The Weekly Advertiser

Darwin bound

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:48:15 +0000

Darwin Defenders Maurie Gerdtz, left, and Laurie Schmidt of Horsham will be part of a Wimmera group flying to Darwin this weekend to take part in commemoration services for the 70th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of the city in 1942. Wimmera-Mallee district soldiers played a key role in the defence and Horsham flies a Darwin Defenders flag 24 hours a day. See story page 3 in the February 16 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
Picture: GREG O’CONNOR

When war hits home

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:46:30 +0000

SEVENTY YEARS ON: Maurie Gerdtz reflects on the time when he was part of the defence of Darwin in February, 1942. Picture: DEAN LAWSON

By DEAN LAWSON
Maurie Gerdtz, 89, considers the pattern bombing of 54 high-level aircraft as his most frightening experience of a Japanese attack on Darwin in February, 1942.
“It’s the one thing that scared me the most,” he said.
“It was the second night and our anti-aircraft guns couldn’t get up that high and there just this feeling of anticipation. You could hear the bombs whistling down before they exploded. The saying was it that was always the one you didn’t hear that got you.”
Despite manning an ancient World War One Hotchkiss machine gun complete with only 17 rounds, Maurie, a teenager at the time, never had the opportunity to fire a shot back in anger during the historic Darwin defence.
But as a member of the 19th machine gun battalion he vividly remembers the time when a large contingent of Wimmera soldiers found themselves amid the mayhem.
He reflected on a time of national anxiety as he looked forward for a trip to Darwin with fellow ‘defender’ Laurie Schmidt for 70th anniversary commemoration services.
Service
The pair will join a Wimmera contingent travelling to the Northern Territory today as Horsham Darwin Defenders committee members and Wimmera schools and students prepare for a service at Horsham College’s I. O. Maroske Hall.
The Wimmera-Mallee and in particular Horsham district retains an historic connection to the events that sent shockwaves through Australia on February 19, 1942.
As waves of Japanese bomber and fighter aircraft unloaded their deadly cargo on an ill-prepared Darwin, an inadequately quipped defence force defended and prepared for what many suspected was imminent invasion.
Among the defenders were almost 1000 Wimmera militia soldiers, many who on New Year’s Day less than two months earlier had crammed with family and friends on Horsham Railway Station platform.
“We weren’t trained at all,” Maurie recalled.
“I had five rounds of ammunition for my rifle and was in charge of an old World War One machine gun which was designed for three people to operate. I had only had one lesson on how to use it but I had never fired it.
“I was based with the machine gun at headquarters near the edge of the RAAF strip and we hadn’t even dug the trenches and were exposed on top of the ground when the first attack happened.
“I was standing up with the gun and I can remember our commanding officer saying ‘forget about the gun son and get some cover’. He was right, the gun was useless. I may as well have had a shanghai.

Get the full story in the February 16, 2012 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.

Leader prepares for a big shave

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:44:38 +0000

Cr Andrea Cooper

Stawell district community leader Andrea Cooper is looking forward to ‘a new look’ in her push to help raise money and awareness in a fight against blood cancer.
Cr Cooper, a Northern Grampians Shire councillor, will go under the clippers and lose all her hair at Stawell Retravision store at 10am on March 15 as part of the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave.
She said unlike some of her friends and family, she had few qualms about having her head shaved for the cause.
“Why not? People say it’s a brave thing to do but it really isn’t. My hair will grow back. I lost three of my closest friends in three years from cancer and they’re not coming back,” she said.
The annual World’s Greatest Shave is from March 15 to 17 and donations can be left in money-raising tins at Stawell businesses.

Homicide cases

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:42:27 +0000

Murder charges and court hearings as a result of sudden deaths in Horsham and Goroke dominated Wimmera news bulletins this week.
Nhill and Horsham Magistrates’ courts heard preliminary submissions on Tuesday for the respective cases.
Six Horsham men faced murder charges in Nhill Magistrates’ Court after the death of a Horsham man, 25, on Friday night. They will return to court for a committal hearing on June 13.
An Apsley man fronted Horsham Magistrates’ Court on charges of murder and attempted murder after the death of a Goroke woman, 34, on Sunday night. He will return to court on May 16.

