Mail - Lilydale Star Mail - 13th July 2021

Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

Lilydale

Mail

Removal ramps up

Storms from the past

Festive street fair

All the weekend action

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SPORT

A Star News Group Publication

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Train steams in

By Mikayla Van Loon

workers and lovers of trains, said getting to see a steam locomotive at the old station building was what made them head down to witness

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“It was the historic nature of the day and it was a nice day. It’s been a while since they were

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out here so it’s good to have something out this side of town for a change,” Sam said.

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Father and son Martin and David O’Connor enjoyed watching the steam train at Lilydale station. 243531

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With the sound of the whistle and the puff of smoke, anticipation built as two steam engines rolled into Lilydale train station on Saturday 10 July.

Children and adults alike stood in amazement as the steam train made its way down the hill and slowly pulled into the platform, with hundreds of people awaiting its arrival.

The historic moment paid tribute and said farewell to the old Lilydale station building before it is replaced with the new skyrail station in coming weeks.

Steamrail Victoria hosted the event so people of all ages could enjoy the novelty of steam locomotives.

“We try to operate our steam engines around Victoria and we decided it was a good opportunity to go down and use the station prior to it all being changed,” member of Steamrail Victoria’s operations team Edward White said.

The two steam engines used were a Victorian Rail A2 Class number 986 and Victorian Rail K Class number 153.

In what was a poetic moment, the A2-986 steam engine and Lilydale train station met again, both in their original forms, one last time.

“Now A2-986, its final day that it was used in the Victorian Railway Service, it actually ran down to Lilydale. So its final line prior to going into storage actually ran down to Lilydale,” Mr White said.

The A2-986 had its final day of operation on Sunday 1 December 1963 and was out of service for 50 years until Steamrail Victoria refurbished her and got her back on the tracks in 2015.

Sam and Rob, both current and past Metro

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Historic train steams in From page 1 For Kylie Paget’s son and husband, getting to ride the steam train from Lilydale to Ringwood was something they had been waiting to do for 10 years.

Ms Paget’s son was three when he first experienced the joy of a steam engine and from then on he became a bit of a train enthusiast.

“He still remembers it from the home movies when he was three,” Ms Paget said.

“He’s been hanging on for it to come back again. He was nearly devastated when it was postponed, luckily it wasn’t cancelled because he’d been waiting for so long.”

The man in charge of operations on the day, Joe Kellett said everything had been running smoothly, not even fog or cold weather could dampen the excitement of the day.

Mr Kellett said the novelty of having steam trains run along a standard train line is what it’s all about, particularly since it had been quite some time since Steamrail Victoria had had a train out in the eastern suburbs.

“We have had other services but we haven’t been out on the eastern side for some years, it might be five years ago,” he said.

Mr White said much of the time it’s the sound of the whistle that excites people but it’s also the physical features of the trains that intrigue them.

“The older carriages are a big draw card, the opening windows and the smell,” he said.

“It’s what a lot of parents and grandparents can recall going to school or going into the city in, all these older carriages and the steam engine.”

Although a lot of reminiscing happened on the day, Mr White said it would have also been an eye opener for younger kids on what transport used to look like.

“It’s about preserving a bit of history, pre-

A2-986 returned to Lilydale station after last running on this line in 1963. 243531

Conductor 1170 handed out tickets to passengers. 243531

Families piled into carriages to enjoy the novelty of a steam train in Lilydale. 243531

serving the history of how it was done. We’re all volunteers, we’re all passionate about what we do and a lot of the staff love seeing the faces on

in total throughout the day, with each train ride capped at 250 passengers in line with Covid rules.

the kids, the parents, grandparents and that’s why we do it.”

The sold out train rides carried 1500 people

We’re building big near you and there will be transport disruptions As part of Victoria’s Big Build, we’re removing 75 dangerous and congested level crossings, with 46 already gone. We’re also continuing works to prepare for major construction on North East Link.

Train disruptions: Buses replace trains in both directions Lilydale Line

From 9pm 16 Jul to Nov Mooroolbark Station closed From 8.30pm 19 Jul to 24 Jul

Ringwood to Lilydale

Bulleen Road

In Jul

Lanes closed at times

Greensborough Road

In Jul

Lanes closed at times between Lower Plenty Road and Watsonia Road

Maroondah Highway, Lilydale

9pm 16 Jul to 7am 17 Jul

Closed between Cave Hill Road and Anderson Street

17 to 26 Jul

Closed at times between Cave Hill Road and Anderson Street

Manchester Road, Mooroolbark

9pm to 7am each night, Left lanes closed between Winyard Drive 19 to 25 Jul and Mount View Parade

John Street, Lilydale

19 to 26 Jul

Closed between William Street East and William Street West

William Street East, Lilydale

From 9pm 19 Jul to 26 Jul

Closed between Maroondah Highway and John Street

MTIA5885

Road disruptions: Closed roads and lanes

Find a detailed list of disruptions at bigbuild.vic.gov.au Authorised by the Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne

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Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

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NEWS

IN BRIEF Anti-vax protest

Level Crossing Removal project director Steve Brown at the Lilydale project.

Picture: LXRP

Gone by October Lilydale and Mooroolbark will see some major changes start to appear as the level crossing removal projects pick up the pace to see both crossings removed by the end of October.

As station works get to the final stages of construction, commuters may need to seek alternative modes of transport with closures expected for a number of weeks at both stations.

From 8.30pm Friday 16 July, Mooroolbark train station will be closed for four months with works to be carried out on demolishing part of the original station building and the removal of the existing train tracks.

The Lilydale line will also see buses replacing trains from 19 July to 25 July as part of the major construction blitz which will then see Lilydale station close from 11 September to 25 October.

Level Crossing Removal Project Director Steve Brown said he understands the inconvenience this will place on the community but to deliver these new stations, closures are necessary.

“We’re thrilled to be able to remove these level crossings and build the new stations by the end of October – months ahead of schedule – to boost safety, ease congestion and provide better stations for passengers,” Mr Brown said.

“We’d like to thank people for their patience while we carry out major works on the project.”

Part of the work that will be carried out during the next phase includes the installation of concrete beams to form U-troughs, where the new tracks will be laid for the rail bridges.

Each beam weighs up to 120 tonnes and spans 31 metres. Around 14 beams have been lifted at Lilydale and four at Mooroolbark so far.

Like Mooroolbark, where 200 people turned out in May to watch as the beams were lifted into place, Lilydale will have a viewing night to watch as the L-beams are positioned over Maroondah Highway.

Engaging the community has been essential from day one, with initial community design consultations receiving 650 pieces of feedback.

From that feedback it was decided that the most historical part of the original station building would be refurbished by Box Hill TAFE and relocated to Tarrawarra for its new home with Yarra Valley Railway.

As for Lilydale’s old station building, refurbishment works are on the cards but won’t be started until the new station is up and running.

Understanding the heritage of both stations has been an important part of the removal, with archaeological investigations discovering remnants from the original station masters house in the Mooroolbark car park and foundations of an old bridge in Lilydale.

Monthly site tours and several school tours have taken place so local children and resi-

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Community grants still open Applications for the Yarra Ranges Council Grants for Community Program close this month, with people being encouraged to apply. The grants support community-based projects which build social and cultural life in the region.

This year’s grants will focus on supporting the Covid-19 recovery with priority given to projects surrounding mental and physical health and wellbeing, strong and sustainable community connections and promoting thriving local places. Apply by 3pm on Friday 30 July through the Yarra Ranges Council website.

Rainfall It was a very wet month in the Valley in June as Healesville resident Alma Mitchell recorded 206.3mm of rainfall over 26 days last month.

This comes after experiencing 99.8mm of rainfall across 23 days in the same month in June 2020. For her 9am reading on 10 June, she recorded a whopping 116mm following the storms that struck the Yarra Valley.

Over in Coldstream West, local resident Peter Stuart recorded 103ml of rainfall for the month of June. He said it was the wettest month recorded since his records began all the way back in 1998 and eclipsing his highest figure of 100ml collected in 2010.

Mr Stuart recorded 57ml of rainfall for the month of June in both 2020 and 2019.

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dents can look at the work underway.

Mr Brown said the level of interest in both the Lilydale and Mooroolbark projects has been well above other level crossing removals.

“The support and interest from the community – including passengers, residents and traders – has been really great and it’s fantastic that people are getting behind this important project that will deliver huge benefits for years to come.”

Trying to be as efficient as possible, Level Crossings has been constructing the modular station buildings for both Mooroolbark and Lilydale offsite.

Machinery will be moved in to help crane the buildings into position at both stations in coming weeks.

Other structural elements, including steel work that will form the clock tower features, has been conducted onsite during the initial works phase to be placed at a later date when the construction is nearly completed.

Mr Brown said it has been this planning which has led to time saving and will see the projects delivered ahead of schedule.

The 900 space car park at Mooroolbark has also completed part one of the works, with the last floor concrete pour now done.

Passengers and commuters are expected to be able to use the new stations and return to travelling on the Lilydale line on 25 October.

Shuttle buses will be available to take commuters to alternative stations during the station and line closures.

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By Mikayla van Loon

A small Yarra Ranges anti-vax group met at Lillydale Lake on Sunday 11 July with the aim of distributing stickers with anti-vaccine messaging.

The stickers have been found in public areas recently as Yarra Junction Library staff were alerted to them appearing on their signage last week, while they were also spotted at a location along the Warburton Trail.

The stickers read, “You can say no” to face masks, vaccinations and Covid tests. Others read, “This sticker was harder to remove than your bodily autonomy and civil liberties were” and referred to vaccines as “gene altering”.

The group, which uses an encrypted messaging app, planned to distribute 1500 of the stickers at the Lillydale Lake meeting.

A spokesperson from the Department of Health encouraged residents to rely on reputable sources of information when it comes to vaccinations.

“The Australian Government is a strong supporter of immunisation, as it is a safe and effective way to prevent the spread of many diseases in the community that can cause hospitalisation, serious ongoing health conditions, or even death.

“The Department of Health regularly promotes evidenced-based information about vaccinations. Australians are encouraged to rely on reputable sources of information such as health.gov.au to help them make informed choices and stay up to date.”

This comes as a list of Melbourne businesses circulated informing members across the state of which locations to boycott for simply adhering to the state’s QR check-in and mask rules upon entry.

The list features several Yarra Ranges businesses including several from Emerald, Ferntree Gully, Belgrave, Coldstream, Kilsyth and Lilydale. They are rated from a scale of 1-5 and listed as either good, bad or ugly.

