croaker newsletter dec 2011 final
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Welcome to our 7thedition of the WSN Restoring Our
Waterways Croaker Newsletter and the last for 2011.
It was a very busy October with all
the Environmental Events and
working with the students from WHS
Community Learning Challenge for
October and November. November
was a little quieter with the Cubs
Walk at North Beaches, National
Recycling Week and Native Fish
Week. On second thoughts November was just as busy asSeptember and October. To tell the truth the whole of 2011
has been full on with great environmental events and the
CLC students keeping me very busy and getting WSN
Restoring Our Waterways known to the community. Thanks
to the Chronicle and all the great articles on Rubbish and the
Environment. I have had several phone calls telling me how
wide spread the dumping of rubbish around our waterways
is. A keen fisherman rang telling me about areas where he
goes fishing and that there is always rubbish dumped
spoiling the pleasure of fishing and enjoying our waterways.
I also had a phone call from Graeme from Wareena Bowls
Club requiring drink bottles to promote drinking water from
the tap so the clubs members will not get dehydrated in the
up and coming summer months. After talking to North East
Water they agreed to supply 50 drinking bottles to the Club,
this will take place shortly on a bowls social day and I have
even been invited to have a game of bowls with the
members which sounds like fun.
In order to get the community to take notice it pays to
advertise the problems we have around our waterways and
how precious our most life giving resource is. Without
WATER all things die and it is so very important that we ALL
start to take care of it and not take it for granted. You justdont know what is around the corner, just because we have
had a good year of rain doesnt mean we can waste it. Well
thats my gripe for the summer months; dont waste it,
recycle it as much as you can and dont pollute it.
So lets get started on the articles about all the things ROW
has been active with..
Tuesday 4th October
Met Cheryl from the Chronicle where the large amount of
rubbish has been dumped near the bridge on Tone Road
beside 15 Mile Creek for a photo and to my surprise there
was more rubbish added to the pile already out there. A red
bike and 2 wheels (nothing wrong with it) a pair of crutches
and a few more piles of green waste. The longer it takes to
have some action done on trying to catch the people the
worse the problem will become, hit them in the back pocket
where it hurts the most and I guess the only way that will
happen is if I sit out there with my trusty little camera all
weekend and catch them as I cant see any one from Council
or government department doing anything about it. I have
informed Council, EPA, VICROADS and even NECMA (but it is
not in the water or on the banks). Trying to find the
Committee of Management for that area is like trying to find
a needle in a haystack.
Update on rubbish dumped near 15 Mile Creek Tone
Rd in the October issue. The rubbish and more is still
there. The piece de resistance is a pile of faeces and used
toilet paper. After three months there has been no action so
I wonder how long it will take?
Diane Farmer, Coordinator, WSN Restoring Our Waterways
0439 020 448
PO Box 772, Wangaratta VIC 3677
To all our readers a
Merry Christmas
And
Happy New YearRegards Di Farmer and Joshua Newth
Contents
Introduction 1
The Wangaratta Show, Walktober and Ride,Ride to Work 2
My Backyard Rules 2
Water Week Activities, All Things Water Expo,Water Week Presentation Night 3
Cubs Walk Around North Beach 3 - 4
Traveling Waste Seminar 4
Native Fish Week & Launch of the TalkingFish Booklet 4 - 5
Wednesday with CLC Students 5 - 6
Nineteen Years of Waterway HealthInformation Now Available Online 6 7
Upcoming Events 7
Whos at Fault 7 8
Wangaratta Community Pride Committee 8
December , 2011 Issue #7
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THE WANGARATTA SHOWFriday 7th & 8th October, Article by Di Farmer
Great weather and WSN were in
the Landcare large Marque. Lots of
Government Departments; DPI,
DSE, Rural City of Wangaratta,
LANDCARE, Park Lane Nursery and
several other groups. It was rather
quiet as the Marquee was tucked
at the back of the Circus on the side road but still lots of
good PR. Thanks to Pat Larkin from Landcare.