Horsham College

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:41:41 +0000

SIR,- I read the article involving Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Grampians acting regional director Peter Henry in last week’s issue of The Weekly Advertiser regarding the Horsham College and felt compelled to comment.
His comments are very disappointing.
Just because he hasn’t received any correspondence does not in any way reflect of our community disgust at the state of buildings at the college. Perhaps it reflects more on the years on non-action by his department and political heads than it does of on the community’s acceptance of the state of play.
Mr Henry speaks of ‘appropriate bid for funding made as part of the State Budget process’ – that sounds like it came straight out of the television program ‘Yes Minister’.
Mr Henry, this community wishes to grow and prosper as a central hub for western Victoria and to do this we must have facilities that will attract people to our city.
The ‘bureaucratic fiasco’ has been going on for more than 40 years. The Horsham community has had enough.
Robin Barber,
Chairman,
Business Horsham

Bereaucracy

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:40:10 +0000

SIR,- Your front page story, ‘Appeal for sense’, February 9, 2012, indicates to me that all those involved in the Horsham High-Tech School renovation process have been successfully lulled into passivity by a bureaucracy that’s just as sluggish and shy from initiating anything of substance.
Anyone with as little historical awareness may recall the attempted close down of the Goroke Consolidated School and reduce it to a primary feeder school for Edenhope and Horsham. Locals didn’t like what was going on and resisted this with great engagement with the result that today there is the Goroke P-12 College.
During the 1970s and 1980s principals were sent to Goroke to close down the secondary section – by all manner of means. But they failed, and I know what I am talking about because some of your readers may recall my own fate in supporting the community sentiment, which was vigorously opposed by the central Melbourne education bureaucratic policy makers. It led to the usual phenomenon of threats and intimidation, of divide-and-rule of the local community, which strongly resisted – and won against that faceless bureaucracy in Melbourne.
Nothing worthy is gained without sacrifice and without individuals fearlessly speaking out against injustices. It is an injustice to our students to have the prevailing conditions continue at Horsham College. It is an insult to the community, which however is itself to blame for letting this happen and for continuing to bend to those forces that obstruct development.
But in these trying economic conditions who is prepared to put their job on the line – as I did when the Education Department bureaucracy moved against that small rural Goroke community?
Fredrick Töben,
Goroke

Students’ backpack dilemma

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:37:27 +0000

By DEAN LAWSON
The sight of children heading back to school after a long summer holiday break is perhaps one of the profound signals of a changing season and a journey into a new year.
It is as if society suddenly awakens from hibernation and breaks camp in search of opportunity. In the mornings there are people heading in all directions, complete with bicycles, uniforms, chatter, noise, traffic and….bags!
There are schoolbags-backpacks everywhere and it is these bags that have organisations such as the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia concerned about their impact on juvenile bodies.
The adoption and embracing of electronic technology in education is one of the marvellous new aspects of the modern world. Information through portable and individualised computers has never been more accessible to children.
But books are still with us, for the moment at least. So too is physical education gear, lunch boxes, water bottles and every other conceivable project children might be working on between home and the classroom.
Hands up any parents who have experienced shock or worry at the moment they have picked up the backpack their offspring have been lugging to school each day. How heavy they can be is quite alarming.
Stress
The chiropractors association has called on Australian educators to ‘rethink the load they are placing on students’ backs – literally’.
CAA national spokesman Dr Patrick Sim: “There is evidence pointing to the fact that heavily laden school bags place unnecessary stress on growing spines and can lead to acute and long-term back problems.

Get the full story in the February 16, 2012 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.

Horsham growth study

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:36:22 +0000

The direction in which Horsham’s main shopping centre might spread will be a key aspect of a study into Horsham’s central business district.
The future of Horsham’s shopping heart, traditionally bordered by Hamilton Street in the south, Baillie Street, north, McPherson Street, east and Park Drive, west, has long been the subject of community debate.
Horsham Rural City council has joined Wimmera Development Association and Business Horsham to examine the role and function of Horsham Central Activity District.
Horsham mayor Cr Mandi Stewart said the study would identify opportunities to improve and provide direction for the central activity district.
“The outcomes will provide guidance to the council, businesses, investors, and the public on how Horsham’s business and commercial core will develop over the next 10 to 15 years,” she said.
Consultants Essential Economics and Meinhardt and Urban Initiatives are preparing the strategy.
Development association executive director Jo Bourke encouraged people to get involved in the project.
The consultants are asking for input on: Features of the Horsham CAD the community values; why do people shop, visit and spend time in the Horsham CAD; what services or facilities are needed in the CAD; what are the main issues that affect how the centre is currently used; what are other issues.
People can send an email to Horsham@essentialeconomics.com.

Get the full story in the February 16, 2012 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.

Human skull found near Lake Hindmarsh

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:35:19 +0000

Police will use forensic information to assess if a human skull found near Lake Hindmarsh on Tuesday is part of remains of Rainbow kayaker Aaron Oakley who went missing at the lake in July last year.
Detective Sergeant Steve Walker from Horsham police said people working on a property discovered the skull in a paddock about 800 metres from the water’s edge.
He said the skull, which police suspect had been dragged from the water by an animal, did not appear aged and would go to the Coroner’s Court in Melbourne for identification tests.