General News
29 January, 2025
Year in Review: April–June 2024
2024 year in review from April to June 2024.
MAY
- WestWind Energy, the developer behind a 110km transmission line proposed to harness the Wimmera’s wind power for generations to come, say they will pump $750,000 a year into communities along a route which will stretch across farmland east of Horsham.
- In a move that pleases researchers but disappoints farmers, dingoes in North West Victoria remain protected despite the state government having varied an existing order of protection across the rest of the state.
- Grampians Health joins an international trial to investigate ways of reducing the risk of breathing problems in newborn babies delivered by caesarean section.
- As rallies across the country hear the harrowing stories of domestic violence survivors and the families of those who have not survived, Wimmera Mallee News launches an editorial series that explores how the epidemic is affecting the region's residents.
- At the same time, in a moving show of solidarity, about 300 people meet in Horsham for a Shine the Light march to pay tribute to the children and women killed in acts of domestic violence.
- Telstra withdraws a controversial project to promote its satellite home internet service on a silo or water tower after a backlash from local communities and Australian Silo Art Trail director and regional tourism ambassador Damian Modra, who describes the project as an attempt to "leverage" the silo art movement.
- More than 4500 people pour through Horsham Town Hall's doors for Shrek the Musical during its nine-show season in Horsham – and 450 of them pour out in a hurry when a rogue fire alarm sounds during a sold-out Saturday night performance.
- West Wimmera Health Service says uncertainty around a rumoured merger of health providers in the west of the state is causing distress for many of the organisation’s stakeholders, including staff, volunteers and community members as an independent expert advisory committee considers the possibility of amalgamating Victoria's 76 health services into 12.
- The clack-click of needles is like music the ears of to 90-year-old Hazel Ferris’s ears as she knits an average of four cardigans/jackets, four beanies and four pairs of booties every month for babies born prematurely.
- Horsham is determined not to be caught flat-footed if and when a conversation with an air-transport provider occurs, voting at its monthly council meeting to take the next step towards finalising its Horsham Airport Master Plan.
JUNE
- Beanie counters raise their hats at Coles Horsham, where shoppers raise more than $31,000 in the fight against motor neurone disease, making the store the fifth-highest fundraiser in the country.
- Having moved to Horsham from New Zealand in 2023 after her husband was offered a job that was "too good to refuse", Diploma of Nursing student Bailey Price is named as one of 17 Federation University scholarship recipients in the Wimmera.
- Astron Corporation reveals plans to build 62 single-person ensuite units on the site of the former Minyip Hospital to house workers from its proposed Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands Project between Minyip and Donald.
- In other mine news, Astron Corporation says it is open to a suggestion from the Wimmera branch of the Victorian Farmers Federation that constructing a siding at Minyip could enable materials from the Donald-Minyip mine to be freighted by rail directly to port.
- Horsham musician Don Papst, 90, is given one of the country's highest rewards, having the letters OAM apended to his name as a recipient of the Order of Australia in the King's Birthday Honours.
- Specialised Container Transport at Dooen is playing a crucial role in the nation's rail freight network as Australia's largest privately-owned logistics rail company, removing an estimated 22,000 truck loads from the highways between Horsham and Melbourne every year, founder and owner Peter Smith says during a forum at the facility.
- Horsham Rural City Council fails to submit its 2024–25 budget by the June 30 deadline as required by state legislation, chief executive officer Sunil Bhalla saying the delay has been caused by "a new finance management system".
- Twelve would-be councillors volunteer to complete Horsham Rural City's community leadership program as potential candidates for the October state election.
- On-ground homelessness support programs urgently need additional funding, according to Glenn Kimberley, Street to Home's only outreach worker in the Wimmera, where at least 132 people are sleeping rough.
JULY
- Raised 'wombat' pedestrian crossings in Horsham CBD anger pedestrians and mobility-aid users who say the pin-down rubber speed humps are a risk to road users, especially elderly residents using gophers or walkers.
- Health services across the Wimmera still face weeks of uncertainty before decisions will be made on the potential budget cuts and amalgamations that it's feared will roll seven health services in the Grampians region into one if the expert advisory committee's recommendation is accepted.
