News

Australia’s first ever Paramedic Practitioners are one step closer to heading out on the road in 2026, with the second cohort of paramedics beginning their studies at Monash University last week.

Twelve Victorian students are getting the opportunity to embark on a fully funded 11-day study tour to Gallipoli, Türkiye, where they will retrace the footsteps of the ANZACs.

Work will soon start to reconstruct just under two kilometres of the Dean-Newlyn Road at Newlyn after the Hepburn Shire Council approved awarding the tender to Ontrack Civil Earthworks for the project.

Ballarat Turf Club hosts its first weekday race meeting for the year tomorrow, Friday March 7.

Police will have a major focus on impaired drivers with a statewide road policing operation set to kick off this Friday ahead of the Labour Day long weekend in Victoria.

The Hepburn Shire area is among large parts of western and central Victoria facing an increased risk of fire in early autumn, according to the Australian Seasonal Bushfire Outlook for Autumn, released late last week.

Bendigo police arrested a man late last week following a series of alleged aggravated burglaries, attempted aggravated burglaries and multiple car thefts in the Maryborough, Bendigo and Melbourne areas along with an alleged home invasion in Melbourne.

Victoria Police is issuing a warning to vehicle owners, as intelligence reveals tech savvy thieves are behind a surge in car thefts across the state.

The City of Ballarat is progressing flood mitigation projects to better protect the Miners Rest and Cardigan Village communities.

Happening over this Labour Day long weekend, the Newstead Open Studios art trail is a locally inspired and crafted event, held  annually since 2015 and based in and around Newstead, in the heart of  Victoria’s Goldfields region.  

Don’t let a hiss-terical situation rattle you – paramedics are urging Victorians to slither safely through the remainder of snake season after attending at least 129 suspected snakebites this summer.

No matter what the weather forecasts tell us it’s officially autumn on March 1, so time to consider refreshing your spring-flowering daffodil and jonquil plants before they start their regrowth and produce  their little bulblets.  

Victoria Police has issued a refreshed warning about a scam that continues to target the Mandarin-speaking community via phone and social media networks such as WeChat and WhatsApp.

The Mount Players held its AGM on February 14 with a huge turnout and four members received Life Memberships on the evening, two of them the first canines to be honoured with the award.  

The Victorian state government has accepted all recommendations from the independent review into Australia’s first voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws and has announced it will make further reforms to make them fairer.

"You should have never started it," Trump said. "You" being Ukraine and "it" being the war that Russia clearly started when it launched a full-scale  invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, having annexed Crimea in 2014.  

Reuben Fisher is a happy, healthy baby, but in October last year he was fighting for his life.

Regular readers of my rhetoric will  know that I have been in a battle with Hepburn Shire Council over my subdivision that has taken around three years. (You may have read my latest rant in the last edition.)  

Victoria has recorded a record year for Solar Homes with more than 78,000 solar panels, hot water systems and batteries installed in 2024 – the largest year on record.

Christmas 2024 in the Glorfeld home was a subdued affair. My father, Bill, a room-filling character in life, died the previous February and this was our first Christmas without him, and my mother had recently moved into an assisted-living facility - what we in our young ignorance used to call an old folks home - and wasn't adjusting well.  

Clunes blokes are among those across the state expected to benefit from a new round of state funding announced in recent days for men's sheds.

Radical Fields Arts and Community, a non-profit artist organisation based on Djaara Country in Glenlyon, is holding its second annual Harvest, a one-day regional arts festival in a paddock celebrating creativity, community and  local culture.  

Newstead artist Roger McKindley is known far and wide for his amazing Antares Iron Art Garden. Sprawling over a picturesque patch of riverside  acreage, Antares contains the amazing sculptural creations of this  compulsively talented creative. Roger takes unloved, broken and discarded materials and transforms them into fantastic and quirky pieces of original art that captivate all who visit this special place. Antares Iron Art Garden  will soon open as part of the Newstead Open Studios art trail event held over March 7-10.  

Applications are currently opened for Victoria's Additional Respite for Carers Program 2025-27, providing a boost for organisations that provide respite care programs for carers.