The Weekly Advertiser

VROOOOM!

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:39:58 +0000

Plaza car giveaway

Horsham Plaza is giving away a $15,990 Mazda car in one of the richest Wimmera shopping promotions in many years. The plaza has joined forces with radio stations 3WM and Mixx FM as well as Morrow Motor Group to encourage shoppers to make the most of the plaza’s stores, services and bargains. Pictured with the new car and preparing for the Horsham Plaza Great Car Giveaway, which starts on Monday, is from left, Mixx FM announcer Nims Azoor, plaza manager Allison Roberts, 3WM-Mixx program manager Emma Elsom and Morrow Motor Group director Gavin Morrow. Contest details, page 5.
Picture: MICK SHANNON

Get the full story in the May 23, 2013 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
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Fueling up

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:38:18 +0000

Adam Breuer gives his model Sbach 342 a test run in preparation for Wimmera Model Aircraft Association’s Fun Fly near Horsham this weekend. The aircraft, featuring a 35cc petrol motor, will be one of many taking to the sky at Burnt Creek. Organisers expect about 30 model aircraft enthusiasts from across Victoria to take part in the day. The fun fly will feature a broad spectrum of aircraft from large-scale models to aerobatic helicopters. Club members have welcomed the public to its field at Burnt Creek livestock exchange. Aircraft will be in the air between 11am and 4pm on both days. Picture: VIC CRESP

Flood plain challenge

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:37:08 +0000

By DEAN LAWSON
A Western Highway bypass of Horsham, earmarked to sweep east of the city through Riverside, will be subject to strict flood-mitigation requirements.
For VicRoads to win ministerial approval for its preferred bypass route it will need to justify ‘substantial’ engineering and infrastructure development and costs to overcome potential water-flow issues.
As well as cutting through private property and houses, the route will run through a long-recognised and expansive Wimmera River flood plain, much of which was under water during 2011 floods.
Wimmera Catchment Management Authority is the advisory body providing flood information and advice and chief executive David Brennan was quick to point out that the project would be subject to stringent flood-mitigation rules.
“For a start, our objective is to make sure there is no net loss of flood-plain space and importantly that there is no adverse impact to anyone by the transfer of water,” he said.
“We’re not in the business of creating a flood legacy. We’re talking about substantial engineering and mitigation works that will be required for this project to happen. And we’re going to make sure every rule is stringently observed.
“If this plan does go ahead there will need to be extensive work done to demonstrate to the community that there will be no impact from flooding.”

Get the full story in the May 23, 2013 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
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Give-it-a-go day

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:36:38 +0000

ARE YOU GAME? Wimmera Roller Derby League will be one of many organisations providing information at a Give It A Go event on Friday. Pictured are from left, back, Carley McInerney, Bekah Nicholson, Laura Maher, Ruby Rabbt and front, Kym Hardy, Bridie Taber, Amy Jay, Jen Purchase and Jesse Jorgenson-Price. Picture: PIXEL PINUPS

Wimmera Uniting Care is encouraging people to get involved with Wimmera clubs and groups at a free ‘Give It A Go’ event in Horsham tomorrow.
The event at St Andrew’s Uniting Church Hall from noon until 4pm, will feature about 20 exhibitors from a variety of organisations and groups, which will distribute information about how to get involved.
Wimmera Uniting Care youth and community general manager Leeanne Thomson said the event was a fantastic way to see the variety of clubs and organisations the Wimmera had to offer.
“We’ll have all kinds of opportunities there, from roller derby to the Country Women’s Association – Horsham Golf Club to the Dunmunkle Sump Oilers,” she said.

Get the full story in the May 23, 2013 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
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Car up for grabs

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:34:42 +0000

Wimmera bargain hunters have the chance to win a new car in the next six weeks in one of the richest shopping-promotion competitions in the region in years.
Horsham Plaza, the region’s biggest under-one-roof shopping centre, will give away a new $15,990 Mazda 2 four-door hatch as part of its Horsham Plaza Great Car Giveaway.
All shoppers have to do to enter the competition, which starts on Monday and ends at 4pm on July 5, is to simply spend at least $20 from any plaza business.
Plaza manager Allison Roberts said the competition was the biggest plaza giveaway since the centre changed Horsham shopping dynamics in the 1980s.
“The plaza has run small competitions in the past but nothing as big. Our retailers are all very excited and from Monday everyone who walks into the centre will see this zippy Mazda in the centre mall,” she said.
“It is beautiful plaza green colour and has a real wow factor. It even has Horsham Plaza number plates for the display.
Morrow Motor Group director Gavin Morrow: “It’s a really stylish car that mixes good looks with economy. It is perfect car for both the younger driver and older person who like no-fuss commuting.”
Apart from being on display, the car will act as an ‘entry barrel’ with shoppers dropping their entries directly into the vehicle.
Every Friday at 4pm during the competition, plaza officials will draw two of ultimately 12 finalists who will have a chance, at a grand final draw at noon on Saturday, July 5, to choose from sets of keys to open the car.
The final draw, led by Mixx FM announcer Nims Azoor, will go live to air on Mixx FM and 3WM to celebrate a 26-year relationship between the plaza and ACE Radio.

Get the full story in the May 23, 2013 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
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Town pleads for store to stay

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:33:51 +0000

A Warracknabeal business-support group has pleaded with retail giant Target Australia to continue a 62-year legacy of trading in the Wimmera town.
Warracknabeal Action Group fears Target plans to close its Warracknabeal store on May 31 will undermine the town’s ability to operate as a service centre.
Group president Kathryn Wilken said Warracknabeal district people, many of them generational shoppers at the Target Country store in the town, had been devastated by the news.
“We need to make them are of the repercussions and desperately want them to change their minds,” she said.
“Warracknabeal is a small town and provides a service for district communities. If people stop coming to town to buy their kids’ clothes they will stop coming to town altogether and the whole business sector will suffer.
“We need the powers that be to understand that a move like this is going to kill a small country town.”
Ms Wilken said the Warracknabeal community was busy signing petitions and ‘bombarding’ the Target website in an effort to convince Target leaders to reconsider the decision.

