50 years ago March 1976
The visiting group study team come from the northern part of Sweden not far removed from the Arctic Circle and have their homes in the towns and cities of Umea, Vilhelmina, Lulea, Harnosand and Skelleftea.
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Their visit to Rochester was part of a tour of Rotary District 278, and from Rochester they transferred to another Rotary Club in the district. They arrived in Rochester on Thursday, March 3, and departed the following day.
For their overnight stay in Rochester they were hosted by members of the Rochester Rotary Club. The Swedes were the second Rotary group study team to visit Rochester in the past 12 months.
All members of the team spoke excellent English and conversed freely with their hosts and showed a great interest in all things shown to them, especially on the tour around the farming community while in Rochester.
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The Rochester Shire will receive $58,320 from flood grants totalling $2.9 million for the repair of roads damaged by last year's spring floods.
The announcement of this further grant was made by State Premier Mr Hamer on March 12 and will bring the total grants for last year’s floods to $8,932,306. The grants will be made subject to council contributions of $215,610.
Neighboring shires to receive flood grants: East Loddon $323,340, Gordon $120,750, Deakin $55,960, Waranga $82,000, Cohuna $52,360 and the City of Echuca $42,220.
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A husband and wife with more than 30 years of bowling experience between them combined on Friday night to win Lockington Bowling Club’s Harrison shield.
Duncan and Jean Palmer of Lockington won the final of the Harrison shield from Mr Pat Vick and Mrs J. McCauley.
Duncan Palmer has been associated with the Lockington Bowling Club since 1957.
However, that was not his first association with bowls as he contributed to the building of the Elmore greens in 1924.
‘’I took up bowls in 1957 and have been playing regularly ever since,’’ Duncan said.
25 years ago March 2001
Funding restructure is being considered by the Rochester and Elmore Health Service District board management in conjunction with regional Department of Human Services officers.
Regional director of Human Services Terry Garwood visited the Rochester campus on Friday to tour the buildings and discuss future funding options and possible redevelopment of the health service’s acute section
Mr Garwood, who took up the regional director’s position last year and is responsible for 20 regional health facilities, was on his first visit to REDHS.
He was joined by the department’s acting acute health manager Pam Quinn and the acting manager of health, housing and aged care Mike Parker.
Currently, health funding at Rochester is allocated by the department on a ‘’weighted-index’’ criteria according to patient throughput and the complexity of acute cases, but falling patient numbers have led to the consideration of other funding models.
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‘’I’ll ring when the eagle has landed,’’ Rochester cyclist Otto Galliker called to his family as he pedalled away from Sir Hubert Opperman's statue towards Bacchus Marsh on the final leg of a 2001km/166-hour ride through Victoria and NSW.
The phone call came at 8pm that night, much to the delight of Otto's wife, Karen, and daughters Rachel, Lucy and Sophie and a contingent of friends also awaiting the news.
Tired and a little sore in the knees and shoulders, Otto and fellow cyclist Dave Edwards, from Woollongong, cycled into Bacchus Marsh 18 hours ahead of the Friday deadline.
Eight hours behind them were six other cyclists who had begun the ride with them the previous Friday.
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Rochester athlete Heidi Riordan may represent Australia at the World Youth Games after successfully competing at the Australian Youth Track and Field championships and selection trials in Bendigo recently.
Heidi won the 800m sprint, earning herself $500 from the Bendigo Bank as the Tamsyn Lewis Female Athlete of the Meet.
She also won gold in the under-18s 1500m final in four minutes, 22.30 seconds — a personal best and close to eight seconds ahead of the world qualifying time of 4.30.00.
Heidi's great run saw her finish ahead of reigning title holder Lisa Corrigan of NSW.
10 years ago March 2016
Pressure is mounting on the Victorian Government to act on a dangerous intersection between Rochester and Nanneella.
The Webb Rd and Echuca-Nanneella Rd intersection has seen a number of accidents in the past 11 years.
The concerns include trees preventing drivers from seeing oncoming traffic on Webb Rd, the design of the intersection and no stop sign on Echuca-Nanneella Rd.
Bill Pearse has lived at the intersection for 25 years with his wife, Anna, and said he regularly heard the sound of cars slamming on the brakes.
‘‘I often see a lot of glass on the road there from small crashes, but most people probably don’t hear about those ones,’’ he said.
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A Rochester teenager recovering in hospital motivated more than 200 locals to travel to Melbourne for a charity fun run at the weekend.
Taylor Marrone, 17, has been in the Royal Children’s Hospital since October after suffering a stroke.
On Sunday, her friends and family formed a team, Tay’s Army, to take part in the Run for the Kids, which raised funds for the hospital’s Good Friday Appeal.
Organiser Bridgette Holt said she was overwhelmed to see 222 people sign up to run and walk for Taylor.
‘‘At first I thought we would only get about 50 on board, but the numbers just kept climbing as the event drew closer,’’ she said.
The Tay’s Army team joined 30,000 other walkers and runners as they clocked the 16km or 5km courses through the heart of Melbourne.
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The juniors flew the Rochester flag high in the final weekend of tennis, winning two out of three deciders contested.
And the only senior team to make the most important game of the year also brought home the bacon with a good win against LBU.
The juniors had teams in the A, B and C-grade grand finals with A-grade losing to LBU, B-grade returning the favour and defeating LBU and C-grade having it in the bag before the first ball was served as both teams were from Rochester.