The Local

13-10-2024

Let the games begin. So, 12 candidates are vying for seven spots for the new Hepburn Shire Council. The wards have been done away with and really, it seems a bit of a no-brainer as to who will get in.

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Kyle’s Rant

13-10-2024

Hepburn Shire Council will have to pull its finger out if it wants to keep visitors to the area. By the end of next year there will be 40 brands of electric vehicles sold in Australia and when they come to our little spot of paradise the EVs will all be vying for the total of six charge ports we have across our shire.

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Respect, care and comfort at Hepburn House

12-10-2024

I never imagined Mum would move from our family home in Traralgon - her home for nearly 60 years.

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Just sayin’…

30-09-2024

Hmmm. So Dan Murphy's is appealing a Victorian Liquor Commission decision and still trying to open a store in Daylesford.

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Kyle’s Rant…

30-09-2024

The cat is now out of the bag. TL HQ (AKA The Old Glenlyon Primary School) is on the market with rumours and speculation whirring about the future of The Local. (It's all good...)

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MCO concert program impresses

30-09-2024

The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, in its annual Feast of Music, produced an outstanding four concert program in the Daylesford Town Hall from September 13-15.

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Just sayin’…

16-09-2024

So the Local Government Inspectorate will not release any report into its five-year investigation of Hepburn Shire Council and The Rex Theatre development.

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Kyle’s Rant

16-09-2024

I am definitely a dog guy. I have had cats in my life but just can’t warm to the claws sticking into me, and they think they are being funny by swiping at your ankles as you walk past.

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Just sayin’…

02-09-2024

I managed to break my wrist, in two spots, during a recent weekend celebrating Kyle's dad's 80th over in New Zealand.

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Kyle’s Rant

02-09-2024

What sort of skullduggery is this? When a poor struggling billionaire who beat accusations he had built his tech fortune on a fraudulent deal gets towelled over by a waterspout?

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Just sayin’…

19-08-2024

"Damn never become a carer - you won't like it." This was the sage advice of my Frankston-based doctor, dating back about 20 years. I can't quite remember but I think maybe Mum had been a bit crook and I was looking after her.

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Kyle’s Rant

19-08-2024

Recently it has come to pass that a lot of large news outlets including the ABC and the New Zealand Herald have turned to AI to write some of their stories. And being the curious bugger I am, I put the tech to the test.

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Just sayin’…

03-08-2024

I received a media release last week from Central Highlands Rural Health saying that they are partnering with the council to provide free access to puberty education resources.

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Kyle’s Rant…

03-08-2024

We are heading off to New Zealand in a few weeks, for my dad's birthday. The old bugger is turning 80 so we can't really say no.

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Just sayin’…

22-07-2024

I have two quite interesting stories this edition. Well, maybe more, but we'll see where these end up. First one came to mind after reading Eve's latest Bushwalks of the Central Highlands.

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Kyle’s Rant…

22-07-2024

If you need cheering up don’t read this column - it contains the misery- infused thoughts of a middle-aged bloke who has just realised he has no control over his world.

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Kyle’s rant

08-07-2024

Recently a friend of mine was walking around Lake Daylesford with their dog and was verbally assaulted by an idiot after an off-leash dog incident.

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Just sayin’…

07-07-2024

Hmmm. If I don't hurry up this could be the first edition of The Local without a Just sayin'… column. OK, I agree, maybe not a bad thing.

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Just sayin’…

24-06-2024

I had some time last week so I did a bit of a Google around about farmland and farm zones. I realise there are experts just waiting on Facebook but instead I went to the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning.

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Kyle’s Rant

24-06-2024

Did former Premier Dan Andrews deserve the nation's highest honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia for his service to Victoria, public health, policy and regulatory reform, and to infrastructure development?

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Your say…

22-06-2024

Large parts of Central Victoria are covered with mining exploration licences with potential to impact your home, property, our environment, our groundwater and waterways.

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Kyle’s Rant

10-06-2024

It feels like the world has gone and got itself a bit tangled up at the moment.

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Just sayin’…

09-06-2024

OK. By now we all know the Hepburn Shire Council is in a bit of a state financially.

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Your say…

07-06-2024

Hepburn Shire Council has shown it is not really interested in genuine consultation with the community of Creswick.

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Your say…

29-05-2024

Hepburn Shire Council have completed a tremendous task in producing the Future Hepburn Housing Strategy, but they have reached some unnecessary and damaging conclusions.

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Your say…

29-05-2024

While the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance applauds Hepburn's efforts in the Rural Hepburn Strategy to protect agricultural land from further inappropriate development for so-called lifestyle blocks we assert that the town structure plans as drafted will thwart this intent to the detriment of both valuable farmland and the character and liveability of our shire's towns.

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Your say…

29-05-2024

I want to start by acknowledging the sheer enormity of the work council staff have undertaken in the development of the draft structure plans for the entire shire.

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Your say…

28-05-2024

After attending Tuesday (May 14) afternoon's meeting, I am still perplexed as to why the council has spent money on four consultants for over two years to come up with a solution that is not only basic and unimaginative but directly contradicts both the community feedback (via the consulting group of 21 residents and the community survey) and its own Agriculture Land Study and Rural Settlement Strategy.

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Your say…

28-05-2024

I am writing to voice my disapproval of the proposed Hepburn Shire Council Draft Plan to change the town boundary along a section of East Street directly across from where I live.

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Just sayin’…

28-05-2024

It will be interesting. So many people against the idea to turn productive farmland into residential land in East Street, Daylesford, but can they change the Hepburn Shire Council's mind?

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Kyle’s Rant

28-05-2024

Is the Hepburn Shire Council doing the bidding of the state government in a sort of puppet master – puppet relationship?

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Your say…

25-05-2024

It is sad to hear of boundary changes that are being proposed in this historic town.

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Your say …

24-05-2024

I write in concern about the proposal Hepburn Shire Council has to rezone prime farming land on the outskirts of East Street in Daylesford.

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Your say…

I’m part of the family who owns the farm on East Street, Daylesford (called Mayfield) which is being proposed to be rezoned, and I’m currently living on that farm.

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Kyle’s Rant

13-05-2024

Tesla motor cars, in my opinion, aren’t all that they are cracked up to be.

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Just sayin’…

12-05-2024

I have been wondering how this year's council elections will go with no ward boundaries.

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The Inspectorate and … that leaked document

10-05-2024

In October last year The Local received a leaked document, via a USB drive, regarding the report by the Local Government Inspectorate into Hepburn Shire Council and dealings with The Rex. And a few other things.