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Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

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NEWS

Memories of storms past

By Mikayla van Loon Storms occur every year. Unpredictable high winds, thunder, lightning, hail and rain are just a part of living in Melbourne, whether in the middle of winter or in the peak of summer.

Looking back at the region’s most recent storm on 9 June, many people who have worked in the emergency services for 30 years or more said they had never seen anything quite like it.

“I drove around yesterday (13 June) and I was with another member who has been with the SES for over 45 years and I’ve been here for 30 plus years and we were both just going, neither of us have seen this much destruction, entire streets where every house has a tree on it,” Lilydale SES unit controller Shaun Caulfield said.

Thousands of trees fell, southerly winds averaging from 67km to 104km per hour were recorded and 204,000 people were without power on 10 June.

The last major storm documented by the media was in November 1982 when a spasmodic rain and wind hit Mooroolbark, Kilsyth, Lilydale and Croydon.

Sue Avery, now in her 60s, remembers the day the storm hit in 1982. She was driving home to Mooroolbark along Mount Dandenong Road after playing netball with some friends, when hail started pounding her car.

Pulling off into Donald Street Croydon, Ms

Avery sat in her car while the storm came and went, leaving a path of destruction around every corner.

By the time the hail had stopped, Ms Avery said her car had ended up in the middle of the road from the force of the wind, rain and hail.

“The hail damage was horrific and being in the car was horrific,” she said.

“It was unbelievable.”

Although Ms Avery said this particular storm didn’t last as long and was concentrated to a much smaller area than the one in June, the destruction was no less visible.

Fallen trees blocked roads and she described the trees left standing as though someone had come along with a chainsaw and hacked at the tops, with no leaves left in sight.

A post on social media received 76 comments of people reminiscing about hiding under desks at school, trees falling on houses, windows smashing from the force, flooding and tin roofs ending up in backyards.

The Age reported on 16 November 1982 that a spokesperson from the SES said hundreds of calls from people with flooded and damaged homes had been received which had only been worsened by power blackouts in some suburbs.

Nineteen suburbs were left without electricity, with live wires scattered throughout streets and trains between Ringwood and Lilydale were halted when wind ripped down

Uprooted tree from 1982 storm.

Fallen trees and debris in the aftermath of the storm in 1982.

overhead power lines.

A man in his 60s and a 17 year old were injured when the ceiling collapsed at Chirnside Park shopping centre.

It was estimated that millions of dollars worth of damage to stock and shops had occurred at the shopping centre.

Mooroolbark police station was also dam-

aged when a section of the roof was ripped off and power lines fell on police cars parked in the yard.

Although the size and scale of the devastation doesn’t quite compare, 1982 and 2021 both saw major damage occur to homes, businesses and power lines, an all to recognisable experience.

Free storm clean-up help available for Yarra Ranges

Tin roofs and sheds fill backyards after being ripped off by high winds.

Pictures: MAROONDAH SES

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Yarra Ranges residents are encouraged to register for the Victorian Government’s storm and flood clean-up program which is being facilitated by Bushfire Recovery Victoria (BRV) as a result of the massive damage during the June 9 and 10 storm and flood event.

The free Victorian Government Storm and Flood Clean-Up program covers the demolition and removal of any structures on eligible private property that were destroyed or damaged beyond repair by the June 2021 weather events.

The Storm and Flood Clean-Up program is also accepting registrations for the assessment of dangerous trees on private property which pose a risk to a place of residence or personal safety.

Yarra Ranges Mayor Fiona McAllister said last week’s announcement of $8.2 million for ten impacted Councils, and this week’s announcement from Bushfire Recovery Victoria (BRV) about a new clean-up program were welcome news, but Council continued to work with recovery agencies to understand the municipality’s longer term recovery needs.

“While we understand the impacts from the recent storm were widespread, the damage in Yarra Ranges was of a magnitude we have never experienced before from a storm,” Cr McAllister said.

“We’ve had flooding in some parts of our municipality, while in other areas, thousands of trees have fallen, leaving behind massive trunks, logs and debris that all need to be cleaned up before the fire season.”

Cr McAllister said the latest clean-up announcement from BRV would help respond to part of the problem, where people whose homes, sheds, businesses or vehicles were destroyed will be eligible to apply for the clean-up program.

Residents are encouraged to contact BRV to discuss their particular issue and to assess their eligibility for the program. BRV is also taking registrations for assessments of hazardous trees which pose a risk to a place of residence.

For fallen trees on private property that haven’t damaged or destroyed a structure, VicForests is offering to provide property owners with advice or an assessment on whether the material might be suitable to

be used for timber products.

Cr McAllister said Council and BRV were aware other residents were facing the significant problem of removing massive trees that have fallen on their properties five months before the start of a fire season.

“It’s a complex challenge but one that isn’t currently being addressed with the current program being offered,” she said.

Cr McAllister said that Council and government agencies and services continued to assess the damage and impact from the storm across the municipality, and Council was focused on both the immediate needs and the longer-term support that would be required to help residents and businesses recover.

While significant progress had been made in the past four weeks, with many roads being cleared and power restored to most affected people, the damage was extensive and there was still much work to be done.

“This disaster comes on top of successive lockdowns that have left our communities reeling. Further damage inflicted on them by the recent storm, not to mention effects from the ongoing pandemic, could potentially be felt for years,” she said.

“While the practical and financial support provided to community members and businesses so far through the State Government and the recent BRV announcement has been appreciated, we are continuing our discussions with the State and Commonwealth about the longer-term recovery needs of our municipality.”

“The Yarra Ranges is a much-loved part of Victoria, but at the moment, while many regions in the state are enjoying the benefits of an intra-state tourism boom as a result of Covid restrictions, there are many parts of Yarra Ranges unable to open up to visitors because of the impacts of this recent storm.

Cr McAllister thanked the hundreds of emergency services and relief agency personnel working alongside Council staff and community members that had provided much needed help to storm impacted communities.

For more information about BRV’s storm clean-up program, phone 1800 560 760 or to register for the clean-up or hazardous tress assessment, visit www.vic.gov.au/ storm-clean-up-program. mailcommunity.com.au

NEWS

Storm clean-up continues

By Mikayla van Loon It has been a month since wild storms raged throughout the eastern suburbs, Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, so Star Mail caught up with Lilydale SES unit controller Shaun Caulfield to see how things were going.

Up until two weeks ago, Lilydale SES was still helping in the recovery and relief phase, coordinating donations and community outreach but this has now been handed over to Yarra Ranges Council.

“There’s still a lot of tree crews and arborists working up there and clearing damaged trees.

As far as work for the SES is concerned it’s gone back to business as usual but there’s still a lot of people who are displaced from their houses and it’s going to take quite some time before a lot of the premises up there are repaired and habitable again,” Mr Caulfield said.

Lilydale CFA compiled a list of statistics of affected properties and the numbers speak for themselves: 76 damaged and uninhabitable, 51 damaged but habitable and 41 affected but not structurally.

But with thousands of trees having already fallen, crews are now working to assess and secure compromised trees which still have the potential to fall.

“It’s quite an eerie look up there because there’s a lot more light hitting the ground than there was a few weeks ago because there’s a lot less big trees,” Mr Caulfield said.

“The issue now is the damaged ones that are still upright that need to be managed to make safe and really, that’s the current challenge for everyone up there.

“Putting supports in place to help people with large trees on private property or that are on council land that border private property, they need to help them manage those because there aren’t any small trees in Kalorama, so everything’s huge and it’s just a lot of work.”

Mr Caulfield said the council and Bushfire Recovery Victoria are handling the next phase of community consultation and feedback.

“Recipients of the assistance have certainly voiced their concerns about services that were delivered adequately or weren’t delivered to their expectation and hopefully the council are doing something to rectify those issues.

“It’s important to consult the end user which is the community, the people impacted by whatever the disaster is need to have input into the services that are delivered to them, whether that’s during the response phase or whether that’s the recovery or the relief phases, there’s no point in agencies delivering things that people don’t need or don’t want.”

A similar process will also start happening for the agencies involved in the initial and post response to the damage known as an after action review.

“That’s when all the major players come together and discuss the things that went well, the things that didn’t go well, the things that we really could and should do differently in the future and that doesn’t always mean better but things that could be done differently for better effect or better impact.

“There’s always something to learn out of

Lilydale SES Unit Controller Shaun Caulflield with son Sam after collecting donations to be delivered to the Kalorama relief hub after the storms.

Picture: SUPPLIED

Tree carnage along the Olinda Creek Trail, with branches and debris in piles along the track.

Uprooted tree on the Olinda Creek Trail near Birmingham Road.

Chopped tree which was blocking the path after the storms.

Pictures: MIKAYLA VAN LOON

something like this regardless of whether you think it went well or didn’t go well at the time, there’s always opportunities to refine the process.”

Mr Caulfield said he has been putting together a list of things he would like to bring up at the review process, including the potential for setting up a new unit in Olinda or Kalorama, as well as tabling the idea of a full or satellite unit in Yarra Glen.

Although completely unpredictable, Mr Caulfield said the severity of the storms was not made known to the emergency services.

“We kind of got a little bit caught off guard insofar as the weather briefing didn’t indicate the severity of the storm and that’s not necessarily a failure of the weather bureau, that’s

the unpredictability of weather, particularly in Melbourne.

“There was a forecast that there would be some wind, no worse than dozens of other forecasts that we’ve had in the past and it would seem that this caught the weather bureau off guard as well because obviously it was more intense than forecast models suggested.”

Now the community’s attention, as well as the SES, has turned to healing and sharing stories about their experiences.

“That process and pathway to healing is something that you don’t necessarily have to have facilitated by others but for some people that will just be achieved by sitting around, sharing their individual experiences and then coming out the other side towards how they’re

getting on and how they’re recovering.”

Lilydale SES are just starting to get back to normal, with regular Monday night training, after working behind the scenes offering relief and support at community meetings.

“People are coping well, for a while people were very tired and we had a lot of people put in quite a significant amount of hours,” Mr Caulfield said.

“As we start to come back to something that is a little bit more akin to normal, people are starting to get back into the normal groove but it’s taken a few weeks for things to really settle down and for things to start feeling like normal, you can still feel tired from it for three or four weeks later.”

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NEWS

Netballers seek clear run

By Mikayla Van Loon Pinks Reserve in Kilsyth has been the home of the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Netball Association (Valley Netball) since 2015 but the association is now calling on Yarra Ranges Council to provide better facilities for players.

Netball is the largest female played sport in the country, which has traditionally been an outdoor sport where players endure the heat, rain and storms in both winter and spring competitions.

