Front page news: September 5-11, 2007-2015
A snapshot of news from across the years
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September 5, 2007: A Horsham truck fire that authorities believe started in a rear tyre has burnt out five brand new cars and left a damage bill of more than $300,000 in its wake.
Nearby residents likened it to hearing gun shots when the Dimboola Road fire, opposite Horsham College, started just after midnight on Monday.
The Western Highway and Adelaide-Melbourne rail line were closed, and power was cut to some Horsham houses as about 40 emergency service workers went to the scene.
Fire authorities fought the flames for two hours as traffic came to a standstill. Cars, and predominantly trucks, were lined up for kilometres either side of the inferno when it first began before being diverted around the scene.
September 7, 2007: A St Arnaud man with one of the worst driving records in the state has walked from Horsham Magistrate’s Court this week on bail.
Colin Jeffrey McPhee, 53, has 24 prior drink driving convictions and 27 convictions for having driven with a disqualified licence.
But a magistrate granted him bail on Wednesday because police found him five times this year allegedly driving without a licence — three of those times drink driving — and released him each time.
They bailed McPhee after his most recent offence on August 14, where he admitted to the court he fell asleep at the wheel before crashing into a tree near Marong in central Victoria.
A warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in St Arnaud court on August 30 for that offence.
McPhee told the court he then hitch-hiked from St Arnaud to Horsham to appear for a Horsham Magistrate’s Court date on Wednesday, and it was there that his warrant was executed.
But in an extraordinary bail application, his time in custody lasted less than a day, after Wimmera Magistrate Andrew Capell issued bail.
September 10, 2007: From the Wimmera to London’s famous West End, Horsham actor Alex Rathgeber has hit the big time in the world of musical theatre.
Rathgeber, 24, will tonight begin the major role of Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera in front of a packed house on one of the world’s most prestigious theatre strips.
In the crowd tonight will be proud parents David and Katherine Rathgeber who have travelled from Horsham to London for their son’s West End debut.
Rathgeber told the Mail-Times from London he was thrilled to have his parents watch his debut performance.
He said he was looking forward to getting into costume.
‘‘Once I get into the theatre on the night, that’s when I’ll get nervous,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s kind of surreal. What I love is that everyone around the world knows Phantom.’’
September 8, 2008: A Wimmera woman managed to escape US storm Hurricane Gustav by the ‘skin of her teeth’.
The storm hit Louisiana last week, leaving more than 900,000 homes and businesses without power.
State Governor Bobby Jindal had urged all residents to flee New Orleans, stating that the storm could cause worse flooding than Hurricane Katrina.
Kirsten Schulz, 25, was holidaying in the US after working as an occupational therapist with Camp America.
Her father Steven Schulz of Vectis said Miss Schulz had flown into New Orleans only a few days before Gustav was due to come through.
‘‘She’s an occupational therapist and had been working with kids at Camp America for three months. She’d gone to New Orleans afterwards as part of her travelling around,’’ he said.
Mr Schulz said his daughter had only been in the hotel a few days before the management told her and her travelling companions to leave.
‘‘She was told they had to get out, but the flight she booked was cancelled. So they did what everybody else did — caught a bus or a taxi to the airport,’’ he said.
Miss Schulz described New Orleans to her father as ‘deathly quiet, eerie, just so hot and humid, right before the storm’.
September 7, 2009: Dorevitch Pathology has started sending out backdated bills to Wimmera residents despite leaving the region more than a month ago.
The company made headlines in July when it lost a pathology tender at Wimmera Base Hospital after 12 years.
Soon after losing the tender, Dorevitch started charging Wimmera patients without warning, including health care card holders and pensioners.
The move contradicted a company announcement in April 2008 it would bulk bill all Wimmera patients because of the toll drought was taking on the community.
But Longerenong residents and health care card holders Gordon and Lorna Mills received a Dorevitch bill for $203 last week for tests done on April 2 this year.
Mr Mills said it was the first bill the couple had received.
September 9, 2009: A Horsham man is in Wimmera Base Hospital after the car he was driving and a police vehicle collided near Green Lake yesterday morning.
Horsham Acting Inspector Bob Thomson said a police divisional van spotted the allegedly stolen vehicle, being driven by a man in his late 30s, driving along the Western Highway towards Horsham about 4am.
‘‘Our officers were in pursuit of the vehicle, not at high speed, when it was established he was not going to pull over,’’ Mr Thomson said.
‘‘The officers tried to intercept the vehicle and pulled up alongside and the driver swerved into the police vehicle, causing both vehicles to veer off the road.’’
Mr Thomson said police were investigating whether the same man had been involved in an incident earlier in the night involving an allegedly stolen vehicle from Horsham and an accident in Stawell.
‘‘The man involved in the Green Lake incident was trapped in the vehicle and SES and CFA were on site,’’ he said.
‘‘He was transported to Wimmera Base Hospital where he is under arrest and in police custody.’’
September 6, 2010: Horsham Rural City Council was alerting Riverside residents late yesterday after flood mapping predicted at least 20 homes in the area could be inundated with flood waters late today and early tomorrow.
Emergency services will establish an incident control centre at Horsham today to prepare for flooding of the Wimmera River around and downstream of the city this week.
