elpho info, vol. 63, september 2014

8/11/2019 Elpho Info, vol. 63, September 2014

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Elpho InfoCommunity Newsletter for the Elphinstone, Faraday, Sutton Grange and Metcalfe districts

September 2014 Volume 63

NEXT EDITION

Articles and advertising for theDecember Elpho Info are due by

Friday 14th November 2014.Email your articles, photos, etc

to [email protected]

Gill at the shop is the contact forbilling queries.

Elpho Info is a member ofthe Community Newspapers

Association of Victoria.

Fiona Gatt (editor)

LaTrobePanning

students

seeking your

inputFor our 2014 project, planning

and community developmentstudents from La Trobe University,Bendigo will visit Elphinstone tolearn about the area, design planningconcepts and meet with locals.

The sessions will provide anopportunity for students and

Elphinstone community members todiscuss current and future planningissues and projects and considerwhat the future changes in the townand surrounds will mean for thedevelopment and character of thetown. It will also be an opportunityfor locals to learn more about landuse planning, current planningcontrols and to consider strategiesfor the future.

How can you take

part?The staff and students from the

universitys planning program willbe working at Elphinstone PrimarySchool on Friday 5 September

3:00-5:00pmand on Saturday 6September 10:00am-12:00pm.The students will be doing a short

presentation of their work at TheElphinstone Hotel from 2:00-

3:00pm Saturday 6 September.

Community members arewelcome to drop by and attend atany of these times and we welcomeyour input and we are happy todiscuss current and future planningmatters with you. For furtherinformation, please contact

Andrew Butt [email protected]

This endeavor is being run bystudents and staff from La Trobe

University and is supported by theElphinstone Progress AssociationInc.

TRIVIA NIGHT

Elphinstone Primary School

Saturday 6 September

7.00pm sharpElphinstone Hall, Olivers Lane

Tables of 8 $10 per head

Loads of prizes, games,

Bonus points for best themed table

BYO drinks and nibbles

Tea and Coffee available

Bookings essential

Ph. Cassi 0422 524 649

?


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Elpho Info 2 September 2014

With winter taking hold at thebeginning of the term we havehad several inside days and toour astonishment we had snowfalling last month! All thoughts of

tobogganing down the oval weredashed as it disappeared as quicklyas it came. We still have severalstudents thinking it must be summer,though, as shorts and polo shirtsseem to be the uniform! It has beenvery busy around our school lately,especially the amount of parentscoming in to run clubs, teach Yogaand, as part of our integrated artunit, talk to the students about

working in the ield of art. SueMcLennan has been holding Yogasessions in each classroom whichhas been a great way to start acalm class. Alex Sanson, Zoe Amor

and Craig MacDonald showed thestudents some of their creations andwhat their profession is all about. Su-

Anne and Deita have run the Gardenclub and Rebecca and Caroline havebeen busy in the kitchen makingpasta and gingerbread men!

Camps

We had several grade 4/5 students

Elphinstone Primary School

Wright Street Elphinstone

5473 [email protected]

www.elphinstone.vic.edu.au

who took up the challenge ofthe Woorabinda Somers camp

last month near Yallourn inGippsland. Teneniel, Kody, Paris,Angus, Matthew and Abi joined

many students from across theCastlemaine region and had afantastic time with the uniqueexperience. Our 3/4 students headedoff to Lady Northcote Camp, nearBacchus Marsh, last week and lovedall of the activities such as the giantswing and lying fox! The Grade 5/6

students are venturing down toMelbourne early next term for anUrban Camp experience. Relying on

public transport all the way we willcheck out some of the attractionssuch as the Old Melbourne Gaol,Parliament House, Eureka Tower,The State Library and the Zoo. We

will even have an evening swim atthe Aquatic centre, body suring in

the wave pool!

