TO THE gentleman who gave me money for petrol in front of the Yarra Glen Post Office when I left my purse home on Thursday, 20 October, you have restored my faith in human nature.
A heartfelt thank you from myself and my ill father, whom I was about to visit.
May you always be happy, healthy, wise and wealthy.
My door is always open for a cuppa if you are up our way.
B Van der Schoon
Strathbogie
over a dolly
STILL we find Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato opposing McEwen MP Fran Bailey’s efforts to provide an after hours clinic for Yarra Junction and without fact.
I refer to her statement (Mail, 18 October) where she now attacks Ms Bailey because Ms Lobato has just discovered that the Commonwealth sponsored after hours clinics does not have a capital funding component.
If Ms Lobato would care to just learn who provides what she would learn that capital funding for health is a state responsibly.
If she bothered to look at the real situation without her biased glasses she would learn that it is the State Government that should be on the ground providing this service per medium of a day hospital or similar facility.
The Commonwealth cannot provide that facility.
When the Commonwealth passed legislation that had been held up for 12 months by the Labor Party in the Senate, the after hours concept did not include capital because it could not.
What we do know is that in September 2006 Ms Lobato will bring Bronwyn Pike out for her weekly photo session with the Mail and there will be some grand plan announced.
Even if Ms Lobato or the Bracks Government is returned it will still be three or four years before that grand plan can be real.
Meanwhile Ms Lobato is happy to see us without an after hours facility for another five or six years just to satisfy her personal vendetta against Ms Bailey.
The facts are that Ms Bailey has the money and Ms Lobato has the building.
As somebody said to me in Yarra Junction earlier today, they are like two little girls fighting over a dolly. One has the doll and one has the pram.
Albert Grulke
Warburton
AFTER only 18 months the Lilydale Super Clinic, built by private enterprise, is up and running, not like the one promised by Premier Steve Bracks three years ago.
The latter has not had a sod turned and seems to have been put on the back burner until 2007, if we are lucky.
One has to wonder what efforts have been made on our behalf by the local member Heather McTaggart or is she happy to let things slide along until Mr Bracks sees a political window of opportunity for another photo shoot.
John Lord
Mooroolbark
SCOTT Forrest and June Delbridge (Mail, 25 October) here is a present day issue for Mrs Fyffe to get her teeth into and show us she can just do it.
As a member of Lillydale Friends can she assure us she will preserve the magnificent staircase inside the heritagelisted Athenaeum building?
The staircase is doomed for the scrap heap, I believe. The shire’s heritage consultant’s advice was to retain the staircase, however to suit the big picture the powers that be want it demolished.
Already we’ve seen the unforgivable gutting of the ticket box in the Athenaeum in spite of a heritage overlay. What is the value of the shire’s heritage overlay if it is not heeded?
All Yarra Ranges residents should visit the museum, stand at the foot of the stairs and feel the ambience of bygone days.
“If we don’t understand and respect our past, we don’t know where we are heading.”
This was the basis of the speech former Governor of Victoria Richard McGarvie AC (sadly now deceased) gave in 1996 when he launched my home town’s pioneer register. Fine words to act upon Scott, June and Christine.
Ellena Biggs
Millgrove
I WOULD like to congratulate the LAFFF (Local Area Fundraising, Friendship and Fun) group for the success of its inaugural activity held on Monday, 24 October.
The group organised a drop in for coffee and chat for a nominal fee and supplied a variety of cakes and slices. It presented a craft display and ran a craft and miscellaneous items stall outside the front of the building and sold pink ribbons on behalf of the Cancer Council.
Woori House is excited to have this new group under its umbrella and thrilled that its first public event was such a success.
Daphne Moore
Coordinator
Woori House