WALKTOBER AND RIDEWednesday 12th October (8am start), Article by Di Farmer
What a lovely way to start
your day walking along the
path beside One Mile Creek
birds chirping, the sun
warming the environment
and your soul. About 8
walking with me from the
Phillipson St bridge and
there were lots of conversations. One minute you were
walking and talking to one person and then there was
someone else beside you to chat to, meeting new people is
so rewarding and enjoyable. We arrived at GoTafe just after
8.30am, a very delightful healthy breakfast was there waiting
for us to enjoy. All the other walkers had already arrived and
were into breakfast. Cereal, fruit salad, yogurt, cheese and
ham croissant, fetta, tea and coffee. Slowly the bike riders
started to arrive, some a little well-worn and others like the
ride had just begun. I will let one of the riders tell that story.
RIDE TO WORKWednesday 12th October, Article by Julie Tyler, Health Promotion
Officer, Womans Health Goulburn North East
It was a perfect way to start
a Wednesday morning. The
sky was clear and I turned
up at GoTafe to meet my
fellow cyclists, not knowing
who else would be there.
Everyone was friendly and
our ride leader did a sterlingjob. There were a couple of wobbly tandems bike-riders and
one couple made it look easy. Someone generously offered
me their spare gloves as mine were left at home. It was a
lovely opportunity to make acquaintances with others of
similar mind, as we enjoyed a leisurely tour of Wangarattas
bike tracks. Most of us arrived back at GoTafe to a delicious
breakfast to celebrate Ride to Work Day. The morning was
not without its mishaps: we did lose one tandem and therewas a tyre puncture to add to our adventure. Thank you to
those who organised the ride; it was a great start to my
work day and I look forward to next year.
Thanks to The Centre CARN, GoTafe and WSN Restoring Our
Waterways for organising this event.
MY BACKYARD RULESSaturday 15th October 2011, Article by Di Farmer
What a beautiful day the sun was shining and no rain in
sight. There was a lot of people walking around and visiting
all the stands. Outside there were about 10 differentorganisations answering questions and giving
demonstrations. NE Water and DSE had great activities for
the children and NECMA had a very informative display about
Aliens in our
waterways. The
dreaded Eastern
Gambusia tiny little
fish that can cause
a lot of damage to
our Native Fish and
the very overtaking
water plant calledParrots Feather that had a very strong hold in One Mile
Creek a few years back but is now just a few patches around
thanks to the great work of the NECMA crew and me
because as soon as I see any of it I report it. It is such a
beautiful looking plant but so dangerous and it all started
because someone emptied their fish tank contacts into One
Mile Creek, if only people would realise how such a
thoughtless act could cause so much damage and expense
to get rid of it they
just might think
twice before they
put anything in ourwaterways. Park
Lane Nursery had
a fabulous array of
native plants for
sale. There was
information on solar panels and water wise displays. Inside
WSN had fruit fly info, Energy Meters and ROW information.
The Rural City was there with great info and free rain gauges
and shower timers as well as the Bush Regeneration guys.
Wangaratta Community Pride was giving out information on
the Community Pride Awards which will be awarded in 2012.
There was a lot more to see and do that the communitycould learn about.
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WATER WEEK ACTIVITIESTour of NEWater Treatment Plant Wangaratta
Thursday 20th October, Article by Di Farmer
The tours started at 7am and I walked over the Ovens
bridge from home and could smell breakfast being cooked, a
very nice way to start the day. The tour was very informative
and I had a personal guide. It is really a lot of hard work by
just a few people and computers and the amount of testing
that is constantly going on, I think we all take water coming
out of our taps for granted and dont think for one second
the amount of time and effort it takes so that can happen.
Rowan OHagan was there and it is great to have her on the
NE Water board. Breakfast was great and some great
conversation was enjoyed and the cooks did a great job,
very nice bacon & egg muffins.
If only more people would take the time to take these tours,
the community just might realize that Water is our most
precious resource.
ALL THINGS WATER EXPOFriday 21st October, Article by Di Farmer
We started setting up about 9.30am,Alan ODea the top bar-
b-que man got busy setting up ready to start cooking. Helen
& Peter Curtis started setting up inside the arcade with their
great dog display. I started setting up WSN & ROW tables
and Emma and Vanessa from WATERWATCH set up with
their Macroinvertebrate display, also Marg Pullen from
Community Pride Committee was there.