Valley Netball president Simon Grimes said while the facilities at Pinks Reserve are an upgrade on what clubs had previously in Mooroolbark, interruptions to games and training because of weather is still an issue.

“Throughout the year we are constantly having issues with cancellations of games, having to move players into safety if there’s major issues,” Mr Grimes said.

“Clubs cancel training throughout the year, we have a restricted take up of the night competition because people don’t like playing outdoors in the rain so it limits our ability to attract new players to new night competitions.”

Currently two of the 12 courts are under cover which was funded by Valley Netball, with an extra four courts due to be covered by the end of the year.

Mr Grimes, on behalf of the association, submitted an application for upgrades to Yarra Ranges Council during the community consultation process of the 2021 council budget.

“We think that everyone deserves an opportunity to play netball undercover and unaffected by the weather which is why we are pushing to get all 12 courts at Pinks Reserve covered,” he said.

Valley Netball is one of the largest regional netball associations in Melbourne and the largest in the Yarra Ranges Shire with over 5,300 annual participants.

It caters for 530 teams and 24 clubs from Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Kilsyth, Croydon, Ringwood, Healesville, Chirnside Park and other suburbs in the valley and outer east.

Covered courts at Pinks Reserve were the first of their kind in Victoria. 243323

Valley Netball president Simon Grimes wants better facilities for his players. 243323 Pictures: STEWART CHAMBERS The Saturday competition attracts over 5,000 people every week and more than 250,000 people visit Pinks Reserve every year.

Providing facilities and amenities for that number of people is also becoming a challenge with a rather small pavilion which is shared between 10 clubs, the association and representative teams, as well as visitors on weekends.

The 270sqm pavilion doesn’t provide storage for the clubs, has no social space, club rooms or indoor seating area for the canteen.

Compared to other regional netball associations in Maroondah and Knox which don’t have as many players, Valley Netball is at least

$7 million underfunded.

By the end of the year Pinks Reserve’s netball facilities will total $8 million from State and Council funding.

“Netballers in the Yarra Ranges deserve a facility that all other councils provide,” Mr Grimes said.

The underfunding can also be compared to football and cricket pavilions which have received an average of $8,496 per participant, while Pinks Reserve’s netball facilities have been funded at only $1,579 per participant.

“I think for a long long time netball has been quietly happy to make do with what they

get and there is a level of misogynism in the history of football being front and centre and netball being a female sport, getting pushed towards the back.

“I think that is less now with the push for a lot of female facilities but even then, at the moment there’s a lot of funding for female facilities but all that funding is going to football pavilions, it’s not coming to us.

“We’ve applied and tried to get the council to assist us through the female funding regimes and at this stage all the money has gone to football pavilions to provide extra facilities for female football teams, which is great but let’s not forget the number one female sport in the country which is netball.”

Mr Grimes said the Valley Netball association will continue to make noise and canvass support from local, state and federal government for funding from programs like the local sports infrastructure fund and the female friendly facility fund.

“It’s just a reminder that while new football pavilions are great and spending $5 million on a football pavilion is a great idea, that supports about 500 people, we have 5000 and we’re asking for similar or not even the same, somewhere close to the amount of money spent on football pavilions,” Mr Grimes said.

“We’re only asking that every netballer should, in our eyes, receive the same dollar as every footballer.”

Community has a say as storm recovery progresses

By Taylah Eastwell Yarra Ranges Council are hosting a number of business forums to give local business owners and residents a voice towards the multifaceted and ongoing post-storm recovery effort.

Concerned locals have filled halls and meeting spaces across the shire over the last fortnight to share their experiences both during and in the aftermath of the the superstorm on 9 June.

In Monbulk on Wednesday 7 July, council officials were joined by representatives from the NBN, SES, Bushfire Recovery Victoria, Victoria Police, Department of Transport

(VicRoads) and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, among others, who each answered questions from the community on behalf of their agencies.

VICSES Regional Emergency Management Officer Alan Barnard gave an update on callout figures, and said the SES is now transitioning its work from immediate response to ongoing recovery.

“During that night (9 June) and in the time after we’ve had four landslides reported in the area. Landslides vary from being a rock on the road through to something major.

We’ve had 730 trees on power lines, 477 access issues and 95 people reported as trapped in their properties.

“We had four vehicles damaged on the night, one of which was a week old, completely written-off. That’s pretty scary when you consider the people had just gotten out of the car. It wasn’t pleasant to be out there,” he said.

Mr Barnard said the SES have set new parameters and raised their “trigger levels” so crews will be on standby ready for similar future weather events.

A spokesperson from the Department of Transport (DoT) said hearing from the public at the council-run meetings was useful in guiding the agency on where to prioritise works.

The DoT is aiming to return to a “busi-

ness as usual” model by the end of the week by removing traffic blocks, but workers will remain on the mountain for some time to repair damaged pavements, sign posts and clear drains full of debris.

Business owners expressed concerns about telecommunications, with some unable to contact staff on the morning following the storm and others unable to operate due to Eftpos machines being down for days.

Yarra Ranges Council and various other agencies recorded comments made by members of the public to help shape recovery efforts in coming months.

Other forums were held at Upwey, Lilydale, Healesville and Yarra Junction.

WINTER 2021

Fun winter

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SIDE HUSTLES Local couple’s

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NEWS

Book now for Tour d’Bark

By Mikayla van Loon Mooroolbark’s level crossing removal project is an historic moment for the revitalisation of the town and locals are being invited to gain secret access to the construction site as works begin to ramp up.

In addition to the monthly site tours hosted by the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA), residents, traders and interested patrons can book a spot in Tour d’Bark.

These are special weekly site tours where participants experience a shortened version of the very popular monthly construction site tours accompanied by a visit to three local businesses.

Mooroolbark Traders and Community Group president Geoff Earney said it is important to keep people informed about the project, especially to gain their support.

“When people are involved and well-informed they’re more likely to be in favour of a project, and with one as large as this, it’s very important to have community support,” he said.

“I have to say the communication the LX team has done with the community so far is in excess of what I thought they would do, and it’s been without arrogance or an air of authority.”

Participants are able to hear first-hand from an LXRA engineer about the construction of the new Skyrail, station and multilevel carpark, before meeting local business owners and enjoying some free “trader treats”.

“Tour d’Bark encourages people to come to Mooroolbark and to keep shopping in the town. It lets people know that the construction works are not disruptive to a shopping experience here,” Mr Earney said.

“The tours encourage people who may not have been shopping here to see what’s going on, to witness the huge amount of construction and how it’s all taking place.”

Mooroolbark locals have been so enthusiastic about the level crossing construction progress that the monthly construction site tours have sold out.

The viewing nights have also been popular and the community-run Mooroolbark level crossing updates Facebook group has grown to three thousand members.

Mr Earney said people are excited and intrigued by the changes happening in Mooroolbark.

“It’s progress. Everybody wants to be part of progress and they’re quite excited about seeing what the completed project will give them in amenities.”

“It’s upgrading the entire town, the revitalisation of Mooroolbark and the creation of an outer eastern hub that has been so needed, not to mention the huge amount of machinery and equipment they’ve got here. It’s quite something!”

The Yarra Valley U3A group were the first to enjoy the soft launch of these tours on Tuesday 6 July.

Member of the Mooroolbark Traders Group, Yolande Pickett tagged along to the first tour and said it was great to chat to someone from LXRA and get to know Moorool-

Members of the Yarra Valley U3A group gather outside local Mooroolbark businesses to hear from shop owners.

Pictures: LXRA

Tours of the construction site have a been popular with locals.

U3A group members ask LXRA staff about the Mooroolbark trader directory.

Picture: YOLANDE PICKETT

bark’s local businesses.

“A member of the project team, in this case engineer Dan Cole, told us about the latest additions and what the workers were busy with presently,” Ms Pickett said.

“The groups are small so you can quiz the LX team with your questions, too. The U3A group said they really enjoyed visiting traders they’d never been into before.

“Business owners introduced themselves

and told us a bit about their family business before handing out samples or vouchers. It was such a treat.”

The U3A group were also the first recipients of the new Mooroolbark trader directory, produced by LXRA in association with Mooroolbark Traders & Community Group.

Inside the Mooroolbark Directory there’s a passport, providing shoppers the opportunity to win weekly prizes of $200, $100 and

$50 vouchers from selected Mooroolbark businesses, simply by shopping locally.

For those not attending Tour d’Bark, they can pick up their directory at Methven Professionals Real Estate in Brice Ave, where all complete entries are also submitted.

Tours are held at 10am each Tuesday and bookings for these free tours have just been made available at https://www.eventbrite.com. au/e/tour-dbark-spend-stamp-win-site-walkand-shopping-tour-tickets-160894183835

MINI MIX CONCRETE - FIRE WOOD - SOIL COMPOST - BARK - MULCH - SAND - GRAVEL

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June Booth plays carpet bowls weekly and enjoys socialising with other members.

Brian Booth has been a member of the Senior Citizens Club for 10 years and loves being able to keep it going as president.

Pictures: MIKAYLA VAN LOON

Carpet bowls is a skilful game, providing members with exercise and a range of coordination techniques.

New neighbours move in

By Mikayla Van Loon The Lilydale Senior Citizens Centre has been a meeting place for Lilydale’s retired population for many years, offering a range of activities and social interaction.

Now the facility will be opening up as the new location of Lilydale’s first Neighbourhood House, something the senior citizens are more than happy with.

“There’s nothing sinister about what the council’s doing, we are in agreement. I think

it is going to make better use of it for the rate payer,” Senior Citizens Centre president Brian Booth said.

“We’re quite happy with the arrangement.

It’s just a change in name as far as I’m concerned.”

The senior citizens use the space on a Wednesday and Friday for snooker, carpet bowls and bingo, as well as offering their members afternoon tea and a library of books, puzzles and magazines.

Mr Booth said the council has guaranteed

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Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808

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By Peter Kemp

School students across Victoria made their return to school following summer holidays, while 2021’s preps got their first taste of primary school life. Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Joy Murphy conducted a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony for Badger Creek Primary School students and staff.

See page 7 for more back to school excitment.

Back to school!

School students across Victoria made their return to school following summer holidays, while 2021’s preps got their first taste of primary school life. Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Joy Murphy

By Jed Lanyon

Centre in the lead up to Christmas. Many locals far and wide were able to keep up their Christmas tradition in getting a family photo with ‘The Real Santa’ who they had grown to love.

The unlikely tandem tallied upwards of $30,000 from their family Christmas photos and then selected four charities to each receive

$8400 to help make the lives of children better.

