50 years ago, March 1976
Easter Sunday's sidecar moto cross meeting at Echuca looks like being the top meeting of its type in Australia.
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Entries have started coming in at a regular rate, including some from Australia's top exponents of this facet of the sport.
Among the entries is the current Australian champion sidecar team in moto cross, Stephen Smith and Jim Colligan.
Smith and Colligan, the driver and passenger, respectively, won nearly all their starts at Echuca in 1975 and won the national title in Tasmania late last year.
All the top riders from both Victoria and South Australia, traditionally the top states as far as moto cross sidecars are concerned, have entered the Easter meeting.
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A marathon batting performance by Echuca South No. 1 has made them Echuca Cricket Association premiers for 1975-76.
Faced with the task of overhauling Echuca East's total of 8-404, South's batsmen were content to play out Saturday and yesterday without any serious attempts to go for the runs.
They finished with a score of 6-275 and thus, as they finished higher of the final ladder than East, claimed the premiership.
Echuca East completed an easy victory over Echuca South Footballers in the B Grade grand final.
Rain on Saturday morning threatened both games, but play began on time and continued without interruption.
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A work experience program is again being organised by Echuca Technical School.
Following successful programs in 1974 and 1975 for Form Five students, it as been decided to give them another opportunity to experience outside working conditions.
Relieving principal at the school, Mr F. G. Volant, said the programs helped students in deciding their vocational interests.
It's anticipated the program will run from Monday, May 3, to Friday, May 7, with the option of extending to Friday, May 13, if both employer and student desire.
Mr Volant explained that the reason for extending to two weeks was that many employers and students had discovered a week was too short a time to gain meaningful experience.
25 years ago, March 2001
Echuca-Moama will at some point become one city, Member for Rodney Noel Maughan said yesterday.
His statement followed a decision to form an Albury-Wodonga super council, a move endorsed by the first joint sitting of the Victorian and NSW Cabinets on Monday.
‘’To me it makes a lot of sense,’’ Mr Maughan said.
‘’I welcome the precedent this will create in the long-term.
‘’Echuca-Moama will certainly become one city. It's just a question of when.
‘’It could be two years, three years, five or 10 years,’’ he said.
He said the main benefit of a super council for Albury-Wodonga would be for promoting investment.
He said the Albury-Wodonga announcement would increase the pace at which cross border issues were tackled.
But Mr Maughan said it would not immediately solve the cross-border issues relating to mental health, which he raised in parliament last week.
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Victorian RSL president Bruce Ruxton officially opened the new Chanter Estate military museum in front of about 200 guests on Saturday.
The museum, which adjoins the winery's cellar door sales, is believed to house the largest display of war-time memorabilia outside Canberra Military Museum.
Owner and fanatical collector Ian Ledgwidge said the military museum had been open to the public and had had many visitors.
Ian's military display was originally located in Pakenham.
Murray Shire Mayor Brian Sharp was also on hand Saturday to officially open the winery’s cellar door sales.
The cellar door sales are housed in an old brick building, which was originally a church built in Rochester in 1883. It was relocated brick by brick to the winery site at Moama.
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The Echuca High School’s lawn bowlıng team has narrowly missed out on success at the Victorian Secondary School Sports Association's state school fours tournament.
The team of Adam Rosenow, Carly Moss, Beau Lyon and Ryan Shillinglaw finished runners-up in the VSSSA’s bowls tournament, after losing the final to Wangaratta.
The state championships held in Altona attracted around eight teams from schools all over Victoria.
The high-school team advanced to the state championships in Melbourne after good performances in the northern zone finals.
10 years ago, March 2016
Echuca-Moama is about to get its fourth full-line supermarket — this one at 31 Murray Valley Hwy.
Nathalia-based developer Dellcorp has been issued with all the necessary permits by Campaspe Shire Council and is planning a full-line supermarket complemented by 500 square metres of retail space.
Dellcorp’s Andrew Liddell said he, his brother David and father Jim have been developing commercial properties in southern NSW and Victoria.
“The Echuca development is on the old Northern Constructions site and is ideally sited for the rapid expansion in Echuca’s western growth corridor,” Mr Liddell said.
“This was not the original site planned for a commercial development of this size but it ticks all the boxes when it comes to access and enabling the establishment of a second set of traffic lights,” he said.
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Sharman Stone will not contest the seat of Murray in the next federal election ... whenever that is.
It will bring to an end 20 colourful and, for someone in a regional seat, remarkably successful years on the Canberra stage.
But Dr Stone’s hallmark was that she backed down for no leader.
If she didn’t like something, she had no hesitation in making her views public — a consistent stand which may have limited what could have been a glittering political career.
Although she said, as her time in parliament winds down, she had no regrets.
“And I’m not going to retire, I’ve got so many other things to do and now will have the time to do them,” Dr Stone said.
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A father-daughter duo is heading a team behind the restoration of the world’s oldest operating wooden hull paddle steamer — Echuca’s very own PS Adelaide.
A team of four at the historic Port of Echuca has spent the past five weeks sanding the Adelaide’s timber body, preparing and re-painting it, as well as upgrading her inside and out.
Her motor didn’t need any elbow grease, though.
The 1866 engine was designed especially for the boat and is still running as well as ever, according to Echuca paddle steamer captain and engineer Alan Bartsch.
He would know — he has worked on the boats for 43 years.
Alan’s daughter Zoe has been a travelling drover and cattle musterer up north and on the Nullarbor for six years, but was called back by the whispers of the river to help her father.
Andy Harrison and Adam Auditori make up the rest of the team spending their workdays painstakingly restoring the paddle steamer.