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Your say…

02-05-2024

Over the long weekend in January, I had the need to attend Daylesford Hospital's acute care facility.

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Just sayin’…

01-05-2024

What an extraordinary thing Ros Pyers has done. Generously donated to not just one but four organisations.

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Kyle’s Rant

01-05-2024

What a weird world we live in. A couple of issues ago I wrote my column about mushrooms and how I would avoid scavenging them and stick to the greengrocer. And I don't know what happened over at Clunes, but it is such an unfortunate situation that will impact on the lives of so many for so long.

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Kyle’s Rant

13-04-2024

Japan is a country of juxtapositions. A Fuji photo booth sitting next to a plethora of vending machines offering porn magazines, smokes and booze in the middle of a rice paddy with a handful of workers and nobody else around sums it up for me.

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Just sayin’…

12-04-2024

A long, long time ago, just after the dinosaurs disappeared and the wheel was invented, I lived in Japan.

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Meet you at the Bowlo, with new menu offer

12-04-2024

"Meet you at the Bowlo," has been a part of Daylesford’s dinning vocabulary for many, many years.

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Just sayin’…

01-04-2024

I love a cautionary tale. But not as much as I love a deserved refund. And I have two down and one to go. So feeling pretty happy.

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Kyle’s Rant

01-04-2024

Warning: The first three paragraphs of this editorial will probably put you to sleep!

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Just sayin’…

18-03-2024

Great to see the Daylesford Guide Hall getting the renovations it needs for a new generation of Guides. And apparently Brownies are now Junior Guides.

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Kyle’s Rant

17-03-2024

By the time you read this the feathers will have settled, the pink boas put away to live another day and the glitter swept from the floor.

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Kyle’s Rant

02-03-2024

And to all the corporate idiots who shouted from the rooftops “print is dead” as we started our fledgling magazine in 2013 with a rag-tag gang of volunteers - you just weren’t paying attention!

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Just sayin’…

02-03-2024

So, we just hit the 300th edition of The Local. That's a pretty big milestone for a little local paper. Well, not so little. This edition is 104 pages. Massive.

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Just sayin’…

20-02-2024

Wow. Daylesford is the fourth most welcoming place on earth. Who knew. Well the good folk at Booking.com and they are busy spreading the word.

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Kyle’s Rant

19-02-2024

I don’t need all the mod cons in my car. I have a little noise which comes from the passenger seat if I am about to run into danger, it normally squeaks “chout” an abbreviated “watch-out”.

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Just sayin’…

05-02-2024

It's been a long time since I wore a mask but I did recently. It was on a little New Year break on a shortish flight to Queensland.

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Kyle’s Rant

05-02-2024

What a rip-off this summer has been - and in the wake of the Bureau of Meteorology declaring an El Niño event underway on September 19 last year, which should have meant a hot dry summer.

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Can Trump win the 2024 election? Should we care? Jeff says ‘Yes’ to both.

04-02-2024

The 2024 contest to see who will be the next president of the United States, between incumbent Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump, is being called the most important in the country’s history, by many professional political observers.

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Just sayin’…

20-01-2024

Sometimes I wonder if the world is going mad. Or is it me? Probably me.

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Kyle’s Rant

20-01-2024

As we all settle down into the rhythm of 2024, it is worth considering our New Year's commitments and resolutions and if they are likely to be stuck by, or just drunken rhetoric and false promises.

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Your say…

18-01-2024

I note that Coles Daylesford has removed its sanitiser station from the front door. There is still one at the side entrance.

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Your say…

17-01-2024

I read with interest your article, and comments, re the impending 'delicensing' of the Hepburn Wildlife Shelter. (The Local, January 1, 2024).

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Just sayin’…

03-01-2024

First of all, Happy New Year! It's 2024 already - and the years just keep rolling around. My lovely Nan told me once that time goes faster as you get older, and it's true. But getting older is also a privilege not open to everyone.

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Kyle’s Happy New Year Rant…

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Just sayin’…

25-12-2023

Kyle and I are having an orphans' Christmas this year. I literally am an orphan now, and one of his parents lives in another state and one in another country.

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Kyle’s Rant

25-12-2023

Christmas started way too early this year with the first signs, including mince pies, making their annual debut hot on the heels of the Halloween landfill which wrapped up in early November.

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Just sayin’…

11-12-2023

I thought Heather Mutimer's story on Madame Xenia Borovansky, the niece of the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, and who moved to Daylesford, was fascinating. It's on page 13 (this edition of TL if you want a read).

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Kyle’s rant

11-12-2023

What’s going on with sizes? The other day I did my usual pre-summer shop for a set of jandals, or as they are inappropriately called thongs, ready for the summer.

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Above The Greens with down-to-earth dining

10-12-2023

Above The Greens, the Daylesford Bowling Club's bistro is back up and running with some great fare on offer from chef Geoff Wellington.

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Your say…

09-12-2023

The most obvious difference about moving to the country from inner-city Melbourne is that pedestrians are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to road use in town.

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Kyle’s Rant

27-11-2023

The trouble with getting to the upper end of middle-age is tolerance and the words “that’d be right” seem to come out with every other sentence.

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Just sayin’…

27-11-2023

The past couple of weeks have been horrendous for many people. First and foremost for the friends and family of those people who died in the Daylesford accident.

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Connected by grief but united by love

23-11-2023

Narelle Groenhout, a journalist of many years, including with The Local, was enjoying a drink at the Daylesford Hotel on Sunday, November 5 when her life changed.

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Kyle’s Rant

12-11-2023

So, the No's have it. Well it was an overwhelming No in terms of The Voice vote, and it (The Voice) is probably doomed to being kicked down the road like an unwanted can.

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Just sayin’…

12-11-2023

It was a real shock to hear of the sudden death just last week of Serge Kislinsky. I hope you are not just reading it now in this column.

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Just sayin’…

28-10-2023

I think most people heard about the tragedy in Daylesford last week. An alleged robbery and someone dying as a consequence. I don't want to go into it more than that.

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Kyle’s Rant

28-10-2023

When I was a wee lad, depending on where at the time we lived, bearing in mind I went to 13 schools, I would nip down to the local dairy, which was what we Kiwis called a milkbar, not the local farm.

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Just sayin’…

15-10-2023

I received some mail late last week. Snail mail. A padded envelope. Small. I opened it and inside was a blank piece of A4 paper. Nothing written on it, just a USB stick taped on. Hmmm, I thought. That's going to be interesting.