The four recipients of the funds included: Backpacks 4 Vic Kids, A Better Life For Foster Kids, HeartKids and Chum Creek’s Good Life Farm. The organisations shared how the funds had already been put to good use.

Backpacks 4 Vic Kids CEO and founder Sally Beard told Star Mail the donation came as a “delightful surprise”.

“We’re very, very grateful on behalf of the children, whose lives that it will impact,” she said. “We have absolutely put that money to good use.”

Ms Beard shared that the $8400 donation from Branded is aiding 112 children in need with care packs filled with toiletries, spare changes of clothes, a toy and more.

Continued page 2 12477022-SN06-21

It’s February, but Santa Claus’ gifts keep on coming for several charity organisations who benefited from a partnership between Saint Nick and Seville’s Branded Burger Bar. The burger bar came to the rescue when they partnered with Santa, who had seen his role replaced at Chirnside Park Shopping

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live with their daughters and they said to me ‘can you wait a minute, tell her yourself’ and the happiness when they were told the club was opening was something incredible and we got 25 people and that was in the holiday season.

“I didn’t even realise how important it is for people. It gives them a purpose and this is what we’ve got to have.”

Mr Booth joined the senior citizens club 10 years ago and having been diagnosed with MS only three years prior, he was looking for something to keep him active.

“What can I do? Well I thought I could play carpet bowls and I didn’t know anything about it, so I joined the club. And then this club was going to close because they couldn’t get a president so I took it and I told them ‘I know nothing about it but I’ll elect a good committee and we’ll be ok’,” he said.

“There was an election and I saw one old dear get off the bus and in the meeting I sat next to her and she told me her life story. She’d been president of the Probus branch and she joined the club for some company and I thought if this old dear doesn’t have a club to go to, she’ll sit down and vegetate.”

As a tradesman, Mr Booth said he never thought he’d be a president of a club because he’d never been very good with the admin side of things but he does what he can.

“On a Wednesday they all want to play bingo and I don’t so I wash the dishes and there’s not many presidents that wash the dishes but it’s a bit of give and take,” he said.

“Keeping the place going, that is the number one thing because it means so much.”

Tuesday, 2 February, 2021

A Star News Group Publication

PAGE 3

them that they will be able to continue using the hall for their activities.

“We get to keep what we’ve got because the council wants to keep us going. They’re very, very supportive,” he said.

“Keeping these places going and group sport and community events, the council is very big into it. A lot of people don’t realise just how big the council is.”

Wednesdays are dedicated to bingo, which Mr Booth said “it’s a bingo where you can’t lose”, with money paid to play going to the members.

Fridays are for carpet bowls and snooker but recently many of the club’s 50 members have shied away from playing due to the pandemic.

With three mats for carpet bowls, up to 24 people can play but Mr Booth said they normally only get eight to 10 people.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had the third mat out,” he said.

“We could do with a few more members.”

Whether you’ve been a member of the club for 20 years or just a few months, Mr Booth said everyone who joins loves learning to play bowls or calling the bingo, it brings them so much joy.

“When we were locked down, I phoned everybody up and the council told me that we could open on New Year’s Day, which I think was a Friday, we opened the following Wednesday.

“We would normally be closed for that period and we started on the sixth of January and I’m calling people up and a couple of people

Stageworx in Bayswater presented the first show for 2021 with the production of 12 Angry Men. In a sweltering New York jury room, men collide in a bitter battle of wits and morals that will decide the fate of a young man’s life.

Some men had already made up their minds that he was guilty. The twelfth man is not so sure and votes not guilty.

The stage was set as a jury rook in a sweltering summer. On the audience’s right there was a water cooler, which was well used during the performance. To the audience’s left was a wall with a clock which played a role in the story. The rear wall at opening and during the production acted as a movie screen showing the film clips from various race protests in the USA. When not a movie screen it was a rear wall with windows showing New York views. To the audience’s right to the rear was the door into the jury room and hanging space for

coats next to the door on the rear wall.

A cast of 13 with one as the security man opening and shutting the door when required. Twelve actors played the jurors.

Each played the role of the different characters of such a mix of personalities. One could not say which performer was better than the other as they all gave not only good but excellent performances of the roles they were given.

The characteristics of each juryman were brought to the fore with some brilliant scenes and no bad scenes. The strain of the performers was terrific with tempers ranging, nearly fighting between jurors, a cold miserable Melbourne night and the cast having to convince themselves and the audience that it was a steaming hot New York summer day.

This was done very successfully, and the show is not one to be missed. Extremely well directed and performed, certainly making up for a lost year thanks to Covid-19. mailcommunity.com.au

YARRA RANGES STORM RECOVERY

Storm branch collection Yarra Ranges Council would like to thank the community for their patience as they work through the clean-up of the significant amount of tree debris left after the 9 June storm.

Over 600km of roads in the Yarra Ranges were impacted by the storm, so needless to say, there is a lot of work to be done.

While council is facing its own challenges in terms of clearing trees from roads and roadsides, they also acknowledge the significant challenges facing its residents who have their own debris to clear from their yards.

The volume of material that has been left in residents’ yards is a lot more than what can be disposed of with council’s fortnightly green waste collection, and burning off is not an option either given the current weather conditions coupled with the green tree material, as the smoke created would have a negative impact on the health of the community.

So, to help residents with disposing of bulky tree branches from their properties, council has initiated a Special Storm Event Tree Branch Collection.

These collections will start with Kilsyth, Mooroolbark, Chirnside Park, parts of Montrose and parts of Lilydale on Monday, 19 July, with other regions of the shire to follow.

To find out when their local collection begins, residents can visit yarraranges.vic.gov. au/stormcollection, or call Council on 1300 368 333.

Council is asking residents to neatly stack branches in a safe place outside of their property. These branches can be up to 200mm wide and between 2-3m in length (think the width of a football and what could fit in a standard trailer).

Council is organising contractors to pick up the branches, which will then be mulched with

some made available for community members to pick up from designated locations around the municipality.

This will also help residents reduce fuel loads on their properties before the fire season, and of course help them with tidying their yard.

The priority in non-urban locations continues to be the clearing of roads and roadsides

for community safety, so the collection of branches from private properties in these areas will be left until last.

Council will endeavour to get this work done as quickly as possible, however given the scale of the clean-up, will be unable to provide specific collection dates for other areas at this time.

Council, government agencies and other

services will continue to assess the damage and impact from the storm across the municipality, with council focused on both the immediate needs and the longer-term support that will be required to help its residents and businesses recover.

For more information, please visit yarraranges.vic.gov.au/stormcollection or call Council on 1300 368 333.

1300 368 333

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THE LOWDOWN Q&A What is something people don’t know about you?

I’m a romantic. I write poetry and dislike singleness atm. I was a builder for 26 years, with display homes in Doncaster. I had Appaloosa Horse Studs in Victoria and Tasmania, and had dairy and beef farms in both states. Then through a traumatic life event, God called me to study for the ministry and counselling which I have been doing now for almost 40 years. I am now in my 18th year writing in the ‘Mail’ and ‘Star-Mail’ papers.

What was your most memorable moment?

Why? Over the years having love reciprocated – see above.

What do you love most about the Yarra Ranges?

Green, peaceful, pollution free – my Garden of Eden.

What event, past, present or future would you like to witness?

The birth of my three children.(Men were banned from the birthing suite in those days) Favourite book or movie?

Apart from the bible, Long Walk to Freedom: Nelson Mandela.

Movie: The Man from Snowy River.

Which four guests, dead or alive, would you invite to a dinner party?

Jesus, C.S.Lewis, Johnny Cash and the Rev. Dr. Harold Taylor What are your hobbies?

As a teenager it was swimming: achieving in lifesaving, the Bronze Medal and the Bronze Cross. Although I have had horses most of my life, pack horse trekking was the thing in later years (A Mate and I have trekked on the BNT from Healesville to Khancoban in NSW), oil on canvas painting and gardening have also been part of my life for a long time.

What was your most embarrassing moment?

with FOCAL POINT author and Community Chaplain Graeme Dawson

Graeme Dawson is a keen horseman.

Post op, an in-hospital anal explosion on the shower seat, and to have to watch the nurses clean the mess.

What was your favourite subject at school?

Wood work in primary school and building construction in secondary, then as a building apprentice, I won the Florence M. Taylor Award for best apprentice in Victoria in 1962.

THREE … healthy mindset from Headspace

1

Get in to life The activities you make time for have a big impact on your head space. When you spend time doing things you enjoy (or used to enjoy), it can give you relief from hard times, and build some fun in your life. Likewise, when you set and complete small tasks (like homework or giving back to your community) it can help to create a sense of accomplishment and meaning.

2

Learn skills for tough times There’s no doubt about it - life can be really hard sometimes. From relationship issues, to work and study stress, to simply feeling low - we all go through stressful and emotional periods. When this happens, our coping strategies kick in - Some people naturally use ways of coping that are helpful - like journaling, meditation or talking with friends.

3

Create connections Healthy relationships are super important for mental health.

When you spend time with people you care about you feel connected and supported. And yet relationships aren’t always easy. But here’s the thing - the more you work on relationships, the stronger they get.

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SUPPORT YARRA RANGES

Buy, employ, enjoy local We all know that the Yarra Ranges is the best place to live, work and play, and perhaps no time has this been more evident than over the past 18 months. The incredible Yarra Ranges spirit shone with communities coming together to support each other and we spent more time closer to home, exploring our local surrounds and making new discoveries.

As we look to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and the recent storm and flood events, now more than ever it’s time to celebrate all that our wonderful region has to offer and to look for ways to continue to support local.

Buy |Employ |Enjoy Local is a Yarra Ranges Council initiative designed to put our community front and centre of our recovery efforts and daily life. We want to showcase everything we have right here in our own backyards. Did you know we have over 400 hairdressers in the Yarra Ranges? Or more than 22 local galleries?

From dentists to florists, new cars to secondhand books, butchers, bakers and even candle makers – you can find what you’re looking for right here in the Yarra Ranges.

Local businesses play a huge part in our communities. They keep our high streets thriving, give us the convenience of popping to the shops, and the thrill of finding something unique. They employ our family, friends and neighbours, support local schools and sponsor community groups. When challenges confront our community – be it pandemic, storm or flood – we’ve seen them at the forefront of relief efforts, raising money, providing food, coffee or a warm place to sit and recharge, even as their own livelihoods are impacted. Now it’s our turn to give back to them by choosing to Buy Local whenever you can.

To help local businesses to Employ Local, we’re launching the Yarra Ranges JobLink - an online employment portal for those who want

to live and work local. It’s free for both employers and jobseekers to sign up, and helps connect prospective employees with local employers.

