SHEPPARTON ADVENTURE CLUB

Midweek walk to Terrick Terrick National Park.

A group of twelve walkers enjoyed the beautiful spring environs of the Terrick Terrick National Park on a mild sunny day after the very wet wintery weather of the day before. It was especially nice to welcome four new walkers for this outing.

After morning tea at the entrance to the park, the group headed along Cemetery Rd to the camping ground and day picnic area before making the short sharp climb up to the summit of Mt Terrick Terrick, while carefully navigating some huge slaps of moist granite. The reward was the spectacular 360 deg view of the surrounding plains, with Mt Hope, Pyramid Hill, and the township of Mitiamo standing out amongst the vivid greens and yellow of the crops and grazing land. The exposed summit meant a strong wind, so the group retreated to the more protected areas below to complete the approximate 6 km loop back to the cars via Allen and Wilson’s tracks.

After a short drive, the afternoon walk was an approximate 4 km loop around Bennetts Rock in the more north westerly section of the main park area. This too was a granite outcrop area with several very large rocks surrounding the main Bennetts Rock, which we climbed for another view of surrounding countryside including across to Mt Terrick Terrick. It was a most enjoyable walk through this White Cypress Pine, Grey Box and Yellow Box woodland that was looking particularly lush after the wet winter. It was pleasing to hear such a range of constant bird calls as we traversed the area. One highlight of the day was on the way home when a brolga was spotted at close range in a wet paddock beside a muddy track. We were in high spirits as we concluded a very pleasant day at the Echuca branch of the Beechworth Bakery.

Ten Years In Tatura

Most of us are aware Tatura Family Butchers have been providing premium meat to the Goulburn Valley for a long time, with strong focus on customer service and quality, making meals easy, convenient and above all... delicious. In fact, on the 29th of this month they will be having their ten-year celebration. Bourkey (Brady) started working in the industry in the year 2000 at around eleven years of age as a wash up kid for Mark Ryan in Nathalia, starting his apprenticeship there, and when the business was sold to Scotty Richardson, he finished his apprenticeship with him before moving to Echuca where he worked for six or seven years before purchasing the Tatura shop. This will tell you he has been in the industry for 22 years and I can tell you he loves his job. His words were: "If you don't love what you do you should do something else. I believe there is nothing better than going to work when you really enjoy what you do."

Tatura Family Butchers sell oven-ready meats, specialty meats, low and slow meats and traditional cuts, basically anything people want. Also available are seafood, small goods, eggs, dairy and bakery products.

They have Spit, Smoker and Kiwi Cooker hire as well as offering wholesale supply, gift vouchers and hampers. There are specials every week, starting each Monday and one only needs to check out their website for everything on offer. Their free delivery service is very widespread across to Benalla, up through Echuca to Strathmerton, Deniliquin and Finley, even all the way across to Bendigo. All at no charge. They also accept online shopping, where a lot of people use After-Pay and the shop is open seven days a week - from 7 a.m.! In the future Brady is planning to work more in the BBQ shop with Josh stepping up to the managing role in the butcher shop. Brady currently employs eleven staff, from wash up kids to butchers, delivery guys, admin staff and customer service. These are all locals, and he finds it good to see people coming up through the ranks like he did himself, having a passion for the industry and feels privileged to be able to teach them the correct ways to do things. A week before my interview with him, he had been to Melbourne with one of his apprentices for a state competition of best butchers in Victoria. Run by the Australian Meat Industry Council, they are waiting to hear the final outcome.

Backyard BBQing with Bourkey has been open for three years, advertising throughout Australia and has a good customer base, particularly through salami season with them stocking skins and all ingredients needed, as well as barbecues and home butchery equipment. And that doesn't include their large range of sauces and rubs as well as the Kiwi cupboard (biscuits, chips, condiments and sauces, drinks, kiwianna, lollies and chocolate, pantry items). Upcoming will be their own range of rubs and spices they've been working on with the Tatura Family Butchers brand. These are currently in production and expected to be available on the shelves by the ten-year anniversary on October 29. Always trying different things, they expect to have their own sauces after that and will continue to slowly expand.

