Phone 5862 1034 – Fax 5862 2668 – Email - Editorial: [email protected] - Advertising: [email protected] – Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. VA 1548 established 1895 LEADER NumurkahWEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 $1.30 INSIDE NATHALIA Preschool, Moira FoodShare and Ambulance Victoria have joined forces to ensure the health and well being of the community in these trying times. See story page 4. Zoom anniversary See story page 7 Collaborating for the community Bravery Moira issued with EPA award Floodplan committee clean-up notices ENVIRONMENT Pro- als from the Rowe Street site demands answers tection Authority Victoria were transported by contrac- See story page 5 (EPA) has issued Moira Shire tors employed by council. Council with three Clean Up Waste from the Rowe Street Notices following the discov- site, which is a former land ll, from Moira ery and removal of contami- is categorised as prescribed A BREAKDOWN in relations between had been told would be ready in February nated soil from the drainage industrial waste category the Numurkah Floodplan Mitigation Pro- had not yet been completed, Manager of In- basin in Rowe St, Numurkah. C, and as such can only be ject Steering Commi ee (NFMPSC) and frastructure Andrew Close presented plans e EPA’s investigation into disposed of at sites licensed Moira Shire Council has prompted the in a brie ng to councillors in May with a council’s treatment of waste to accept it, which neither commi ee to request an extraordinary view to them being voted on at that month’s from the site began with a Strathmerton or Tungamah meeting to address council’s alleged failure meeting of council. pollution report received waste transfer stations are. to operate under the commi ee’s terms of Not only was this done without the knowl- from community members. ese notices require reference, resulting in li le progress being edge of the commi ee, those plans di ered e notice for the Rowe council to remove all indus- Street drainage basin requires trial waste (including asbes- made on mitigation measures since Option markedly to the proposed design of Option A was formally adopted two years ago. council to remove all con- tos-containing materials) A which was the preferred option voted on taminated soils (including that council has transported Under the terms of reference, the Moira by the Numurkah community. Shire coordinator of the project is required asbestos-containing materi- from the Rowe Street drain- e plans presented to council by the co- to convene meetings of the commi ee every als) and industrial waste for age basin to these sites, and ordinator included a permanent concrete three months. disposal at a licensed facility dispose of the waste at a fa- However, out of seven meetings which wall along Tunnock Road, with large gaps by September 7, 2020. cility that is properly licensed should have been held, only three have been that would have required the installation of is notice also requires or permi ed to accept it by October 31, 2020. convened in the 23 months since council approximately 6,000 sandbags from day one council to provide an inde- pendently veri ed environ- EPA North East Regional passed a resolution to endorse the commit- of a ood event, with 4,500 of those sand- Numurkah bags required for e Boulevard alone. mental site assessment by Manager Renee Palmer said tee and adopt its terms of reference in Sep- March 31, 2021 and manage EPA will continue its work to tember 2018. Other changes included the removal of more than 30 houses from protection in any risks on the site. ensure the duty holders com- speaks Commi ee member Ray ornton told e other two notices ap- ply with Victorian regula- the Leader that, of even greater concern to Brooke Court and Katamatite Road. ply to the waste transfer sta- tions in any future transpor- the commi ee however, is the fact that, de- Mr ornton said he was appalled that tions at Strathmerton and tation and disposal of waste See story page 2 spite telling members of the commi ee in this proposal had even been considered. Tungamah, to which materi- from the sites. March this year that alignment plans they Continued page 3. www.numurkahleader.net.au 2 — NumurkahLEADER, Wednesday, August 26, 2020 PETER COX & SONS FUNERALDIRECTORS How low do Victoria’s numbers need Professional service tailored to your needs Locally owned & operated 24 hours - 7 days a week to go before we lift restrictions? Funeral calls and information SINCE Victoria’s second wave of COV- Melbourne went into stage four - and, despite drews and Victorian Chief Health Officer ID-19 began to emerge in early July, waiting relatively minor uctuations, have been drop- Brett Sutton have both indicated that the Cnr5862 Meiklejohn &3047 Quinn