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Kyle’s Rant…

15-10-2023

The TV show “The Block” maybe coming to the Daylesford township, or at least it was coming to town until a few objectors, climbed onboard the “Leave our pretty town alone” train and stopped it in its tracks.

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Just sayin’…

01-10-2023

Konnichi wa. Finally heading back to Japan after quite a few years away. Well, not until April but time does fly.

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Kyle’s Rant

01-10-2023

Initially I thought when the pandemic came into our worlds in March of 2020, it would leave by the end of that year.

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Your Say: National park, not state park

30-09-2023

I was very concerned when I read the article “Wombat State Park on its way, finally” in The Local (Edition 288, September 11, 2023). The promised park is the Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, not a state park. In 2010 Wombat Forestcare launched a campaign for the Wombat Forest to be protected as a state park.

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Just sayin’…

17-09-2023

Wow, 10 years. It is a cliché but it really does feel like yesterday that we put together a little Word document and wandered the streets asking if people would like to advertise in it. For some reason many did. And thanks to them the first edition came out on September 2, 2013.

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Kyle’s Rant

17-09-2023

For those of you that have heard the story of The Local’s birth, you may find this read interesting as it is amazing how fact changes to fantasy with 10 years' history and perhaps a little embellishment under the belt.

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Just sayin’…

03-09-2023

Had some interesting chats with Hepburn Shire Council CEO Bradley Thomas and Mayor Brian Hood last week.

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Kyle’s Rant

03-09-2023

Every year for the past 39 years, since I was 17, I have done a first aid course. The first one was for my skipper's ticket which involved a little bit more than your average, what is now day course, plus home study.

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Kyle’s Rant…

21-08-2023

I am not much for Facebook in fact my FB friends could be dead and I wouldn’t know, but the other half told me recently of a post that made me wince from the Hepburn Shire Council (HSC).

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Just sayin’…by Donna Kelly

20-08-2023

WORDS in Winter is coming up soon - end of August - so I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and my own love of words.

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Your say… ombudsman an option in home care service woes

19-08-2023

I read your concerns about home care services (Issues 284, 284 & 285) to Daylesford and surrounds. You probably already know this by now, but the Ombudsman is also a step people can take to report their lack of service.

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Just sayin’…

08-08-2023

OK. THIS is my last instalment on aged care provider Benetas. Well, for a bit.

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Kyle’s Rant

08-08-2023

LAST week I found myself in one of my worst nightmare scenarios, waiting outside a shop near the food court at Wendouree Shopping Centre.

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Your say…

05-08-2023

RE Just Sayin'… – July 3, 2023 Issue 283 I enjoy and appreciate The Local, thank you for providing this free publication. I look forward to getting to the back pages of The Local so that I can be annoyed or buoyed by Kyle’s rant, and entertained, informed and at times provoked by your Just Sayin’… column.

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Just sayin’…

24-07-2023

I have run a couple of briefs, back on page 11 (of the latest hard copy edition of The Local) if you want a look, about a positive ageing expo and another program called Living and Ageing Well in Hepburn. As in Hepburn Shire.

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Kyle’s Rant

24-07-2023

WHEN I first started turning out these rants 10 years ago, the best subject matter I could dream up was potholes, drivers and idiots.

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Wine notes with Clive Hartley

09-07-2023

A cool climate is not the growing conditions you imagine suiting a grape like shiraz. It is more at home in hot regions like the Barossa or Hunter Valley. Classic Australian wines are full bodied, rich, alcoholic with ripe jammy, dark black fruit aromas. However, when it is grown in chilly regions it develops more of a savoury medium bodied palate with distinctive pepper aromas. Ask winemaker Llew Knight from Granite Hills about pepper – he’s an expert.

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Just sayin’…

08-07-2023

I WAS going to write about The Voice. It seemed appropriate given this week is NAIDOC Week. I know, National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee Week. I guess one day was not enough.

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Kyle’s Rant

08-07-2023

Humans on mase are filthy creatures, by and large their time is taken up by the need to constantly tend to their orifices.

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Just Sayin’…

24-06-2023

I HAVE been thinking about two things this week. Yes, you know me, multi-tasking yet again.

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Kyle’s Rant

24-06-2023

I AM seriously concerned about the price of living and the potential recession we have on our hands, and I don’t get it.

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Wine notes: Innovation wrapped in tradition

13-06-2023

I consider Best’s Great Western as a national treasure and one of only a handful of wineries that everyone should visit. It is an historical place for a number of reasons.

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Just Sayin’…

11-06-2023

IF YOU see me looking a bit dishevelled, don't worry, it's all about my new exercise regime.

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Kyle’s Rant…

11-06-2023

I bought my first house in the early nineties when I was a young fella in my twenties. I had had a bit of bad luck with employment and was bouncing around on a lot of low paying boats and ships, when finally, I got the call.

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Too many jokers in this deck of cards

11-06-2023

AUSTRALIAN online news services have recently carried stories about government efforts to take gambling advertising off the airwaves.

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Just sayin’…

29-05-2023

PUTTING together our education feature took me on a trip back to my school days. Mostly good memories - I was what you would call a "goody-goody" - and loved most of my teachers and was pretty much a straight A student from prep to Year 10. The wheels fell off then but that's a story I have already told.

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Kyle’s Rant

29-05-2023

Recently we got ChatGPT to write up a piece of editorial, which it quite frankly penned from its electronic anus. See below.

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Your say… Club takes heart

27-05-2023

The 5000 Club community luncheon volunteers are very heartened by the generous response from local individuals and companies to the recent article in The Local (April 24, 2023).

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Just Sayin’…

16-05-2023

A FRIEND once told me, as the editor/journalist, I should attend council meetings. I told her she could go along in my stead. Her reply? "No thanks, what a waste of time." Exactly.

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Kyle’s Rant!

16-05-2023

DONNA and I have decided to hit the road for a bit of time away over winter. We did the same journey a while back but this time it has to be planned within an inch of its life.

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Your say… Bring back Nicole now

15-05-2023

I have been listening to Nicole Chvastek's show Statewide Drive on the ABC radio for many years. I tune in most days to keep abreast on issues relevant in my life.

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Your say… a young visitor’s perspective

15-05-2023

Upon my arrival in Australia, I couldn't wait to explore the country and all it had to offer. One of the first things I noticed was the stringent biosecurity measures, which were in place to protect the country's unique flora and fauna.

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Just Sayin’…

30-04-2023

A FEW things. First up, well done to Beck Lewis who, despite having breast cancer, is spending her downtime from treatments encouraging others to get checked.