For those looking to develop an exciting career in our vibrant hospitality and tourism industry, our Hospitality Jump Start for Jobs training programs are free for locals looking to gain professional skills and employment. Run in conjunction with our partners Cire Training and Box Hill Institute Lilydale, students are also connected to hospitality businesses looking for qualified staff.

When it comes to Enjoying Local, Yarra Ranges has something for everyone. From our

BUY local

pristine natural environment teeming with forests, rivers, lush valleys and wildlife, to our 55 unique townships, every pocket of Yarra Ranges has something to discover and enjoy.

Why not try a new playground or swimming pool, hiking or bike path, or perhaps a library or sporting facility? Keep an eye out for new Parklets popping up in townships across Yarra Ranges too. The parklets are happy relaxed places to catch up with friends over coffee, or just sit in the sun and enjoy a book. They’re designed to help reinvigorate communities – and you might even discover new favourite artworks created by local artists!

eMPLOy local

Across the year, the Yarra Ranges host hundreds of events celebrating all the region has to offer. Think art, food, wine, flowers, gardens, fun runs, markets – there really is something for everyone. And whilst winter may be dreary in other parts of the world, it is what we do best. Watch the mist lift over the valleys on crisp winter’s morning walk or enjoy a cosy evening by the fire at your neighbourhood pub or cafe. This winter, stay close and Enjoy Local.

Tell us how you #BuyEmployEnjoy Local?

Tag us on social media and share your favourite Yarra Ranges local experience.

eNJoy local

YA R R A R A N G E S As part of council’s recovery efforts, Yarra Ranges Council is launching Buy Employ Enjoy – a campaign created to encourage our community to choose local. We’ve been kind to each other, to business and to ourselves. Now it’s time to #BuyEmployEnjoy and support our local business and community.

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Christmas street fair plan

By Mikayla van Loon It may only be July but thinking ahead to December, it’s important to save the first Saturday of the month for something a little bit special.

Christmas festivities, people coming together and experiencing the best of Lilydale as the gateway to the Yarra Valley, are just some of the things a proposed ‘Street Fair’ will have on offer.

The Running Company’s Bec Rosel has been working alongside the Lilydale Township Action Group (LTAG) to design and coordinate a Christmas themed street fair for December this year.

“Following on from Covid I guess we wanted something to celebrate how the people of Lilydale, residents and business owners had gotten through Covid really well and had supported each other, and really kind of banded together,” she said.

“And I thought there’s so many towns that have street fairs and Lilydale hasn’t had one for many, many, many years. But I thought it would be a really good way to celebrate the town and to bring more people into the area.”

With the new station being built, Ms Rosel said she wants to promote Lilydale as the gateway to the Yarra Valley rather than the end of the line and show what Lilydale has to offer.

“I feel like we’ve got this kind of stigma about us that we’re at the end of the line.

“So just to really highlight for the residents and visitors what’s here. And for the businesses to be able to get a bit more business coming into Christmas, and to promote themselves and to meet other business owners or service providers or artists or performers.”

With the help of LTAG and the support of Yarra Valley Business, Rotary and the RSL, Yarra Ranges Council has provided a grant to get the street fair set up.

Now Ms Rosel just has to register the event

Bec Rosel has been organising a street fair for Lilydale which is meant to happen on the first Saturday of December. and get stallholders and businesses onboard.

Proposing to use the Main Street Service Road as the central hub of the fair, Ms Rosel would also like to have carolers, Santa, entertainers and face painters using the lawn of the cenotaph.

Local traders, businesses, artists and craft-

ers are invited to have a 3m x 3m marquee, while shops along Main Street are encouraged to extend their hours into the early evening to allow visitors and residents the chance to shop at twilight.

“I just think it’s really important for community spirit. I think a town like this, it’s got

Picture: MIKAYLA VAN LOON

so much going on but I really feel like the community could do with coming together more and knowing each other more and connecting more,” Ms Rosel said.

So save the date of Saturday 4 December and to get involved email lilydale@therunningcompany.com.au.

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OPINION

Free pet microchipping Animal Aid is a place of refuge for the lost, unwanted and abandoned animals in our community. We work diligently to reunite lost pets and give a first rate second chance to homeless animals. When an animal comes through our doors, we do our best to learn as much as we can about them. The very first thing we will do is scan them for a microchip – if they are ‘chipped and the owner’s details are up to date we are able to quickly and easily contact the owner.

When much loved pets arrive at Animal Aid, we can tell they have been well cared for and know their family will be desperate to have them home – yet they aren’t microchipped and

Animal

aid Mark Menze Animal Aid CEO the shelter team has no way to contact their family. With one simple procedure pet owners can ensure that if their pet is lost, they will be notified quickly and their furry friend will be

Poignant character piece

back in their arms in no time.

Last year Animal Aid received 2320 dogs and 2783 cats into our care. Of those, 75 per cent of dogs were reclaimed by owners, most within 48 hours. Sadly only 16 per cent of cats found their way home. This is largely due to the number of cats in our community lacking microchips.

When your cat is microchipped and your details are up to date, you can be sure if they go missing you will be in the best position to have them home safely. Having your cat microchipped is a legal requirement, moreover, it truly is the best thing to do for your peace of mind and your cat’s safety.

Animal Aid is actively addressing the number of unidentified cats in our community by offering free microchipping for up to two cats/ kittens to residents of Yarra Ranges, Maroondah, Knox, Whitehorse, Murrindindi councils.

Our experienced veterinary team will deliver this quick and painless microchipping process within minutes, and you will have comfort knowing if the worst were to happen your cat would soon be back at home.

If your cat is not yet microchipped, please take up this free offer. Bookings are essential – please contact our clinic on (03) 9739 0500 to book or to enquire further.

CARTOON

Black Widow Starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh and David Harbour Rated M A Marvel prequel set before Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow is a poignant character piece that flops on the action and finer plotting.

Former Russian super-spy Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), aka Black Widow, teams up with her estranged sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) to battle the Red Room, the cruel institution that created them.

Johansson remains bold and elegant as Natasha, and Pugh is both compelling and endearing as Yelena, who has a steely persona offset by a bratty sense of humour.

The film’s core is a moving dynamic between Natasha, Yelena and their secret agent “parents”, as they reforge old bonds and realise the truth of their connection while living as a fake family undercover in America. The plot has some well-planted details which return in satisfying ways (something I always appreciate in film narratives), including a beautiful moment with Don McLean’s classic folk song American Pie. However, the mind-control-reversing

gas driving the plot feels redundant when Natasha broke free from the Red Room without it long before, and the climax has an irritating tendency to explain every twist with a brief flashback, diluting the impact.

The action is a let-down, often shot too close and shakily to follow, which is a common problem in modern Hollywood action, and the final explosive set-piece is bombastic but lacks tension because we already know Natasha survives to Infinity War. Black Widow is carried by its engaging performances and character writing, but the title heroine still deserved a better movie.

- Seth Lukas Hynes

Storm fright and flight ended with grief over losses Focal Point Nightmares on the mountains During the night of Wednesday the 9th of June, many of us lay awake wondering and thinking as the winds raged. Wondering if the new pergola roof would lift, or in my case, wondering if the temporary carport over my caravan would hold or rip.

Then for some of us, there were horrendous crashing noises, followed by massive holes appearing in our rooves and rain soaking all our precious interiors.

Then the lights went out and we were stumbling around in the dark trying to find candles.

If we had elderly parents or children living with us, there was an urgent rush to see them safe – but where was safe?

We rushed to the car only to find it flattened by a huge tree and we can already see, even by torch light that the road was blocked anyway.

YES – A NIGHTMARE. To make things worse, it had been raining solidly all that day and night, and in the morning, I gasped to find 120 Mil. in my gauge, the

Graeme Dawson highest I had seen in Victoria since ’97 When daylight came, the enormity of the disaster struck. We could hear, but not see emergency teams with chainsaws trying to get through to us.

At this point, early as it was, with us trying to get our heads around the real loss, or losses, we didn’t know where to turn or what to do.

As a former grief counsellor, I would like to help you comprehend the validity of your responses.

Our loss and our grief responses Our first response was fright and flight, gath-

ering our flock for safety and the second was disbelief, which turned into denial - then a type of bargaining. As if we could change what happened. “Why me?”– “Why us, we have only just moved in?” – “But the kids have suffered so much with the lockdowns”. Then despair sets in. “It’s too big for us to handle”.

Then a familiar neighbor arrives, and we sob. Not long after, the SES arrive with a community help van, and takes us to a hub where we get a change of clothes and a hot meal.

We are then likely to move to anger, which is a preservative driven by fear, and without wanting to cause more pain, snap at someone for whom it is too much.

“Damn wind and rain’, we yell – as if they have ears – VUTILE. Then as days go by in temporary accommodation we wonder if this nightmare will ever end.

In grieving terms, some losses have ongoing, never ending effects, e.g., a child born with a disability, or a partner who has died and will

never be coming back.

Yes for many, things will never be the same, while for others, they have the capacity to build new lives, but even those lives will have emotional scars in the heart and mind which can never be erased.

Even though the homes of the elderly who live alone are rebuilt, there will still be a fear, and a loneliness, that will be hard to assuage.

SUPPORT THEM. Some words to encourage from the maker’s Manual ‘When we don’t know how and what we ought to pray for, His Spirit helps us in our weakness and He intercedes for us with words we cannot express’.

I hope you can find some comfort in these words.

(Feedback, questions and need for support can be fielded to my email, csrsmokey@gmail. com) Graeme Dawson B.Min Grad. Dip. CC. Chaplain to Community

more ladies to the club. Bookings are essential.

Please contact Val on 0429 007 728 with any enquiries.

them all. There will be two dates - Saturday 17 and 24 July, located at Room 32, undercover Carpark, Chirnside Park Shopping Centre from 12.30pm to 4pm.

COMMUNITY DIARY Headspace artspace

at the headspace office in Lilydale - 216 Main St.