The Display for Water Week on the
Post Office Wall looked terrific thanks
to Sally Colsons help. Lots of
information about water and our
Waterways, what is in them and the
animals that live in our local
environment and also the plants in our
area plus information about Native FishWeek in November. There was a great
article in the Chronicle on Wednesday 19th. The SES display
trailer and The Rural
City of Wangaratta with
NECMA stormwater
display model were set
up out the front of the
arcade. There was anice flow of people
taking a look at all that
was there both inside
and outside the arcade.
About 70 sausages were served up by Alan so he was kept
rather busy cooking and serving on his own. Lots of free
things to give away and there was not much left by 2pm.
There was lots of interest in the Waterwatch
macroinvertebrate display; people seem to like checking
whats living in our waterways.
WATER WEEK PRESENTATION NIGHTFriday 21st October, Article by Di Farmer
What a great night. There were about 160 members of the
community including all the finalists
for all the competitions, family and
friends. There was a great finger
food meal served up as we all
arrived, and then we all moved into
the auditorium for the presentation
of prizes. All the photos, posters,
photographs and films that were
shown were excellent and the
winners of all the competitions were
well deserved. It was great to see
the little pre-schoolers involved, all
up and coming environmentalists and WSNs little Alice
Colson did us proud dressed up as a water tank.
The entertainment was Andy Kimber and friend on the
ukulele singing songs about fish, Algae and Waterwatch and
this was fun. It is pleasing to see so many people interested
in water whether it be through photos, posters and films as
WATER really is our most precious resource and should be
our first priority to get more people to conserve it and not
waste it and more recycling should be done by allhouseholds and Government agencies.
I am sure there will be lots of people looking forward to next
years competitions. Thanks to NECMA and North East Water
for such a successful Water Week.
CUBS WALK AROUND NORTH BEACHESSaturday 5th November, Article by Di Farmer
The morning started about 10am with a fantastic
presentation by Scott Draper and Andrew Snowdon
Environment & Bush Regeneration Dept of the Rural City of
Wangaratta all about what the cubs might see on their walk.The cubs were all given a great work sheet called
Biodiversity Bingo which had animals and plants on it that
Emma, Cr. Rozi Parisotto and Vanessa
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they had to cross off
when they spotted
them. Scott & Andrew
even had pictures of
the nocturnal animals
attached to some ofthe trees. There were
about 25 cubs and the
noise sometimes was
a little loud but
Andrew went into the
bush a couple of times so some of the birds and ducks would
fly so the cubs could spot them. The information that all of
us heard, both the cubs and the adults, were things that
would stay with you. The Scar trees had the cubs very
interested and the possum climbing tree had them all
wanting to have a little go at climbing it. After the walk there
was another little talk with a question and answer time andthe cubs had learnt a lot by their answers. We then had a
little morning tea and the cubs
gave Scott, Andrew and I a
special Cub Thank you.
A walk next year has been
booked by Charles from
Myrtleford Cubs, looks like the
walks will be a yearly event. Its
great to know we have some up
and coming environmentalists
through the Cubs.
TRAVELLING WASTE SEMINARTuesday 8th November, Article by Di Farmer
About 10 members of the
community gathered at the
Eco Centre at the HP Barr
Reserve where Richard
Paschke, Manager of Bowser,
gave a great talk about what
was going on out at the Bowser Landfill. We then boarded
the bus and headed for Bowser (our driver was Tatum a little
surprising how good she was I would give anything to seeher behind the wheel of a big truck, move over boys Tatum
is on the road). The landfill looked rather clean and
everything all sorted in to piles that should not have been
sent to landfill. What
caught my eye was the
pile of mattresses that
had been pulled out,
several of them looked
rather new. A guess by
me how they got there is
in those skips people use
when they are cleaning out a deceased persons housebecause I saw that happen near me. The skip was full of
good house hold items and furniture and I wondered
whether these skips were checked for recycled items, I
guess not. At the moment there is a skip at the same house
and there are large car tyres in it. I think there should be
some strict instruction on what can go in them or special
recycle skips. Sorry for the detour. It was great to see the
big machines working on the rubbish and a new cell to holdour rubbish being built. The other most noticeable thing was
all the plastic bags around, even where the cells had been
filled in and the rubbish being compacted into the ground.