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Kyle’s Rant

30-04-2023

JUST back from visiting my dad in NZ. Left on Saturday, back on Wednesday. Long enough.

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Just sayin’…

17-04-2023

THIS is a public service announcement. Ladies, check your boobs.

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Kyle’s Rant

17-04-2023

WHEN you live in the district for a while, as with my experience living here since 2005, you see life change, particularly as people age.

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Your say…

15-04-2023

I am in Barringo Reserve, and in the waning sunlight, there is no path to organise my footsteps or show me a clear, linear way of moving.

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Your say…

15-04-2023

A flyer in the letterbox entitled ‘Say No to an Abattoir in Eganstown!’ says "our health, environment and way of life are under threat!"

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Just sayin’…

03-04-2023

SOME things just make you smile. Like driving past the PISS OFF AUSNET sign mowed into the hill on the way to Creswick.

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Kyle’s Rant

03-04-2023

A RECENT trip to Lorne bought back some memories of 2020. You remember, the beginning of the pandemic.

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Just sayin’…

20-03-2023

KYLE was asked an interesting question the other day. Someone was wondering why we cover some festivals/events and not others.

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Kyle’s Rant

19-03-2023

THE world has gone and gotten into a “woke” tangle of unpicking history and misunderstanding around every corner.

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Just sayin’…

I HAD a nice compliment this week. The Powercor PR guy said my column in the last edition was the best power outage story he had read. Even showed it to his boss.

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Kyle’s Rant…

04-03-2023

IT ALL started innocently enough, writing that is, when this mild-mannered photographer started banging away on the keyboard to produce this rant back in September 2013.

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Kyle’s Rant

19-02-2023

IF YOU are sick of people bagging the Hepburn Shire Council then it’s time for you to turn the page. For the rest of you I have a tale to tell that will have you saying “that would be right” under a slow, shallow exhale.

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Just sayin’… By Donna Kelly

18-02-2023

DINNER done and I was sitting down ready to watch, again, Mr Inbetween. It's a great Australian series, quite dark, but also very funny. The guy who wrote it is also the lead character.

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Powercor reply to Just Sayin’… Feb 13, 2023

12-02-2023

Powercor is working to address reliability issues affecting customers in Daylesford, Glenlyon and surrounding areas.

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Just sayin’…

05-02-2023

IT'S the start of a new year, well just past the start, but there are a few things which seem to linger longer - and I have been thinking about them.

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Kyle’s Rant

05-02-2023

HAPPY Australia Day. That seems wrong. Do we even celebrate Australia Day any more? And if we don't, why the public holiday?

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Just sayin’…

23-01-2023

SO, MYER Frankston has closed. The final shopping day was Sunday, January 15 but according to social media, most of the bargains were long gone.

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Kyle’s Rant

22-01-2023

I AM never too sure when to stop saying Happy New Year. Is it after the first day of the New Year or do we wait about a week or so?

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Your Say: Short stay accommodation

21-01-2023

In May 2022, I wrote to The Local – Edition 256 – detailing the many issues relating to short stay accommodation within the Hepburn Shire.

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Your Say: LOL!

21-01-2023

LOL One of my favourite things to do is read The Local and today I grabbed a copy of the first issue for 2023. When I turned to page 14 to read Kyle’s Rant, I laughed so much.

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Your Say: Shapeshifters

21-01-2023

I heard whispers of a trail, in a reserve, on the outskirts of Riddells Creek that I was yet to walk. It’s an hour-long loop full of undulations and changing scenery.

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Just Sayin’…

06-01-2023

KYLE and I lived for a year in Karratha, WA. Below Broome, way above Perth.

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Your say…

26-12-2022

Dear Kyle, (Kyle's Rant, December 5, 2022) Yes, the geese are gone, and I note your bereavement, though it is one borne of a passé colonial attitude, that the Australian fauna is actually inferior to that of the Old World.

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Your say…

26-12-2022

Here is an incident that highlights Daylesford's inadequate public toilet facilities.

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Just Sayin’…

25-12-2022

SO, this is our last edition for the year. But don't worry, despite repeated attempts we failed to win either Powerball or Tattslotto so will probably be back next year.

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Kyle’s Rant

25-12-2022

JULY 20 1969, 3.17pm American EST, a huge shift in human history began. Neil and his band of merry men landed on the big cheese.

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DUD: Risk to iconic natural mineral water too high

23-12-2022

GOLD mining caused great harm to the mineral spring water supply in Hepburn Shire from late 1910. And now a growing number of residents in Daylesford and Hepburn Springs are anxious at the risk any new deep gold mining creates for this unique underground mineral water aquifer.

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Wait a minute – 2023? What happened to 2022?

22-12-2022

KEEN-eyed readers of this paragon of print media that you hold in your hands at this moment might have noticed that its United States correspondent hasn’t been contributing much news over the past several months, and many, perhaps, have even asked themselves, “why?” Which could have led to the follow-up query: “who cares?”

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Election lessons

11-12-2022

The latest Victorian election results, particularly the results in the seats of Ripon, Eureka, Wendouree and Melton have some very particular lessons for the Liberal/National Party Coalition.

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Transparency needed

11-12-2022

There is a lot of discussion about rising interest rates and mortgage stress. However there is no discussion about banks charging interest on loans they create out of nothing.

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Just Sayin’

THERE'S been a lot of Black Friday sales going on, online. And that's OK, but with Christmas fast approaching spare a thought for your local businesses.

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Kyle’s Rant

WE HAVE an amazing collection of towns and villages here in the Central Highlands of Victoria, each having their own unique history and vibe.

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B&B Woes

30-11-2022

We have recently had need to search out a letter in The Local (Issue 256, June 20, 2022) submitted by Dave McLachlan detailing his life now he is surrounded by bed and breakfast businesses.

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Your say

30-11-2022

Our rural property suffered flood damage to two of our dams in the recent floods/storms. One of these dams has been an ongoing restoration project for us since the massive floods of 2011.

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Just sayin’… By Donna Kelly

29-11-2022

DECEMBER 5 is/was International Volunteer Day. The is/was is because it depends what day you are reading this.

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Kyle’s Rant

29-11-2022

AS IF things aren’t bad enough, the bottom feeders have stepped it up a whole other gear in terms of brassy, ballsy rip offs.

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How logging and mining are killing the Wombat State Forest

23-11-2022

Our forests are fundamental to water and food security, as well as the habitat and protection of our eco-system. Logging and mining mean pollution and greater risk of flood and fire.

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Just sayin’… By Donna Kelly

START worrying white males, your time is running out.

