down east will see Toora score a much needed win over Foster by 22 shots.

Next week’s round will be the fi nal games before the Christmas break. Once again, the fi nals are getting closer, so club should be positioning their teams and players so that they qualify for the fi nals.

Please check the ‘screed’ recently forwarded to all

clubs regarding qualifi cation for the fi nals. Good bowling to all. Let’s hope for another fi ne weekend. Personally, I have had enough of the rain, well on Saturday’s at least.

LaddersDivision 1

Leongatha ........181 129Inverloch ...........164 129Phillip Island.....200 116Korumburra ......101 98Wonthaggi ........ -105 54Foster................. -159 47Toora ................. -182 40Lang Lang ......... -200 28

Division 2San Remo ............23 103Mirboo North .....48 101Leongatha ......... -53 94Phillip Island ......76 84 Wonthaggi ............33 84Meeniyan ..............31 79Loch ................... -37 66Inverloch .......... -121 29

Division 3Inverloch .............91 124Corinella ............129 121Korumburra Gold ......23 83Fish Creek .............4 82

Tarwin Lower .......25 76Wonthaggi .......... -24 69K’burra Maroon -122 46Foster................ -126 39

Division 4Phillip Island Blue ....156118San Remo ............68 110Wonthaggi ...........91 104Leongatha ........... -5 75Phillip Island White ... -6375Lang Lang .......... -88 65Inverloch ............ -81 50Mirboo North ..... -78 43

Division 5Loch ...................200 136Meeniyan ...............3 98Fish Creek .......... -59 90Port Welshpool ...14 83Tarwin Lower ..... -14 83Inverloch .......... -144 38

Division 6Toora ...................79 100Foster ...................53 94Korumburra .......56 81Wonthaggi ...........39 72Phillip Island ........43 71Corinella ............. -67 69San Remo ........... -39 49Meeniyan .......... -164 24

Steady feet: Bev Button keeps Korumburra in the pennant competition on home turf.

Occhipinti, Sally Gammaldi, Charlie Tumino, Geoff McCord, George Bentley and Michael Matthews had to be satisfi ed with a chocolate Santa.

The club’s weekly results had also been collated. It was good to note that 11 players ranged between four wins and seven wins for the year.

Joe Occhipinti and Lee

Armstrong both had 11 winsand were runners-up. CharlieTumino took the year’shonours with 13 winningnights. Congratulations wentto these three players fortheir bowling improvementand consistency.

We wish all our bowlersa safe festive season – onethat recharges the batteriesready for 2012.

Meeniyan bowls

up. Runners-up with 10 shots were ‘Harcourts’.

The teams of ‘Steve Mill-er ‘ and ‘Sure Constructions’, the two teams on the top of the ladder, will play off for the Jim Perrett memorial trophy next Wednesday evening.

The club will be holding a four week series of business bowls during February next year.

LadiesIT WAS a very successful

pennant day last Tuesday as all three divisions had a win.

Wednesday was the an-nual charity day with Kidsafe being the charity. $190.50 was raised.

Winners on the day were Marg Flett, Nell Van Grunsven and Gail Burge.

Yvonne Kee won a bottle of wine in the raffl e. Marg Flett won a plant and Veronica Muir won a sponge cake.

A very exciting singles fi nal was fought out between Ivy Sheppard and Pat Stone-ham on Friday, with Ivy being the victor by only two shots. Well played ladies.


LEONGATHA North won over Green ladies.

North led the way and the lead was too much for Green, although they won two of the three mixed, six games the margin.

Gold ladies set up a good win over Korumburra, with Judy helping out, 11 games the margin.

Baromi were pleased with a 10 game win over Koony.

In A Reserve Outtrim won by seven games against Hall-ston. Hallston won a tie-break-er, Outtrim a 7-5, a close game.

Koony and Berrys Creek had the close match of the round. Berrys Creek won fi ve sets but Koony won the day by fi ve games.

Leongatha won by four games over Baromi. Baromi led going into the mixed, Le-ongatha won all the mixed and the match.

Korumburra were big win-ners over Mardan, which puts them into third position this week.

Outtrim are having a good season in B Grade, winning all but one round so far, this week only winning by two games against Koony. Koony are a young team with Jim at the helm and a little more experi-ence.

Foster won by 13 over the Korumburra improvers. The Foster ladies set the team up winning the three sets well, Burra would have found Flo a very experienced campaigner.

Baromi won by 11 games and Mardan would have been pleased with three sets.

All matches are having close sets this week and there was at least one tie-breaker in each match or a 7-5. Well done.

ResultsA Grade: Leongatha Gold

5.60, Korumburra 4.49; Baro-mi 6.59, Koonwarra 3.49; Le-ongatha North 6.61, Leongatha Green 3.55.

A Reserve: Korumburra 8.54, Mardan 1.28; Outtrim 5.44, Hallston 4.37; Leongatha 5.48, Baromi 4.44; Koonwarra 4.42, Berrys Creek 5.37.

B Grade: Outtrim 5.38, Koonwarra 4.36; Foster 6.47, Korumburra 3.34; Baromi 6.43, Mardan 3.32.

LaddersA Grade

Leongatha North .............66.5Baromi ..............................56.5Leongatha Green ............56.5Koonwarra .......................55.0Leongatha Gold .................52.5

Allambee Mirboo & District tennis

Korumburra .......................41.0A Reserve

Koonwarra .......................69.0Outtrim .............................61.0Kormburra ......................60.5Baromi ..............................60.0Berrys Creek......................56.0Leongatha ..........................55.5Mardan ...............................41.0

Hallston..............................37.0B Grade

Outtrim .............................69.5Korumburra ....................59.0Baromi ..............................56.0Koonwarra .......................52.5Foster .................................52.5Mardan ...............................41.5

only 24 Gippsland Sports Academy athletes were of the correct age range for these camps, this is a sensational result for Gippsland,” he said.

“Congratulations to the athletes and support coaches, this is fantastic.”

Head coach Dan Higgins added: “The eight girls and boys invited to the upcoming national team camps are just some of the emerging talent that exists in the Gippsland region.

“Two of these athletes are are from our Under 15 group. They have shown dedication and improvement over time and much of the credit also goes to the excellent coaches that reside in the region.”

The following athletes will join the camp from December 9-15 for the boys and the girls, with the girls heading to the Monash Churchill campus and the boys travelling

to Latrobe University in Bendigo.

BoysJake Harrison (Drouin),

Nathan East (Lakes Entrance), Alek Ryan (Inverloch and will still be Under 15 in 2012).

GirlsPhoebe Trembath

(Morwell), Courtney Brann (Wonthaggi), Kasey Teakle and Catherine Mercer (Inverloch) and Monica Harasimuik (Traralgon and sill Under 15 in 2012).

All of the these athletes were part of the recent trip to the Bendigo Dragon City tournament where the Gippsland Sports Academy had three teams compete, two girls and one boys team.

All the teams were very competitive although the boys found the going tough, but learnt a great deal. Both girls’ teams competed at a very high level, with one team placing third.

Athletes are on the radarSP AUSNET Vol-leyball head coach, Dan Higgins proudly announced that eight boys and girls have been identifi ed and

selected to attend Na-tional Youth/Junior training camps from December 9.

Dan couldn’t contain his pride and excitement.

“Considering that

Young guns: the Gippsland Sports Academy’s volleyball team, which includes many promising youngsters.

Trophy winner: Kasey Teakle with a volleyball trophy she won earlier in the year. The youngster has been chosen to be part of a national youth training camp.

KORUMBURRA-Bena’s football stockslooked to have improved heading into the2012 season.

Last year’s preliminary fi nalists will be looking totake it at least one step further this year in aiming for theclub’s fi rst premiership since amalgamating in 2001.

The club has picked up two big recruits in Jaryd Gil-roy and Cameron Woods.

The key position players will play an important rolein the club’s future aspirations.

They, along with around 30 other Korumburra-Benaplayers, came along to the club’s initial training sessionon Friday night.

The night acted as a meet the coaches session as well,with a dinner following the training.

Dogs hit the track

Important men: the key group of Cameron Woods,Reserves coach James Kyle, Senior coach PeterHelms, Senior assistant coach Mark Crocker andJaryd Gilroy will be hoping to take the Korumbur-ra-Bena Football Club toward success this year.

Return: Lucas McMillan makes no mistake aboutthis forehand at Leongatha on Saturday.

Good serve: Emily Wilson sends one down on Saturday.

On the lookout: scouts are hunting talented local players such as Catherine Mercer, Courtney Brann and Alek Ryan.


By Tessa Hayward

MOTHERS’ surfi ng group Swell Mamas took part in Play It Safe by the Water surfi ng for girls on Friday, December 9 at Inverloch.