Headspace is inviting all young people to join them in ‘artspace’ - a free, safe and fun space for young people to express themselves and create social connections while creating art. Starting Thursday 15 July at 12pm, up to six young people can be a part of a session. No experience necessary but registrations are a must. To register email jelanne.khafaga@each.com.au or payam.mavandadi@each.com.au or call the centre on 9735 7900. The sessions will be held

The View Club meets again

mailcommunity.com.au

The Yarra Valley View Club is meeting once a month again, should Covid-19 restrictions continue to allow it. July’s meeting will be happening on Tuesday 27 July at the Dorset Gardens Hotel from 12 noon. Marion Wheatland will be at this month’s event to talk about spinning. The View Club has many members from Healesville, Yarra Glen, Lilydale, Croydon and surrounds but is always ready to welcome

Little people painting For Homeless Week in August, Holy Fools will be running the Field of Hope - a scaled demonstration of the number of people who are homeless in Australia. Wanting to paint almost a thousand cardboard cutout people, Holy Fools is inviting you to join them at ARC under Chirnside Park Shopping Centre to help paint

Farewell to VRI As the old Lilydale station closes for a new one to be built, the Lilydale VRI club is preparing to say goodbye after 40 years for renovations and restorations of the station building. Everyone is invited to join them in their farewells to the Lilydale VRI on Friday 30 July from 3pm.

Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

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MAIL 13

BOOKS

14 MAIL

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Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

Authors turn out for fest A word-filled winter weekend in July awaits in Warburton as the second Yarra Valley Writers Festival can be enjoyed in real life or from the comfort of home.

The Yarra Valley Writers Festival program features an extraordinary line-up of contemporary Australian writers and thinkers discussing the theme Resilience: What is it good for? providing book-lovers with heart-warming and thought-provoking conversations to be experienced in person or through the curated digital program.

With topics covering sex, history, motherhood, environment, crime loneliness, music, vulnerability and family, Warburton will become the home of conversations and ideas with Don Watson, Helen Garner, Jock Serong, Tony Birch, Kate Mildenhall, Nardi Simpson, Stuart Coupe, Rick Morton, Jessie Tu, Victoria Hannan, Garry Disher, Monica Dux and more featuring across the program.

Yarra Valley Writers Festival Director Brook Powell said the winter weekend of words is for readers, thinkers and wine lovers who are seeking inspiration and creativity as well as wanting to be challenged through thoughtprovoking conversation.

“This year’s program will champion resilience. Conversation by conversation we will dissect what society thinks it is, what we believe it to be and how it shows up in both daily life and global acts.

“The program explores how true resilience can often sit in the small repeated acts of survival, as well as the enormously impressive ‘against-all-odds’ stories. The authors will discuss cultural, personal, financial, creative, environmental and community resilience and together we will leave feeling inspired, humbled, joyful – and maybe even ever-so-slightly changed,” said Ms Powell.

Kate Mildenhall

Garry Disher

Picture: DARREN JAMES

Taking place in Victoria’s sumptuous Yarra Valley throughout July, the Yarra Valley Writers Festival will feature talks, lunches, workshops and special events. The main winter weekend event will be held across various locations in Warburton 16-18 July. Bookings essential prior to arrival.

Tickets to the Yarra Valley Writers Festival digital and in-person program are available now. To reserve your spot and peruse the program, visit yarravalleywritersfestival.com.

A slow build to novel end

12502404-SG28-21

CHIRNSIDE PARK Meadowgate Milk Bar 3 Meadowgate Drive CHIRNSIDE PARK Coles Supermarket 239-241 Maroondah Highway CHIRNSIDE PARK Woolworths Supermarket 239-241 Maroondah Highway CHIRNSIDE PARK 7 - Eleven 242 Maroondah Highway CROYDON NORTH Croydon Hills Milk Bar 158 Nangathan Way CROYDON NORTH Eastfield Milk Bar 11 The Mall KILSYTH Woolworths Supermarket Churinga SC, Russo Place KILSYTH Coles Supermarket 520-526 Mt Dandenong Road KILSYTH Woolworths Supermarket Canterbury Road Kilsyth KILSYTH TSG Tobacco Churinga Shopping Centre Mt Dandenong Road LILYDALE Lilydale Marketplace SC 33-45 Hutchinson Street LILYDALE Lilydale Village SC 51-59 Anderson Street LILYDALE Coles Supermarket Lilydale Village Castella Street & Maroondah Highway LILYDALE Lilydale Community Centre 7 Hardy Street LILYDALE Lilydale Lakeside Conference and Events Centre 1 Jarlo Drive LILYDALE United Petrol Service Station 473 Maroondah Highway LILYDALE Caltex Lilydale 346 Main Street LILYDALE Caltex Woolworths 31 Hutchinson Street LILYDALE BP Service Station 87 Warburton Highway LILYDALE Shell Service Station 469 Maroondah Highway LILYDALE 7 - Eleven Lilydale Cnr Maroondah Highway & Cave Hill Road LILYDALE Coles Express 469 Maroondah Highway LILYDALE Hutch & Co Cafe 251 Main Street LILYDALE Round Bird Can’t Fly 170 Main Street LILYDALE The Lilydale General 110 Beresford Road LILYDALE Yarra Valley Smokery 96 Main Street LILYDALE Bee Seen Cafe 178 Main Street LILYDALE Blue Turtle Cafe 222 Main Street LILYDALE Gracious Grace Castella Street LILYDALE Melba Coffee House 33-45 Hutchinson Street LILYDALE Lilydale Munchies 7/75 Cave Hill Road LILYDALE The Mustard Tree Cafe 3/28 John Street LILYDALE Freda’s Cafe 2 Clarke Street LILYDALE Barry Plant Real Estate 88 Main Street LILYDALE Ray White Real Estate 164 Main Street LILYDALE Stockdale & Leggo Real Estate 281 Main Street LILYDALE Professionals Real Estate 111-113 Main Street LILYDALE Grubs Up 1 Industrial Park Drive LILYDALE Olinda Creek Hotel Maroondah Hwy LILYDALE Crown Hotel Maroondah Hwy LILYDALE Yarra Ranges Council 61 - 65 Anderson Street MONTROSE Montrose Authorised Newsagency 912 Mt Dandenong Road MONTROSE Bell Real Estate 896 Mt Dandenong Tourist Road MONTROSE IGA Supermarket 916 Mt Dandenong Road MOUNT EVELYN Fast Fuel 1 Hereford Road MOUNT EVELYN IGA Supermarket 38- 40 York Road MOUNT EVELYN Post Office 12 Station Street MOUNT EVELYN Authorised Newsagency 1A Wray Crescent MOUNT EVELYN Red Robyn Milk Bar 35 Hereford Road MOUNT EVELYN Library 50 Wray Cresent MOUNT EVELYN Milkbar 28 Birmingham Road MOUNT EVELYN York on Lilydale 138 York Road MOOROOLBARK Coles Supermarket 15 Brice Avenue MOOROOLBARK Corner Milk Bar 38 Bellara Dive MOOROOLBARK Fang & Yaoxin Mini Mart 108 Hayrick Lane MOOROOLBARK BP Mooroolbark 103 Cardigan Road MOOROOLBARK Coles Express 2 Cambridge Road MOOROOLBARK Professionals Real Estate Brice Avenue MOOROOLBARK L J Hooker Brice Avenue MOOROOLBARK Fletchers Real Estate 1/14 Manchester Road MOOROOLBARK 7-Eleven Manchester Road

Sheerwater is the debut novel of Leah Swann, award-winning author, journalist, and chief speech writer for the CEO of World Vision Australia. While Swann is known for her critically acclaimed collection of short stories and a fantasy series for middle-grade readers, this full-length novel demonstrates her exquisite skills in weaving a gripping tale.

Sheerwater is not a book for impatient readers. Quite the opposite – although the story unfolds over just three days, it delves into the deepest corners of the minds of its characters and exposes them scratched raw and bleeding. Hence we have a slow but delicate read, full of details that sometimes remind this reviewer of Stephen King’s Rose Madder (1995).

The book has a seemingly cliched start – a woman and her two sons embarking on a road trip in an attempt to escape the violent, coercive control of her husband.

Sadly it is a common theme these days, one that has been employed in too many literary genres. But Swann still manages to blow your mind in Sheerwater by creating the most unbelievable plot twist.

Set along Victoria’s southern coast, the story begins with Ava driving and dreaming of a quiet new life with her kids when a light plane crashes by the roadside. A trained rescuer, Ava has to stop and help, but it is in that process that her children somehow disappeared from the car. Have they gone wandering about? Did someone take them?

It is gut-wrenching to read Ava’s emotional and psychological trauma as her past is slowly revealed. While we never get to know her full story, it is her being tormented by her loss that tugs at our hearts. Swann is clever not to linger on what makes Ava the way she is, as the story sufficiently explains

PASSION FOR PROSE WITH CHRISTINE SUN why an experienced emergency worker can be driven to near madness by her sense of grief, guilt and self-doubt.

The same deliberate omission of background information applies to the other characters, most notably Lawrence, Ava’s husband who is determined to make her suffer. Instead of telling us why Lawrence is dangerous, the story shows how manipulative and fearsome he can be. Swann’s ability to strike straight at our emotional core is amazing, prompting us to almost forget and forgive the lack of answers about Simon as an important third character.

As the story slowly builds to a crescendo in the end, we are pushed to the edge of our seats. Again it is our emotional response that Swann seeks and seizes, and the quickening pace and the accumulation of tension and suspense is nearly unbearable.

In short, Sheerwater is an emotional read for dedicated readers, whose patience will be richly rewarded as they reach the last page. Swann’s language is beautiful and captivating, and her capacity to use small details to shape both characters and circumstances is impressive. In this sense, we note the use of shearwater, the migratory seabird, as a symbol of the love, strength and sacrifice of a mother. mailcommunity.com.au

GOING FOR GOLD

11.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

11. Refugee Olympic Team 12. 37 (18 for each sex and one mixed) 13. Alcohol 14. Continents of the world (Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania) 15. Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones 16. Nigeria (1996) and Cameroon (2000) 17. Three (1916, 1940, 1944) 18. Romania 19. Black 20. True

1. The US - four (1904, 1932, 1984, 1996) 2. Melbourne 3. Dunk 4. Tug of war 5. China 6. Greece 7. Barcelona 1992 8. Equestrian 9. Detroit 10. 10

SOLUTIONS

12.

What special team competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games under the IOC code ROT? How many different swimming events will be featured at the upcoming Tokyo Games?

The first Olympian to be disqualified for drug use was expelled for taking which substance?

What does the Olympic Rings logo signify?

Which two Australians have both won nine Olympic medals?

Which two African countries won gold medals in the men’s football event at the 1996 and 2000 games?

How many Olympic Games have been cancelled?

Nadia Comaneci, who was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10, hailed from which country?

What colour is the middle circle of the famous Olympic rings?

True or false: Australia is one of only five countries to have been in every modern edition of the Olympics?

