In January, the Yarra Valley Pro Rodeo’s triumphant return for the first time since 2020 was a hit in the community and supported awareness for Rett Syndrome.
Lee Lawrence, whose daughter Gypsy has the condition, said it’s fantastic to have so many community events like the rodeo to support awareness for Rett syndrome.
“It’s really good to know I’m not doing this all on my own and to get that message to a whole new audience of people in the rodeo community is amazing, the Yarra Valley Pro Rodeo has done it again supporting us, hats off to them,” he said.
Barrel racing competitor Lilliana Dean said ever since she moved to Mansfield, she hasn’t been able to get enough of rodeoing.
“It’s very different to eventing, much more relaxed. Eventing was a lot more strict and everything’s done to the rules, while in rodeo everyone helps you and wants to see you do well,” she said.
A pair of devastating deaths on roads in the Upper Yarra early in the year sparked early concern for what has turned out to be a devastating year for road fatalities.
Kira Hennessy was making her way to work at Cherry Hill Orchard’s Wandin East site on Tuesday 17 January.
At the intersection of Queens Road and Beenak Road Seville, she and Mooroolbark resident Leroy Collins collided. Ms Hennessy was unable to be revived at the scene by emergency services and Mr Collins died from his injuries on Sunday 12 February in hospital.
Retired proprietor of the family-owned Cherry Hill Orchards Cliff Riseborough compiled a discussion paper for Yarra Ranges Council in February and said everyone in the organisation of nearly 40 people was shaken up.
“I don’t believe those intersections are fit for purpose, because they’re giving drivers a false sense of security as they can legally go 80km/h on Queens Road as the through road when people on the intersecting roads are not adhering or seeing the current signage,” he said.
“The full solution won’t and shouldn’t take five minutes, but as of now, the recipe for disaster has not changed.”
The decision by Yarra Ranges Council to remove the historic Warburton Tree in March with little community notice sparked outrage in the Warburton community, with some desperate to see the tree retained and others concerned about it coming down in the Ottrey Car Park.
Warburton resident Maya Ward organised a gathering to farewell the tree before the saga developed and said the tree had been a very beautiful and prominent part of the village in her experience.
“I think it would be really wonderful when they are doing the urban design redevelopment of the site that that tree and its age and significance is memorialized somehow,” she said.
For weeks into months following, protestors climbed up the tree, parked around the tree and stood guard to prevent works being carried out.
Yarra Ranges Council persisted, stating that arborist reports had shown there was ‘consistent and worsening degradation in the tree wood since 2016.’
The delays, security measures and eventual costs of the works amounted to $477,586.
An exclusion zone, with fencing and limbs of the tree incorporated into the site of the tree’s remains, while animals have continued to use the tree to nest.
In April, the release of Healthcare comparison directory Cleanbill’s ‘Health of the Nation’ report revealed the Casey electorate was a deadspot for bulk billing availability.
The Casey electorate had one of the lowest percentages of bulk billing clinics in Victoria, and not far from the lowest in the country, with only four of 34 available clinics offering bulk billing, only 11.8 per cent.
Yarra Junction Medical Centre was one of those four and Practice Manager Alison Dajlan said there needs to be bulk-billing in the local area as otherwise some people simply can’t afford to go to the doctor.
“There’s a lot of support that is needed by general practitioners, in general, to be able to afford to run a practice while still bulk-billing., the bulk-billing rates need to be increased to make it more viable for practices to provide the service,” she said.
A boost was announced in the Federal budget in May and came into effect from November which tripled the incentives for GPs to bulk bill children under 16, pensioners and other concession cardholders.
In May, a $1 million reward was announced any information into the historic murder of Healesville resident Marea Yann.
Marea’s sister and Yarra Glen resident Deanne Green, now 92, visited the Star Mail office to help the desperate appeal to find justice and closure regarding Marea’s murder.
Ms Green said she wants to be able to put it to rest and get on with what little life she has left, especially as she was supposed to be with Marea on the night of her murder.
“I’m hoping after this that I never have to speak to anybody ever again about Marea’s death, I want to let it go, I want to be in peace and I want her to be at peace,” she said.
“I’d just been voted as the lead of a community radio station, and they were our meeting nights. Things could have been different if Maria had listened more to what I and my other sister Carmen said, we’d have been on it like a rash, but I feel I did it by telling her I couldn’t see her on Monday night.”
Marea’s son Jeff Yann also appeared with his children Bella and Esther and nephew Milan Chagoury at the press conference announcing the reward.
In June, state forestry body VicForests was unsuccessful in appealing the Supreme Court’s decision in the Kinglake Friends of the Forest (KFF) and Environment East Gippsland (EEG) vs VicForests case.
The findings of Justice Richards were upheld, which declared that VicForest had failed to adequately survey for greater gliders and yellow-bellied gliders.
President of KFF Sue McKinnon said this decision gives endangered forest species a fighting chance of survival.
“It’s a testament to the power of communities to fight for the natural world; for the places we love and the wildlife we share them with,” she said.