The group consisted of mothers of all ages participating in the program present-ed by Oakley and EVO to learn how to be safe in the water and pick up some surfi ng techniques.

The program, which covers the whole state, is about teaching girls how to surf and be safe in the water this summer.

World Tour surfer Rebecca Woods was amazed by the enthusiasm of the mothers.

“They absolutely love being out there and it’s really good to see them so excited

about surfi ng,” she said.Accompanying Rebecca Woods was

the program’s head coach Kate Wells and First Love fi lm stars India Payne and Jess Laing.

The Swell Mamas all received a prize pack for participating in the day, which included gifts from Oakley, EVO and Cancer Council sunscreen.

Surfi ng for girls is a skill development program that aims to help female surf-ers become more competent in the open ocean environment, and has the aim to help young surfers develop strategies that will help them be safe in the water this summer.

The program was enjoyed by all the Swell Mamas and they can now put the useful tips given to them by pro surfers into action.

Swell Mamas play it safe

FRIDAY night the club was lucky to miss the rain that hit the Cranbourne area earlier in the evening.

There was a good contingent of junior riders and some great racing and close fi nishes.

It was a warm and reasonably calm evening so the fi rst event – a one lap time trial saw most riders post their best ride of the season.

For the seniors there is a very close rivalry between Elliot Gin and Ron Purtle. Elliot fl ew round the track and recorded 31.01 sec time and offi cials think this is perhaps one of the quickest times for club members.

This was just ahead of a 31.62 from Ron whilst Kevin Feely was at 35.09sec.

In the Junior division Josh Chiavaroli clocked in at 36.40sec, Will Lumby at 37.17, Matt Minogue 39.70, Oscar Perri 40.44 sec, Josh Robinson 43.58, Gus Perri 40.44 and Nick Robinson on the small bike at 49.27 sec.

The next race was a one lap handicap. The senior event went to Elliot just ahead of Ron and Kevin.

In the Junior event the handicapper kept the judges busy as all riders were within about 10m at the fi nish.

Nick Robinson (90m) was going re-ally well and leading up the straight when he decided he needed a look to see how close the others were.

This was just the small help Oscar Perri (40) needed as he snatched the win right on the line. Matt Minogue (30) back from the Great Vic ride fi nished well to

claim third just keeping the backmarkers – Josh Chiavaroli and Will – at bay.

The junior riders fronted up for a two lap handicap and this time the limit riders were caught early as Josh Chiavaroli (scr) drove the pace.

However, his efforts played into the hands of Will (fi ve) who used the lead out to come from behind and claim the win. Oscar (60) showed some tenacity to fi ght back and claim second just ahead of Matt (50).

A little recovery time allowed the se-niors to front up for a two lap sprint.

Ron Purtle made the break off the bank with about 250m to the fi nish but El-liot timed his run well to come round and claim the win.

In the Junior sprints, Josh led out from 250m to go and it looked like Will would get the run from behind but Josh fought hard up the fi nish straight and held on for the win.

The three rider event between Oscar, Josh Robinson and Matt also proved a close affair. In another fi nish to test the judges Oscar claimed a narrow win from Matt and Josh Robinson.

The last sprint event between Gus and Nick was another highlite of the night.

Nick is a little terrier and rides a 24inch bike and Gus was on the normal size machine.

Nick didn’t let this bother him as he kept a close eye on Gus and dominated the tactics. Even when Gus challenged com-ing into the straight he found another gear and raced home a happy winner.

An Olympic sprint was organised with Will and Matt competing against Josh Chiavaroli and Oscar.

This was run over just one lap with the fi rst rider from each team dropping out after a half lap leaving the remaining team member to fi nish off the lap.

In a close race the win went to Josh and Oscar. The team event is always popular and there were calls for a repeat. However, Josh Robinson, Nick and Gus were given a one lap sprint which was a win for Josh.

A repeat of the senior sprint again saw Ron lead out the race and again Elliot proved the speedier rider so Ron will have to try some new tactics to try and reverse the placings.

For the juniors Oscar was pitted against Oscar in a sprint and in a race that looked like it would go to Will, Oscar again found plenty of grunt in the run to the line to hold on for a win.

Josh Chiavaroli proved too strong in his sprint with Mat.

The fi nal events for the night were scratch races. The seniors was a 12 lap af-fair and run at a steady pace and perhaps needed the hard turns from Peter Hollins to crack the fi eld.

However, with Peter at work the race did not produce any great action and the fi nish saw Elliot claim another win over Ron and Kevin.

The junior six lap race saw a super competitive Josh put in the big effort at the last lap to set up his win ahead of Will, Matt and Oscar.

Next Friday the crew from Loch and Bena will be missing with school action but the rest of the riders will enjoy a last night before the Christmas three week break. Racing will resume on January 13 and training on January 11.

Close fi nishes for cyclists

Go, go, go: riders battle it out in the one lap sprint.

Swell Mamas: Anne Gleeson, Kaz Allen, Nikki Dhar and Marilla Greenhalgh had a fantastic time at thePlay It Safe By The Water program for girls.

Surfi ng champs: World Tour surfer Bec Woods, First Love fi lm star India Payne, head coach Kate Wells and First Love fi lm star Jess Laing lead the surfi ng program.

THE Wonthaggi ta-ble tennis A Reserve grand fi nal was played last week and – as anticipated – it was a long night, with an eventual 5-4 result.

Bench Warmers (Dean Snelling, Zach Anstey and Jayden Mendola played Young Guns (Daniel Chet-land, Luke Anstey, Heitor Hilberto).

Jenny Thompson, the regular player for Bench Warmers, was out with an injury and Jayden had completed several match-es with the team in order to fi ll in.

At four sets all Zach and Luke Anstey had to play the decider and it was a thriller.

Zach won the fi rst and looked set to take out the

set and the grand fi nal. He was on a roll with

brilliant serves and accu-rate hard hitting. Howev-er, younger brother Luke started to turn the tables by slowing the game and keeping the ball off Zach’s deadly forehand.

This seemed to unsettle Zach and he went down to Luke in the next three games.

Young Guns had played well all the season and they deserved their win. We have no doubt that Zach will get his revenge at some time next season.

Local junior coach and A Grade player Bruce Harmer and leading Victo-rian veteran player Mick Wright played a demon-stration match last week at the table tennis centre.

The aim was to show the big crowd of young-

sters present that the stan-dard of A Grade locally is high and they need to be dedicated to reach that goal.

Mick defeated Bruce three games to one in a mind boggling display from both players of smashes, spins, fantastic placement, and unbeliev-able returns. The match was umpired by Trish Denier, Wonthaggi’s secretary.

Earlier in the evening 14-year-old Brittney Tay-lor presented Bruce with a wall plaque in apprecia-tion of the many hours he spends coaching local ju-nior players.

The Wonthaggi Table Tennis Club currently is bursting at the seams with talented juniors.

• WONTHAGGI TABLE TENNIS

Grand fi nal down to a play-off

GOOD mates Josh Bowl-er and Jed Pearce took time to pose for a photo after making some runs in the middle.

GGGGGGGGOGOOOGGOGOGOGGGGOGOGG ODODOODODDDDODODODODD m mm m taatatattata esesessssssess JJoJoJoJoJJJJ hhshshshhhhhhhhhshhh B B B B B BBowo l-l-l-ll-ererererr a a aandndndndnd J JJJJededdd

Good partnership


RESULTS of grand fi nals held at Leon-gatha on December 6:

Section 1: Westernport 5 sets 58 games d Inverloch Silver 1 set 34 games.

Section 2: Foster Yel-low 4 sets 55 games d Wonthaggi Swans 2 sets 37 games.

Section 3: Korumburra Red 5 sets 58 games d Ko-rumburra White 1 set 41 games.

Section 4: Nyora 6 sets 60 games d Wonthaggi 37 games.

Section 5: Fish Creek 4 sets 54 games d Phillip Island 2 sets 35 games.

Section Five premiers: Fish Creek players Deb Collins, Margaret Haycroft, Susan Straw and Jill Williams.

Section Four runners-up: Wonthaggi’s Kaz Donohue, Jenny Stephenson, Angela VanDuynhoven and Helen Hender.

Section Three runners-up: Korumbuurra White’s Sue Van Sinderen, Nadine James, Jo Cash and Jennifer Trezise.

Section One runners-up: Inverloch Silver players Belinda Scott, Kaylene Chapman, Vir-ginia McEntee and Sue Coglin.

Section Two premiers: Foster Yellow’s Thelma Woods, Kim Ross, Flo Harking, Linda Heywood and Wendy Appleyard.

Section One premiers: Westernport players Simone Dickie, Andrea Evans-McCall, Misha Say and Karen Egan.

Section Four premiers: Nyora players Andrea Levey, Deb Ellams, Lyn Kelly, Lorelle Mayo and Judy Wilson.

