General News
20 January, 2025
Year in review: January to April
A look into what made it into the headlines in Warracknabeal from January to April 2024.
JANUARY
- Warracknabeal is well positioned to attract tree-changers escaping the high prices of Melbourne after being ranked the third most affordable suburb in in the state, with a median price of $206,005.
- Students and teachers at Warracknabeal Primary School and St Mary’s Catholic Primary School hit the saddle after accepting bikes donated by Rural Northwest Health.
- Residents in 10 aged-care facilities across the Wimmera receive access to the benefits of telehealth in privacy and comfort thanks to the rollout of new telehealth trolleys by West Wimmera Health Service.
- The first pour of concrete at the Quality Australia Hay site on Henty Highway sets the foundations for the multimillion-dollar hay plant offering a new option for local farmers looking to export to international markets.
- Grampians Health cancer nurse Wendy Sleep celebrates a unique milestone, having devoted 50 years of unwavering service to Wimmera Base Hospital and Wimmera Cancer Centre.
- More than two million recyclables are returned across the Wimmera in the first month of the new container deposit project, Warracknabeal locals cashing in on the precious 10-cent refund on beverage bottles and cans by dropping off 188,072 individual items.
- After arriving at Warracknabeal Police Station in August 2023 for a three-month secondment, Senior Constable Lauren Cole accepts a permanent position.
- Warracknabeal Tourist Information Centre committee is delighted when a Yarriambiack Shire attractions information board is erected outside the facility in Scott Street, its completion having been held up by Covid and the centre's renovation.
- After a hearty breakfast courtesy of Warracknabeal Lions Club, more than 250 people celebrate what it means to be an Australian and applaud the hard work and dedication of local heroes Stacey Drage (Citizen of the Year) and Graeme “Boycey” Holland (Sportsperson of the Year).
FEBRUARY
- Two Wimmera aged-care centres are officially among the most caring in the state as Hopetoun Nursing Home and Yarriambiack Lodge Hostel are ranked first and fourth respectively in terms of care minutes offered to residents.
- A 63-year-old St Arnaud man is airlifted to hospital after his B-double loaded with gypsum runs off the road on a tight corner between Rainbow and St Arnaud, leaving him with serious injuries.
- A chilly morning does not deter Australia Day revellers in Beulah, where a progressive flag-raising sees seven flags hoisted in turn.
- As the school year kicks off, Minyip Primary School principal Julie Powell breathes a huge sigh of relief at having been able to keep her promise to attract the staff needed to keep the small school open.
- Hindmarsh Shire Council releases its new chief executive, Jessie Holmes, from her contract as she continues to receive treatment for a medical condition.
- Sheep Hills Reunion committee members face a hiccup in their plans to commemorate 40 years since the school's closure when a time-capsule that's due to be opened at the March long-weekend event can't be found.
- Buildings with historical significance – and along with them, generations of memories – are disappearing in Beulah and Brim as Brim General Store is demolished already and another is slated to be torn down in coming weeks.
- The thoughts of the community are with Woodbine’s previous chief executive Bernie O’Connor and his family as they deal with the loss of their home to bushfire in Pomonal.
- Wheatlands Machinery Museum announces a successful harvest following its acquisition, restoration and trial run of an antique potato planter, the yield of which will be served up at the Easter Rally with toppings such as coleslaw and savoury mince.
- Dunmunkle Sumpoilers members and keen machine restorers Gordon Mills of Kalkee and David Williams of Nhill say their McCormick-Deering Number 61 combine harvester is the only one in Australia as they prepare to have the machine ready for the 2025 Quambatook harvest rally.
- Warracknabeal Community Garden is in jeopardy as the land's owner seeks to sell the block after a decade in which the garden group has paid an annual “peppercorn rent”.
- Ruby Fagan reaches her 100th birthday in Ballarat, having been born at Beulah on Valentine's Day 1924 and grown up at Warracknabeal.
MARCH
- The death of a third local farmer in three weeks sends shockwaves across the Wimmera as it mourns Merv Thomas of Wallup, Mark Huebner of Warracknabeal and Mick Morcom of Kellalac.
- Yarriambiack Shire faces the reality of losing one of its seven councillors in the October local-government election courtesy of a state decision to split the municipality into three wards with two representatives each.
- Warracknabeal’s main street stores are relieved when a small fire at the Foodworks loading dock and storage shed is extinguished before high winds can whip it into an inferno.
- Residents near a 20-year-old boardwalk spanning Yarriambiack Creek are concerned at the length of time repairs are taking since a falling tree limb caused damage.
- Yarriambiack Mayor Kylie Zanker announces that she will stand for re-election in October, although she she is undecided whether to take a tilt at a sixth year in the top job.
- The region's biggest health provider, Grampians Health, emphatically denies there are any plans for a merger with Warracknabeal-based Rural Northwest Health "any time soon".
- Families are shocked by news that Hopetoun Uniting Early Learning Centre will close from April 1 for an unspecified period owing to a lack of staff.
- Ambulance Victoria community officers Sue and Megan Watts give Warracknabeal Lions Club members an up-close look at the new automated external defibrillator which will be installed at the fauna and flora park.
APRIL
- As the Grampians enjoys its busiest weekend since the February fires, a respected news website flouts safety protocols by publishing a controversial image of a visitor sitting on the rock ledge at Boroka Lookout, where two tourists have fallen to their deaths, making it the national park's most notorious beauty spot.
- Organiers of Rupanyup's Dirt Music festival are delighted with the response to their shout-out for musicians, receiving sufficient interest to operate six venues from mid-morning until night.
- Wimmera residents are most at risk of experiencing crime inside their own homes according to new data showing that of 2758 criminal incidents reported to police in 2023 across the local government areas of Hindmarsh, Horsham Rural City, Yarriambiack, Buloke and West Wimmera, offences in residential buildings were highest.
- Warracknabeal acquires 12 new 'community heroes' thanks to Ambulance Victoria's attendance at Easter to train members of the public in CPR and using an AED in a recruitment drive for the GoodSam program.
- 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.
- Wimmera agricultural scientist Dr Cassandra Walker is one of 26 participants nationally in the 31st intake of the Australian Rural Leadership Program, receiving a scholarship worth $60,000.
- Locals tuning in to Channel 7 see a familiar face as Wilkur’s Karli Hinkley appears as a contestant on the latest season of Farmer Wants A Wife, vying for the heart of a fourth-generation dragonfruit and pineapple farmer from Queensland.
- The original Warracknabeal Secondary College site in Tregear Street continues to be targeted by young vandals and thieves, CCTV footage showing the most recent incident in which intruders pass through the Warracknabeal Education Precinct to gain access.