50 years ago, January 1976
Residents in Murray Shire are in revolt over a 17 per cent rise in their rates.
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The shire ratepayers’ association is urging them not to pay the increase, but to pay the 1975 charge at the last possible moment.
A petition protesting at the increase in the general rate is being circulated throughout the shire this week.
And a public meeting on the issue is to be held at Mathoura on Friday.
The ratepayers’ association protest follows a letter it wrote to the shire before its estimates meeting asking that there should be no increase in the rate for 1976.
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Echuca’s recently formed playgroup has exceeded the wildest expectations of its promoters.
This was said this week by Tom Parsons, community development officer for the Loddon Campaspe Regional Council for Social Development, based at Echuca.
Mr Parsons said the playgroup was functioning well and described the response by locals as ‘’magnificent’’.
‘’We have about 35 mothers and nearly 50 children enrolled with the playgroup,’’ he said.
Mr Parsons explained that the total enrolment was broken into four groups, with each group meeting at the playgroup centre twice a week.
The playgroup meets at the Army residence at Bobdubi Barracks at the corner of Ogilvie Ave and Haverfield St.
Two of the four groups meet at this venue each weekday.
25 years ago, January 2001
Echuca-Moama reinforced its status as the events capital of the Murray on the weekend with the successful staging of the inaugural Port Echuca Wharf 2 Wharf River Swim Challenge.
As the 58 competitors made their way downstream from the Moama Wharf, spectators lined the historic Port of Echuca wharf to catch the action.
Positive Image Triathlon team's Jarrod Evans took out the title, setting the 2km downstream swim course record of 20 minutes 48 seconds.
While the pace of Evans’ performance was sound, it was still 48 seconds shy of earning him a Gold Coast holiday.
The event challenge was to beat Tammy van Wisse's 20-minute time clocked during her recent Berri River Swim en route to the mouth of the Murray in November.
Australian junior swimming champion Kellie McMillan, also from Positive Image, came in a close second in 20.55.
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Authorities are calling for an end to the foolhardy practice of jumping off the Echuca-Moama bridge.
The extreme heat has seen the numbers of jumpers swell from five or 10 a day, to more than 30.
Police have received more than five reports from paddlesteamer owners and swimmers concerning jumpers and people floating on tubes in the area.
The large number of jumpers, overwhelmingly teenagers, have caused numerous disruptions to paddlesteamers and other watercraft on the river
Moama police officer Senior Constable Nick Weyland said if jumpers and children on tubes continued to ignore the river’s dangers and the signs prohibiting jumping someone would get hurt.
He said police efforts to catch offenders were hindered by time constraints.
10 years ago, January 2016
Aged care centres in the Echuca-Moama district have scoffed at reports the industry is enjoying surging profits — saying they are instead bleeding money.
The latest annual survey of aged care homes by Bentleys Chartered Accountants showed profits in the sector had climbed 40 per cent in the past year.
But Echuca Community for the Aged and Tongala and District Aged Care Service said they had suffered substantial losses in recent years, amounting to millions of dollars.
In the last financial year alone, ECA posted a $739,000 loss.
‘‘The concept of the industry making exorbitant profits is nonsense as far as I can tell,’’ chief executive Colin Price said.
Mr Price said the organisation made a small profit in 2012, but subsequent rises in expenditure (26 per cent) had outstripped its income (15.7 per cent) — largely due to cuts in government spending.
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Student Dan O’Callaghan admits he is ‘‘possibly’’ crazy.
After all, it might well be the most feasible explanation for his decision to spend his uni break rowing the 2224km of the Murray River — from the Hume Dam to the mouth opening to the sea in SA’s Coorong.
He is doing it in a boat he made himself from a kit, and named Carp Eye Diem as ‘‘a nice little pun’’.
He also managed to fit in only about an hour and a half of training before setting off.
‘‘I think I’m paying for the lack of training now,’’ he said during a stop in Echuca on Tuesday evening.
He revealed his buttocks, hands, arms, back, feet and legs were all suffering the effects of hours sitting and rowing each day.
The 29-year-old media student is rowing to raise money for Kiva, which changes lives by providing micro loans to people in developing countries.