Page 10 The Moorabool News – 31 May, 2022
News
Email - news@themooraboolnews.com.au
Past news history archived online By Lachlan Ellis
Generous donations from a local bank and a community member have allowed a Moorabool historical society to put 21 years’ worth of historical newspapers online, freely accessible for the public. The Ballan Shire Historical Society (BSHS) has been wanting to digitise more newspapers from the region for some time now, but recent donations have allowed copies of The Ballan Times from 1899 to 1920 to go up on the Trove website. BSHS Secretary Richard Biden said it was vital to get as many historical papers digitised as possible, to ensure records aren’t lost. “Anyone that’s interested in history will tell you that it’s vitally important to have old newspapers digitised, it’s so easy to access them and get information. They’ve got optical character recognition, so you can search for words, people’s names, anything,” Mr Biden told the Moorabool News. “The physical copies we have are very frail. If people come in and go searching through them it’s quite possible they could be damaged. It’s best to retain them and have them digitised – then anyone, anywhere in the world, can access them.” A donation from BSHS member Geraldine Bagwell, to go towards the digitisation of the newspapers, got the ball rolling. “She’d come into some money and wanted to make a donation to the Society, as long as it was put towards digitisation of the newspapers. The amount she gave us wasn’t quite enough, so we approached the Ballan & District Community Bank Branch, and they agreed to give us a $5,000 donation through their community investment program,” Mr Biden said. “The National Library have been progressively digitising papers, but it’s an expensive job. We would like to thank Geraldine Bagwell for her very kind donation, and the Ballan & District Community Bank Branch for their support to make this possible.” You can access the archived copies of The Ballan Times by heading to Trove online and put the ‘The Ballan Times’ in the ‘Titles and places’ section.
Custom tyres breach covid By Lachlan Ellis A Magistrate has ruled against an Altona man who drove to Bacchus Marsh during a COVID lockdown in 2020, with the accused arguing he “couldn’t get his money back” on a special tyre order. Atdhe Bunjaku appeared in-person at the Bacchus Marsh Magistrates’ Court on Friday 20 May, objecting to a $1,652 fine he received for breaching COVID lockdown rules. The court heard that Mr Bunjaku was told by police to return to Altona, but continued his journey to Bacchus Marsh, before posting a video on social media taunting police. Police prosecutor LSC Clare Kane told the court the restrictions changed two days prior to the incident, which occurred on Friday 10 July 2020. “The restrictions were a person who ordinarily resides in a restricted area must stay at home and must not leave the premises where they ordinarily reside, unless for the four reasons. At the Bacchus Marsh vehicle checkpoint, police were performing duties, and their body worn cameras activated. At 11.35 am, the accused from Altona was
intercepted,” LSC Kane explained. “He was the driver of a Porsche; he had an associate in the car next to him. He failed to comply with the requirement being that he resides in Melbourne, and was required to remain within the restricted boundaries of Melbourne. The accused left his residence in Altona, travelling 45 kilometres to the vehicle checkpoint on the Western Freeway.
He informed police he’d ordered new vehicle tyres, and he didn’t want to get his tyres fitted anywhere else. “He was directed by police to take the exit from the Western Freeway and return back to the restricted area, but he continued to go on anyway. He attended a tyre business in Osborne Street in Bacchus Marsh and had his tyres fitted, and then made a Facebook
video at the location with the co-accused, and posted ‘f*** COVID, f*** the police.” Mr Bunjaku argued the specific tyres he had ordered were only available at Bacchus Marsh. “I paid for the tyres on the 23rd of June, because they’re a custom size, you have to order them and come in. I had to wait because he could only have so many people at the premises at once,” Mr Bunjaku told the court. “I phoned the owner and asked if I was allowed to come out…he said it’s an essential service, you’ve already paid for them, it should be fine. He checked the VACC website, they said you can choose your repairer. The tyres were $1,300, I couldn’t get my money back, I had really no other option…the tyres were pretty gone.” Mr Bunjaku added that he “wouldn’t have said f*** the police”, before conceding “maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, I’m not sure”. Magistrate Hugh Radford found the charge proven, and with no relevant priors, ordered Mr Bunjaku to undertake a 3-month good behaviour bond and contribute $300 to the court fund.
To read your local news online simply go to themooraboolnews.com.au Then click here