Reflections from the past

Romy, who is on a five-week tour through Australia, was in Rochester as a guest of the Rochester Apex Club.

While here, Romy viewed sheep shearing, visited a sheep and cattle stud farm accompanied by members of the Elmore Apex Club, attended a social night and visited the Murray Goulburn factory complex.

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A deputation of eight from the Rochester Recreation Reserve Committee of Management waited on Rochester Shire on Thursday, seeking help for their efforts to improve and maintain the reserve.

Leader of the deputation, Mr A. C. Meyenn, who is the chairman of the trustees, told council that in past years, the former trustees had been getting many knocks, which were not warranted.

The present trustees had only been in office for two weeks, but already they had shown that they were prepared to get in and help themselves.

They had formulated a plan of work at the reserve for the next three years, a plan that will cost money, a plan that cannot succeed without the support of council and the general community.

25 years ago October 1999

District dairy farmers will share in the Federal Government compensation package to ease the impact of the dairy deregulation if it goes ahead in July 2000.

The package will be funded through a levy of 11 cents a litre on all retail sales of milk, which, according to Minister for Agriculture Warren Truss, is unlikely to have any impact on retail prices as farm gate prices are expected to fall by at least that amount after deregulations.

Farmers wanting to leave the industry will be able to apply for exit payments of up to $45,000 under the package, while those remaining will receive restructure entitlements based on 1998-1999 milk production figures.

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Elmore’s field days site is greener than ever, thanks to the efforts of district primary schools and other volunteer organisations.

Recently, the entire Elmore Primary School population turned out to plant around 300 melaleucas, hakeas and eucalypts at the site.

A fortnight before, 500 native plants were put into the ground, adding to the hundreds of established shrubs and trees already offering protection from wind and soil erosion.

Advising the Elmore group was David Millsom from Greening Australia, who talked to the children on the benefits of tree planting before helping them with removing the plants from their tubes, planting and erecting tree guards to protect the young plants.

10 years ago October 2014

Razzle dazzle. Bush style. Ten district models will exhibit 54 garments from designers Australia-wide when the Ag Art Wear fashion parade kicks off this morning at the Elmore Field Days.

Rochester teenager Genevieve Foott will be modelling five garments across the three days and could not wait to hit the catwalk.

‘‘It’s such a fun day and the creativity of the designers just gets more amazing every year,’’ she said.

The strict rules require each garment be made from material of an agricultural nature as produced, used or found on a farm.

The competition is made up of four sections — avant garde, designer, hat and under 21 and designers are allowed two entries a section and creations may only be entered once.

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Rochester could be part of the next great Victorian gold rush.

At the weekend figures showed Victorian resource projects had hit their lowest level in more than a year.

The slowdown has been sparked by a downturn in the mining industry and the rising cost of production.

Exploration licence approval has halved in the past three years and in the year to June a meagre nine projects were given the green light in Victoria.

So Spring Street is determined to crank that up and Rochester is smack in the middle of the government’s blueprint to fast-track mineral exploration with its $15 million target initiative to boost mineral exploration.