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Kyle’s Rant

14-11-2022

WITH Halloween done and dusted for the year, the wigs, hats, and assortment of “scary” things have been popped into landfill to be marvelled at by the apes that take over the world in 200 years.

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Just sayin’… By Donna Kelly

30-10-2022

BLOODY hell, that was a busy week.

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Kyle’s rant

30-10-2022

DOROTHEA Mackellar wrote: "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.

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Glen, about the house

14-10-2022

One of the most exciting successes in gardening is creating a new plant from a small growth taken from a favourite tree or shrub.

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Just Sayin’…

14-10-2022

SO, the Big Rainbow is coming to Daylesford. I kinda thought we would win. I mean the other towns were a little bit, well, not really on my gaydar. But then, maybe they are LGBTIQA+. I have been to Katherine in the Northern Territory and I can't say it glittered.

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Kyle’s rant

14-10-2022

I SPENT a couple of years in the Hepburn Shire Council, starting as a volunteer at the Visitor Information Centre, and with that my stellar career in the Tourism Department had begun. It was just one of those times in life that you find everything simply works out.

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Kyle’s Rant

30-08-2022

FIRST we had AusNet. Proposed high voltage transmission lines across Hepburn and Moorabool shires - with a terminal station at Blampied.

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Just sayin’…

18-08-2022

Went out for lunch the other day. Not locally, a sushi train restaurant. In the old days, well not so old, but older than now, they actually looked like little trains running around on the tracks. But I think people had too much sake and then tried to derail the train which sounds like fun but in reality ends up a rice and fish mess.

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Kyle’s Rant

18-08-2022

I watched in disbelief as the newsreaders banged on about the subject of house prices to alarm the viewers and get the most valuable of all currency, ratings.

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Local Lines

18-08-2022

Local Lines

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Kyle’s Rant

05-08-2022

"So, there’s that one and that one", the waitress declares. She is, of course, talking about the two menus as she handed me a non-Covid-friendly, sticky laminated glimpse into the hygiene of the kitchen.

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Why no-one cares about your long Covid

02-08-2022

IT’S been a while since I’ve written a story. It’s also been a while since I’ve breathed freely. Or gotten through a day without a nap. Or been for a walk. Anywhere. Just for the joy of it. How long? Since Covid.

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Elections in a democracy

25-07-2022

IN LATE May, Australians exercised their democratic right in the 2022 federal election. Whether deciding based on policies or personalities, voters chose to remove from power the conservative Liberal-National Coalition led by Scott Morrison, in favour of the more progressive Labor Party and its partners, led by Anthony Albanese.

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Just sayin’…

22-07-2022

FIRST we had the vaccine stroll out, now we have a new federal government and we apparently have the antivirals stroll out.

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Kyle’s Rant

22-07-2022

I DON'T seem to have much luck with online ordering.

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Your say

19-07-2022

Dogs on leads please

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Your Say

19-07-2022

Your say

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Your say

18-07-2022

Your say

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Just sayin’..

09-07-2022

IF YOU flip back to page 11 you will find Kevin Childs' story on the sad or sick state of our health system. Kevin talked to health workers, on the condition of anonymity, and wrote about how many things are going wrong - some life and death situations.

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Kyle’s Rant

09-07-2022

I WATCHED with interest our first intergalactic space launch from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Just a couple of days prior we had been reminiscing about our trip to Cooktown.

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Your Say

05-07-2022

An article in a recent issue of The Local (Edition 255) is about the vote regarding the Big Rainbow, and is really testing our tolerance.

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Just sayin’…

24-06-2022

I GUESS, being the travel edition and all, I should talk about the joys of hitting the road, but it's not all beer and skittles. Whatever that means.

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Kyle’s Rant

24-06-2022

ON THE road again. This is the first long road trip in years, weighing in at a whopping 4000 kilometre drive with an average 400km under the tyres per day, and things have changed in the 27 years since we last made the trip.

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Your Say/Letters

20-06-2022

I read with great interest, the article published in The Local (Issue 254, May 23, 2022) regarding the significant problems associated with guests staying at short term accommodation sites in the Hepburn Shire.

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Just sayin’…

09-06-2022

SO, DAYLESFORD is in the running for the Big Rainbow. Of just four towns. Daylesford, Hay, Katherine and Broome. I reckon we're a shoo- in.

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Kyle’s Rant

05-06-2022

BODY image is a strange thing, these days it is a subject of taboo due to woke principles and body shaming culture, but did you see the BPAY advert on TV with that big fat guy in the bath?

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Just sayin’…

27-05-2022

IT'S a funny thing getting older. Just the other day I was joking with Kyle that he used to be ripped and now he's more just Van Winkled, or Van Wrinkled. Actually he's in great shape, thanks to interval fasting and refusing to have a drink until 6pm. I am more of a "must be 5pm somewhere in the world" kind of a woman.

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Kyle’s Rant

26-05-2022

BY THE narrowest of margins the better of two weevils have won the race, we have chosen one white balding 50-something-year-old chump over another.

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Your Say – Letters

24-05-2022

Last issue (The Local, May 9) had two letters condemning the recent fire risk mitigation and timber salvage operations being undertaken by VicForests in the Wombat State Forest abutting Lyonville township, calling it environmental destruction.

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Your Say – Letters

24-05-2022

In our unpretentious street in Clunes I can count at least five houses which I would describe as uninhabited.

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Kyle’s Rant

14-05-2022

THE world is buggered. Interest rates are spiking, the cost of living is up and we are all going to die. Or so the media would have you believe.

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Your Say – Letters

13-05-2022

The 5000 Club is seeking a cook to work with us at the pavilion at Victoria Park, Daylesford which has a full commercial kitchen

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Your Say – Letters

13-05-2022

Rex consultation too quick: Hepburn Shire Council officers were directed by councillors to design The Rex community consultation in November 2021.

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Your Say – Letters

13-05-2022

Let's talk about the real fire risk in the Wombat State Forest. More than 13,000 hectares of the Wombat State Forest is regrowth from the overlogging of the forest up to 2006.

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Your Say – Letters

12-05-2022

I have worked in the natural resource management sector for 20 years, including as an environmental officer/lead consultant on major projects such as gas pipelines and wind farms.

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Just sayin’…
By Donna Kelly

09-05-2022

GREAT news that the Daylesford Field & Game Club can return to its home at Glenlyon Reserve.

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Just sayin’… with Donna Kelly

29-04-2022

IT WAS really interesting having a chat with Cecilia Macaulay last week - check out her story on page 7. If not for Covid, she would be heading to Japan pretty soon where she spends our winters every year.