Section Five runners-up: Phillip Island’s Anne Green, Rosemary Semple, Maxine McDon-ald, Helen McCormick and Carol Hamilton.

Section Two runners-up: Wonthaggi Swans players Irene Donohue, Jenny Fergie, Helen Pirouet and Jocelyn Howson.

Section Three premiers: Korumburra Red players Judy Blogg, Cheryl Nich-olas, Donna O’Loughlin, and (front) Faye Anderson.

Ladies midweek tennis grand fi nals


ResultsLadies A: Who Cares

26 d Aches & Pains 24.Ladies B: Scotties 33 d

Hairy Limes 26.Mixed 1: Showstop-

pers 37 d Langers Ness & Co 31.

Mixed 2: Red 20 d Benchwarmers 15.

Leongatha spring twilight netball

Right: Mixed 2 win-ners: Blake Van Rooy, Wayne McCaughan, Lachlan Findlay, Re-becca Argento, Bronte Robb, Jaclyn Smith.

Left: Mixed 2 runners-up: Dylan Turner, Lu-cas Byrnes, Cameron LePage, Melissa Corry, Rachael Frassenei, Jess Gordon.

Ladies B winners: Racheal Millar, Kylie Debono, Lily Allen, Kelsey Buxton, Liz Sadler, Kate Edney, Sophie Scott.

Ladies B runners-up: Rarni Holness, Melissa Harrison, Kelsie Schelling, Claire Wilkin-son, Tania Contu, Jaslin Kelly, Kate Wilson.

Ladies A runners-up: Julie Bloye, Andrea Funnell, Danielle Jones, Stephanie Goss, Phi-lomena Smith, Michelle Chandler, Kerri Bentvelzen.

Ladies A winners: Mel Harris, Amander Calder, Jess Pupetti, Kate Sperling, Emma Phil-lips, Tamicca Clottu, Wendy McEachern.

Mixed 1 runners-up: Luke Jones, Clint Davison, Daniel Langstaff, Rebecca Dyke, Vanessa Busuttil, Kelly Wightman, Kasey McLeod.

Mixed 1 winners: Darren Pocklington, Dayn Bentvelzen, Marcus Luscombe, StephanieGoss, Melissa Beardsworth, Kerri Bentvelzen, Andrea Funnell.


WONTHAGGI Min-ers opening bowler John Armstrong has pulled off a freak bowling performance, taking a hat-trick against Phillip Island at the weekend.

But it wasn’t enough to help his side over the line - with the Island’s middle order batsman Liam Keat-ing scoring 120 not out.

Keating hit 15 4s on the way to his total, and his side passed the Miners’ score with three wickets in hand.

A fi ve wicket haul to Inverloch’s Jimmy Dalmau has helped the Stingrays win their match against

Nerrena.The Red Caps were

chasing 147 for victory, but, with exception of Tim Trotman, never looked the part.

Trotman scored 54 but didn’t have enough friends on the day.

In other matches, fi ve wickets to Wonthaggi Workers bowler Luke McGuirk gave his side a win against the Imps.

And OMK outrighted a nine-man Glen Alvie team, bowling them out for 54 and then 117.

PHILLIP ISLAND d WONTHAGGI MINERS

1st innings Phillip IslandP. Colla c. R. Jones b. J. Armstrong .......................66C. Morris b. J. Armstrong ............4M. Francis lbw.

b. D. Beesey ..............................0P. Francis c. W. Howson b. P. Owen ..............................17L. Keating n.o. .........................120J. Blackwell b. J. Armstrong .......0D. Kenter lbw. b. J. Armstrong ....0M. Cleary c. G. Shaw b. P. Owen ................................7P. Cleeland lbw. b. D. Beesey ....21Z. Brown c. G. Shaw b. D. Beesey ..............................0B. Young c&b. P. Owen ...............2Extras .........................................25Total .........................................262

Bowling: J. Armstrong 4/105 inc. hat-trick, D. Beesey 3/53, P. Owen 2/44, R. Jones 0/29, J. Waters 0/12.

1st inningsWonthaggi Miners

Total .........................................184INVERLOCH d NERRENA

1st innings InverlochTotal .........................................146

1st innings NerrenaL. Roberts lbw. b. B. Sword ...............................7T. Clark c. J. Dalmau b. B. Sword ...............................1

T. Trotman b. J. Dalmau ............54S. Helms c. L .Sharrock b. B. Sword ...............................0C. Baudinette lbw. b. J. Dalmau ..............................1A. Harrison c. L. Sharrock b. J. Dalmau ..............................0L. Jongebloed c. L. Sharrock b. J. Dalmau ............................13B. Castles b. J. Dalmau................0Z. Trease c. A. Cross b. J. Dennerley ..........................7A. Trotto c. S. Brayley b. J. Dalmau ..............................9J. Hoy n.o. ....................................0Extras .........................................15Total .........................................107

Bowling: J. Dalmau 5/24, B. Sword 3/24, J. Dennerley 2/16, W. Holmes 0/22, A. Cross 0/19.

2nd innings InverlochS. Brayley c. J. Hoy b. A. Trotto ................................6A. Brayley lbw. b. Z. Trease ......12J. Dalmau c. L. Roberts b. A. Trotto ................................2A. Cross n.o. ................................0Extras ...........................................1

Total ........................................3/21Bowling: A. Trotto 2/8, Z.

Trease 1/13.WORKMENS d IMPERIALS

1st innings WorkmensTotal .........................................255

1st innings Imperials A. Pellin c. D. Dutchman b. A .Yann ..................................0K. Gray c. D. Turton b. L. McGuirk ...........................5M. Elliott c. D. Turton b. L. McGuirk .........................49J. Forrester b. A. Yann .................3R. McGavin c. R. Geyer b. L. McLean ..........................28S. McLennan c. D. Turton b. L. Sawyer ............................19D. Johnson ret. ..........................10J. Ginnane c. A. Lang b. L. McGuirk ...........................0Z. Price c. Z. MacDermid b. L. McGuirk ...........................4L. Wright b. L. McGuirk .............5G. Forrester n.o. ...........................2Extras .........................................16Total .........................................141

Bowling: L. McGuirk 5/40, A. Yann 2/12, A. Lang 0/17, L.

McLean 1/30, L. Sawyer 1/32.2nd innings Workmens

R. Geyer c. M. Elliott b. S. McLennan.......................19J. Liddle n.o. ..............................59D. Turton n.o. .............................25Extras ...........................................3Total ......................................1/106

Bowling: S. McLennan 1/24, L. Wright 0/19, J. Ginnane 0/18, Z. Price 0/9, M. Elliott 0/14, R. Mc-Gavin 0/20.

GLEN ALVIE lt OMK 1st innings OMK

Total .........................................2041st innings Glen Alvie

S. Smith b. J. Paterson ...............21R. Slade c. D. McMeekin b. B. Maguire ...........................1M. Hull lbw. b. R. White .............1D. Wylie c. M. Walker b. R. White ................................0S. Nippers c. A. Rose b. J. Paterson .............................0J. Wheeler b. R. White ................5J. Huitson c. P. Harper b. M. Hems ...............................1C. Hull b. D. McMeekin ..............6T. Tack b. D. McMeekin ..............0

L. McRae n.o. ..............................3Extras ...........................................6Total ...........................................44

Bowling: R. White 3/14, B.Maguire 1/10, J. Paterson 2/9, D.McMeekin 2/10, M. Hems 1/1.

2nd innings Glen AlvieS. Smith b. M. Walker ...............39R. Slade c. M. Walker b. T. Miller ..............................24M. Hull c. T. Miller b. J. Paterson ...........................31J. Wheeler lbw. b. G. Miller ...............................1S. Nippers b. J. Paterson ..............6C. Hull c&b. A. Rose ...................4J. Huitson b. R. White .................4D. Wylie n.o. ................................0L. McRae r.o. ...............................2Extras ...........................................6Total ......................................... 117

Bowling: D. McMeekin 0/11,R. White 1/15, A. Rose 1/11, M.Hems 0/4, C. Paterson 0/16, M.Walker 1/10, J. Paterson 2/5, T.Miller 1/33, G. Miller 1/9.

FISH CREEK have pulled off a bril-liant outright against Kilcunda-Bass after being bowled out for 86 in their fi rst in-nings.

They took the points on the fi rst inning, then Kilcunda-Bass were forced to take to the crease again.

Fishy skittled them for 105, requiring just 53 runs for an outright vic-tory. They chased them down with six wickets in hand.

In an amazing game, an outright victory was earned with just 276 runs scored in the four innings match.

K o o n w a r r a / L e o n -gatha RSL came close to affl icting an outright of their own, but were unable to stick the pro-verbial nail in Poowong Loch’s coffi n.

Shane Paterson achieved fi gures of 6/31 across the day, but the Cougars could only get Poowong to eight down in their second innings.