Inter School Football

Last month several of our studentsrepresented the Castlemaine DistrictSmall Schools in the Bendigo

carnival held at Catholic CollegeJunortoun. There were about 40

schools represented and 12 gameswere being played at the onetime! Tom, Campbell Declan andBrodie represented Elphinstoneand all made a solid contribution

to the team. We thank seniorCastlemaine Footballer and 4th Yearteaching student John Watson whovolunteered to coach the side, hedid a fantastic job. Also thank you toour dependable parents from all theschools who drove their children andother students to the game. It was aterriic day indeed!

Our 150th brick faces have been

ordered and we plan to have theretaining wall of our outdoor stageready for our end of year concert.There will be an opening ceremonyon the night so stay tune fordetails!

Brendan Stewart, Principal

TheCastlemaine District Small Schools footy team


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September 2014Elpho Info 3

The cold weather hasnt deterredus from general maintenance aroundthe town, including removal of treeguards, weeding and tidying up areaswhich weve planted out includingthe Jimmy Ball Flora Reserve, the areaopposite the pub and the arboretum

at the hall. Were planting a fewmore trees and shrubs near thearboretum as part of the working beeat the hall on Saturday 30 September

organised by the ElphinstoneFacilities Committee. This is a greatopportunity to get to know somefellow locals whilst pitching in toclean up around the hall in readinessfor the ire season.

Dont forget if youre interested inbecoming a member of ELMA contactme on 5473 3118 for further details.

May you all enjoy some sunnySpring days ahead!

Sue McLennan

Secretary

Elphinstone Land

Management Assoc.

We continue to nurture our plantings at Jimmy Ball Flora Reserve.


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Elphinstone Fire Brigade

We were proud to see ElphinstoneFire Brigade members, involved inthe Black Saturday bushires, recently

presented with National Emergencymedals at a ceremony for DistrictBrigades held at the Kyneton TownHall, following an earlier round where

our Captain had received the samemedal. The National EmergencyMedal is an initiative, sanctionedby the Queen, in recognising theefforts of those involved in a nationalemergency. It is a major award (withonly two events eligible thus far -

Black Saturday, and the Queensland

Floods 2010-11/Cyclone Yasi) and

the criteria is based on sustained orsigniicant service.

Distinguished guests includedCFA Chief Oficer Euan Ferguson,members of CFA hierarchy and MLCfor Northern Victoria, Amanda Millar,who presented the medals. TheChief Oficer paid tribute to all medal

recipients, making an emotional,heartfelt speech and saluting them ina moving gesture to the group.

At the conclusion of the ceremony,our members travelled back toElphinstone, gathering to relect

on the fateful day, and markingthe honour of the occasion, at theElphinstone Hotel.

During the winter period,

which has been a fairly quiet timeoperationally for the Brigade, thefocus has been on training led byour hardworking 2nd LieutenantChristopher Slee. Our members

have participated in variouscourses including Crew Leader,

Low Structure and BA, and somehave also updated their First Aidskills. We have also recruited somenew operational members who willsoon embark on their Wildire (also

called Minimum Skills) course. Once

again, the Brigade mentors haverisen to the occasion in assisting thenew members with the necessarypreparation required beforeundertaking their Minimum Skills

course. The recruits have receiveddriving tuition, water pumping anddrafting techniques, and instructionin the safe use of equipment such ashoses and various types of branches(nozzles). The Brigade is gaining

more depth all the time and, thanksto the selless efforts of our mentors,

continues to do so.Whilst the return of our old friend

El Nino was predicted strongly inthe irst half of the year, the weather

predictions for his comeback havetempered just slightly in the secondhalf. However, the conditions inElphinstone do not need El Nino to

be present for us to experience a veryreal threat to lives and property frombushires, even as early as Spring

given the right conditions. Therefore,early property clean up andpreparation is vital. The western sideof Elphinstone is possibly our biggestconcern where safe access and egressfor large Fire Trucks, in many parts, isquestionable.