There must be something that could be done about that.
Ban plastic bags at supermarkets would be a great start or
charge 20 cents a bag and
the money go to the
environment like they did a
while back but I believe the
Vic Government is not into
that. Might have to have a
chat to Tim McCurdy MP ourlocal member or maybe Sophie Mirabella MP and go over the
State Governments head (I am good at that). Sorry for
another detour. All in all the tour was great just such a
shame there were not more people interested in seeing what
happens to their rubbish, it just might convince them not to
have so much rubbish and recycle more. When we got back
to the ECO centre there was a question and answer time and
David Hicks from NevRwaste gave us some information and
answered some of the questions. The tour concluded with a
very nice afternoon tea.
The amount of rubbish that comes off uncovered loads, you
just would not believe. Just ask Marg Pullen about the
rubbish at North Wang or the companies along Sandford Rd
on the way to the transfer station who have to do a regular
clean up. Sorry for getting detoured on so many issues but
rubbish is my passion and how to stop people just dumping
where ever they like is a full time job. I do have one last
burning question, if there are natural springs out at Bowser
and it sits on top of the Aquifer with not much between the
water and the ground, why havent Council moved to a more
suitable place away from the very precious ground water we
have in that area.
NATIVE FISH WEEK & LAUNCH OF THE
TALKING FISH BOOKLETTuesday 8th November 6pm, Article by Di Farmer
The weather was
perfect to enjoy inside
and on the balcony at
Watermarc Restaurant
in Faithful Street. There
was a good crowd
talking and enjoying a
few drinks when I
arrived. About 7pm the
launch started with anFern Hames, Di Farmer and
Vanessa Thompson
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intro from Adrian Wells, Community Taskforce chair, and
Fern Hames, Community Engagement co-coordinator for
Native fish strategy, and they introduced a couple of the
keen fisherman who had stories in the Talking Fish booklet
which was very entertaining with a few stories that made
everyone have a laugh. Fern did a great presentation aboutthe Ovens Reach progress and Anthony Wilson gave an
update on the fish pathway which NECMA hope to get in
place soon. We then moved out onto the balcony to enjoy
some delicious finger food and a few drinks. There were
some great giveaways about Native Fish and of course the
Talking Fish booklet for the Ovens area. It was great to see
members of WULG and WSN there and I brought along my
neighbours and a couple of friends. It was a terrific night for
learning more about
fishing in the
Wangaratta area and to
know there are somany people interested
in using our wonderful
waterways for
enjoyment.
WEDNESDAYS WITH CLC STUDENTS
Wednesday 19th October
Gill and I met the
students at the back of
Sams warehouse to do
some fishing Along the
Ovens River. I had to
leave about 10am to
go to Oak FM and go
on air with some other
CLC students so Gill was left in charge. When I arrived back
at 12.30pm they had made their way along to Frank Grath
Reserve. I asked what had they caught me for dinner but
there was nothing in the bucket except for a mussel which
would not even sustain me. The boys had a swim and a bit
of lunch then we went fishing under the Ovens Bridge. Jack
nearly caught a fish but he was winding in his line to fast
and spotted the fish following the bait too late and pulled his
line out of the water. We then moved down to the Sydney
Foot Bridge but no luck there either, but it was a great day
of trying to catch a fish.
Wednesday 2nd NovemberArticle by Di Farmer and Gill Baker
WSN Restoring Our Waterways have 6 CLC students from
Wangaratta High School working with them to help clean up
our waterways this Semester, they are: Alex Marklew, Alex
Dunstan, Jeremy Sims, Matt Teasdale, Bryan Barnett and
Jack Lancaster.