In the other matches played, Town went down to OMK just before the heavy rains rolled in.

Opening bowler Clar-rie O’Brien took 5/23 to run through the Scorpi-ons’ top order.

The match between MDU and Korumburra, which was almost due to see a result, was aban-doned due to rain. B GRADE DIVISION 2

KORUMBURRA d MDU1st innings Korumburra

Total ................................... 2141st innings MDU

D. Thomas c. T. Scott b. Allen ................................ 0N. Hill c. T. Gray b. N. Allen ........................... 7T. Zukovskis lbw. b. N. Allen ........................... 5M. Olden c. C. Smith b. H. James ........................ 18T. Harris c. P. Dunlevie b. D. Fearnley .................... 18B. Thomas b. J. Oxlee ........... 38M. Martin c. T. Allen b. D. Fearnley ...................... 5L Mercer n.o. ........................ 17K. Sinclair b. J. Oxlee ............ 0B. Coulter c. K. Miller b. J. Oxlee ............................ 5S. Riley n.o. .......................... 11Extras .................................... 17Total ................................ 9/141

Bowling: N. Allen 3/34, H. James 1/35, D. Scott 0/6, T. Gray 0/9, D. FEarnley 2/22, J. Oxlee 3/20, P. Dunlevie 0/14.

FISH CREEK TARWINv KILCUNDA-BASS

1st innings Kilcunda-BassTotal ..................................... 32 1st innings Fish Creek TarwinTotal ..................................... 86

2nd innings Kilcunda-BassT. Aplin n.o. .......................... 13D. Clay n.o. ............................. 2Extras .................................... 20Total ................................... 105

Bowling: G. Buckland 1/25,

J. Hibberd 1/10, L. Buckland 1/14, C. Fisher 2/23, J. Pouw 3/4, J. Spokes 0/7, B. Roberts 0/17.

2nd innings Fish Creek Tarwin

J. Spokes b. S. Blake ............... 2B. Roberts c. T. Aplin b. T. Stacey-VanSteensel ...... 6J. Pouw c. R. Gardiner b. S. Blake ......................... 13M. Bright n.o. ......................... 4J. Hibberd c. T. Aplin b. S. Blake ........................... 0W. Cocksedge n.o. ................. 14Extras .................................... 14Total .................................. 4/53

Bowling: Not available.KOONWARRA RSL

d POOWONG-LOCH1st innings Koonwarra RSL

Total ................................... 2461st innings Poowong-Loch

R. Knox b. A. Dalby ................ 0N. Hancock c. N. Summers b. A. Dalby ........................... 0S. McKinnon c. D. Pearce b. A. Dalby ........................... 0D. Thomas b. S. Turner ......... 10G. Staindl b. ......................... 16V. Rawat c&b. S. Turner ......... 6G. Birnie c. D. Pearce b. S. Paterson ....................... 7L. Green lbw. b. D. Pearce ...... 0T. Hancock c&b. S. Paterson . 10R. Carvill n.o. ......................... 2Extras ...................................... 5Total ..................................... 56

Bowling: A. Dalby 3/5, S. Paterson 2/15, T. Davison 1/11, S. Turner 2/13, D. Pearce 1/6, H. Langenburg 0/3.

2nd innings Poowong-LochG. Birnie c. N. Summers b. S. Paterson ..................... 19S. McKinnon b. S. Paterson ....................... 4T. Hancock c&b. D. Pearce ..... 2N. Hancock c&b. S. Turner ..... 9V. Rawat c. N. Summers b. S. Turner .......................... 0R. Carvill c. C. Moscript

b. N. Summers ..................... 4R. Knox lbw. b. S. Paterson..... 8D. Thomas c. D. O’Connor b. S. Paterson ..................... 17G. Staindl n.o. ......................... 1L. Green n.o. ........................... 0Extras ...................................... 5Total .................................. 8/69

Bowling: T. Davison 0/12, S. Paterson 4/16, D. Pearce 1/21, S. Turner 2/11, N. Grimes 0/5, H. Langenburg 0/1, N. Summers 1/1, L. Enter 0/1.

OMK v TOWN1st innings OMK

Total ................................... 2031st innings Town

J. Schelling c. G. Lomagno b G. Adams .......................... 0G. Goss b. C. O’Brien ............. 0B. Moore c. G. Lomagno b. C. O’Brien ....................... 1K. Fleming c. T. Knox b. C. O’Brien ....................... 2I. McCallum c. N. Audino b. G. Knox ......................... 47M. Craig c. G. Knox b. G. Lomagno ..................... 2G. Pouw c. D. Halliday b. G. Lomagno ................... 38P. Hulshof c. G. Adams b. C. O’Brien ....................... 0S. Camilleri c. G. Knox b. C. O’Brien ....................... 9D. Goss c. P. Green b. G. Lomagno .................... 6S. Clark n.o. ............................ 1Extras .................................... 16Total ................................... 122

Bowling: G. Adams 1/23, C. O’Brien 5/23, P. Green 0/23, G. Lomagno 3/30, G. Knox 1/11, D. Halliday 0/6.

• B GRADE DIVISION TWO

Outright for Fish Creek-Tarwin

• B GRADE DIVISION ONE

Armstrong hat-trick and Keating ton

C Grade Division 1Inverloch 6/305 d Wonthaggi Min-

ers 9/195 (P. Loos 43, C. Honeysett 90; J. Courntenay 3/47, J. Jackson 2/33, W. Williams 2/16, I. Smith 2/18.

Korumburra 54 d Nerrena 9/136 S. Hall 5/47, I. Riddell 2/37), Korumburra 2nd innings 167 (M. Fernley 33, S. McKenzie 52: B. Croatto 4/66).

Wonthaggi Workmens 193 d Town 148 (G. Young 78; M. McCall 3/39, S. Jeffries 3/34, C. Rigby 3/18), 2nd innings Wonthaggi Workmens 1/88 (S. Huitema n.o. 67).

Phillip Island 9/147 d Kilcunda-Bass 7/110 (M. Taylor 2/24, J. Johnston

2/43, S. Cox 2/16).C Grade Division 2

MDU Red 85 lt OMK 257 (K. Hough-ton 113; M. Olden 4/57, J. Riley 2/38, J.Witherow 2/41), 2nd innings MDU Red0/20.

Poowong-Loch 206 lt Glen Alvie6/217 (A. McBride n.o. 100; S. Magnus-son 2/40, S. Farbus 2/44).

Imperials 8/199 d Koonwarra RSL7/116 (P. Buckley 35; G. Wright 3/30; T.Cashin 2/9).

MDU Blue 197 lt Kilcunda-Bass9/315 (G. Burchell 115, R. Blackney n.o.62; S. Dunlop 2/52, S. Lofthouse 2/45, K.Newton 4/20).

Good spirits: parents and coaches were proud of the sportsmanship shown by the Under 12 players in the Nerrena and Koonwarra/Leongatha RSL match. Photo by Mark Drury.

Big hit: Koonwarra/LRSL Under 12s batsman Jake Rockall hits out on Fridayevening. Photo by Mark Drury.


WITH 15 overs to go, three wickets in hand and just four runs to chase, it was safe to presume Nerrena would win their match against the undefeated Inverloch on Saturday.

But the rain could not hold off long enough for the Red Caps’ not out bats-

men Joel Renden and Paul Matheson to snatch the win-ning runs.

Matheson well and truly snared the man of the match award, backing up his in-credible seven wicket per-formance with 42 not out.

The best of the Stingrays bowlers was Craig Dudek, who took 3/63.

Glen Alvie were also

on the verge of victory be-fore rain took away their chance.

The Alvie had the Min-ers on the ropes, needing just two wickets with 10 overs to play.

Daniel Hales was the pick of his side’s perform-ers, taking 5/29 from 20 overs.

Matthew Donohue of-

PHILLIP Island and MDU had to agree to disagree as the rain came down on Satur-day afternoon.

The Island had the up-per hand, needing 19 runs to win from nine overs with wickets in hand, but the rain would stop for no one. Eli Richards was looking to guide his side home, making 66 not out before the deluge.

Dean Pipicelli made no mistake getting the job done for Kilcunda-Bass, taking 5/41 from 16 overs.

Fish Creek-Tarwin were chasing 192, but were in trouble from the start.

Captain Shane Rabbitt was the only batsman to put up a fi ght, scoring 38 runs.

In other matches, Town were hoping to outright Foster but had to settle with a win when the rain came.

Youngster Jake Burge scored a brilliant 79 runs, while elder statesmen Ash Hickey and Jareth Hume both notched half centuries.

Patrick Dower was the best of the Foster players, taking four wickets before scoring 29 with the bat.