All property owners are encouragedto think about their personal ire

plan. Given the weather conditions,ires can escalate very quickly and

we would therefore encouragethose people who think they candefend their properties themselves,to think and re-think long and hard

about the consequences. Key factors

can include physical itness of theparticipants, vegetation risks, thecondition and width of the roadswithin your area, a water supply notdependant on electricity, and theemotional stability to deal with such asituation. If you have doubts in theseareas, your doubts could quickly turninto panic when faced with severalof these factors all at once. Theaffect of emotional stress in heat and

smoke cannot be underestimated,leaving well-intentioned individuals

breathless and unable to continuewith their plan, within a matter ofminutes. Unfortunately you cannotdepend on a ire truck to attend

at your property as resources arelimited. Making arrangements foryour loved ones and pets, and leavingearly on high risk days, may well beyour safest option.

The Brigade will once again notifyresidents of our annual Fire Readycommunity meeting in the comingmonths and would encourage asmany residents as possible to attend.The session is very informative,and there are always interestingquestions, where locals can raisetheir concerns to the specialist CFAfacilitator. Following question time,we hope that you would stay on andchat with Brigade members, overa cuppa. We would love to see youthere. Further details to come.

Tracey Franze

Secretary

Top row: Paul Denham, Luke Farley, Mike Wassing, Josh King, Amanda Miller,

Joshua Cody, Michael Djoric, Gary Pollard and Euan Ferguson.Bottom row: Kath Chapman, Bernadette King, Peter Farley, Graeme Allen

Not present, because of a CFA training course, but also medal recipients: Mark

Ware and Christopher Slee


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May Jun Jul

mm mm mm

AVERAGE RAINFALL

Elphinstone 1988-2003 75 82 79

Castlemaine 1966-1994 62 52 62

Harcourt 1968-1994 73 65 77

ACTUAL RAINFALL RECEIVED

Elphinstone 2013 38 125 1/2 80

Rainfall by Wes Watson

Many thanks to local resident Wes Watson for keeping rainfall

records and diligently passing them on to be published in this

newsletter.

Elphinstone Progress Association, Inc.

Spice Up ElphinstoneOn the 14th June at least 80people turned up to the Spice Up

Elphinstone event helad at theElphinstone Hotel (pictured right).

The event celebrated the launchof the Elphinstone Town Plan, aworking document, over one year inthe making.

During the process the ElphinstoneProgress Association Inc (EPA)

was formed and so the Spice Up

Elphinstone event was also a chanceto celebrate this new group and for

new members to sign up.

Thank you to everyone who attendedand enjoyed the fantastic curry mealprovided by Nigel and Anje Pickup,and thank you also to Mani and Chrisfor their hospitality.

Grant to design the town

centre

The EPA has been sucessfulin obtaining a grant from theFoundation for Rural & RegionalRenewal to hire a professionalplanner to design the town centre.Where is the town centre you ask?Well this was one of the issues thatwas popular during the surveys andthe Elpho Expo in 2013. It seemsthe town would like a well plannedand good looking central area thatwe can all be proud of. The area

that the planner will look at will befrom the school, down past the puband war memorial, over the rail lineand across to the Post Ofice. Shell

look at things like seating areas,footpaths, drainage, vegetation,toppings, bus stop, parking andmore. Planning will start in early2016 and the EPA will communicate

more about how people cancontribute ideas in early 2016.

New notice boardAt the time of writing the new noticeboard was not yet installed but bythe time you are reading this, with abit of luck, when you pull up to thePost Ofice you will notice a shiny

new, large notice board with roomfor all of Elphinstones groups, aswell as community notices andbusiness offers. The new noticeboardis magnetic and not a pin board. Feelfree to post your notices. Gill at theshop has the keys. If you have anyfeedback about the layout that hasbeen set up then please contact theEPA.

New websiteIt doesnt look all that fantastic yetbut www.elphinstone.net has beenset up as a place to host a digital

copy of the Elpho Info and to provideinformation and news about the EPAand general town news. If you wantto help out [email protected]

Australia Day eventThe EPA is proposing thatElphinstone runs an annual eventon Australia Day. Local beer brewerswould run stalls, there would be food

stalls, kids activities, etc. The eventwould be a fundraiser for the EPA,with all proceeds going back intothe town - and it would also be the

chance for Elphinstone to be knownfor an annual event (once more).