Q35. Michael Phelps

Q46. Usain Bolt

21. At which Olympic Games were gold medals first awarded?

22. Australia has won a total of 60 gold medals in which sport?

23. In which sport will Caitlin Parker be competing at the Tokyo Olympics?

24. In 1908 and 1912, Australia competed with New Zealand under which name?

25. How old was Betty Cuthbert when she won three gold medals at the 1956 Melbourne games?

26. True or false: cyclist Anna Meares has won at least one medal at the last four Olympic Games?

27. Australia defeated New Zealand to win the gold medal in the women’s rugby sevens event at Rio 2016. Which country won bronze?

28. At which Olympic Games was cricket played, albeit with only two countries represented?

29. What was the nickname of the Australian men’s rowing team that won two gold medals?

30. What kind of wreaths were awarded to winners at the Ancient Olympic Games?

31. Michael Diamond won gold medals in 1996 and 2000 in which event?

32. True or false: Smoky the Scottish terrier was the official mascot of the 1932 Games?

33. Lauren Burns won a gold medal for Australia at Sydney 2000 in which event?

34. The 1908 Games were moved from Rome to London due to the eruption of which volcano?

35. How many gold medals did swimmer Michael Phelps win in his Olympic career?

36. The 1900 Olympic Games coincided with what other major event held in Paris at the same time?

37. Which country has appeared at 29 Olympic Games without winning a medal?

38. What two board-based sports will make their debuts at the upcoming Tokyo Games?

39. Who is the only person to have won both an Olympic medal and an Academy Award?

40. Which member of the British royal family has won an Olympic medal?

41. What was the last Olympics at which the Soviet Union and East Germany competed?

42. Alongside English, what is the other official language of the Olympic Games?

43. What event did Dawn Fraser win a gold medal in at three consecutive Olympics?

44. Who was the first Australian woman to win a gold medal?

45. At what Olympics did the iconic ‘Black Power Salute’, involving Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Peter Norman, take place?

46. How many Olympic gold medals has Usain Bolt won?

47. What age was Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn when he became the oldest Olympian in history at the 1920 Olympics?

48. True or false: the Australian women’s basketball team won five consecutive medals at the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics?

49. Jared Tallent won a gold medal at the 2012 London Games in what event?

50. Who lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1996 Atlanta Games?

21. St. Louis 1904 22. Swimming 23. Boxing 24. Australasia 25. 18 26. True 27. Canada 28. Paris 1900 29. Oarsome Foursome 30. Olive wreaths

Which country has hosted the most Olympic Games?

2. What Australian city unsuccessfully bid for the 1996 Olympics?

3. Basketballer Liz Cambage was the first to do what in a women’s Olympics match at the London 2012 Games?

4. What team-based rope game was an Olympic event between 1900 and 1920?

5. Which country did not appear at the Olympics between 1956 and 1980?

6. Which country is always the first to lead out the Olympic opening ceremony parade?

7.

Which Olympic Games were the first to allow NBA basketballers to appear?

8. Canadian Ian Miller took part in 10 Olympic Games in which event?

9. Which American city unsuccessfully applied to host the Olympics seven times between 1944 and 1972?

10. How old was Greek gymnast Dimitrios Loundras when he competed at the 1896 Olympic Games?

1.

Q23. Caitlin Parker

31. Trap shooting 32. True 33. Taekwondo 34. Mount Vesuvius 35. 23 36. The World’s Fair, or Paris Exposition 37. Monaco 38. Skateboarding and surfing 39. Kobe Bryant 40. Zara Tindall

Q18. Nadia Comaneci

9-LETTER JUMBLE

mailcommunity.com.au

17 words: Good 26 words: Very good 35 words: Excellent

E I

C P A

N M

O T

G

Place each of the tiles of letters into the blank jigsaw below to create four six-letter words going across and down.

UM LU

PO

AL

DI

RT

PI

RE

ANSWER: PODIUM, UMPIRE, PORTAL, ALLURE

The centre letter must be included, and each letter may only be used once. No colloquial or foreign words. No capitalised nouns, apostrophes or plural words ending in “s”.

EDGEWORD

SOLUTIONS: COMPETING, cope, coping, epic, gimp, incept, inept, mope, moping, open, opine, optic, opting, pectin, pent, peon, picot, pigeon, pigment, pimento, pine, ping, pint, pinto, pitmen, piton, poem, poet, poetic, point, tempi, tempo, tope, topic, toping

Using the nine letters in the grid, how many words of four letters or more can you list?

41. Seoul 1988 42. French 43. 100m freestyle 44. Fanny Durack 45. Mexico City 1968 46. Eight 47. 72 48. False 49. Race walking 50. Muhammad Ali

Q3. Liz Cambage

0-10 Stick to your day job 11-20 Keep training 21-30 Try again in four years 31-40 Bronze medal 41-49 Silver medal 50 Gold medal

Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

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MAIL 15

PUZZLES SUDOKU

No. 037

To solve a Sudoku puzzle, every number from 1 to 9 must appear in: each of the nine vertical columns, each of the nine horizontal rows and each of the nine 3 x 3 boxes. Remember, no number can occur more than once in any row, column or box.

easy

1 4

3 5

3 7 9 9 2 6 8 6 3 1 6 4 7 2 7 1 4 6 4 8 9 4 7 9 5 6 2 7

medium

2

9 8 5 3 8 2 4 7 4 2 1 7 8 7 4 2 3 1 2 4 5 7 2 3 9 6 9 7 3

QUICK CROSSWORD ACROSS

DOWN

Waiflike (4) Helpers (10) Premise (11) Slash (3) On the seashore (7) Hurricane (7) Compelled (7) Compress (7) Denial (7) Hang (7) Ocean creature (3,4) Maybe (7) Greeted (3) Chaos (11) Shades (10) Prefix meaning million (4)

1 3 10 11 12 13 14 15 17 20 22 24 26 27 28 29

No. 037

Issue (5) Detach (7) Adept (7) Nutty (7) Piano professional (5) Transcendent state (7) Propped up (9) Gets in touch with (8) Christian holiday (9) Fungus (8) Level (7) Myths (7) Most excellent (7) Scrutinise (7) Part of a jacket (5) 25 Dance (5) 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 14 16 18 19 20 21 23

DECODER

No. 037

hard

6 8 1 5 2 9 5 7 8

5

6

7

8

9

10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

B F 18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

6 7 1

17

8

9-LETTER WORD

easy

medium

Using the nine letters in the grid, how many words of four letters or more can you list? The centre letter must be included and each letter may only be used once.

No colloquial or foreign words. No capitalised nouns, apostrophes or plural words ending in “s”.

N

X

Today’s Aim: 13 words: Good 20 words: Very good

5 6 9 8 3 7 1 4 2

4 9 7 1 8 2 3 5 6

2 6 8 4 5 3 1 7 9

27 words: Excellent

1 5 3 9 7 6 8 2 4

6 3 4 5 9 7 2 8 1

9 8 5 2 1 4 6 3 7

7 1 2 6 3 8 4 9 5

5 2 1 3 4 9 7 6 8

8 4 6 7 2 5 9 1 3

3 7 9 8 6 1 5 4 2

1 4 3 5 6 2 7 8 9

7 8 2 9 4 1 5 3 6

2 3 5 6 9 8 4 7 1

4 7 1 2 5 3 6 9 8

8 9 6 7 1 4 2 5 3

6 2 4 3 7 9 8 1 5

9 1 8 4 2 5 3 6 7

3 5 7 1 8 6 9 2 4

hard

R

T

O

7 8 1 2 9 5 6 3 4

4 2 6 1 3 7 5 8 9

9 3 5 4 8 6 1 2 7

5 6 7 3 1 9 2 4 8

2 9 8 7 5 4 3 6 1

3 1 4 6 2 8 9 7 5

6 5 9 8 7 3 4 1 2

8 4 2 9 6 1 7 5 3

1 7 3 5 4 2 8 9 6

Puzzles and pagination © Pagemasters | pagemasters.com

T

O E

I

4 LETTERS ALMS AREA AWAY EMIR FATE FOES GABS ISNT PARS PASS PAST RIPE RUST TIME

5 LETTERS ADEPT ADOPT ADORE ARVOS AVOID BEGIN BORNE DIETS DITTO DROPS EATEN EERIE ERASE EVICT EXERT FACET FLICK FOCUS GAMMA GRILL

No. 037

ICIER IRATE ISLAM METRO NEEDS OBESE OGRES ONSET PARKA PASSE PASTA PLEAS RACER RAGER RISEN SHEET SIFTS SPENT STAGE STEAK STRAP

TERSE TIDED TIPSY TRAIT USAGE USURP VIDEO VIOLA WEIGH 6 LETTERS ENSURE PETITE SNEERS STRATA

7 LETTERS CORSAGE HIPPEST MISSILE MORTARS RAMPAGE SOCKETS 8 LETTERS MINISTER MUSICIAN REHEARSE UPSTREAM

extort, EXTORTION, into, iron, noir, note, onto, orient, otter, oxen, riot, root, rote, rotten, tenor, tone, toner, toot, tore, torn, tort, torte, tote, toxin, trio, triton, trot

2 4 9 7

4

R G L T E C K V NQM B F

5 7 5

3

16

8

2

15

3

1

3 LETTERS AGE ALE ART ATE AVO COL EEL GAG GEL GEM ICE IRS ITS LAD LEE ODE RAP RED SAC SIX SOS TEE TIE TIP

S Z D Y AOHWU I J X P

1

14

3 6 9

WORDFIT

16-07-21

William Matthews Funerals FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED

24 HOUR SERVICE ALL AREAS

9739 6868 45 Cave Hill Rd, Lilydale www.williammatthewsfunerals.com.au 16 MAIL

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Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

12410397-ACM06-19

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• The applicant MUST hold a medium/heavy rigid licence and have confidence in driving a crane truck and various tip trucks.

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Full time position available at Murphy’s Mitre 10, Monbulk.

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Trades & Services

Anyone advertising a puppy, dog, kitten or cat in Victoria for sale or re-homing will need a source number from the Pet Exchange Register and a microchip identification number.

It is now an offence to advertise unless the source number and microchip identification number is included in the advertisement or notice.

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MAIL 17

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Pushing on for popularity The Lilydale Croquet Club is the second oldest in Victoria and although they might be moving up the ranks in competitions, nothing beats the weekly social games played between friends.

“We were established in 1894, so we’re 127 years old now. We’ve been there for a long time and we’ve been in the same location all that time, ever since the club was formed in Melba Park, so we’ve got a long tradition there,” Lilydale Croquet Club president John Thompson said.