Get the full story in the May 23, 2013 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
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Paddocks strong despite dry spell

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:32:56 +0000

A Wimmera-Mallee study from early May has revealed paddocks across the region were maintaining soil structure despite more than half a year of relatively little rain.
The report showed that only 27 or three percent of 878 paddocks surveyed in districts were at high risk of wind erosion.
This was despite the region receiving only decile one rain for the past seven months and some areas experiencing their driest period on record.
The study transect or path, designed to help identify the impact of farm and crop-management practices, covered districts including Horsham, Dimboola, Nhill, Kaniva, Yanac, Jeparit, Brim and Sheep Hills.
The Department of Environment and Primary Industries revealed the findings as part of its Wimmera Cropland Management Transect that provides information about stubble retention, stubble burning and soil management.
Department soil-health specialist Chris Pittock praised landholders for limiting the amount of erosion on their paddocks despite the long period of dry weather.
“This is a very good result,” he said.
Dry start
Dr Pittock said findings showed that few paddocks had been burned or cultivated this year and at the time of the study few had been sown because of the dry start to the season.
“While about 40 percent of paddocks appeared to have been sown at this time last autumn, the figure during this year’s transect was about six percent,” he said.
“Two key factors for this season have been low moisture at any depth, which appears to have led to fewer summer weeds but also less crop in the ground.

Get the full story in the May 23, 2013 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
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When we can all barrack as one

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:32:14 +0000

With preparations in full swing for a huge interleague football double-header in Horsham this weekend it is perhaps timely to try to understand why these games occur.
It is also important to understand why many country football leaders want them to keep going despite a powerful suggestion that they have become an irrelevant nuisance.
The reality is, as it always has been, that many of us need to put aside our week-to-week domestic rivalries to barrack for a common cause.
Anyone who grows up in the Wimmera eventually develops an understanding that the region’s larger population centres can’t exist without the outlying areas and vice-versa. It’s an understanding that spills into everything from economic and social development to, obviously, sport.
To play with the national and international big boys we have always had to embrace a regionally collective spirit. That’s why organisations such as Wimmera Development Association exist and why it occasionally scores some big wins.
This regional spirit can manifest itself in different ways. Many years ago, as a young sports reporter charged with the job of covering Wimmera League’s interleague fortunes, I had the annual privilege to experience the one-for-all and all-for-one cut and thrust of championships football.
Being on the bus as part of the Wimmera League entourage and sharing stories with footballers and officials from Ararat, Stawell, Warracknabeal, Horsham, Nhill, Dimboola, Minyip and Murtoa was almost as good as playing.

Get the full story in the May 23, 2013 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
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Ararat rates

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:31:48 +0000

SIR,- Ararat Rural City Council has proposed a rate increase of seven percent in its rating strategy. But it then states that the differential rates will increase by 10 percent from 15 to 160 percent for industry, by 10 percent from 120 to 130 percent for commercial and 7.5 percent from 52.5 to 60 percent for farms.
When these changes are calculated in real terms, the increases are 6.6 for industrial, 8.3 for commercial and 14.3 for farmers.
At the same time the council proposes a reduction in the general rate. When the general rate increase is factored in, this becomes a whopping 16 percent increase for farmers.
How does this council expect farmers or any business for that matter to cope with such a huge increase in rates?
For the average farm in Ararat Rural City this will take rates from $8178 to $9569, an increase of $1390 while residential landowners who have access to more councils services have had their rates reduced. Where is the equity in this? How does this council think a farming couple struggling to raise a family can suddenly find this much extra money for council to squander when most farm commodities have fallen significantly in price?
This is the third year in a row that Ararat Rural City Council has reneged on an agreement with the community to move towards a fair and equitable rating strategy for all ratepayers. Farmers and their families now pay nearly seven times as much as general residential ratepayers for the same or fewer services.
If this proposed budget is implemented it will see farmers who comprise about 11 percent of the population paying 40 percent of total rates collected – totally unfair when many council services are not accessible to farmers.
It appears this council is unaware the Minister for Local Government passed legislation and produced guidelines to promote fair and equitable rating strategies to be developed by the use of differential rates. Will this council continue to thumb their noses at the minister?
Savage rate increases for all businesses – farming, commercial and industrial, can only serve to drive business away from the area.
This council should be condemned for its exploitation of the farming and business sectors. There is an urgent need for an independent investigation of the financial management, particularly the rating strategy of the Rural City of Ararat.
David Hucker,
Wickliffe

Leaders ramp up call for project suppliers

Weekly Advertiser — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:31:17 +0000

Horsham civic leaders have stepped up a message to district sub-contractors to register interest in providing services for construction of a new multi million-dollar performing arts centre.
Horsham Rural City Council community services director Angela Murphy said only 15 of 90 contractors to so far register with the Industry Capability Network for the project were from Horsham district.
She emphasised a State Government requirement meant that project tenderers, in their submissions, had to include ‘local’ suppliers in a Victorian Industry Participation Plan.
She added that tenderers sourced these suppliers from the Industry Capability Network, a government-backed independent organisation that had helped connect ‘local’ suppliers with contracts for the last 28 years.
“We looked at economic modeling and the project will generate significant economic activity right up until its completion in 2015,” she said.
“Obviously, the more local businesses involved the better.”

Get the full story in the May 23, 2013 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.
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