Graeme Hodgens started the last term of his 46-year teaching career on the same day he was welcoming 26 prep students on to the Rochester Primary School grounds to begin their state school education.
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Mr Hodgens, principal of the school that he attended as a primary schooler himself, welcomed 171 children for the start of the 2022 year.
“Technically this is my 46th year in the system and my final term. The principal position been advertised,” he said.
Deb Wright, teaching prep at Rochester for the first time this year, was also celebrating a milestone. She was starting her 20th year at Rochester primary, having begun in 2002.
Down the road, at St Joseph’s Primary School, there were 16 preps greeted by a bright yellow duck, featuring the words Foundation Ducks, on the door of their new classroom.
The children were not the only new additions to St Joseph’s, with new principal Liz Trewick having her first day at the school.
Mrs Trewick crossed to the school from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Elmore and has a 133-strong school population to manage — along with a temporary administration wing until the middle of the year.
Tigerettes in NVL squads
Rochester will have two representatives in the Victorian Netball League when the premier netball competition kicks off in March.
VNL squads have been finalised for the upcoming 2022 season, with talented Tigerettes duo Teal Hocking and Kasey Conder named.
Rochester’s 2021 Rising Star recipient Hocking will compete for the Falcons once more in the 19-and-under competition after suiting up for the club in 2021.
Tigerettes midcourter Conder has also been added to a VNL side, with the Boroondara Express adding Conder to its extended talent squad.
The pair are among 17 Goulburn Valley League netballers to earn selection for the VNL’s 10 clubs, with six GVL clubs boasting representatives.
Dimity Campaspe’s top Young Citizen
Dimity Pearson of Nanneella has been named the Young Citizen of the Year for the Shire of Campaspe for her work with young people.
Ms Pearson, 21, has represented Rochester and surrounds as well as Campaspe Shire Council on a variety of youth projects and advocacy groups.
On Wednesday morning, she was aware she had received the Rochester and District award, but the Campaspe Shire award came as a surprise.
Five women who formed the Rotary Park Committee were honoured at the Australia Day ceremony on Wednesday when the group was named Campaspe Shire’s Community Group of the Year.
The committee was formed by five women of varying ages: Eliza Watson, Heather Darbyshire, Jeanne Aitken, Naomi Riordan and Rebekah Hocking.
The Wirima Playspace, now almost complete, is on the corner of Moore St and the Northern Hwy in Rochester and features all natural equipment and sensory experiences for children.
Bev Hoffman, a long-standing volunteer at Rochester Community House, was named Rochester’s Citizen of the Year.
Nominator Amanda Logie said in her submission that she first met Bev following the 2011 floods when her property was heavily impacted by floodwater, and even then, her first concern was for her elderly neighbours.
She has supported many of the programs that the house manages, including the Foodshare program, Community Kitchen and Men’s Shed, and is also an active member of the house’s committee of management.
Bev has been instrumental in the success of the organisation, which relies heavily on the commitment of volunteers, and she is the first to put her hand up to help older, more vulnerable members of the community, constantly putting others before herself.
Bev has also volunteered her time at events the house has run, and at the monthly Rochester town market, which RCH previously managed.
When the Community Kitchen program was in danger of folding, it was Bev who pursued the continuation of the essential social program, and she is happy to share her cooking and baking skills.
100th birthday at Yalukang
Lil Cowan celebrated her 100th birthday on Monday, January 24, at Yalukang Aged Care at REDHS.
Mrs Cowan enjoyed cake and festivities with her family and friends, and received many beautiful cards, flowers and well wishes, including from Buckingham Palace with a letter from the Queen.
Lil was born in Bendigo at the Eaglehawk Private Hospital on January 24, 1922.
She had two brothers, Allan and Bill, and then there was a gap between Lil and her sister Margaret.
The family moved from Eaglehawk to Goornong on to soldier blocks.
The Outdoor Pool debate
Campaspe Shire councillors had a “money or the box” type decision to make on behalf of their constituents at a mid-January council meeting when the future of the shire’s outdoor pools were set to be decided.
Rochester pool was one of seven pools that will be at the heart of discussion when the council chooses whether to adopt a recommendation to close all seven outdoor pools by the end of the 2025 summer.
Kyabram and Rochester won an initial reprieve, with their decommissioning recommended to occur at the end of the 2025 summer.
It was a case of taking the money — funds promised by the council if the recommendation to close the pools is accepted — or the box — and fight to keep the pools despite an unknown future due to the significant cost identified by the shire.
Outdoor pool users in Tongala, Stanhope, Rushworth, Lockington and Colbinabbin will be banking on a third reprieve from closure, which was first touted by the Campaspe Shire Council way back in 2016.
This time around, however, there is a significant “sweetener” for the communities affected by the closures to accept the recommendation for their closure.
Towns where the pools are closed will receive a cash windfall, equating to five years of avoided operational costs, for township facility plans.
– Save Our Pool leaders from Colbinabbin and Lockington suggested attendance figures presented to Campaspe Shire Council for the Aquatic Services Review agenda item were wrong.
The revelation came as the council moved away from the recommendation to decommission five of the pools at the end of the 2022 swim season, instead throwing the pools a lifeline through the town planning process until May 23.
Stanhope, Rushworth, Tongala, Colbinabbin and Lockington pools will not be closed at the end of the current swim season.
And further discussion will now include the futures of Kyabram and Rochester outdoor pools, which were recommended for closure in 2025.
Rochester wins cricket thriller
Moama and Rochester have played out a thriller in their top-four shoot-out at Moama Recreation Reserve.
Opening batter Blake Evans blasted 82 runs off 73 in the one-day match-up after Rochester skipper Sean Williams won the toss and opted to bat on a warm day in Moama.
Jesse Cuttriss played an industrious 38-run innings, while Joe Hamilton and Dylan Cuttriss each compiled 28.
Moam’s Rishabh Kothari took 5-31, but despite his heroics Rochester still managed to compile 219 runs.
Needing 220 for victory, Moama was in the box seat to take out honours after a top-order blitz led by Fraser Buchanan, but left their run too late.
Seemingly cruising, Moama looked likely to reach the required total in a canter before Rochester’s bowlers tightened the screws.
Richard Tibbett and Dylan Cuttriss reduced Moama from 3-204 to 7-214, and needing 20 runs for victory off the final over, the task proved too much as Rochester held its nerve to claim its fourth win, and jump back into second spot on the A-grade ladder.
Rochester’s first bowls win
Rochester Bowling Club’s division one Campaspe weekend team has registered its first win of the 2021-22 season.
In the closest of the division one matches from last weekend’s round, bottom-of-the-ladder Rochester claimed victory in thrilling fashion when it was a one-shot winner against Tongala.
Rochester remains 10 points behind sixth-ranked Tongala on the seven-team ladder, with seven rounds of the season remaining.
Every team has now played each other once and Echuca is clear on top of the ladder, ahead of Deniliquin, Moama and Rich River — three teams separated by just three pennant points.
Rochester won the match despite losing two of the three rinks, a 53-52 (12-4) win coming on the back of a 24-13 Mervyn Harvey victory against Bradley Tinning.
Campaspe News