Reflections from the past

Teams came from as far away as Ballarat, Gippsland, Melbourne and Hay, resulting in a day of excellent marching and keen competition.

Undoubted highlight of the day was the massed march following the final competitive events.

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A Cabinet decision affecting Echuca's SKF factory has been raised in Parliament by the National Party's new Victorian Senator, Mr Tom Tehan, of Kyabram.

Senator Tehan told the Senate that SKF's ball bearing factory here had been placed in a difficult position by the Cabinet's acceptance of an Industries Assistance Commission recommendation that quotas on the import of Echuca-type ball bearings be lifted.

He said SKF’s Echuca factory was the only complete manufacturer of ball bearings in Australia and the company was concerned that the collection and publication of import statistics was very slow.

It feared that there could be a flood of ball bearing imports — as occurred in 1974 and early 1975 — without the Government or the industry being aware of it for some months.

25 years ago April 2001

Funding for the ongoing redevelopment of Echuca hospital is under a cloud after Health Minister John Thwaites refused to guarantee the $21 million project would proceed uninterrupted.

Member for Rodney Noel Maughan said he had written to the minister and spoken to him personally in an attempt to arrange a meeting between the minister and Echuca Regional Health.

‘’Echuca is a growing sub-regional acute health facility servicing people within a 50km radius,’’ Mr Maughan said.

‘’The upgrading of the 100-year-old facilities is urgently needed and the $21 million re-development of the hospital was approved by the former government prior to the last election.’’

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Local boxer Steve Dargan won the Victorian Amateur Boxing Association Title after knocking out his opponent in the second round.

Going into the fight, Dargan was confident he could win against opponent, Johnny Walker, who until then had been undefeated.

Dargan said the hype for his fight was ‘’excellent’’.

‘’It was the fight before the main fight. It doesn't get much bigger than that,’’ Dargan said.

‘’I wanted to do more than just win — I wanted to be impressive.’’

While training for the fight, Dargan also had to fight against a mystery illness, thought to possibly be chronic fatigue, that had left him tired since November.

10 years ago April 2016

Permanent residents are fighting to have history restored at Maiden’s Inn Holiday Park.

Discovery Parks recently combined with the Aspen Group, which meant the name was changed to Discovery Parks — Moama East.

Now the 30 permanent residents have taken up the fight to have the name changed to Discovery Maiden’s Inn Holiday Park.

Barry Westwood, who has lived at the park for about 12 years, said it was about preserving Moama’s history.

‘‘We want the name Maiden’s Inn to be retained,’’ he said.

‘‘The name Maiden has strong historical links in Moama in recognition of its founder James Maiden.

‘‘This is our home. The name has been changed without Discovery having talked about it to us.’’

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Fletcher Harris, Echuca’s pre-teen speed machine, is seven years off being able to drive a car — but that doesn’t deter his need for speed.

Harris, 11, is fourth in the overall standings in the Australian Karting Championships.

Competing against Australia’s best under-12 karters has come naturally for the Echuca South Primary School student.

And he already has his eyes on a top two finish in his class, which would secure him a trip to Italy to compete against some of the best kart drivers in the world.