He and wife, Amber, are well established as a family here and very much part of the community. Brady is involved in our local car club (GV Fins and Fenders), football clubs in Tatura, Murchison, Rushworth, and Ardmona, as well as Hill Top Golf Club. Amber is heavily involved with the CFA, currently as a Lieutenant. They have a son RJ (Richard) who will be ten next month and their new baby boy has been named Wallace, known affectionately as Wally.

Brady and his staff appreciate their loyal customers and wish to advise they are taking orders for Christmas now.

- Janice Dreyer

Tatura Rsl

The Tatura Community, and let’s not forget our very important visiting tourists, will now have the benefit of learning more about our Water Tower and mural of General Sir John Monash. The long-awaited pedestal and information board was installed at the Water Tower site late last month. Hopefully, landscaping and lighting is not too far away.

Thank you to those positive people who contributed to this later addition to further enhance the project: Simon Walsh from G.V.W., Freelance Designer Nerida Hippisley and Michel Signs Pty Ltd, for the installation and signage.

Many thanks to Rob. Mathieson, Tatura RSL Veteran and Life Member, for his mammoth effort in pursuing the processes to have this iconic Water Tower, now featuring the murals and information boards, brought to fruition. Also ‘Michelle’ from North East Art who has featured and publicised the Tatura Water Tower on the North East Art/ Silo Trail website. Tatura will have a Remembrance Day on Friday, November 11. This is generally a short service that will commence with the laying of wreaths at 10.40am at the Memorial, in the Private Robert Mactier VC Memorial Gardens. This will be followed by The Last Post and Reveille. The full display of woollen poppies along the rear memorial wall will be dictated by the weather. Poppies will be on sale in the town prior.

Tatura RSL members are advised that in February 2023 onwards, the Annual General Meeting and RSL meetings will be conducted on the first Friday of the month at 1.30pm at their usual club rooms in the Mechanics Hall building, Civic Halls Complex. The new date will allow a quicker transfer of RSL news from the meetings to the community via the Bulletin. Lest we forget.

- Mal. Watts, Tatura RSL member.

November 1 – World Vegan Day. This is not a day to commemorate people from Venus although many vegans do sound as though they have come from a different planet. Vegans are vegetarians who do not consume dairy products or eggs as they do not like to see animals exploited. Most vegans will happily explain their way of life to anybody who is willing to listen or is trapped in a lift with them. Fortunately, vegans have yet to start ringing doorbells in an attempt to convert the rest of us.

November 2 – International Men Make Dinner Day. Traditionally, it is the wife who makes dinner but it is time for the men to share the cooking responsibilities. After all, most of the greatest chefs are men. Please note: buying take-away food doesn’t count, so come on guys, cooking one meal for the year won’t kill you, although it might kill everyone else.

November 3 – International Cliché Day. Clichés are annoying due to their predictability and lack of any true meaning. So, a word to the wise, they should usually be avoided like the plague, but on World Cliché Day, you are encouraged to bend over backwards, bite the bullet and blow your own horn with your bottomless pit of tired old clichés. After that, they’re old hat.

November 6 – World Numbat Day. The numbat is native to Australia and is unique, sharing no relation to any living species. Unfortunately, they are also critically endangered as there are fewer than 1,000 left in the wild.

November 11 – Remembrance Day (also called Poppy Day). This day was first observed at the end of the First World War to remember the members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. The red poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’.

November 12 – International Tongue Twisters Day. It’s either an elegant, triumphant dance or a fumbling, ungainly stumble through a linguistic waltz. Master any of the following tongue twisters and you’ll be able to amaze your friends and family. Remember, you have to say them quickly at least three times in a row: a. A quick witted cricket critic. b. The sixth sick sheikh’s sixth sheep’s sick. c. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can? d. Tie twine to three tree twigs.

