It was a smorgasbord style for the eats at the 1976 wind up of the Rochester Bowling Club and it was a case of hop in and help yourself. There was ample food and nobody went hungry. The meal was the commencement of an enjoyable evening.
50 years ago May 1976
‘’If we were to receive an amount equal to our rate revenue, then we would be able to stave off retrenchments and have a frugal standard of existence,’’ Cr Fraser Caddy told a meeting of Rochester Shire councillors and district parliamentarians.
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Cr Caddy said they would need a matching grant, from the Federal Government, CRB or state government, to the equivalent of what they raised in rates. This year rate revenue was $550,000.
This would enable the council to give a frugal, but viable service to ratepayers.
‘’Unless more finance is made available,’’ continued Cr Caddy, ‘’services will be severely cut and a lot of people will suffer.’’
‘’Council cannot afford to put the rates up any higher.’’
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‘’The simple things were the way of life in the Philippines, especially in the city of Cagayan De Oro on the southern island,“ Miss Heather Addison, of Rochester, told a meeting of the Rochester Apex Club on Monday evening.
Miss Addison spent 12 months in Cagayan De Oro as a Rotary exchange student under sponsorship from the Broadmeadows Rotary Club.
Her family has since moved to Rochester, where her father is a teacher at the Rochester Primary School.
Apex chairman for the evening, Mr Kevin Wills admires a hand-carved elephant's head held by Miss Heather Addison.
‘’Life was so simple in Cagayan De Oro, they did not depend on material things, such as getting a new car every couple of years, or buying a new house to keep up appearances,’’ Heather said.
She said she had been lucky to be able to get around with simple people. They would go for walks in the evening, when the nights were so warm.
25 years ago May 2001
After a four-year break, Lockington’s Bill Roberts will be back on the race track this weekend at Winton's historic race meeting.
An industrial accident put Bill’s passion for motor racing temporarily on hold in 1997, but he’s itching to get back into his 1969 red Elfin 600, which he has repainted in its original colour and rebuilt to original condition especially for the Winton weekend.
Lockington’s Bill Roberts with his 1969 red Elfin 600 he will race at Winton.
It will be an historic moment for Bill when the Winton raceway flag goes down, as it was at Winton that he contested his first race, back in 1966.
‘’I got my licence in 1965 and had my first race in 1966 in Formula V,’’ Bill said.
He finished third in that year's championship and went on to become Australian Hill Climb Champion twice, as well as state champion.
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Rochester is one of 13 towns across country Victoria identified as facing the greatest difficulties finding doctors.
As a result, the community has been targeted to receive funding to help address its needs.
Around 50 towns were considered and, following stringent criteria measuring issues including Iocation, the amount of relevant infrastructure and ability to access other services, 13 were labelled as ‘’difficult to fill’’ communities.
The towns were identified through the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria, which was set up to assist in the recruitment and retention of doctors in rural areas.
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Thomas Mears blitzed a field of 11-year-olds when he competed in the state primary schools regional cross country competition in Bendigo recently.
Thomas, a grade five Lockington Consolidated School student who trains regularly, finished close to 100 metres ahead of his nearest competitor in the three-kilometre event.
Thomas Mears will compete in Melbourne in the state cross country event.
The result means Thomas qualifies for the state cross country championships in Melbourne on June 12. Competitors finishing in the top six of the top section of the event were selected for Melbourne.
Last year he also qualified for Melbourne, finishing fifth, but this year he’s feeling confident he can improve on that.
10 years ago May 2016
As the reality of the milk price drop has started to sink in, dairy farmers are now going about the tough job of working out what the future holds for them and their businesses.
Bamawm dairy farmers Bill and Kaye Cochrane, along with son Andrew, are angry with the way milk company Fonterra has treated them.
They have decided to suffer the pain of a milk price drop and refuse to take up company offers of long-term debt.
Dairy farmers across the region are feeling the impact of fallen milk prices.
“The person who thought up this idea as a solution needs to be fired. The whole thing has been handled very poorly and if the company knew they were paying an unsustainable milk price why did they continue paying that price?” they said.
“Put it this way, the first company that walks through the door with a better offer has got my business and if we had any options, we would be gone already.
‘‘We were having a good year — now we are well under production and in for eight weeks of sheer hell.”
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Two of Rochester’s most promising netballers — Maddie Egglestone and Morgan Dingwall — have been selected for the Goulburn Valley Netball League under-17 team.
Coach Kylie Pearce said she was impressed with both girls’ prowess on the court since joining Rochester this season.
‘‘Maddie’s settled in beautifully,’’ she said.
‘‘She’s a massive part of the Tigerettes’ tight defence. Maddie works tirelessly on and off the court, always giving her team and coach everything she has every week.’’
Pearce called Morgan’s dive into the GVNL as a ‘‘leap of faith’’, selected as an A-grade shooter.
‘‘Morgan’s leap is what sets her apart from many goal attacks,’’ she said.
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Rochester will soon have a new flood warning system as part of step two of the Rochester Flood Management Plan.
In partnership with the Bureau of Meteorology, Campaspe Shire will install an automated river gauge on the Lowry St bridge.
The gauge will provide real time river levels directly to the Bureau of Meteorology, enabling greater prediction of flood levels and improving warning times in a flood event.
“This is stage two of the Rochester Flood Management Plan, which was prepared in 2013 for the North Central Catchment Management Authority and Campaspe Shire following the 2011 floods,” Campaspe Shire Mayor Leigh Wilson said.
“This gauge will provide accurate flood height information to the township of Rochester should another flood event occur.”