Poowong/Loch were too good for Koonwarra/Leongatha RSL, taking the points thanks to some good bowling from Alan Jenkins. A GRADE DIVISION 2MDU drew PHILLIP ISLAND

1st innings MDUTotal ....................................9/221

1st innings Phillip IslandJ. Broomhall lbw. b. M. Cantwell .........................2B. Johnston c. M. Le Page

b. S. Arnup ............................25T. Hornsby c. M. Le Page b. S. Arnup ............................50E. Richards n.o. ........................66A. Matthews c. M. Patching b. S. Arnup ..............................2L. Cleeland c. R. Olden b. S. McRae .............................9S. Murdoch c. C. Harris b. S. McRae .............................5J. Emery n.o. ............................37Extras .........................................6Total ....................................6/202

Bowling: M. Cantwell 1/41, M. Patching 0/18, M. Johnson 0/11, S. McRae 2/46, C. Harris 0/33, S. Arnup 3/39, M. Le Page 0/11.

KILCUNDA-BASS d FISH CREEK-TARWIN1st innings Kilcunda-Bass

Total .......................................1911st innings Fish Creek / TarwinJ. Law b. D. Pipicelli ..................8N. Wilkins c. B. Egeberg b. A. Shackelford .....................3C. Bawden c. C. Davidson b. D. Pipicelli ..........................2G. Webster c. S. Oates b. D. Pipicelli ........................10G. Watkins c. S. Oates b. D. Pipecelli ..........................0S. Rabbitt b. C. Davidson.........38D. Britton c. S. Tapscott b. C. Davidson.........................5T. Smith c. S. Oates b. D. Pipicilli ...........................3B. Anderson n.o........................24J. Flanders b. C. Davidson .........7Extras .........................................5Total .......................................105

Bowling: D. Pipicelli 5/41, A. Shackelford 1/32, J. Dakin 0/12, C. Davidson 3/6, B. Egeberg 0/6, J. Mahood 0/5.

2nd innings Kilcunda-BassC. Davidson n.o..........................7J. Dakin n.o. ...............................0A. Larcombe c&b. J. Flanders ...7Extras .........................................6Total ......................................1/20

Bowling: S. Rabbitt 0/11, J. Flanders 1/5.

POOWONG/LOCH d KOONWARRA RSL

1st innings Koonwarra RSLTotal .......................................163

1st innings Poowong-LochC. Knox c. T. Gordon b. B. Thomas .........................48M. Adderley r.o. .......................29C. Fraser c. S. Sperling b. B. Thomas .........................14P. Dyer n.o. ...............................36R. Greaves b. J. Kennedy .........38S. Jenkins n.o. ............................5Extras .......................................26Total ....................................4/196

• A GRADE DIVISION ONE

Rain costs Nerrena points

• A GRADE DIVISION TWO

Island, MDU settle for a drawBowling: J. Kennedy 1/42,

T. Gordon 0/15, B. Thomas 2/61, N. Arnup 0/42, J. Moore 0/11, B. Moscript 0/14, S. Moore 0/4.

TOWN d FOSTER 1st innings Town

J. Burge b. P. Dower ................79M. Borschman c. S. Chaseling b. S. Corrie ............................16M. Smith b. S. Corrie ...............14J. Withers c. L .Toner b. P. Dower ............................33M. Borschman c. S. Chaseling b. P. Dower ...............................1J. Hume c. S. Lanyon b. F. Griggs .............................56A. Hickey c. L. Toner b. S. Corrie ...........................51J. Bolge n.o. .............................14S. Fixter b. S. Chaseling...........33I. Hanks c. J. Toner b. P. Dower ............................14Extras .......................................27Total .......................................338

Bowling: B. Corrie 0/46,P. Dower 4/66, L. Toner 0/55,J. Prain 0/36, S. Corrie 3/53, F.Griggs 1/47, J. Pilkington 0/10, S.Lanyon 0/9, S. Chaseling 1.7.

1st innings FosterTotal .........................................64

2nd innings FosterL. Toner c. J. Bolge b. A. Hickey ..........................16J. Toner lbw. b. J. Hume .............3M. Lynch lbw. b. C. Bruce .......19P. Dower n.o. ............................29S. Corrie c. J. Withers b. C. Bruce ..............................4S. Lanyon c. M. Borschman b. J. Bolge ...............................0J. Prain n.o..................................1Extras .......................................10Total ......................................5/82

Bowling: M. Borschman 0/18,A. Hickey 1/14, J. Hume 1/14, C.Bruce 2/20, J. Burge 0/9, J. Bolge1/0, S. Fixter 1/0.

fered some resistance to the Alvie attack at the top of the Miners order, scoring a well crafted 70 runs.

In the other matches played, the Workers crushed the Imperials by more than 200 runs.

Ryan Thomas was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3/13.

Korumburra were also bowled out cheaply, with three wickets to both Peter Dell and Barry Wyatt.A GRADE DIVISION 1

GLEN ALIVE d WONTHAGGI MINERS

1st innings Glen AlvieTotal .......................................8/226

1st innings Wonthaggi MinersM. Donohue b. D. Hales ............. 70J. Andrighetto c. J. Hales b. B. Ould ................................... 3A. Donohue c. P. Roberts b. D. Williams .......................... 31P. Jordan c. S. Lowe b. B. Ould ................................. 20R. Birkett c. J. Tiziani b. D. Hales .................................. 4K. Smith c. S. Lowe b. D. Hales .................................. 0B. Foon c. K. Simpson b. D. Hales .................................. 7J. Piasente n.o. ............................... 2P. Burgess c. S. Lowe b. D. Hales ................................. 0D. Foon n.o. ................................... 3Extras ............................................. 9Total .......................................8/149

Bowling: D. Hales 5/29, B. Ould 2/25, J. Hales 0/12, P. Rob-erts 0/7, K. Simpson 0/34, D.

Williams 1/36.INVERLOCH d NERRENA

1st innings InverlochTotal .......................................... 224

1st innings NerrenaC. Friebe c. R. Thomas b. N. Cant.................................. 20M. Clark b. R. Thomas ................. 2T. Wightman c. N. Cant b. C. Dudek............................... 11D. Symmons c. J. Smith b. C. Dudek............................... 44D. Trotman b. C. Dudek ............. 21D. Baldi c. N. Cant b. W. Rankin ............................. 36P. Matheson n.o. .......................... 42G. Murphy lbw. b. K. Rothier ............................. 17J. Renden n.o. ................................ 5Extras ........................................... 22Total .......................................7/221

Bowling: R. Thomas 1/43, N. Cant 1/35, L. Rankin 0/32, K. Rothier 1/33, C. Dudek 3/63, D. Clark 0/9.WONTHAGGI WORKMENS d

IMPERIALS 1st innings

Wonthaggi Workmens Total .......................................8/350

1st innings ImperialsG. Sauvarin c. C. Harvey b. R. Thomas .............................. 0T. Wiliams c. J. Sheerin b. S. Williams ............................. 0S. Vagg c. C. Harvey b. R. Thomas .............................. 3L. Rogers b. J. Thomas ............... 18M. Adkins b. R. Thomas ............... 0A. Meyer b. J. Sheerin ................ 22B. Davidson c. J. Sheerin b. G. Bolding ............................ 33R. McLennan c. C. Harvey b. G. Britt .................................. 22J. Bloom lbw. b. G. Britt ............... 4R. Higgins n.o. .............................. 0

Extras ........................................... 11Total .......................................... 113

Bowling: R. Thomas 3/13, S. Williams 1/14, M. Thomas 0/6, J. Thomas 1/11, J. Sheerin 1/39, G. Bolding 1/16, G. Britt 2/3.

2nd innings Wonthaggi Workmens

J. Sheerin n.o. .............................. 20C. Harvey c. R. McLennan b. J. Bloom .............................. 23R. Thomas c. R. McLennan b. B. Davidson ........................... 32Extras ............................................. 2Total .........................................2/77

Bowling: J. Bloom 1/14, M. Adkins 0/31, B. Davidson 1/30.

OMK d KORUMBURRA1st innings OMK

A. Miller c. D. Salmon b. M. Olden............................... 13K. Kerr c. D. Salmon b. M. Olden............................... 13D. Lloyd c. U. Weerasinghe b. A. Katipearachchi ................... 3J. Wilson b. D. Wyhoon ................ 4G. Pickles r.o. .............................. 14T. Wyatt b. D. Wyhoon ................. 0B. Wyatt c. K. Dorman b. U. Weerasinghe .................... 15J. Van Rooye lbw. b. U. Weerasinghe ...................... 8P. Dell c. A. Katipearachchi b. I. Osman ............................... 10J. Cochrane n.o. ........................... 12A. Meade lbw. b. A. Katipearachchi .................... 0Extras ........................................... 15Total .......................................... 107

Bowling: A. Katipearachchi 2/11, L. Williams 0/9, K. Dorman 0/4, M. Olden 2/18, D. Wyhoon 2/12, U. Weerasinghe 2/15, I. Osman 1/27.