- Five aged care homes across the Wimmera – two in Warracknabeal run by Rural Northwest Health and one each in Birchip, Donald and Stawell – have failed to administer adequate Covid boosters to at least half of their residents, according to new figures.
- Horsham-based Australian Plant Proteins pins its hopes on the emergence of either a standalone buyer or an investor with deep pockets as it sits in voluntary administration after its directors, Brendan McKeegan, Phil McFarlane, Michael Scalzo and Christine Gilbertson, decided to place it under the management of Melbourne firm Romanis Cant.
- Astron Corporation owner and managing director Tiger Brown ramps up the mining company's efforts to garner community support for its Donald rare earth and mineral sands project, announcing that he will visit Minyip at least once a month as work gathers pace.
- The Murra Warra Wind Farm Sustainable Community Grants Fund program distributes more than $110,000 in community grants to boost and strengthen Wimmera not-for-profit groups.
- Police and wildlife officers search for the bloodthirsty culprits responsible for massacring a mob of 19 eastern grey kangaroos at Pine Lake, saying the carcasses show evidence of gunshot wounds and at least three have leg injuries consistent with having been hit by a vehicle.
- Horsham Rural City Council CEO Sunil Bhalla acknowledges the 2024 community satisfaction survey highlights "many areas for improvement", of which waste management stands out as "our worst-performing area, dropping from 64 to 55".
- More than three weeks past the state's June 30 deadline, Horsham Rural City Council finally has a budget for the current financial year, councillors voting to adopt the figures prepared by director of corporate services Kim Hargreaves.
- One of the country’s top cereal breeders, InterGrain, starts construction of a new state-of-the-art facility in Stawell Road, south of Horsham.
AUGUST
- In an astonishing attack from within the council chamber cohort, Horsham Rural City councillors Claudia Haenel, Ian Ross and David Bowe question the veracity of their "leaders", arguing that failing to meet the council's budget deadline has put staff under immense pressure and caused significant reputational damage to council.
- Horsham school principal Gerard Raven asks why the parents of his pupils are missing out on a state government handout as hundreds of local families don't qualify for the $400 school saving bonus simply because their children are enrolled in low-cost, non-government schools such as St Brigid’s College.
- Perfect weather, not-to-be-missed guest speaker Terry Daniher and a program boasting something for everyone among 350 exhibits make the 2024 Mallee Machinery Field Days one of the best-attended in years as about 6500 people pass through the gates over the two days, raising an estimated $70,000 for local charities.
- Horsham Rural City Council's election will go ahead under the watch of a second government monitor in two years after Minister for Local Government Melissa Horne announces the appointment in response to “governance concerns”.
- A flood of complaints forces council to take a U-turn on its controversial 'wombat' pedestrian crossings and agree to remove the temporary speed humps.
- Horsham police seize almost 60,000 illicit cigarettes, 400 vapes and 10kg of loose-leaf tobacco in morning raids on three tobacco stores in Firebrace Street and Roberts Avenue as part of an investigation into the growing illegal tobacco trade in Victoria.
- Much of the region is quietly abuzz with excitement as Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner AC, 30th Governor of Victoria and only the second woman to represent the Crown in this role, graces Hindmarsh and West Wimmera shires with her presence.
- No sooner has Horsham council monitor Steven Kingshott stepped into his new role than yet another controversy explodes when a meeting of 70 council employees organised by the Australian Services Union calls for the standing-down of CEO Sunil Bhalla.
- For more than 100 years Legacy has delivered on its promise to care for the families of servicepeople who have lost their lives or health defending their country, and across the Wimmera and Southern Mallee many of the 31 Legatees and 74 widows themselves are nearly 100 years of age or older, including Beryl Meyer, 101, Kaniva; Vi Taylor, 101, Barbara Ellifson, 101, Daphne Skews, 102, and Dawn Robinson, 104, Horsham; Phyllis Ferguson, 101, and May Craig, 104, Warracknabeal; and Pat Young, 101, Minyip.