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The last word – a crash course in road rules

29-04-2022

A popular poet once wrote:

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Kyle’s Rant

27-04-2022

I DO love this country but my God we pay a lot of tax.

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Kyle’s Rant

17-04-2022

Estimated travel time: New Zealand to Melbourne - 23 hours. It’s not a flight you would choose. But sometimes they choose you. And you know what? Travel just isn’t fun anymore. A cautionary tale follows.

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Just sayin’…

17-04-2022

I WON'T say every Easter because that would be a lie. But when I talk to people like Natalie Kirby, I think about my stint in the Royal Children's Hospital. If you don't know the connection with Easter and the hospital and Nat, head back to page 11.

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Kyle’s Rant

01-04-2022

THE Local started on September 2, 2013, due to a combination of happenstance, and has been driven forward into the present with tenacity from the crew, the reckless and rambunctious business acumen and photography skill of yours truly as well as the skill of the editor, keeping a steady hand on the tiller.

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Just sayin’…

02-04-2022

IT'S not always easy being green or a journalist. (Nod to Kermit there.) Now and again we get asked to investigate something or someone. Generally we don't because we don't have the money or time for lengthy investigations, or it's just a grudge match and we don't want to get involved in the argy-bargy.

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Just sayin’…

18-03-2022

I WASN'T going to write this, because it's all a bit too close, but Mum loved being in this column, even when she jokingly told me she was going to sue for some mostly imagined slander, so here goes.

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Your Say

18-03-2022

YESTERDAY I put down my gardening tools and picked up my talking drum. Catching the bus with close neighbours and fellow community to the steps of Parliament House.

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The Last Word – Fire on the mountain

18-03-2022

Here’s a world-class whinge: many Central Highlands residents know what it’s like to evacuate their houses because of an oncoming bushfire, but, you know, it sure is a hassle having to unpack all your stuff when the authorities sound the all-clear and you’re allowed to return home.

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Kyle’s Rant

17-03-2022

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide, foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz, hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law, rock and roller, cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

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Your say

15-03-2022

Letters

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Just sayin’…

01-03-2022

WOW. I just watched the National Press Club piece with Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame. They were both fantastic but Grace Tame is amazingly fierce.

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Kyle’s Rant

01-03-2022

I DON’T get a lot of feedback on my columns, I am sure they generally get ignored as the paper makes its way to the woodbox, however my last column ruffled a few feathers. Well actually, just one feather.

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No matter where you go, there you are

28-02-2022

We bought a holiday house in Wheatsheaf in 2000, on a lovely five-acre block with a pretty little dam that didn’t hold water. The Hills Hoist in the backyard spoiled the forest view so I pulled it out - hey, we didn’t go there to do laundry.

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Your Say

20-02-2022

Donna, your "Just Sayin'…" in The Local p18, Issue 246 was so on point.

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17-02-2022

SCROLLING through Facebook can sometimes be a waste of time but sometimes it is great fun. Lately I have connected with former high school friends at Mt Eliza High School. That's not so much fun because I then go and look at their photos now and think "how old are they?" And then realise I am that old too.

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Kyle’s Rant

17-02-2022

WHAT is going on with the potholes? Driving around the Central Highlands is like a stint in the Dakar Rally. Instead of the obligatory scattering of gravel and stomp down that may last a day, the good people on the roadworks seem to have given up.

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The Last Word – they’re playin’ Jeff’s song on the radio

16-02-2022

A FEW evenings ago Carol and I were sitting in the lounge room in front of the television, looking at Netflix, and it must have been a Thursday because she had control of the remote.

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Your Say

15-02-2022

Hepburn Hub at The Rex

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Just Sayin’…

07-02-2022

I HAVE been watching a fair bit of TV lately. Just relaxing a little, staying at home, breathing deeply - without fear. You know the drill.

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Kyle’s Rant

07-02-2022

THE summer holidays have ground to a halt, our New Year's resolutions are a bit of a distant memory and we have wheeled the dumpster fire known as 2021 into the back lane, filled it with accelerant and let it rip.

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Your Say – Hepburn Hub at The Rex

19-01-2022

Let me take you back. Before council ever got involved in The Rex Arcade, the community had a functioning cinema in a privately-owned building.

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Your Say – Hepburn Hub at The Rex

19-01-2022

Leadership is clearly hard work and not everyone is up for it. Scott Morrison for instance finds it much easier to let us look after ourselves than put his role on the line and actually make a decision about mask mandates

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Just sayin’…

18-01-2022

I honestly thought 2021 would see us out of this mess and back into a normal way of life. That was wishful thinking.

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Just sayin’…

08-12-2021

I get the feeling everyone is as stunned as I am about Hepburn Shire Council deciding, pretty randomly, to scrap the Hepburn Hub project at The Rex.

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Your say

09-12-2021

Film-going captured me at the age of seven. The thrill of sharing in The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains and Basil Rathbone in 1938 are with me still.

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Your say

08-12-2021

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Your say

08-12-2021

Council’s decision on The Rex is indicative of the following:

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Your Say…

08-12-2021

At the council meeting of November 23, 2021 council was presented with an alternate motion to recommending awarding of the contract for the Hepburn Hub at The Rex - Stage 2 Building Works.

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Kyle’s rant

07-12-2021

THE topic of the moment is The Rex in Daylesford and the abhorrent waste of ratepayers' money. I do intend to get to that after this quick community safety message.

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Just sayin’…

29-11-2021

SO, WE are out the other side. Sort of. As in a massive lifting of restrictions. No more masks for most people unless you are working in hospitality or medicine. It's great news. For the vaccinated. Not so much if you have decided not to get the jab. Small life and all that.

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Kyle’s Rant

28-11-2021

THE world of digital news combined with the pandemic has not been too kind on traditional community newspapers, who have been slow to change their ways and have as a result perished or become solely digital in the new media landscape.

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What happened to you?

27-11-2021

TWENTY years ago I was sitting in my university dorm room watching TV as two planes flew into the World Trade Centre. I didn’t know that one year later I would be blind. I also didn’t know that the evil individual labelled as the ‘mastermind’ of that horrific attack was blind. I only learned that last week, watching a doco about the 9/11 anniversary.

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Kate Taylor imagines no more disability tropes

12-11-2021

IMAGINE there’s no disability tropes. I wonder if you can.

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Kyle’s Rant

11-11-2021

I KNOW I should thank my lucky stars living the life I live and being born into a first world community, having hot dinners on the table every night and a reliable car to run around in.

