50 years ago August 1975
Lockington’s veteran golf associates, Mrs Ivy Kelly, has set something of a district golfing record by winning the associates’ championship of the Lockington club for the 20th time.
Ivy first won the championship title back in 1939, when the club moved from the area where the Lockington school is now situated, to Ivo Henderson’s property at Kotta, and during the period up till 1962, Ivy also scored two holes-in-one; since the move to the present course, Ivy has achieved another hole-in-one.
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The decision to downgrade the non-official post offices throughout the Commonwealth will affect residents of the Lockington, Bamawm, Ballendella, Tennyson and Nanneella districts.
The post office provides a multitude of services to the public and if the proposal to downgrade all non-official post offices to an agency is implemented, some of the following services could be lost to the community: Commonwealth Bank agency, taxation forms, tax stamps, war service repayment facilities, telephone information and payment facilities, telegram facilities and social service forms.
A petition to the Postmaster General, Senator Bishop, is being organised from the 6000 non-official post offices throughout Australia. Petition forms are available at Ballendella, Bamawm, Lockington, Tennyson and Nanneella post offices.
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Northern Victorian properties will be inspected this month as part of the State farm management, production and improvement competition.
Judges will inspect the properties of T. North at Cohuna, and Mr Vincent at Marcona and W.K and R.L Ault at Rochester and P. Stack at Rochester.
The properties are among 33 spread throughout Victoria which have been selected as finalists in this year’s competition.
The competition is conducted by the Victorian Agricultural Societies’ Association and the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria.
25 years ago August 2000
Thousands of people lined the streets of Rochester on Wednesday to cheer on the Olympic torch-bearers as they ran and rode through town.
Hundreds braved the cold weather in Colbinabbin on Thursday as the torch was carried through their town.
The torch’s arrival at the Sir Hubert Opperman statue in Rochester was greeted by a flag waving crowd and special guest Lady Mavys Opperman — Sir Hubert’s widow — and 10 members of her family.
The torch remained at the statue for about 15 minutes before continuing around the streets of the town and out towards Rochester.
It was an emotional Lady Opperman who was given the lit torch to hold by Cobram cyclist George Goodwin, who had ridden the leg of the relay into the statue.
‘’I feel so honoured to have held it (the torch) and to have been asked to hold it,’’ Lady Opperman said.
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A Rochester woman won $123,000 in Tattslotto last week.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was with numbers which were originally selected by her late husband.
‘’My husband picked those numbers about 25 years ago and played them in Saturday Tattslotto every week,’’ she said.
‘’When he died a few years ago I kept playing them on Saturday and more recently on Wednesday as well.
‘’(On Wednesday night) I thought most of them had come up when I saw the winning numbers on TV.’’
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The new champion of the Rochester Golf Club is Karl Hansen following three excellent rounds over the past three weeks to return a 77, 83, 80 — 240.
Karl played outstanding golf in the final round to edge out reigning champion Barry Cuttriss.
In B-grade, Keith Dyer finished two shots ahead of Graham Willis in a torrid final round which saw both played locked together until the final holes.
The C-grade event was taken out by an outstanding golfing prospect, Dylan Cuttriss, who put in three consistent rounds to win the award.
D-grade was taken out by Geoff McCarty, while Frank Hawkins claimed E-grade.
10 years ago August 2015
It’s not often Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey is a stand-in but that was his role at the official launch of the $1.2 million Elmore Equestrian Park on Saturday.
Mr Hockey got the gig only after Infrastructure and Regional Development Assistant Minister Jamie Briggs was unable to attend at the last minute.
The equestrian upgrade to the Elmore Events Centre began in June 2014 and finished in February.
Federal Member for Murray Sharman Stone said ‘the improved Elmore Events Centre’ would attract a greater number of diverse events that could not previously be accommodated within the region.
Construction of the next complex included a stable-block which accommodates around 136 removable horse stalls and a new toilet and amenities block to cater for visitors and campers.
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Bruce Mundie claimed top honours in the bridleless freestyle category at the NSW Reining Horse Association State Show in Tamworth recently.
Bruce’s daughter Georgia said her father dressed up and performed his routine to the song Turn It Up on the back of his quarter-horse Termite Grounded.
‘‘It was kind of funny actually because he also spraypainted the local radio station 104.7 on the horse’s bum,’’ she said.
Georgia was also crowned reserves champion in the youth division (14- to 18-year-olds).
The Nanneella-based father-daughter duo, in addition to Bruce’s partner Wendy Starr who trains the horses, compete in these type of events on a monthly basis and have been doing so for the better part of five years.
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Darren and Amber Pain have turned an extended family holiday into more of a mission.
To help out a group of underresourced and underprivileged children at a small boarding school in Fiji.
While they packed their bathers and sunscreen the Rochester business owners also packed a swag of balls — footballs, basketballs, soccer balls — to donate to a needy school.
So as much as they had a good time, it is a holiday that will be long remembered by the students of Korolevu Primary, a small boarding school in the centre of the island paradise, which now has the best collection of sporting equipment in the neighbourhood.