The growth in the club in the last six years has been astounding, doubling from 16 members to 32, many of those enjoying the social interaction of the club but a bit of friendly competition never hurt anybody.

“It’s mainly the social side where people get their enjoyment from and people who come to our club are mainly social players and they come together once or twice a week to join in with others, have a social day out and mix and have a cup of tea.”

Beau McKee 241964

Pat West 241964

Enid Swain 241964

Mike Gilsenan 241964

Graham Rhodes 241964

Scott Burnham takes a shot at the Lilydale Croquet Club. 241964

Pictures: STEWART CHAMBERS

Fog and mud present challenges for cross country run · M14 4km: Mitchell Pointon 9th 15:12; 12km: James Laven 44th 41:25; · MOpen Seamus Dwyer 47th 41:51; Caleb McInnes

By Jamie Strudley A foggy start to the latest round of cross country for Yarra Ranges Athletics athletes as they took on the challenges presented at Margaret Lewis Reserve in Coldstream. Some mud, a couple of hills and eventually some sunshine made for a fantastic morning of cross country.

Our senior team travelled to Cruden Farm, Langwarrin for round 4 of the XCR season. Always a fun but testing course, made even more so by the recent rains making for very soft underfoot conditions. The course was a little different to previous years meaning not as many shoes lost in mud pits and much faster times. The club had 18 members competing including debut cross country participation from Jared Byrne, Chris Grundy and Abi Hyndman.

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Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

Chris Grundy debuting in the cross country.

Results are:

· M20 6km: Camden Hewitson 19th 28:35; · M18 8km: Angus Norman 14th 29:31;

104th 45:49; Jared Byrne 129th 46:55; Chris Grundy 135th 47:39; Michael Clarke 166th 50:30; Michael Willey 229th 56:42; Jamie Strudley 231st 56:47; Bryan Ackerly 233rd 56:59; Craig Hewitson 272nd 1:05:32; W14 4km: Zoe Clarke 4th 15:25; W16 6km: Ciara Willey 15th 30:27; W18 6km: Madeline Laven 3rd 23:39; W20 8km: Georgia Laven 2nd 32:16; WOpen 12km: Abi Hyndman 24th 50:15; Congratulations to medallists Georgia Laven, Maddie Laven and Zoe Clarke. It also looks like our open men have won both divisions (3 and 6) to retain their respective positions at the top of the ladder.

· · · · ·

Next weekend we will have a number of athletes representing their school at the Victorian All Schools Cross Country Championships at Bundoora. They will be joined by our open athletes as they compete for the club at the Victorian Cross Country champs. Our Saturday morning XC will be at Lillydale Lake.

Yarra Ranges Athletics welcomes and encourages all athletes of any age or ability.

Club training continues with 6-12yo training on Wednesdays at Morrison Reserve from 4pm with Kate and open age training on Tuesdays from 5.30pm at Morrison Reserve and all ages on Thursdays from 5.30 at Victoria Road Primary School gym.

For information on training, how to join or trial, photos, results and updated news, visit the website at yarrarangesathletics.org. au or visit our Facebook page. mailcommunity.com.au

SPORT

Rovers win on the road

By Nick Creely Mt Evelyn banked a massive win on the road against Officer in the AFL Outer East Division 1 competition.

The win was another sign of the Rovers’ premiership credentials as the downed Officer, 9.8 (62) to 6.16 (52).

Like good sides do, the Rovers made the Kangaroos pay for their wastefulness in front of goal, leading at every change and showcasing some tough footy with flashes of brilliance.

In the second quarter alone, the Kangaroos booted a woeful 1.10 to 2.1, and didn’t allow the home side’s attacking threats overwhelm them in an impressive display.

The second-placed Rovers will take plenty out of the win on the wide expanses of Starling Road, with the likes of Rob Hartfield, Kaleb Van Beek (three goals) and Bayley Forbes all putting together excellent individual displays.

Mark Fisher’s group has been a remarkably consistent, well-drilled machine in 2021, but this win - with the visitors’ crowd watching on - is their most impressive and eye-catching to date.

Mt Evelyn secured a huge win on the road on Saturday against Officer in the AFL Outer East.

243410 Pictures: ROB CAREW

Barkers proved to be tough competitors

By Peter Stephenson Saturday was beautifully sunny at Esther Park to welcome Collingwood’s first visit for 44 years. This was the Barker men’s first home game for seven weeks.

They were bottom with only two wins all season, while City were second, beaten only once, way back in round two.

What City didn’t know, probably because they play us so rarely, is that Barkers have a funny habit of upsetting the top teams just when you least expect it...

And so it was with just three and a half minutes on the clock, Liam Seaye hit a free-kick into the box, and Ross Clark flicked the ball over Felipe Mercado Martinez in the City goal to give Barkers an early lead.

This stung City into action and, on six minutes, a City free-kick was cleared, and a low shot came back in and fizzed past Mark Naumowicz’s post.

Barkers were looking up for the battle and, on 22 minutes, Maxim Solovyev went on a run and laid the ball off for Dan Burrows, whose shot hit the outside of the near post.

Two minutes later, Solovyev was through on goal, but a defender did enough to put him off and his shot went over.

On the half hour, Burrows turned provider, putting Solovyev through, who shot wide. City swiftly broke back with Patrick Makris shooting over.

Five minutes later, a seemingly innocuous dive from Martinez resulted in him injuring his shoulder, but he was able to continue. Halftime 1-0 to Barkers, with the home side value for the lead, and the City defence looking surprisingly shaky.

Four minutes into the second half and a free-kick from Seaye saw Brett Tronconi head wide. Then City came close to levelling the scores when a shot from Matt Richardson saw Naumowicz stretch and get his fingers to the ball. Barkers replied with a shot from Matt Bell which went narrowly over.

Just before the hour mark, Seaye hit a corner from the left which was cleared out to Bell.

He kept the ball down well but hit it wide.

The last half hour seemed to be one-way traffic as City desperately sought an equaliser - could Barkers hold out?

On the hour, the visitors’ Luca Tedde crossed from the right, finding Peter Seehusen at the edge of the box. His shot produced an agile save from Naumowicz as he dived low to push the ball wide.

On 73 minutes a City free-kick over the top was cleared out to the left flank, but the forward shot wide.

Try as they might, City couldn’t break down the determined Barkers defence, and their misery was compounded with a red card in stoppage time.

This would rank as Barkers’ best result for some time and was built on good old-fashioned determination.

More of this fighting spirit will serve them well in the battles to come to drag themselves up the table - next week it’s a trip to fourthplaced Skye, with whom we drew at the kennel.

Earlier, the men’s reserves fought out a midtable draw. They fell behind in the first half, but replied two minutes after the break when a free-kick from Ben Sharland was headed home

by Liam Killen.

Final score 1-1, and Barkers rise to sixth. Next Saturday, they visit fourth-placed Skye United.

Uncertainty for Lilydale Falcons after loss

By Mikayla van Loon Coming off the back of an upset win over Montrose, Lilydale Football Club’s seniors went in hard against Upper Ferntree Gully (UFTG) over the weekend to keep their winning streak going.

Unfortunately, the match proved a difficult challenge of tug-of-war before UFTG scraped in a one-point lead to take home the game.

Hopes had been high for the ninth-placed Falcons seniors as favourites against tenthplaced UFTG heading into round 13.

Lilydale was leading at three-quarter time but UFTG fought back to win 40 to 39 at full time.

Liam Jeffs was named best on ground for the third week in a row, after returning to the Falcons side.

Although the result didn’t go their way this week, Jeffs had said in an interview with the EFNL in the week prior to the UFTG game that playing four-quarter footy had been the focus of the team since the return from the Covid lockdown break.

“We have been working hard on our game style and I think it is clicking together, (we) had a few tough losses and the key areas to those were that we weren’t using the game plan very well and concentrating for four quarters,” Jeffs told the EFNL. The team’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed, keeping the pressure on UFTG all the way throughout the game, with just a points difference at quarter time and four points the difference at half time. mailcommunity.com.au

Lilydale gets around their teammate Marc Massarotti after his goal againts Montrose. 242706 Picture: ROB CAREW The loss now puts Lilydale back in a position of uncertainty, with two teams needing to be relegated out of division one at the end of the season.

Falcons coach Alan Love said his aim for the rest of the season was to prepare his team for senior football after bringing up many junior players to fill gaps.

“Making these players better footballers between now and the end of the year has to be the priority and if it is, you might win a few games along the way and still achieve the abil

ity to stay up in your division,” Love said.

“One of the key things we’re worried about is physical and mental burnout of football at such a young age, I think what you need to do is have an environment where they want to keep learning and keep wanting to get better at their football and what is it that makes them happy.”

UFTG, Lilydale and Bayswater will continue fighting it out throughout the remainder of the season, all sitting within a game’s reach of each other.

Kaleb Van Beek celebrates a goal for Mt Evelyn. 243410

Skilful win for the Barkerettes

By Peter Stephenson On a bitterly cold night at the kennel, Barkerettes women’s soccer team faced a tough challenge in Manningham Blues, knowing a win would take them into second place.

Both sides were in form, with Barkers on a run of four wins in a row and Manningham having won their last two.

Barkers began well with most of the territory, and forced a couple of corners, from which they are always dangerous these days.

After 20 minutes, Kelly Butera fired one in from the right, and found Courtney Wipperfurth, who scrappily bundled the ball home to give Barkers the lead.

In the first game at Manningham, a 2-2 draw, both of Blues’ goals came from free-kicks, so it was ominous that Barkers now conceded one in a dangerous position.

This time, however, Ashleigh Fraraccio did well to push the ball over the bar.

Blues then had another free-kick, which Fraraccio held onto.

The momentum was shifting in Blues’ favour, but Barkers held out to hold on to the lead at half-time with the mist swirling.

The second half was a good close contest as Blues fought hard to get back level, but Barkers were once again tight at the back.

At the other end Barkers created one or two chances of their own, with Lisa Walsh shooting from distance on one occasion, but again the defence held out, and Barkers had another win and another clean sheet.

This was a good advert for State 3, with two of the stronger sides engaging in a physical, skilful battle in good spirit.

In recent weeks Walsh’s lethal finishing has been a highlight. However, Barkerettes have now not let a goal in for almost five hours. Last night Kaity Farrance and Jordyn Clausen were not letting much past them, and they had a solid keeper in Fraraccio behind them, authoritative, confident, with safe hands.

Barkers do indeed go to second, but have an almighty task to catch Port Melbourne. On this display, they won’t die wondering. Next up is a trip to sixthplaced Swinburne next Sunday.

Tuesday, 13 July, 2021

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