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Just sayin’…

11-11-2021

WENT to a function the other day. It was pretty exciting. I even washed my hair. It's not that hard once you get around to it.

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Kyle’s Rant

25-10-2021

“IT is what it is.” What bottom feeding, low-life, full of bovine excrement idiot came up with that saying? What does it even mean?

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Just sayin’…

So Hepburn Shire Library has done away with fines. Good news all round. Well, if you borrow and don't return, I guess. But they will still want the books back, you just kind of hit a "go slow" with borrowing if you fail to return.

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Kate Taylor does not write inspiration porn

25-10-2021

I DO not write inspiration porn. If you don’t know me, or this is the first time you’ve read anything by me, for over 12 months I have been writing stories for a disability support service provider. About giving voice to the people they provide support to.

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Moderna booster but not for ‘old and fat’

25-10-2021

A SEPTEMBER 17 CNN online story was headlined: “Moderna's vaccine is the most effective, but Pfizer and J&J also protect well, CDC-led study says”. That news suited me just fine - as previously reported in this fine publication, I received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine in January and took the second shot in February.

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The Last Word: Kate Taylor is no Paralympian

11-10-2021

“YOU should be a paralympian.” What?!

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Just sayin’…

11-10-2021

WE GOT a tip! Nah, not one of those: "I know what you should do in The Local…" to which the reply is easy. "Well, great, when you have worked on other papers for about 30 years, take the plunge, open your own and then just do whatever you think we should be doing."

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Kyle’s Rant

11-10-2021

“ALL welcome, no judgement” is the sign above the doors and in the social media of a few local businesses in the Central Highlands.

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Your say

11-10-2021

Your say

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Kyle’s Rant

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Just sayin’… By Donna Kelly

YOU will find it hard to believe but I get annoyed at times. Yep, kind, placid me. If you really want proof, just ask Kyle. Maybe don't.

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Covid-19 care factor zero in California

A FEW Fridays ago I went out for lunch with a vaccinated friend. Isn’t that a sign of the times - I don’t describe him as an old friend, a good mate, someone I’ve known since high school, who I’ve shared many adventures with over the years. No, he’s a vaccinated friend.

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Kyle’s Rant

LAST week I hired a post hole digger from the blokes at Kyneton Hire. The reason for the post hole digger procurement was as an easy way to plant a few plants that have grown too big for their pots. The cost was $90 for a 24-hour hire and when you are looking down the barrel of a dozen or so big tree holes, a bargain by anyone’s calculation.

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Just sayin’… By Donna Kelly

27-09-2021

YOU will find it hard to believe but I get annoyed at times. Yep, kind, placid me. If you really want proof, just ask Kyle. Maybe don't.

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Hepburn Hub at The Rex project in doubt

24-05-2021

The current Hepburn Hub at The Rex project may be cancelled.

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Kyle’s Rant

12-04-2021

WHAT a whirlwind time it’s been with paracetamol falling down the medical stairs of trust to be branded a placebo, and now the federal government declaring that AstraZeneca be not administered for under 50 year olds, due to blood clot concerns.

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Just sayin’…

29-03-2021

IT WAS March 11, 2020 when the World Health Organization (yes, spelt with a z because, well, I don't know - it's Swiss not American) finally called the pandemic.

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Kyle’s Rant

29-03-2021

HOW often have you heard “We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes right now” or “all of our team are busy, please hold and we will answer your call as soon as possible”? All while patiently waiting on the phone listening to music from the 1980s that is designed to take you back to a simpler time and calm you down.

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Just sayin’…

15-03-2021

IT'S been a strange week in an even stranger 12 months.

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Kyle’s Rant

15-03-2021

SO, ARE we on Team Markle or Team Queen or Team “don’t give a toss”?

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Just sayin’…

01-03-2021

SO FEBRUARY has just finished up. And that means FebFast is over. Which is good because I failed miserably at giving up alcohol. But do I blame myself? Of course not.

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Kyle’s Rant

01-03-2021

THE other day I went on a photoshoot - I know, no big deal but bear in mind during the pandemic the old camera bag sat in the corner and collected dust.

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Kyle’s Rant

08-02-2021

THIS year I find myself dragging my feet. I am technically challenged once again and feel like my cobwebbed brain is just not keeping up.

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Just sayin’…

15-02-2021

IT'S Sunday morning, well, almost noon, and I have just decided to rewrite this column. I had one done and dusted but I thought about it overnight and decided it was too gloomy. And one thing we don't need right now is gloomy. So here are some more upbeat things and thoughts.

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Kyle’s Rant

15-02-2021

AS YOU are probably aware, unless you have been under a rock somewhere, we have had another couple of recent slip-ups from the hotel quarantine.

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Just sayin’…

25-01-2021

OUR US correspondent Jeff Glorfeld sent us a very, well, sort of funny, piece for this edition. He and his wife Carol, former Wheatsheaf residents now living in Redding, California had their first vaccine shots last Saturday, January 16. Read all about it on the back page. Oh, and tune into the podcast at www.tlnews.com.au/podcast

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Kyle’s Rant

25-01-2021

THE few people I know, know I have a boating lineage. I like a sailor’s life and feel most at home aboard a vessel plying the brine.

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Just sayin’…

18-01-2021

IT'S been a funny couple of weeks. Mainly thanks to our readers. It started with an email after a reader noticed that Kyle's Rant had been truncated down to "I'm out, write your own rant here".

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Kyle’s Rant

18-01-2021

I WROTE a rant a couple of editions ago that declared I was done for the year and asked if, for one edition of our free reading offering, you (the readers) wouldn’t mind popping your own rant in the allotted space.

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The Last Word – A pandemic reading guide

18-01-2021

IT LOOKED like Victoria had beaten COVID-19 into submission, and then new cases began leaking in from NSW.

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Just sayin’…

21-12-2020

SO, THIS is Christmas, And what have you done? Another year over, A new one just begun. And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun, The near and the dear ones, The old and the young. A very merry Christmas, And a happy New Year, Let's hope it's a good one, Without any fear. And so this is Christmas, For weak and for strong, The rich and the poor ones, The road is so long.

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Kyle’s Rant

21-12-2020

I DON'T have a lot to add to these Christmas festivities except “we don’t know how lucky we are mate” - that is, us living in the land down under compared to the Northern Hemisphere.

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Magic hour in the Wombat Forest

21-12-2020

MOVING can become a habit with some people. Carol and I drifted through our share of flats and houses in St Kilda and Elwood before we finally settled on a five-acre block in Wheatsheaf. It wasn’t that we were stuck, or had lost the urge to pack up and go, it’s just that the thought of living anywhere else just didn’t quite feel right.