1st innings Korumburra I. Osman lbw. b. A. Meade ........... 1

K. Rigby b. P. Dell ........................ 4A. Katipearachchi c. P. Dell b. J. Wilson ............................... 24D. Salmon b. A. Meade ................ 0U. Weerasinghe b. P. Dell ............. 1J. Cook r.o. ..................................... 5K. Dorman n.o. .............................. 8M. Olden b. B. Wyatt .................... 0J. Richards c. J. Van Rooye b. P. Dell ..................................... 2D. Wyhoon b. B. Wyatt ................. 3L. Williams b. B. Wyatt ................ 0Extras ............................................. 6Total ............................................ 54

Bowling: P. Dell 3/16, A.Meade 2/8, B. Wyatt 3/16, J.Wilson 1/8.

2nd innings OMKA. Miller c. I. Osman b. L. Williams ........................... 14K. Kerr lbw. b. A. Katipearachchi ................... 5D. Lloyd c. D. Wyhoon b. I. Osman ............................... 23J. Wilson c. J. Richards b. D. Wyhoon ........................... 10G. Pickles b. U. Weerasinghe .................... 24T. Wyatt c. M. Olden b. D. Salmon ............................. 10B. Wyatt n.o. ................................ 24J. Van Rooye n.o. .......................... 7Extras ............................................. 5Total .......................................6/122

Bowling: K. Dorman 0/0, L.Williams 1/23, A. Katipearachchi1/14, M. Olden 0/11, D. Wyhoon1/13, K Rigby 0/6, U. Weerasinghe1/33, J. Cook 0/5, I. Osman 1/6, D.Salmon 1/11.

Home team Away Team Ground UmpireGrade A1 Glen Alvie v Nerrena GA G. LairdInverloch v Won Miners I Turf L. WhiteWon Workmens v OMK W Turf T. RogersKorumburra v Imperials Kor K. LesterGrade A2Fish Ck-Tarwin v MDU FC Turf M. HeenanPhillip Island v Kilcunda-Bass Cowes A. JordanFoster v Poowong-Loch FGC J. LeaKoonwarra-RSL v Town L Turf C. SalmonGrade B1 Nerrena v Phillip Island Nerr S. LanyonWon Miners v Inverloch WFG P. AbsolonOMK v Won Workmens Outt B . BekImperials v Glen Alvie EC LSC D. BrownGrade B2MDU v Fish Ck-Tarwin Dumb B. ThomasKilcunda-Bass v Korumburra Bass A. RobertsPoowong-Loch v OMK Loch A. StrideTown v Koonwarra-RSL WC LSC N.A.Grade C1 Inverloch v Nerrena Inv M. WishartKorumburra v Won Miners KSC N.A.Won Workmens v Kilcunda-Bass McM B. AllanPhillip Island v Town New Grade C2MDU Blue v OMK Meen N.A.Imperials v MDU Velo N.A.Won Workmens v Poowong-Loch Dalys N.A.Kilcunda-Bass v Phillip Island Bass 2 N.A.Koonwarra-RSL v Foster Koon N.A.Glen Alvie v Bye

Leongatha District Cricket Association

Umpire AppointmentsEVANS PETROLEUM

Round 8 - December 17

On toes: Wonthaggi Workmens’ Scott Williams sends a quick delivery, watched by Imperials’ Mick Adkins.

Quick run: Andrew Meyer sees a scoring chancefor Imperials against Wonthaggi Workmens.

Fish Creek-Tarwin .........62.66Koonwarra RSL .............61.64Town ..............................42.70Foster .............................22.47

B Grade Division 1Won Workmens ...........89.76OMK .............................80.69Inverloch .......................80.07Phillip Island ................74.94Won Miners ..................63.11Nerrena ..........................50.62Glen Alvie ......................36.22Imperials ........................26.65

B Grade Division 2Korumburra .................94.04OMK .............................92.09MDU ..............................80.04Kilcunda-Bass ..............63.74Fish creek-Tarwin ..........57.51Koonwarra RSL .............43.30Town ..............................37.54Poowong-Loch ..............29.01

C Grade Division 1Won Workmens ...........86.89Inverloch .......................74.54Kil-Bass .........................67.26Won Miners ..................65.72Nerrena ..........................57.78Town ..............................51.83Korubmura .....................38.88Phillip Island ..................31.36

C Grade Division 2Imperials .......................86.52OMK .............................85.89Phillip Island ................83.90MDU ..............................70.36Koonwarra RSL .............60.41Foster .............................57.04Glen Alvie ......................50.35Kilcunda-Bass ................42.84Won Workmens .............3.383MDU Blue .....................32.01Poowong-Loch ................4.76Town ................................0.00

Under 16 EastKoonwarra RSL/Town 62.45Fish Creek-Tarwin .......47.91Imperials .......................47.37Korumburra .................41.42Foster .............................29.88MDU ..............................20.82

Under 16 WestPhillip Island ................73.99Won Workmens ...........56.61Inverloch .......................52.42 Poowong-Loch GA ......31.83Kil-Bass .........................17.57

A Grade Division 1Inverloch .......................82.68Won Workmens ...........81.14Korumburra .................75.77Nerrena .........................63.45Won Miners ...................57.93Imperials ........................52.55

OMK ..............................50.50Glen Alvie ......................28.43

A Grade Division 2MDU ..............................82.56Kilcunda-Bass ..............78.86Phillip Island ................74.31Poowong-Loch .............65.06

LDCA ladders

Under 16Phillip Island 6/171

lt Fish Creek-Tarwin 8/159.

MDU 67 (J. Pickersgill 6/10) lt Koonwarra RSL 6/200 (M. Borschman ret. n.o. 73, L. Hanks 39.

Inverloch 3/175 (J. Dalmau 57) v Kilcunda-Bass 7/83 (E. Luke 36).

Poowong Loch/GA8/34 (Z. MacDermid 2/9, L. McLean 3/4) lt Wont-haggi Workmens 3/112, 2nd innings Poowong-Loch 9/57 (T. Hancock29).

Korumburra 6/159 ltImperials 7/205 (B. Da-vidson ret. 73, J. Ginnane41; P. Dunlevie 2/31).


season.Club members Eleanor

Patterson and Ben Green also had a successful meet-ing at the All Schools Cham-pionships in Brisbane, with Eleanor winning gold in the Under 16 Girls high jump and Ben taking gold in the Under 14 Boys pole vault.

This Saturday’s meeting is the last competition meet-ing before the Christmas break, with presentations to be held for On Track ath-letes and entries due for the junior athletics carnival and the Gippsland Region Track and Field Championships in February.

The regular competition days resume on January 28.

A grand total of 173 PBs were recorded at last Satur-day’s meeting, as follows:

Under 7 BoysR. Sturtevant 60m hur-

dles, high jump; T. Richards high jump, 100m; H. Herbert high jump, 100m; H. Barnes high jump.

Under 7 GirlsM. Kenzie high jump,

vortex, 60m hurdles; C. Caithness vortex, 60m hur-dles; L. Bevis high jump, vortex; J. Bevis vortex; N. Crimp vortex; C. Molloy vortex; B. Tudor vortex; K. James vortex; Z. Gardner vortex, high jump; E. Snell high jump.

Under 8 BoysC. Quinlan 60m hur-

dles, long jump, discus; L.

Marshman discus, 400m; R. Carter discus, long jump; J. Bongers 60m hurdles, dis-cus; J. Wight long jump; M. Mancarella 400m, 60m hurdles, discus; M. Molloy discus, long jump.

Under 8 GirlsE. Smith discus; H Belsar

400m, 100m, 60m hurdles; L. Caithness 400m, long jump; D. Kemp discus, 60m hurdles, 100m; A. Ritchie discus, 100m, long jump; J. Findlay discus; E. Birrell discus, 400m; K. Gange dis-cus; B. Fisher 60m hurdles, 400m, long jump, discus; S. Sabu 100m; E. Trease 60m hurdles, 400m; F. Burgess-Pincini 400m, 60m hurdles.

Under 9 BoysS. Herbert shotput,

400m; R. Kemp triple jump, 60m hurdles, shotput; C. Riseley 60m hurdles; R. Giliam shotput, triple jump; E.Tudor 60m hurdles, triple jump, 400m.

Under 9 GirlsN. Martin shotput, 400m,

60m hurdles; B. Dyer triple jump, 400m, shotput; T. Kelly triple jump, shot-put, 60m hurdles; M. Giles 400m, triple jump; J. Woods 400m, triple jump; M. Scott shotput, 60m hurdles, 400m, triple jump; J. Matthew 400m, triple jump, shotput, 60m hurdles.