Ideas and help welcome.

Fiona Gatt

President


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In previous articles for The ElphoInfo Ive written about Shires ageing

infrastructure, in many instances alegacy of the 1850s gold rush era.Now the saga continues, the mostrecent high proile items being a

closed theatre and a condemnedbridge.

Most people will be familiar withThe Phee Broadway Theatre nextto the Castlemaine library. Perhapsyour children or grandchildrenhave performed there in a danceconcert, or in a school play. Youmight be a regular theatre goer

and patronise the Bendigo CapitolTheatres touring program whichsends a season of performancesto The Phee, or you might even bepart of a performing group yourselfand have strutted the boards ofthe theatre in a local production.So it was with consternation that

councillors received a recent reporton the closed theatres condition,informing us of a seven igure sum

that was required to return it to a

useable state. Wed only just formallysigned off on the 2014/15 annualbudget, having queried, puzzled over,wrangled and negotiated capitalexpenditure of close to ten milliondollars. We felt that wed spreadallocations as fairly as possible, butthere remained many items that hadto be put into the Not now, laterpile. And now here was an urgentcall to repair, restore and re-open the

Shires only theatre. Emails began toarrive from distressed users, parents,

A message from our councillorsupporters; councillor brieings

from experts and council oficers

took place. Councillors talked amongthemselves. Could we justify theexpense? Where would the moneycome from? One bright idea was tolook at money left over from lastyears capital budget, but we quicklyremembered that wed agreed, in aformal council meeting resolution,to allocate all underspends toprogressing Stage One of the Wesley

Hill Junior Sports Hub as soon as

possible. Theyve been waiting for along time.

Eventually a plan began to emergeas theatre users, including theCastlemaine State Festival, discussed

with council staff what works wereessential for a skeleton operationand what could be added later, tobring The Phee back to its previouslevel of functioning. On the night ofthe council meeting when a decisionhad to be made stay closed orre-open the public gallery was

packed. Phee Broadway herself, whoran the irst nine Castlemaine State

festivals, told the meeting about the1994 conversion of the old libraryhall into the theatre, then the 2004addition of the foyer. The structure ofthe building itself is very old, datingback to the 1860s. When it came to

the item in the agenda, councillorsagreed unanimously that the Pheehad to re-open. There were modest

sums in the budget allocated to

non-essential works in the theatre,which we agreed to direct towardsthe restoration. To ind the rest of

the money, we agreed to use part ofthe budget allocations towards twoinfrastructure items which wereunlikely to be completed this yeardue to delays. Putting these amountstogether gave us suficient funds to

get the theatre open and operatingin time for the next Festival. Of

course thats not the end of thestory. Further works will be needed,

spread over the next few years.Im conident that with continued

involvement of key local theatreusers and technicians in the planningprocess, the Shire will in future have

a better, technically smarter theatrethan the one we had before.

What about the condemnedbridge? you ask. The bridge

across the Loddon at Vaughan hasbeen deemed to be unsafe. Expertinspection has determined that itcannot be repaired. The 44 gallondrums full of concrete that supportthe piers are evidence of its age and

quality of construction. The bridgeand access lanes are on Crown landcontrolled by DEPI. There are bothEuropean and Aboriginal heritageconsiderations to be managed. TheCatchment Management Authorityhas a controlling interest in whatgoes across the river. Estimated costof replacing the bridge: $1.3 million.Thats ive times what we managed

to scratch together for the PheeBroadway theatre. Vaughan residentshave been silent about their closedbridge while an emergency accessford was usable, but now that theriver is lowing, they have a long,

awkward detour. Councillors are inagreement that the river crossingmust be reinstated. How are wegoing to manage it? Ideas are lying

around, regulatory authorities arebeing consulted. Watch this space.Theres always something new in

council business, which is why, whenpeople ask me Do you enjoy being acouncillor? its easy to say yes. It hasits challenges, but its never boring.