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Kyle’s Rant

14-12-2020

RECENTLY we visited the city (it was a Monday and dead) and once we had checked into our hotel room, a ritzy two-bedroom apartment on the 22nd floor for under $200 (cheap as, bro), we were off for lunch.

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Just sayin’…

14-12-2020

THE mask thing is strange now. Yes, you have to wear them in places like large shopping centres and supermarkets but not in smaller shops, unless you can't socially distance.

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Just sayin’…

07-12-2020

I MUST say I was pretty surprised to see an email in my inbox saying COVID-19 had been detected in the wastewater of Daylesford.

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Kyle’s rant

07-12-2020

CRUISING around the world on giant cruise ships is my idea of luxe. I am not talking about those boats that have a maze of slides running over the top of them for the kiddies to enjoy or the craft that have a giant ball on the top for the best view.

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Kyle’s Rant

30-11-2020

ANOTHER year is ending, the hint of Christmas is in the air. I can tell by all the sales emails that are pinging into my inbox. What is this Black Friday rubbish that keeps hitting my spam account?

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Just sayin’…

30-11-2020

I WAS watching the news this morning, well not really the news, more morning television with a two-minute bit that calls itself news - with half of that given over to sports.

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An Aussie in America

23-11-2020

MELBOURNE is a great place for walking. One thing I loved about the tram network was how much exercise I got from walking all through the city.

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Kyle’s Rant

16-11-2020

AS WE come out the other side of the lockdowns and the sheer terror that formed our Winter in terms of the pandemic, I wonder what we have learnt as a race.

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Just sayin’…

16-11-2020

I KNOW for some, it has been a slow year. And that is not always a good thing. But for us, it has been busy at The Local Publishing Group. And that is a good thing.

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Kyle’s Rant

09-11-2020

TOURISTS: A species of humans not in their home habitat, usually identified by the wonderment on their faces as they amble around the streets, brains in neutral, on the hunt for coffee and nourishment.

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Just sayin’… Donna Kelly

09-11-2020

IF YOU read last week's column you would have seen my reluctance to jinx things. Which is just as well because by last Sunday arvo I felt lousy and called the doctor on Mon

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Just sayin’…

02-11-2020

AND like that, it was over. Well, not over, but you could see the other side. The announcement by Premier Dan Andrews that Melbourne could finally open, and those double days of zero figures, had people crying in the streets.

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Kyle’s Rant

02-11-2020

RECENTLY I invested in a new iPhone, after all, the old one was five years old and according to one taxi driver it made my hands look big. Wrong. And yes, it was an old iPhone 5.

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GROB

26-10-2020

Cartoons by GROB

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Kyle’s Rant

26-10-2020

WOW, I have hit the dizzying heights of being an influencer. Well not just me, The Local. Well not actually just The Local. We intercepted a general media shout-out by a media campaign company to do with organic natural chicken jerky.

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Just sayin’…

26-10-2020

I TOOK part in a Google Hangout last week. Like a Zoom meeting but it was actually with Google people so using the Google platform.

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So, Glenn. How did you become a cartoonist?

05-10-2020

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Kyle’s Rant

05-10-2020

I HAVE never been one for settling down. The fact I went to 13 schools in my childhood as my father chased the fish might have something to do with that, but I find myself having lived in the Central Highlands for 15 years now.

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Just sayin’…

05-10-2020

BEING the 200th edition I thought I would try to remember how our crew came along. A trip down memory lane, if you will, in no particular order. (It's a bit long so if you get bored feel free to wander off…maybe check out our new website at www.tlnews.com.au)

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Just sayin’…

28-09-2020

WHEN I lived in Japan, back in my 20s, Mum used to send me the Women's Weekly's Handy Hints.

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Kyle’s Rant

28-09-2020

WHEN making rules such as mask wearing, the various layers of government must have to apply a “slippage” rate. That is a rate for the 15 per cent of society who are colloquially known as “dipshits”.

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21-09-2020

LIKE a lot of people, over my life I have suffered with body image issues. I reckon it started in the 70s, trying to figure out my mother’s diet fads. There was the grapefruit diet, the F-plan and lots of cottage cheese and rice cakes stuffed into the fridge and pantry.

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Just sayin’…

21-09-2020

I SUPPOSE I should be writing about our new found freedom and that we can eat out again and enjoy each other's company.

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Kyle’s Rant

14-09-2020

A FEW months ago, a TV advertisement popped up with a little girl who shrieked at her mother for using excess water to pre-wash the dishes before they went into the dishwasher.

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Just sayin’…

14-09-2020

IF JENNY Morrison can do it, then I can. And no, I don't mean sleep with Scotty from marketing. Or head out to buy some jigsaw puzzles

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Kyle’s Rant

07-09-2020

WHEN I was growing up, we had TV One - and that about describes the choice of entertainment as we only had one channel up the top of the North Island of New Zealand.

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Just sayin’…

07-09-2020

IT'S gone on a long time. This year. Not that I would ever wish time away but I wouldn't mind if the vaccine came along or we eradicated the virus from our shores.

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Kyle’s Rant

24-08-2020

GEE, I am starting to miss my family and that feeling has been doubled down by the border closures. I guess I am lucky to still have a mother and a father but I now realise that I haven’t given them enough attention over the years with distance being the tyranny.

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Just sayin’…

24-08-2020

WHEN we first moved to Glenlyon, back in 2005, it felt like we were the only people in the village - straight or gay.

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Kyle’s Rant

17-08-2020

SOMETIMES I wonder what sort of new phrase paradigm we have dropped into? Stay with me here.

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Just sayin’…

17-08-2020

WHEN I was born, my mum cried. Now, according to all the movies I have watched, this is not such a big deal. Except that she didn't cry with joy, she cried because I had red hair.

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Kyle’s Rant

10-08-2020

A SOVEREIGN citizen is someone who believes that he or she is above all laws and a member of a political movement of people who oppose taxation, question the legitimacy of government and believe that they are not subject to the law.

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Just sayin’…

10-08-2020

WELL, here we go again. Lockdown 2.0. Last edition I said there were still many things to be grateful for, so rather than complain I have some more thank-yous.

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Kyle’s Rant

03-08-2020

WHAT a weird world we live in. It seems like during the middle of last year I am planning out 2020, then the bushfires hit and then we land straight into a pandemic.

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Just sayin’…

03-08-2020

GEE, the Karens of Australia must be so Not Happy Jan! And at this rate they'll end up like Nigel, with no friends.

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