We have been working along Three Mile, One Mile Creeks
and Phillipson Street Wetlands, water monitoring, checking
macroinvertebrate life, fishing, and studying the
environment. The boys have also been walking our
waterways collecting rubbish, at the same time finding out
just how much rubbish there is in our waterways.
They have removed a few small lots of alien Eastern
Gambusia and some juvenile carp, but today Scott RaymondBSc (PhD) Freshwater Ecologist from Arthur Rylah institute
for Environmental Research DSE and Jarrod Lyon also a
freshwater Ecologist came up from Melbourne to show the
students how to remove alien fish by netting and traps, as
well as how to identify the fish so no native fish would be
removed from our waterways.
Scott spent about half an
hour talking to the
students, Gill Baker and I
about native fish and the
best way to do the project,firstly by mapping where
the nets and traps are put
in and to repeat this
several times on a regular bases recording what is found,
this will give an idea of the problems alien fish cause, and
how well the Native fish are surviving and the condition of
the water they are in.
After getting one of the students to volunteer to enter the
pond, and under instruction from Scott & Jarrod, the first
dragging of the net started. In the first cast there were
about 15 Eastern Gambusia and a couple of Western carp
gudgeon (native fish), on the second cast there were lots(about 25) of the Western carp gudgeon and heaps of newly
hatched babies and about 18 Eastern Gambusia. On the third
try which was on the other side of the pond there was
nothing in the net. There were three large Carp spotted
swimming in the middle of the pond, so we know they are
there we will have to spend a day trying to catch them
before the project finishes.
It was a great session with Scott and Jarrod and we all learnt
the best way to try and achieve our objective of removing
alien fish, and how to improve conditions for the native fish
to survive.
It will be a long project, so next years students will be ableto carry on with the project as long as the methodology for
checking and removal of alien fish at the Phillipson Street
Back: Jarrod Lyon, Bryan, Matt, Jack, Scott Raymand, Alex D
Front: Alex M, Jeremy
Beryl, Bob, John and Ian
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Wetlands is documented. This can then be repeated in areas
like One Mile Creek and the Ovens & King Rivers. All the
Eastern Gambusia were put into a bucket of iced water
which is the humane way to deal with them, and all the
native fish were put back into the pond as soon as they were
identified.The afternoon session with Scott & Jarrod was so
informative and for the students, Gill and I now have the
information we need to move forward with this long term
project which can also be shared with other High Schools as
well as Primary Schools and all other members of our
community.
Many thanks to Scott and Jarrod from the Arthur Rylah
institute for Environmental research, Department of
Sustainability and Environment for their time.
Wednesday 9th November
I met the students
down at the Phillipson
St Wetlands at 1pm No
Matt but I somehow
gained 2 extra students
Shannon Bell and
Braeden Brendel but
that was OK as we
were going to try and
catch Carp out of the
first pond. After baiting up their hooks with some nice worms
the Carp started biting and in a short while there was a totalof 10 carp caught and put into the bucket of ice. The boys
were so proud of themselves and I was delighted that there
were 10 less carp in our waterways.
Wednesday 16th NovemberArticle by Di Farmer and Gill Baker
At 1.30pm Alex D, Alex M,
Bryan and Jeremy arrived,
fishing rods in hand, to have
a last go at removing some
Carp from the Phillipson
Street Wetlands. Gill and I
had a few extra helpers today
interested in the Alien fish
and the CLC project that
ROW has been doing with the
students, they were Andy
Kimber, Peter Maddock from
WSN and Neil Schultz a new volunteer registered with The
Centre Community Skillsbank. The boys started fishing but
they only had cheese as bait with them today, and they only
caught 1 Carp, it appears the Carp mainly like worms as
there was a big catch last week using worms and of course
we had extra students helping that day.
Andy, Peter and Neil got on well with the students and there
was a lot of conversation around what has been going on
with the project and of course fish (a boy thing). Seeing the
catch was disappointing in the pond it was decided to go
over to the Ovens River to have a go at fishing but there was
no luck there either. So seeing it was the last day working ontheir project we all felt a little treat was in order, so the boys
went for a swim (a bit too cold for the adults to jump in but
you know the saying no sense no feeling) and the boys soon
found out how cold the water was. Seeing there were so
many supervisors 5 to the 4 students a close eye was kept
on the diving in.