You have to hold your tongue out while saying this one: e: I was born on a pirate ship.

That’s it, we’ll leave the pheasant plucking for another time.

November 14 – World Diabetes Day.

November 14 is the birthday of Sir Frederick

Banting, a medical scientist who discovered insulin. Type 1 diabetes is a condition where the immune system is activated to destroy the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. There is no cure, and it cannot be prevented. Type 2 diabetes is a progressive condition in which the body becomes resistant to the normal effects of insulin. However, Type 2 can be managed with regular physical exercise, healthy eating and weight reduction.

November 15 – Steve Irwin Day. This day is now an annual international event honouring the life and legacy of the Crocodile Hunter, and to highlight his passion of animal conservation.

November 20 – World Children’s Day –

Despite the obvious fact that every day is children’s day, the United Nations uses this day to encourage children of all races, creeds, and religions to spend time together, getting to know each other and appreciating each other’s differences.

November 21 – World Hello Day -

Participating in World Hello Day is quite simple: all you have to do is say hello to at least 10 people during the day. This will send a message of openness and goodwill to others, and apparently this small gesture alone will demonstrate how communication can be instrumental in resolving disputes and preventing conflicts. No doubt a think tank full of highfliers came up with this radical idea after spending many months jetting around the world and spending hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars.

November 24 – Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day. We all have talent. Sometimes it’s obvious to the world, such as playing the violin in an orchestra or smashing a tennis ball at Wimbledon, but in many cases, it is a special talent that you keep hidden from the world, such as whistling through your nose, reciting the alphabet backwards while belching or knitting a jumper with your toes. Today is your opportunity to share your unique talent with the world.

November 25 – Buy Nothing Day. This is an International Day of Protest against consumerism by the usual culprits. I’m not sure how successful this protest will be or what it will achieve, as people will merely have bought everything they need on the previous day. Oh, that’s right, it’s all about the gesture.

November 26 – International Cake Day. Cakes must have improved since the French peasants cut off Marie-Antoinette’s head for telling them to eat cake during a famine. Perhaps they were overly conscious about their weight. Anyway, you can put your own diet on hold today and indulge yourself with your favourite cake. Perhaps our bakeries will offer all their cakes for half-price today (hint, hint).

November 29 – Square Dancing Day – Yeeha!

Square Dancing has its roots in traditional English, Irish and Scottish folk dance and was first documented in 17th-century England. This is a great way to get fit, meet new people and have lots of fun. Each dance has a ‘caller’ to help you with the steps but unfortunately, they tend to speak a different language to the rest of us.

November 30 – Computer Security Day. Cyber theft is a growing problem so please use this day to change your computer passwords and ensure that they are strong and never, ever open any attachments from an unknown source, no matter how alluring they are.

John Kriesfeld

GOULBURN-MURRAY WATER

Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) is urging customers with dams on their properties to prepare for further rainfall in the coming months.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is predicting above median rainfall from October to December, and many of GMW’s storages are already at capacity.

GMW Water Storage Services general manager Martina Cusack said intense rain and flood events could lead to the rapid filling of dams or overtopping, increasing the risk of private dam failure.

“It is crucial customers with licensed dams take some general precautions,” she said. “Inspecting and monitoring dams, clearing spillways and outlet pipes to help pass flood water, and repairing any cracks and other defects will help ensure minimise the negative impacts of heavy rainfall.”

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has produced booklets, Your dam your responsibility and Dam safety emergency plan to help dam owners understand their responsibilities for operating and maintaining dams on their properties. To view these booklets, head to - https://www.water.vic.gov.au/ managing-dams-and-water-emergencies/ dams/guidance-notes

For BOM alerts, visit www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/outlook/ - Klaus Nannestad, Media Adviser