VicForests went on to lose another appeal in October to the case brought forwarded by the Warburton Environment Group, which ruled thatVicForests must perform 30 metre transects to detect the endangered Tree Geebung in coupes, and surveys must be conducted in any Wet Forest coupe within 5km of a Tree Geebung sighting.
July saw the conclusion of the ongoing disruptions at Yarra Ranges Council, with the council taken to the Supreme Court on 4 July and announcing the return of an in-person gallery at council meetings on 11 July.
Yarra Ranges Council had announced the gallery would be shut out in April after two meetings were adjourned early in the year due to an ‘increasing pattern of verbal abuse, intimidation and anti-social behaviour.
Yarra Ranges Mayor at the time Jim Child said he was looking forward to welcoming community members into the public gallery once again.
“While it was disappointing to have to make the decision to close the gallery, it was a necessary decision to ensure we could maintain a safe workplace for our staff, councillors and community members, and ensure our meetings could be run in an orderly manner,” he said.
Plaintiff Darren Dickson sought an injunction from the Supreme Court to prevent the council from implementing its Draft Monbulk Urban Design Framework which sets out principles for the future development of the area as well as to challenge the decision to close meetings to the public.
Adjourned to August, the case was unsuccessful.
In August, the Cerini Walk for homelessness was held with over 150 participants supporting the cause.
The event was symbolic of the walk Father Charles Cerini, who established the original St Joseph’s Primary School in the Cerini Centre, did in 1966 when in marched 35 students from Yarra Junction to Warburton in protest of the local school bus not taking children up to the school from the high school after it moved to Yarra Junction.
Owner of the Warburton Holiday Park and Vice President of the Warburton Advancement League (WAL) David Pratt is heading up the Warburton Affordable Housing Group and said what we need to do is to start adding to the housing stock within the community.
“The Cerini Centre site had the ideal location, it is close to schools, close to public transport, close to the shops, and is a site that needed to be repurposed in the role of doing good for the community,” he said.
A controversial planning permit application was put before Yarra Ranges Council at the 12 September council meeting.
The multi-million dollar application for the 193 Victoria Road property was first submitted in December 2021 with plans including a helipad, golf course, function centre, indoor recreation centre and restaurant, with the scope since reduced to a residential dwelling only but still including a bar, cinema, art gallery, a 19-car garage, basketball court, separate male and female toilets change rooms and bowling alleys as well as golf cart parking, a winter garden and a roof garden.
Coldstream resident Ms Price’s property is 924 metres away from 193 Victoria Road and she spoke in objection to the application, supported by some other neighbours in attendance, and said they were showing strong opposition to this particular planning application.
“Where it is said to be a dwelling, you are being absolutely misled as to what this planning permit is about, ” she said.
Despite reservations from Councillors, the motion was ‘reluctantly’ supported and passed.
In October, the Eastern Golf Club’s clubrooms in Yering were burnt to the ground in a devastating fire.
Incident Controller and Coldstream CFA Captain Sean Bethell arrived with the first appliance on the scene and said in the end they had about 26 different appliances from CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) turn out.
All staff and personnel on site were evacuated and accounted for before emergency services’ arrival.
The fire was believed to have been caused by a charging lithium battery in the golf cart storage area setting alight.
Eastern Golf Club staff member Nikeeta Schroder wasn’t working at the time of the fire but said it was absolutely heartbreaking.
“It is more than a job, with the members and everything, it was like a big family, so it’s more than just a place burning down to us,” she said.
The Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass weighed in on the plight of a poor Yarra Ranges resident caught in council bureaucracy in November.
Rebuilding after the Black Saturday bushfires, 72-year-old widow ‘Robyn’ was building a habitable studio for her son who required a dialysis machine, but her builder engaged Mitchell Shire Council instead of Yarra Ranges which led to a mess of permits, extensions and orders.
What made Robyn more disappointed was the uncertainty of the solution and the dragged process.
“I am very disappointed that despite months of investigation, negotiation and my active cooperation providing them with all compliance documents, Planning Consents, septic approvals etc, the issue is not fully resolved,” Robyn said.
Each Mitchell Shire Council and Yarra Ranges Council emphasised with the owner regarding the situation.
“At times, both councils struggled to recognise the human story behind the complaints or that a vulnerable person who had lost so much might not be familiar with the building act and regulations,” Ms Glass said.
In December, Casey MP Aaron Violi responded to the proposal that his electorate could be abolished before the next election.
The redistribution of federal electoral boundaries, which has occurred due to a decline in the state’s relative population compared to other states, will reduce Victoria’s representation from 39 seats to 38 and Labor suggested Casey in their submission.
“To think that a township like Warburton or Seville or Belgrave has anything in common with a community like Mill Park or Doreen just shows a lack of understanding about the special and unique community that is the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong Ranges and the beautiful area that is made up of Casey,“ Mr Violi said.
In the event of this submission being accepted, townships in Casey would be reallocated largely to McEwen which would shift greatly eastwards, while small parts would head to Deakin, Aston and Menzies.