Alex D seemed to have the most
fun as he tried to climb up the
bank to get out he got part of the
way up the bank then he would
slide back down into the water
and the practice runs of trying to
do a fancy dive in had us
laughing, he was taking so long
doing the run ups I was ready to
go and just push him in but he took a deep breath and
finally jumped only to stuff the dive up. Trying to get them
out of the water to head back to school was our toughest
task for the afternoon but we got there.
Over the semester we had a few control problems but all in
all the students were keen to have their project be a success
and as far as WSN Restoring Our Waterways is concerned
they did a fantastic job; removing bags of rubbish from ourwaterways without being asked, removing alien Eastern
Gambusia and Carp from the Phillipson Street Wetlands and
15 Mile Creek, and testing the water quality and
macroinvertebrates.
They learned about the amount of rubbish in our waterways
and also the plight of native fish because of competition
from the alien fish that have been introduced. All 6 students
that worked with ROW were a credit to their parents, school
and themselves and at the finish of every project day they
would always say Thank you to whoever had them from
WSN-ROW.
The two lots of students from both semesters this year have
been great and helped ROW members also learn more about
our waterways and I look forward to having students
continuing on with the project of removing Alien Fish from
our waterways in 2012.
NINETEEN YEARS OF
WATERWAY HEALTH
INFORMATION NOW
AVAILABLE ONLINE
River, stream and creek water quality information collected
by Waterwatch volunteers over the past 19 years is now
Bryan, Shannon, Alex M, Alex D, Jeremy,
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available to the public following the launch of the new online
Waterwatch Victoria Data Management System.
The Waterwatch Victoria Data Management System will
provide Victorians with easy online access to information
about the health of their local waterways. Almost 600
volunteers collect regular water quality data from over 1500monitoring sites across Victoria. Through this online system
the public can now access data about their local waterway,
including historical data for 6,200 sites across Victoria and
current data for 1,521 sites. The type of information includes
physical and chemical data such as dissolved oxygen
(essential for aquatic life), salinity, pH levels, phosphorus
(can encourage excess growth of plants including algae),
turbidity (cloudiness of water) and water temperature.
The data is used to help waterway managers, such as DSE
and catchment management authorities, understand the
long term trends in the health of waterways. The informationcan also be used to flag a decline in water quality so it may
be investigated further.
Waterwatch is a volunteer community engagement program
that helps monitor the health of waterways across the state.
Waterwatch Victoria successfully connects local communities
with river health issues and management, empowering
residents to take responsibility for monitoring the health of
their local waterways. Volunteers are key to the success of
Waterwatch, putting in countless hours of monitoring,
communicating and caring for their local creeks, wetlands
and rivers.
To access the Waterwatch Victoria Data Management
System or find out more about becoming a volunteer, visit
www.vic.waterwatch.org.au or contact Emma Nilsson,
Waterwatch Team Leader on (02) 6043 7616.
A video outlining how the online data management system
will work is available atwww.youtube.com/DSEVictoria.
UPCOMING EVENTS
National Volunteers Day Monday 5thDecember
The most important date
coming up is International
Volunteers Day on the 5th
December. A very big Thank
You to all those people who care
about the environment and pick
up rubbish all year round.
George, Lorna, Pat, Helen,
Peter, Hannah, Andy, Shirley
and I know there is a lot more of you. I thank you. I see you
walking along One Mile Creek and the Ovens & King Rivers
with bags to collect rubbish. One very special Thank you to
Jackie a friend of mine who walks every day picking up
rubbish and putting what she can in the recycle bins around
town, she even clears rubbish from Yellow Creek. Its all the
people who care, and ROW helpers that keeps me inspired
not to give up trying to keep our waterways clean.
WHOS AT FAULT
Monday 21st November 2011, Article by Diane Farmer
What a disappointment.
I decided to go for a walk early this morning as it was such a
nice day and I was feeling happy with the world, but it didnt
take long before the smile on my face started to disappear.