Streets for Premier Dan Andrews’ daily announce- ping daily ever since. state will remain under heavy restriction ment of positive case numbers has become a On Monday, with Victoria recording 116 until the daily number drops to single fig- ACCREDITED MEMBER OF THE AUSTRALIAN FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION state-wide obsession to rival the AFL. new cases, down from 208 the previous day, ures. Second wave numbers peaked at 701on it began to look like we were nally ge ing e Leader took to Melville Street to ask Meals on Wheels Roster August 5 - the day regional Victoria returned on top of the situation. However, despite the locals what number they thought the state Rnd 1 Rnd 2 Rnd 3 to stage three lockdown, and three days a er steady and encouraging progress, Premier An- should reach before restrictions were eased. VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER Lions Club of 31/8 REQUIRED REQUIRED Numurkah Jen Hendy Laura Steward R. & P. Hall Belmore W. Gapes at’s too hard a question to an- I think they should be li ed already. 1/9 Accoutants L. Decker M. McNamara R. & G. swer. I think stage four restrictions A lot of data from overseas shows that 2/9 V. Dickinson & Co Chessells for Melbourne and stage three for restrictions don’t necessarily achieve S. Kennedy E. Adams M. Caccianiga regional Victoria are de nitely nec- the desired outcome. I think the lower 3/9 L. Watson essary for a while yet; at least until numbers just re ect a drop in the num- J. Brandreth L. & M J. Stanyer they are right on top of community ber of tests they’re conducting, and the 4/9 Mitchell transmission. We really don’t want detriment caused by the restrictions is Coordinator – MHA Care Phone 5742 1111 another situation like the hotel greater than the bene ts. quarantine, so we need to keep the restrictions. Luke Hicks I think it should be zero, because while you’ve still got active cases then Rob Ellio numbers are just going to climb back I think if Melbourne got down to up, so they need to keep lockdown 20 a day then they could probably going until they’ve go en rid of it all FATHERS go back to stage three and regional together. Victoria could go back to stage two. Shepparton has got its numbers un- Chris Bramley DAY der control again and I think we’ve Zero. ey need to follow New Zea- been really lucky here that they land’s approach and lock down the Don’t miss the have their own contact tracing team whole country. ey did that and were with local knowledge and contacts, down to zero in a couple of months. Numurkah Leader but Melbourne still has a way to go ey had no new cases for over 100 yet. days, and when they got new cases they next week, Wednesday were able to get on top of it quickly. at’s what we need to do. September 2, 2020. Peter Heard Lockdown stage 3 About 25 I reckon. If all of those Tom Smith cases were in Melbourne then they It needs to be zero, because as long as need not limit your could probably back their restric- one person has it they can do the wrong tions to stage three and we could go thing and stu it up for everybody. I opportunity to spoil Dad to stage two, but we’d still need to reckon once summer comes it will go be careful. away anyway - I mean, the u doesn’t for Father’s Day, Sunday spread in summer does it? - so we need to keep locked down until then at least. September 6. Local businesses have banded together POLICE BEAT to list their varied gift suggestions, available in the local area. Cops busy across Moira NUMUR H police are investi- an address in Boorin Street, Cobram, Police said they are extremely dis- No need to travel, easy gating criminal damage caused to where cannabis plants and dried can- appointed, and it was obvious the Gas bottle a motor vehicle in Carlisle Street, nabis with an estimated street value party-goers knew they were doing the ways to celebrate and Wunghnu, on August 18, in which a in excess of $1,000,000 was seized. wrong thing by their actions in trying rock was thrown at a moving vehicle Two male suspects were arrested at to hide from the a ending police. catches fi re enjoy his special day. causing approximately $500 in dam- the scene and both were remanded Police provided a 24-hour response A QUIET week for lo- age. and are set to appear at the Sheppar- within the Moira Shire over the past cal ries ended yesterday Police in Nathalia are investigating ton magistrates court on November week, with the aim of stemming a morning when crews from gra ti and property damage to the 19 to face charges relating to the cul- spike in burglaries and the s on com- Yarroweyah, Strathmerton Nathalia senior citizens building in tivation and tra cking of a commer- mercial premises that had occurred in and Cobram responded to Harcourt Street on August 20.