You can contact me on04660 04628 or email:

[email protected]

Christine Henderson


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Happily in July The Elphinsone Hoel finally opened he kichen and our firs Saurday of being openfound us serving nearly fify meals as word go ou! Our dining room is open for dinner from Wednesdayhrough o Saurday, lunch on Saurday and Sunday roas. We have already hosed many quie dinners,birhday celebraions, fire brigade funcions, and soon will run our firs wedding recepion.

I am sill finding my fee in he kichen bu am enjoying boh he work and working wih he kichencrew. The menu is no fancy bu does have somehing for everyone; recenly we have expanded ourdesser menu and now have a shor specials menu which will change each week.

So wha is coming on for he nex few monhs?

In Sepember La Trobe Universiy Town Planning will be visiing boh he school and he pub o run aown planning seminar.

Firs Sunday of Sepember is Fahers Day and we will be doing Roas Beef as usual, bu bookings arealready being aken so ge in quickly o reserve a able.

Our nex band is booked for Grand Final Day, Sepember 27h in case you did no know, so come ondown o wach he game, have a beer, hamburgers, ho chips and hen pary ino he nigh wih Temple ofTunes.

Ocober sees us well ino spring and we are hoping o move our music oudoors ino he back yard, sowhen we do bring a picnic or fish and chips and join us for chill-ou sessions.

Thankfully he end of winer is near and we can all sar o ge ou and abou and enjoy our litle pachof earh.

The Elphinsone Hoel

Advertise with the Elpho InfoThe Elpho Info is distributed to 300 households. What better way to commincatewith local customers than to place an ad. The Elpho Info is put together bya volunteer editor with all proceeds of ads going to the Elphinstone FacilitiesManagement Committee - and back into our community.

Standard ads: 55x50cm or 55x50cm = $5 per issue or $20 for 4 issues.Full A4 page = $75Half page = $50Quarter page = $25Column cm (6x4) = $20

Book now for the December edition with Gill at the shop.


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8Elpho Info September 2014

AJ CHAPMAN EARTHMOVING

ANDY & KATH CHAPMAN & GIRLSCalder Hwy, Elphinstone, 3448

For all your Backhoe & Tip truckrequirements

Quarry and Road SuppliesGrader hire

Driveway & House Sites

Andy has 30 years local knowledge &experience

For further information phone:

0408 507 770 or 5473 3294

DISCLAIMER

Articles and comments printed in this newsletter are the result of contributions from

local groups and relevant news articles pertinent to Elphinstone/Sutton Grange

and Metcalfe areas. Views may be reective of a group or organisation, and

are printed as information to all readers. Neither Elphinstone/Sutton Grange

and Metcalfe Progress Assoc. nor the Editorial Team are liable for any mistakes,

omissions or misprints. It prints and makes no representation as to the truth or

accuracy of any description and accepts no liability for any loss suffered by any

person who relies on any statement contained herein. The Editorial Team may

at time nd it necessary to alter text so as to accommodate space, but will in no

way alter the validity of a story. They will endeavour to make these changes

with the authors.

Elphinstone Post Office

and General Store

5473 3200

Weekdays 7.30am-5.30pmSaturday 8.00am-1.00pmSunday 8.00am-12noon

Public Hol8.00am-12noon

Gill and Dave

FUN AND FITNESS

WITH DANCE

Looking for an activity program which includes fun,

ftness, meeting people, artistic outlet, recreation, great

world music?

Then join us for INTERNATIONAL CIRCLE

DANCING

Where: Over the Moon Dance & Yoga Studio,

9 Templeton Street, Castlemaine.

No partner necessary.

When: Fridays, 5.30 7.00 pm.

New people warmly welcome. All dances fully instructed

by a qualifed teacher.

Cost: $7 per session

Contact: Marie Ph 54733355, 0412 447 600

email: [email protected]

Elphinstone Playgroup.Tuesdays 9:15-11.15.

Bring a piece of fruit to share.Cost is $5 per session.Contact Rebecca Paine on0488935558.

Playgroup

elpho info, vol. 63, september 2014

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