Under 10 BoysH. Chandler 60m hur-

dles; D. Sturtevant 400m; R. Frank 100m, 400m, jav-

• LITTLE ATHLETICS LEONGATHA

Huge weekend for little athletes

IT WAS an action packed week for Won-thaggi Little Athlet-ics with two days of competition.

Wednesday night was light on for numbers but those who attended put together an im-pressive tally of 100 personal bests.

On Saturday the stormy weather held off for a great day’s competition with a fur-ther 155 PBs.

Martin Peters had an amaz-ing week with ten PBs. While Chloe Bramley and William Edwards both walked them-selves into the record books with their performances in the Under 9, 1100 metre walk events.

Next Saturday is the last

meet before the Christmas break. Competition resumes on January 21.

A reminder to all athletes interested in the regional com-petition in February: entries need to be in to Terra by Sat-urday December 17.

Results Under 6 Boys

100 metre sprint: 1 Jett Garnham 19.09. High jump: 1 Jett Garnham 0.68.

Under 6 Girls100 metre sprint: 1 Olivia

Bramley 24.26. High jump: 1 Olivia Bramley 0.54.

Under 7 Boys100 metre sprint: 1 Jai

Williamson 18.81. High jump 1 Jai Williamson 0.65.

Under 7 Girls100 metre sprint: 1 Tevuro

Ihomana-Montgomery 18.59.

High jump: 1 Tevuro Ihoma-na-Montgomery 0.60.

Under 8 Boys100 metre sprint: 1 Fraser

Clark 18.01. 400 metres: 1 Jacob Timmerman 1:31.9. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Fraser Clark 18.34. Shot put: 1 Fraser Clark 5.09. Triple jump: 1 Jacob Timmerman 4.50.

Under 8 Girls100 metre sprint: 1 Dallas

Loughridge 18.48. 400 metres: 1 Dallas Loughridge 1:38.0. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Dallas Loughridge 17.59. Shot put: 1 Dallas Loughridge 4.80. Triple jump: 1 Dallas Loughridge 507.

Under 9 Boys100 metre sprint: 1 Jen-

son Garnham 17.44. 200 me-tre sprint: 1 Jenson Garnham 42.53. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Jen-

• LITTLE ATHLETICS WONTHAGGI

Two days for Wonthaggi athleticsson Garnham 17.85. Discus: 1 Jenson Garnham 15.63. Long jump: 1 Jenson Garnham 2.73.

Under 9 Girls100 metre sprint: 1 Nicola

Slade 17.93. 200 metre sprint: 1 Nicola Slade 41.01. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Nicola Slade 18.02 Discus: 1 Chloe Bramley 12.33. Long jump: 1 Madison Mitchell 2.37.

Under 10 Boys70 metre sprint: 1 Patrick

Ryan 11.57. 800 metres: 1 Pat-rick Ryan 3:01.5. High jump: 1 Patrick Ryan 1.11. Shot put: 1 Jarrod Anderson 6.64.

Under 10 Girls70 metre sprint: 1 Anais

Sibly 12.09. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Samara Clark 18.26. 800 metres: 1 Anais Sibly 3:54.6. High jump: 1 Samara Clark 0.90. Shot put: 1 Anais Sibly 5.32.

Under 11 Boys400 metres: 1 Marvin Sell-

ars 1:23.4. 70 metre sprint: 1 Marvin Sellars 11.54. 80 me-tre hurdles: 1 Marvin Sellars 17.53. Long jump: 1 Martin Peters 2.93. Shot put: 1 Jaidyn Battista 6.02.

Under 11 Girls400 metres: 1 Taylah Cook

1:26.7. 70 metre sprint: 1 Taylah Cook 11.47. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Taylah Cook 17.39. Long jump: 1 Taylah Cook 2.90. Shot put: 1 Melody Not-ley 6.76.

Under 12 Boys1500 metres: 1 Brodie

Anderson 5:55.3. 200 metre sprint: 1 Brodie Anderson 34.45. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Brodie Anderson 17.00. High jump: 1 Connor Thompson 1.10. Javelin: 1 Mitchell Fal-law 17.84.

Under 12 Girls1500 metres: 1 Dani

Sprague 6:37.9. 200 metre sprint: 1 Bridget Lowe 36.78. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Bridget Lowe 18.40. High jump: 1

Bridget Lowe 1.22. Javelin: 1 Leah Mcnish 10.45.

Under 13 Boys1500 metres: 1 Christpher

Battista 9:54.0. 200 metre sprint: 1 Christpher Battista 43.31. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Christopher Battista 24.64. Discus: 1 Christpher Battista 9.78. Triple jump: 1 Christo-pher Battista 4.45.

Under 13 Girls1500 metres: 1 Stephanie

Slade 7:40.9. 200 metre sprint: 1 Stephanie Slade 37.47. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Georgia Fil-ippi 25.05. Discus: 1 Stepha-nie Slade 11.66. Triple jump: 1 Stephanie Slade 7.06.

Under 14 Boys1500 metres: 1 Declan

Ryan 6:00.7. 200 metre sprint: 1 Ethan Slade 27.41. 90 metre hurdles: 1 Ethan Slade 17.14. Discus:1 Declan Ryan 16.86. Triple jump: 1 Declan Ryan 7.89.

Under 14 Girls1500 metres: 1 Hannah

Robbins 7:01.7. 200 metre sprint: 1 Tegan Lowe 34.90. 80 metre hurdles: 1 Tegan Lowe 15.73. Discus: 1 Nicole Davis 20.05. Triple jump: 1 Tegan Lowe 8.02.

Sunday resultsUnder 6 Boy

200 metre sprint: 1 Zac Mabilia 51.13. Long jump: 1 Sebby Ori 1.79.

Under 6 Girl200 metre sprint: 1 Ania

Todd 52.43. Long jump: 1 Ania Todd 1.40.

Under 7 Boy200 metre sprint: 1 Saher

Biggs 41.00. Long jump: 1 Sa-her Biggs 2.22.

Under 7 Girl200 metre sprint: 1 Tevuro

Ihomana-Montgomery 44.91. Long jump: 1 Tevuro Ihoma-na-Montgomery 1.97.

Under 8 Boys100 metre sprint: 1 Fraser

Clark 19.15. 200 metre sprint:

1 Jacob Timmerman 40.36. 70 metre sprint: 1 Fraser Clark 12.80. Discus: 1 Fraser Clark 11.28: High jump: 1 Fraser Clark 0.85.

Under 8 Girls100 metre sprint: 1 Dallas

Loughridge 19.62. 200 metre sprint: 1 Dallas Loughridge 41.48. 70 metre sprint: 1 Dal-las Loughridge 13.00. Discus: 1 Dallas Loughridge 13.05. High jump: 1 Dallas Loughrid 0.90

Under 9 Boys1100 metre walk: 1 Wil-

liam Edward 8:12.7. 400 me-tres: 1 Jem Sprague 1:34.3. 70 metre sprint: 1 Elijah Spaull 11.91. Shot put: 1 Jem Sprague 4.75. Triple jump: 1 William Edward 4.75.

Under 9 Girls1100 metre walk: 1 Chloe

Bramley 8:11.2. 400 metres: 1 Chloe Bramley 1:33.9. 70 metre sprint: 1 Nicola Slade 12.41. Shot put: 1 Chloe Bramley 5.14. Triple jump: 1 Chloe Bramley 4.7.

Under 10 Boys100 metre sprint: 1 Declan

Kirkpatrick 15.97. 1100 metre walk: 1 Declan Kirkpatrick 8:01.6. 400 metres: 1 Patrick Ryan 1:14.8. Discus: 1 Declan Kirkpatrick 16.92. Long jump: 1 Patrick Ryan 2.99

Under 10 Girls100 metre sprint: 1 Lanni

Pryor 16.04. 1100 metre walk: 1 Kayleigh Allworth 8:02.9. 400 metres: 1 Lanni Pryor 1:22.1. Discus: 1 Lanni Pryor 17.05: Long jump: 1 Lanni Pryor 2.93.

Under 11 Boys100 metre sprint: 1 Marcus

Toussaint 15.78. 1500 metre walk: 1 Martin Peters 11:34. 800 metres: 1 Martin Peters 3:23.1. Discus: 1 Marcus Toussaint 16.68. Triple jump: 1 Marcus Toussaint 8.05.

Under 11 Girls100 metre sprint: 1 Cassie

Fallaw 16.72. 1500 metre

walk: 1 Melody Notley 12:43.800 metres: 1 Melody Not-ley 3:41.6. Discus: 1 MelodyNotley 15.08. Triple jump: 1Melody Notley 6.86.

Under 12 Boys1500 metre walk: 1 Billy

Taylor 10:41. 400 metres: 1Brodie Anderson 1:13.1. 70metre sprint: 1 Mitchell Fallaw11.02. Long jump: 1 Mitch-ell Fallaw 3.59. Shot put: 1Mitchell Fallaw 6.30.

