Reflections from the past

‘’Almost everywhere you look along rivers and creeks there’s a stinking mess of dead fish,’’ the spokesperson said.

Echuca Fisheries and Wildlife officers Mr Jim Pope and Mr Tony Meakes, suggested European carp should be eaten or buried.

‘’This business could cause real problems in the future. The fish are getting much bigger and there will be a lot more of them. It will be like leaving a dead sheep on the bank,’’ Mr Pope said.

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Predictably, the energy crisis has focused world wide interest on battery-powered cars.

Less predictably, there appears to be more interest in Australia in electric power than in other countries where the fuel problem has bitten harder.

The unique electric car designed at Flinders University, South Australia, has attracted world wide interest.

There is a flourishing association for Australians interested in buying or building an electric car and its branches now extend to the major states.

Several electric supply authorities are now running electric vehicles on an experimental basis.

Now comes news that the Enfield battery car is to be sold locally.

The first batch is scheduled to arrive next month, priced at more than $5000.

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The Echuca area was no worse or no better for unemployment, according to the Commonwealth Employment Service.

But the CES was unable to give detailed figures for the job situation in the City of Echuca and the Shire of Deakin, an officer, Mr D. Pitman said.

At the end of December, there were 2421 persons registered as unemployed in the Shepparton employment district.

The Shepparton employment district covers the cities of Shepparton and Echuca, the borough of Kyabram and the shires of Cobram, Deakin, Nathalia, Numurkah, Rodney, Shepparton, Tungamah and Waranga.

25 years ago January 2000

After weeks of keeping it a secret, those selected as community torch-bearers in the Sydney 2000 Olympic torch relay were finally able to share their joy at being selected.

Official notifications were sent out in December, but torch-bearers were required to remain silent until the official announcement was made.

Universal joy has been the response from those selected to carry the flame through the region on July 25-26 this year, as part of its 27,000km journey around Australia.

The torch bearers were selected by a local committee, taking in the Campaspe, Murray and Moira shires, and were judged on a wide-ranging list of criteria.

One local as well as national sporting identity entrusted to carry the torch will be Australian netballer Sharelle McMahon.

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Discussions are continuing between Parks Victoria and the Yorta Yorta people over the future of the Dharnya Cultural Centre in the Barmah Forest.

A new committee of management, comprising three Parks Victoria and three Yorta Yorta representatives, has been established to oversee the development of the centre.

The centre was occupied by the Yorta Yorta people in November 1998 in protest over changes to Victoria’s native title legislation. It has remained open to the public since then.

Parks Victoria ranger-in-chief Neville Byrne said the discussions involved two main parts: the restoration of the centre’s accommodation facilities and the provision of interpretive displays.

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Any plans for Murray Shire Council to build a ring road around Moama have been quashed for the time being.

A few months ago, councillors asked whether there was need to build a ring road that would take heavy traffic from the industrial estate away from the town centre.

Murray Shire engineering director Ian Fisher told last week’s council meeting that the volumn of heavy traffic was not large enough to warrant building a ring road in the area around Nicholas Dve, Moama.

10 years ago January 2014

Echuca-Moama property prices are rising, along with the ambitions of first home-buyers.

What people younger than 25 are looking to buy in their first home could not be more different from what their parents bought at the same age.

‘‘These kids want to live in the house their parents ended up in, not the one they started in,’’ Charles L King First National director Troy O’Brien said.

Many first home-buyers are opting to build their dream home rather than settle for someone else’s vision, but the up-front cost can be high.

‘‘It can easily reach half a million dollars in total once you get the land, landscape and put a good house there,’’ Mr O’Brien said.

‘‘It’s a bit like buying a car, the house you build says a lot about you.’’

Elders Real Estate Echuca director Dean Costello had seen the same thing.

‘‘For the past five to 10 years, it’s been the truth that young kids don’t want to go with the old weatherboard and do a reno,’’ he said.

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Echuca musician Tyler Hudson might have missed out on winning at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, but he is not wasting any time in Australia’s country music capital.

Having headed north to compete in the Toyota Starmaker competition, Tyler missed out on making tonight’s grand final.

Despite the blow, he has used the week securing work and meeting with industry people.

Tyler took to the stage at the Tamworth Country Theatre on Sunday, competing against 10 other hopefuls for a shot at making the final three to compete in tonight’s final.

He said it was a tense competition.

‘‘It showed the wide range of vocal styles within the country music genre,’’ he said.

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There were some notable absentees from the 450 competitors who took on Saturday’s Echuca-Moama Triathlon.

Among them were promising juniors Archie Reid and Campbell Gray.

Sitting out of the home-grown race cut to the hearts of the duo, but all was quickly forgotten after both earned selection into the School Sport Victorian State Triathlon squad.

The state caps were earned based on the pair’s best two finishes across a three-race selection series which wound up in Elwood on Sunday.

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