Floodwaters are expected to reach Horsham this afternoon after peaking at a record high 8.24 metres at Glenwylln early yesterday before inundating properties at Glenorchy in a one in 50-year flood.
Weirs at Horsham and Dimboola have been opened ahead of the influx of water which Wimmera Catchment Management Authority has predicted will be between 13,000 and 17,000 megalitres when it reaches the Walmer gauge.
SES regional duty officer Tony Grimme said crews worked around the clock sandbagging properties in the flood zone before evacuating residents to an emergency relief centre at Stawell.
September 7, 2011: For commercial reasons Powercor operated a system which included an unacceptable risk, the Supreme Court of Victoria has heard.
The argument was part of the opening address of Tim Tobin SC, appearing for the plaintiffs in Black Saturday bushfire class action Thomas v Powercor Australia Limited.
Defence counsel David Curtain QC, for Powercor, denied the plaintiffs’ allegations and said Powercor’s maintenance system was based on expert advice and not cost-driven.
Powercor assets started a fire on February 7, 2009, which burnt 2346 hectares and 13 houses on the outskirts of Horsham. The trial began on Monday at Horsham Law Courts and is expected to last six weeks before Justice Jack Forrest.
Mr Tobin told court Horsham field staff knew of faults found at three-year inspections and complained about Powercor reducing inspection frequency, but the company ‘would not be moved’ from a new five-year inspection system it introduced in the 1990s.
September 10, 2012: Horsham wheelchair basketballer Jannik Blair is a Paralympic Games silver medallist.
Blair, 20, etched his name in history yesterday, becoming the first Wimmera athlete to win a Paralympic Games medal.
Playing with the Australian Rollers, the side won a silver medal after losing to Canada in the gold medal match 64-58.
The match, played from 6.15am Australian Eastern Standard time, was a thriller.
Blair was one of the Rollers’ starting five and played more than 32 minutes in the match.
He made four rebounds and scored two points, which came at a crucial stage of a tense final quarter.
The Rollers led by one point at half-time, but couldn’t hold on in the second half.
Canada was able to edge out the Australians in the final stages to win the gold medal.
Patrick Anderson was the star for Canada with 34 points and 10 rebounds.
Blair’s girlfriend Amy Carine told the Wimmera Mail-Times from London that she was extremely proud.
“Not the ideal finish, but it simply came down to Canada were the better team on the night,” she said.
“Jannik was obviously very disappointed with the loss after having his sights set on gold, but we are all very proud of his silver medal, especially his parents Peter and Hanne.”
Wimmera residents have been closely following Blair’s Paralympic Games campaign, with many posting comments of support and congratulations on the Wimmera Mail-Times Facebook page.
Readers have labelled him a ‘hero’ and a ‘champion’.
September 9, 2013: The Nationals candidate Andrew Broad was ‘cautiously optimistic’ about securing the seat of Mallee yesterday.
When the Mail-Times went to print, 81.7 per cent of the electorate’s votes had been counted.
Mr Broad held almost 40 per cent of the electorate’s first preferences.
His win would retain The Nationals’ grasp on Mallee in the House of Representatives for the fourth consecutive time since the seat was created 64 years ago.
But, speaking earlier in the day, Mr Broad was reluctant to assume a win.
“It will all depend on Labor preference flows,” he said. “We might not know the result for a little while.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”
Liberal candidate Chris Crewther, a close runner-up, held 27 per cent of the electorate’s primary votes, with six polling places yet to be counted.
Either candidate’s win would further cement the Mallee’s reputation as the country’s safest conservative seat.
September 8, 2014: Wimmera families will have access to 15 hours of kindergarten in 2015 after a Federal Government funding commitment.
The government will commit $406 million to ensure families can continue to access up to 15 hours of preschool a week.
As part of a national agreement, the State Government provides funding towards 10 hours a week and the Federal Government provides funding towards the remaining five hours.
The agreement will expire in December and until Friday, the Federal Government had not renewed its funding commitment.
Horsham Rural City Council’s community services director Angela Murphy said it was good news for Wimmera families and kindergartens.
“It does give some certainty for families in terms of planning for kinder next year,” she said.
“All the research indicates that 15 hours of kinder a week does help children develop mentally.
“Research undertaken both nationally and internationally indicates longer duration of preschool experience leads to improved academic outcomes for children.”
Ms Murphy said a parent satisfaction survey by the Horsham and District Kinder Association showed 98.5 per cent of parents considered 15 hours of kindergarten to be developmentally appropriate.
September 7, 2015: More than a third of people affected by the Grampians bushfires in January 2014 feel they are still struggling to recover.
Horsham Rural City and Northern Grampians Shire have developed a fire recovery review, which looks at how communities were affected and what councils could do to better manage a natural disaster in the future.
The review will be tabled at Horsham’s council meeting on Monday night.
Horsham community services director Angela Murphy said the purpose of the review was to identify what management strategies did and did not work during the bushfires.
“We looked at what we can take forward and how we can improve our recovery management,” she said.
“It’s a continuous improvement process and it will be used as a whole of government report for a future emergency.”
The review showed out of the 43 people that were affected by the fire, 23 per cent lost homes, 21 per cent lost infrastructure and 21 per cent lost businesses.
Other people said while they were not physically affected, the fire caused anxiety.