Donations for the Darwin appeal have been coming in well at the Red Cross collection centre in Hare St and Mrs Myrtle Newton (left) was welcomed by members of the local Red Cross branch. They are Mrs Emily Edwards, president of the Murray Valley Region and treasurer for the appeal Mrs Bertha Fraser and Echuca Branch president Mrs Alma Glanville.
Photo by
Riverine Herald
50 years ago January 1975
More than $1128.32 has been collected by the Echuca branch of Red Cross for the Darwin Disaster Appeal.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
President of the branch, Mrs Alma Glanville, said she was pleased with the response and said the appeal was likely to remain open indefinitely at this stage.
She said all members of the local branch had worked hard to make the collection of money and items of clothing and bedding.
Since the appeal opened shortly after the news of the disaster reached the rest of Australian, the branch has used a shop owned by Shaws in Hare St as its headquarters and main collection point.
Three people from Echuca who were known to be in Darwin at the time of the Christmas Day cyclone tragedy, are believed to have escaped the devastated city without serious injury.
***
The bottle business is booming since the opening last week of Echuca’s only drive-in bottle shop at the Shamrock Hotel in High St.
Shamrock manager and part-owner Bob Vagg said this week the $35,000 bottle shop wine cellar has been appreciated by locals and tourists.
The Shamrock Hotel’s new bottle shop is open for business.
Photo by
Riverine Herald
‘’We felt there was a need for a bottle shop. It is the only one in town and business is very good after the first week,’’ Bob said.
‘’The lighting at the moment is only temporary and the cellar will eventually be used for display and storage of wine.“
***
Top Victorian country swimming coach Colin Kennedy has commenced swimming lessons at the Echuca War Memorial Olympic Pool on Wednesdays.
Colin, 36, has been coaching since 1958 and is based in Bendigo.
He is a member of the Australian Swimming Coaches Association and holds a diploma in swimming coaching.
Swimming coach Colin Kennedy and some of his first pupils at the Echuca War Memorial Olympic Pool.
Photo by
Riverine Herald
He is a former Richmond Swimming Club captain, Victorian A-grade water polo player and was one of Australia’s first swimmers to break the one-minute barrier in the 100m freestyle in the mid-1950s.
‘’The reason we have started here is to find out if there are any really good kids,’’ he said.
‘’We had a lot of them from this area travelling to Bendigo and there are plenty of good kids who don’t get a chance to go very far.’’
25 years ago January 2000
Echuca’s Nellie Manley is one of Echuca’s centenarians ... one of the few who can say they have lived in three different centuries.
Nellie was born in April 1899, lived through the 20th century, and welcomed in the year 2000 from her room at Engelbert Lodge.
Nellie Manley had no plans to be awake at midnight to see in the new century.
Photo by
Riverine Herald
‘’Being alive to see 2000 is very special,’’ she said.
Nellie wasn’t planning to wait up to celebrate the new year.
As a person who is always early to bed and to rise, she hoped to be sound asleep at midnight.
‘’I’ll see the new year in the morning,’’ she said.
Echuca’s Elsie Forster didn’t do much to celebrate the turn of the century on Friday night.
After all, at the age of 104, she has lived in the 1890s, through the 20th century and now is delighted to see in 2000.
‘’Another century. Oh crumbs. Do you reckon I’ll do it?’’ Elsie asked The Riv on Friday.
She celebrated the night with a glass of lemonade (she has never consumed alcohol or smoked) and a meal of a chicken sausage, a chop, vegies and some ice-cream.
***
Grape growers in the Echuca-Moama area had to battle attacks on their vines by hail, birds and frost last year.
The hail on Boxing Day experienced in some areas has stripped some vines of grapes, as well as destroying a year’s growth of the vine.
Perrricoota Grape Growers Association president John Mackley inspects the hail damage to new vines in a Moama vineyard.
Photo by
Riverine Herald
Perrricoota Grape Growers Association president John Mackley said tens of thousands of dollars had been lost from some vineyards from the hail.
It is not only this year that it will affect. The younger vines have had their first harvest put back by a year.
‘’All growing has stopped,’’ Mr Mackley said.
***
Echuca-Moama’s Rod Clark had two reasons to celebrate New Year’s Eve at the weekend after taking out the C2 men’s open class of the Murray Marathon in emphatic style.
Clark, who teamed with Brad Hunter, recorded a time of 23 hours, 57 minutes and 39 seconds to take the title.
Tennielle Bennett, 16, of Tongala won her class division, the TK1 event for junior girls 16 and under.
The event was Bennett’s third Murray Marathon, but it was the first time she competed in a class that required her to paddle every day.
10 years ago January 2015
The Murray Marathon is up the you-know-where without a paddle.
Organisers have until March 1 to find at least 200 participants for the newly dubbed Massive Murray Paddle or face losing the annual fundraiser to the river’s murky depths.
Just a month after YMCA regional development manager Leon Newton hailed this year’s event ‘‘a reasonable success’’, organisers have been forced to up the ante and round up 200 early birds eight months ahead of the 2015 Yarrawonga to Swan Hill challenge.
YMCA set the deadline after the event attracted only 40 boats and a tick under 200 competitors for the five-day paddle.
Echuca paddler Rod Clark, a veteran of 25 marathons, said failing to reach the minimum number could spell the end of the ‘‘much loved’’ event.
***
Not even scorching heat could wilt the spirit of 600 people who turned out to honour a brave little girl.
The third annual Tough Tilly day helped raise more than $50,000 for DEBRA, a support group for families of people with epidermolysis bullosa, a rare skin condition found in only 1300 people in Australia.
From what first started as a charitable pub crawl three years ago has turned into a fundraising juggernaut, bringing together hundreds of people to march from Moama’s Border Inn to the American Hotel for a fun family afternoon of music and entertainment.
Andrew Yodgee, Travis Lane and Michael and Tanya Nash after the annual Tough Tilly walk.
Photo by
Riverine Herald
Organiser Ricky Robertson said he was blown away with the generosity and dedication of the crowd.
‘‘It was bloody hot and we had a crowd of about 600 who filled the bridge and stayed all afternoon at the American,’’ he said.
***
Four visitors were left to walk to their Christmas lunches after police cancelled their licences for speeding in an alarming three-hour stretch on Christmas morning.
The drivers, three from Melbourne and one from Bendigo, were nabbed on the region’s roads between 11.20am and 2.45pm on Christmas Day for exceeding the speed limit by greater than 25km/h.
Sergeant Paul Nicoll of Campaspe Highway Patrol is warning drivers to take care.
Photo by
Riverine Herald
Sgt Paul Nicoll said police were obligated to cancel licences for a month for any driver caught breaking the speed limit by more than 25km/h.
‘‘We were out on the roads on Christmas Day hoping not to have to do anything like this, but when we continually catch people at these speeds, they leave us with no choice,’’ he said.
‘‘I just don’t understand what these people were thinking.’’
19°C