At the car park in Clements Street at Apex Park, there was
take away rubbish, walking over the Ovens River Bridge I
happened to look over the side of the railing and dumped
right next to the Rail Trail under the bridge was an old
computer chair. Still trying to keep a happy feeling I walked
down Murphy St, I then happened to look down one of the
laneways and what did I see? A trolley, so I walked down
the lane and there were two trolleys, one full of rubbish.
Walking out into Reid Street what did I spot out the front of
the Westpac bank, another two trolleys. Cutting through the
laneway to Ovens Street there was another trolley at the
back of one of the shops. Now by this time I was reallystarting to feel down, then when I stepped out into Ovens
Street what greeted me was another trolley.
Feeling angry by this time, I walked down Ovens Street
heading home. What did I spot at the bus stop in Rowan
Street? Two more trolleys. Now I know that buses stoprunning at lunch time Saturday, so the trolleys must have
been sitting there all over the weekend. As I walked passed
the car park at Co-store what was there? Another trolley. By
this time the nice day and the happy feeling I had at the
start of my walk was completely gone and disappointment
had really taken a hold of me!
http://www.vic.waterwatch.org.au/http://www.vic.waterwatch.org.au/http://www.youtube.com/DSEVictoriahttp://www.youtube.com/DSEVictoriahttp://www.youtube.com/DSEVictoriahttp://www.youtube.com/DSEVictoriahttp://www.vic.waterwatch.org.au/ -
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After getting home I had to go out to Tone Road to drop
some papers off to a friend and what did I spot driving past
Batchelors Green dumped in the garden area past the traffic
lights? Another trolley. I was in the frame of mind by this
time to go buy some chain and a few padlocks and start to
chain them all up where they were dumped but this wouldcost me money and no doubt I would end up in trouble
instead of those people who are at fault.
THE QUESTION IS WHO IS AT FAULT?
Trolleys all over town; is it littering, or is it stealing on the
part of the person who took them from the shops car park?
Is it the supermarkets fault for leaving them out in the open
and not chaining them up at night, or not checking around
the block at sunset to see if any of their trolleys have been
taken out of the car park?
It is just the start of the warmer weather and there is such a
big problem already, so how many will I find each morning insummer? I dread the thought.
Come on Managers of the places who have trolleys, if you
cant get a person to check around the block at sunset and
lock them up at night, PUT IN COIN OPERATED TROLLEYS
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! Because some members of the community
have a bad habit of pushing trolleys into the Ovens River or
One Mile Creek. Thanks to the supermarkets who do lock
them in store and use coin operated trolleys.
WANGARATTA COMMUNITY PRIDE
COMMITTEE YEAR IN REVIEWArticle by Margaret Pullen, Chairperson
Here it is December and almost the end of another year.
What an exciting and challenging year it has been for the
Wangaratta Community Pride Committee, with a change in
direction and purpose from being an Advisory Committee to
suddenly a non-Advisory Committee.
Congratulations to the committee for bonding together and
achieving some great outcomes.
At the Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities Awards, hosted
in Rutherglen on 22 October, Travis Robinson (Community
Pride youth member) was awarded the Young Leaders-
Individual Award. What a thrill for Travis and the committee.
Mal Robinsons, Truck and Coach Maintenance business was
awarded the Efficient Energy Award. What a result a family
affair, with father and son taking out major awards.
Naturally the Community Pride Committee was thrilled with
these results.
Wangaratta was named one of the six finalists in the Tidy
Town of the Year. These results are a testament to the
committees continuing hard work.
On 22nd October the Rural City of Wangaratta hosted a Civic
Reception to Travis and Mal.
Margaret presented the Tidy Town Finalist plaque to Mayor
Anthony Griffiths and congratulated the council grounds staff
on their efforts in maintaining the roundabouts, parks and
streets creating a beautiful city.
OTHER WSN GROUPS
Publicity/Advocacy Food Sustainability Home Energy Waste Action Group (WAGS)
For more information contact:
Dr Rowan OHagan- Secretary/Treasurer Email: [email protected] Deakin Court, Wangaratta VIC 3677 Website: www.wangarattasustainability.org
Ph. (03) 5721 8231
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