Upper Yarra
Tuesday, 15 September, 2020
Art in a time of pandemic
Poetry is a load of rubbish
Sign of confusion
Bloods prepare for 2021
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Small town plea By Jed Lanyon and Romy Stephens Several Yarra Valley towns could be reclassified as regional in a bid to ease coronavirus restrictions, following a community campaign led by Council and local MPs. Yarra Ranges Council passed a motion to formally request the State Government to reclassify smaller townships of the Yarra Ranges as regional at its 8 September meeting. The motion requested the reclassification of Ryrie Ward, O’Shannassy Ward and some communities of Chandler Ward, and therefore be excluded from tough metropolitan Melbourne lockdowns. O’Shannassy Ward Councillor Jim Child said there were numerous isolated communities in his ward, including Matlock, Powelltown, Reefton, East Warburton. Cr Child said many of these towns had zero active Covid-19 cases, yet were still putting up with tough Stage 4 restrictions. “The first is our one and only resident up at Matlock ... (who’s) lived up there for a long time,” he said. “The distance is 100 kilometres from her front gate to the Yarra Junction Woolworths... To maintain her 5 kilometre radius around her residence, that means she cannot commute to Woods Point where her network community is and she is in such an isolated position. “You look at Powelltown, a small community, a mill there working employs so many people and again, isolated.” Ryrie Ward Councillor Fiona McAllister said the State Government’s decision to implement restrictions based on Local Government boundaries was “wrong” and wasn’t working. “We have no active cases in any part of our rural communities and the numbers have been extremely low throughout, in fact lower than many other regional and rural areas,” she said. “We are rural in so many ways. Our wineries, which we are world-renowned for, are pri-
The usually bustling streets of Healesville have been extremely quiet during Stage 4 restrictions. 215345 marily family-owned. “We are an agricultural area, we have a phenomenal rate of small businesses which don’t have the resilience to survive what we’re going through. And tourism of course which we are so proud of but is literally dying around us at the moment. “If we were to be reclassified as rural or regional, we could open our doors in the Yarra
Valley to people from other parts of regional Victoria and businesses could start to recommence. Cr McAllister said the Yarra Valley was often considered regional for tourism and funding purposes but “strangely enough” not for Covid-19 restrictions. Healesville resident James Gray started a petition lobbying the State Government for ru-
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Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS
ral classification for smaller Yarra Valley towns. “Historically our numbers are all low, but we’ve been tarred with a bad brush from the Kirkbrae home in Kilsyth, which is keeping the numbers in the Yarra Ranges high,” he said. The petition, created on 6 September, has gathered over 3400 signatures. Continued Page 2
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