Under 12 Girls1500 metre walk: 1 Dani

Sprague 12:38. 400 metres: 1Ciara Ryan 1:19.7. 70 metresprint: 1 Ciara Ryan 10.67.Long jump: 1 Ciara Ryan 3.26.Shot put: 1 Dani Sprague 5.95

Under 13 Boys100 metre sprint: 1 Andre

Toussaint 15.32. 1500 me-tre walk: 1 Andre Toussaint10:19. 800 metres: 1 AndreToussaint 3:30.3. High jump: 1Andre Toussaint 1.37. Javelin:1 Andre Toussaint 21.56.

Under 13 Girls100 metre sprint: 1 Geor-

gia Filippi 17.90, 1500 metrewalk: 1 Daisy Filippi 11:40.800 metres: 1 Daisy Filippi4:14.4. High jump: 1 GeorgiaFilippi 1.15. Javelin: 1 DaisyFilippi 11.35.

Under 14 Boys100 metre sprint: 1 Declan

Ryan 15.42. 1500 metre walk:1 Sam Peters 10:49. 800 me-tres: 1 Declan Ryan 2:44.1.High jump: 1 Declan Ryan1.45: Javelin: 1 Declan Ryan18.67.

Under 14 Girl100 metre sprint: 1 Jade

Dalton 15.42. 1500 metrewalk: 1 Lily Geyle 10:00. 800metres: 1 Tegan Lowe 3:22.3.High jump: 1 Tegan Lowe1.25. Javelin: 1 Jade Dalton19.61.

Running not a hurdle: this little athlete took on the hurdles, and won, on Saturday morning at Wonthaggi.

Pit stop: Douglas Mancarella shows fi ne style in the Under 11 Boys long jump.

Line honours: Aleisha Wrigley (left) and Jasmine McJames-Court hit the line together in the Under 12 Girls 100m.elin; A. Ritchie triple jump, 100m, 400m; N. Bongers javelin, triple jump; C. James triple jump, javelin; S. Sabu 100m, javelin, 60m hurdles; A. Trease 400m, javelin.

Under 10 GirlsM. Cruickshank 400m,

60m hurdles, triple jump; A. Marshman javelin, triple jump; E. Lyons 400m; M. Birrell 400m, 1500m walk; K. McJames-Court 400m, 60m hurdles, javelin, triple jump.

Under 11 BoysT. Kelly long jump, jav-

elin; P. Bevis 60m hurdles, long jump, javelin; S. Ken-

nedy 400m, 1500m walk; A. Hendriske 60m hurdles, 1500m walk; C. Scott 60m hurdles, 400m; J. Burgess-Pincini javelin, 1500m walk, 400m.

Under 12 BoysB. Thorson javelin,

400m; C. White 1500m walk, 400m.

Under 12 GirlsE. Burns shotput, 1500m

walk, 60m hurdles; E. Standfi eld high jump; N. Al-len shotput, 60m hurdles; J. McJames-Court high jump, 60m hurdles; A. Wrigley 60m hurdles.

Under 13 Boys

M. Hendriske long jump,discus, 1500m walk.

Under 13 GirlsL. Akers 400m, discus,

100m, long jump, javelin;N. Stockdale 1500m walk,400m, 100m, long jump.

Under 14 BoysJ. Patterson javelin; W.

Graeme javelin, long jump,400m.

Under 14 GirlsK. O’Loughlin javelin,

discus, 100m; G. Riseleydiscus; G. Martin 1500mwalk, javelin, 400m.

Under 16 GirlsO. Cope long jump,

javelin.

MORE than 170 personal best perfor-mances were record-ed at Leongatha Lit-tle Athletics Club’s competition meeting last weekend, with athletes across all age groups showing great improvement in a number of track and fi eld events.

Exemplifying this excel-lent progress and personal achievement was Lily Ak-ers, who racked up fi ve PBs for the day in the 400m, dis-

cus, 100m, long jump and javelin.

Two centre records were also broken at the velodrome oval last Saturday, both by Wes Graeme who returned from a successful meeting at the Australian All Schools Championships – in which he won two bronze medals, for the Under 14 Boys long jump and high jump – to set a new mark for the club in the U14B long jump and 400m.

Wes jumped 5.05m in the sandpit and stopped the clock at 1:02.41 in the 400m to break the centre records, both of which were set by Lucas Davies in the 2008/09


THE local trio of Ben Green, Wesley Graeme and Eleanor Patterson competed at the Aus-tralian All Schools Track and Field Championships held at the University of Queensland in St Lucia last weekend.

Following their success at the Vic-torian All Schools Track and Field Championships, held four weeks earlier, the trio yielded a four medal haul.

Benjamin Green, a Mary MacKil-

lop College Year 7 student, comfort-ably won the men’s Under 14 pole vault with a clearance of 2.75m.

He had a huge clearance at his opening height of 2.40m and cleared 2.60m on his second attempt be-fore attempting a new PB height of 2.90m.

Although not a personal best per-formance, this was Ben’s second Aus-tralian title this year after winning the Australian Junior Championship held in Sydney in March.

Eleanor Patterson, also a Mary MacKillop College student took out

the women’s Under 16 high jump. Eleanor entered the competition

at 1.65m with a huge clearance, fol-lowed by clearances at 1.70m, 1.75m and 1.78m. After three attempts at 1.81m Eleanor and a Queensland ath-lete could not be separated on count back.

With much excitement a jump off would decide the winner, but when both athletes missed another attempt at 1.81m the bar was lowered to 1.79m, which Eleanor cleared easily and her Queensland counterpart missed.

This was a gutsy effort by Patter-

son to claim her fi rst win at the Aus-tralian All Schools Championships. The win now makes it a treble of vic-tories at Australian Championships for Patterson.

Mirboo North Secondary College student Wesley Graeme had a huge program, competing in three events over the two day competition in hot and humid conditions.

Setting the tone for the weekend Wes won a bronze medal with a new personal best performance of 5.69m in the Men’s Under 14 Long Jump on Day 1 of the competition.

He returned to the track Sundaymorning to fi nish a close fourth inthe men’s Under 14 triple jump withanother personal best performance of11.84m and placed third in the men’sUnder 14 high jump, clearing 1.65m.

Ben, Wes and Eleanor, alongwith their fellow South Coast Athlet-ics members will now focus on theupcoming Victorian Country StateChampionships which will be held inBendigo, January 13-15 2012 beforetaking on Australia’s best again at theAustralian Junior Championships inMarch 2012 held in Sydney.

Green and Patterson win at Australian Championships

A SQUAD of 26 young athletes from Leongatha Little Athletics Club com-bined teamwork with tenacity to win third place overall in the Gippsland Region Relay Champion-ships at Cranbourne last Sunday.

Running on a drying track in cool conditions, athletes from Under 8 through to Under 14 age groups competed in a variety of relays, in-cluding boys, girls and mixed 4x100m, 4x200m and 800m sprint medley (2x100m, 1x200m and 1x400m).

Every athlete put in a great effort among some of Gippsland’s fi n-est young runners, in-cluding those from large outer-metropolitan clubs, with the Leongatha relay teams achieving a podi-um fi nish in 15 out of 17 races contested.

The teams racked up six relay wins and took second place in a further nine events.

Some will now go on to compete in the state championships early next year.

Thanks to team man-agers Paula O’Loughlin and Helen Patterson, key offi cial Lyndall Green and representatives from many families who as-sisted in other roles on the day.

Local relay champs

Under 12 Girls: Jasmine McJames-Court, Sara Riseley, Aleisha Wrigley andEbony Burns.

Under 9 Mixed: Cambell Riseley, Merrin Giles, Ryan Giliam and Niamh Martin.

Under 14 Boys: Brett Thorson, Ben Green, Julian Patterson and Wes Graeme. South

Gippsland Bridge

Meeniyan – Monday eve-ning: 1st Clive Hope, Peter Braker, 2nd Faye Row-lands, Frank Arndt, 3rd June Metcalf, Colin Cam-eron, 4th Pat West and Bar-bara Axten.

Inverloch – Friday - North/South: 1st Phillip and Neville Chapman, 2nd Bruce and Anne Gibson, 3rd Jack Kuiper, Jean Bar-bour, 4th Greg Nicholson and Margot Moylan.

East/West: 1st Yvonne Mears, Debbie Anglim. 2nd Moya Crowley and Part-ner, 3rd Anne Williams, John Farr, Carol and Peter Hill.

Hop, step, jump: Wesley Graeme competing in the Under 14 Men's Triple Jump.

Winners: Wesley Graeme, Ben Green, Eleanor Patterson and coach David Green after the Australian All Schools Championships.

the great southern star

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