1973
Debate was raging in the Goulburn Valley League about the future of Sunday matches.
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A Campaspe News article quoted Lemnos president Ed Smith as saying “not only did players have to sacrifice their traditional Saturday night out’’, but a burden was also placed on club officials.
Three seasons earlier, several GVL clubs conducted Sunday games, but the suggestion for them to be re-introduced met with opposition from players.
Tatura players had voted unanimously against Sunday games, despite a trial game between Kyabram and Tongala attracting a gate of $460. A game between Lemnos and Mooroopna had returned an above average gate of $683.
Victorian Premier Robert Hamer had earlier chimed into the debate about Sunday football at the highest level by saying “Saturday is the day for football, Sunday is the day of rest”.
• Campaspe Valley was hailed the home of the best butter in Australia, with Murray Goulburn Co-operative winning the 1983 national championship for the best butter in the country.
In doing so, the company had the Jonathan Proud and J.J Ryan Shield returned to the town and celebrations were launched among staff and management, along with the dairy farmers who provided the essential ingredients for the product.
• Member for Murray Bruce Lloyd had just returned from China, a member of the first Australian parliamentary delegation to the country to inspect all aspects of Chinese life.
He reported back that the country was extremely concerned about a possible war with Russia and was building extensive air raid shelters in every city. He also witnessed the development of a militia, which had every male and female between the ages of 20 and 45 as a member.
He said China faced two problems: being able to continue feeding the population (growing by the size of Australia’s population every year) and future stability.
At the time, Mr Lloyd reported that every worker in China had a six-day, 48-hour week.
• An advertisement for Major’s Big Star Supermarket had two cans of four-ounce Heinz Baby Food for 19 cents, two packets of chicken noodle soup for 25 cents and a loaf of fruit bread for 31 cents.
A pound of pork chops cost just 69 cents, while cumbed lamb cutlets were 39 cents a pound.
• Victorian Racing Club stipendiary steward Mr J. Crozier caused a sensation by now allowing five horses to race at Rochester.
Dual entries had caused the disqualification of the horses, which threw owners, trainers, jockeys and bookmakers into a panic, most notably the betting action on 4-1 favourite Nobble Dawn which was withdrawn from a race.
• Rochester was tipped to “break the ice’’ against Tongala in the GVL, with Jim Clarke expected to lead the likes of Kevin Hanson, B.J. Lee, Andrew Pearson, Greg Coughlin, Bruce Kirchofer and Ray Collins to a first win of the season.
The Rochester club had worked hard to be competitive after being forced to sit out a year while crossing from Bendigo into the Goulburn Valley League.
• A front page article in the Campaspe News declared that Australia Day 1974 should see the unveiling of a new national anthem.
Immigration Minister Mr A.J. Grassby made the claim after he had experienced Fourth of July celebrations in the United States.
Mr Grassby said that an Australia Day event should take place on January 26, 1974, and he hoped a national anthem would be in place by then.
1983
Rochester was on the verge of staging its first blue light disco, with plans by Rochester police, the Lions, Apex and fire brigade to make it a monthly event.
Entry was $2 a person and the Rochester organisation was hoping to match the success of Echuca events where up to 700 teenagers had attended.
• Rochester homes were only a matter of months away from experiencing the benefits of natural gas as shire president Frank Dullard turned the valve at the corner of Mackay and Elizabeth streets to ignite the service.
A week after testing was complete, the first connection was due to be made to the Murray Goulburn facility in the town. The cost of constructing the Rochester pipeline from the Kyabram-Stanhope line was $1.3 million.
It was expected that the service would be available to all homes that had applied within the following months.
• The source of radio and television interference, the bane of existence for Rochester East residents, had been identified and fixed.
A loud buzzing on the radio and static lines across television sets had started six months earlier after an electrical storm and power shutdown.
Faulty street lights in Bridge Rd and Reserve St were causing the problem and the SEC was the organisation responsible for the repair.
1993
Yvonne Wolfe played her 200th game of A-grade netball for Rochester against Kyabram.
She had been involved since the team began in the Goulburn Valley League in 1981, winning a league best-and-fairest in 1985 and six club best-and-fairest awards.
Christine Hooppell and Sandy Roberts were consistent for the Tigers in the winning performance, with Cherie Snelling and Jenny Quinlan also outstanding.
• Three Rochester shire councillors whose terms were expiring had indicated they would seek re-election.
Bill Leahy, Michael Adam and Hank Eefting were being opposed by Charles McDonald, Robert Bell and Les Anderson.
Cr Leahy had been on council for six years, while Cr Adam was the longest serving councillor, with a 20-year history on council.
• Rochester Rotary Club bestowed its top honour on Christine Childs, who became the fifth Paul Harris Fellow in the 29-year history of the club
She was a driving force behind the establishment of a literacy group and received the award at the changeover where Eric Nelson took over as president from Noel Lucas.
• Rochester was unlikely to receive an automatic teller machine as the town’s population base was not big enough for the Commonwealth Bank to install the facility.
Commonwealth Bank manager Steve Roberts’ comments were backed up by Westpac manager Barry Cuttriss, who said “after crunching the numbers it just didn’t add up’’.
ANZ bank manager John Roberts said as far as he was aware his bank had not applied for an ATM, but he was willing to “go in to bat for Rochester’’.
• The fight was on to keep Ballendella and Nanneella Estate primary schools, with both being told they would be closed.
Representatives of the two small schools, along with Lockington and Rochester representatives, attended a meeting of a taskforce set up to discuss the future of the schools.
The proposal was for most Ballendella students to attend Lockington and for Nanneella students to attend Rochester schools.
Both schools were planning to “forcefully resist’’ the closure.
2003
Christine Hooppell played her 400th game of netball for Rochester, having been involved for 20 years with the club.
With sons Hamish, Xavier and Ethan watching from the sidelines, she was the toast of the town for her record-breaking feats.
At the same time, Anthony “Tank’’ McPhee was the guest of honour at an event attended by media personality and Kyabram AFL legend Garry Lyon.
Lyon hosted the testimonial dinner for the 300-game celebration of McPhee, joined by master of ceremonies Brad McEwan, the Channel 10 sports presenter and former schoolmate of McPhee.
• Barry Cuttriss had a round of 73 to win his second Rochester Golf Club championship by six shots from Michael Hynes.
Cuttriss had earlier shot rounds of 78 and 71, beating Hynes and Bruce Knight.
Tony Willis won the B-grade title, while Ap Kuiper was runner-up. C-grade champion was Laurie Radley and Dean Houlihan was runner-up, while Neil Blakely won D-grade from Peter and Daryl Hooper.
Campaspe News