50 years ago, October 1974

Victoria’s major spring showing of the latest farm machinery and equipment will be held next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, at the picturesque Ayson’s Reserve, about seven miles south of Rochester.

The event is sponsored by the Elmore Machinery Field Days Organisation and aims at providing the farming community with the opportunity of seeing the latest in farm machinery and to give them the opportunity to assess their capabilities on similar soil types to those throughout northern Victoria and the Riverina.

Another aim of the organisation is to give manufacturers the chance to display and demonstrate their equipment at an exhibition run solely for this purpose.

***

The Rochester Recreation Reserve has a new look, following a two-day working bee at the reserve at the weekend.

The working bee was organised by the newly elected committee of management of the reserve under the leadership of president Alan Meyenn and secretary Geoff Carr.

The rough, uneven playing surface of the man oval has been top-dressed and the grass around the reserve has been mown.

Workers with shovels, hoes and rakes were detailed to remove the grass from around the oval fence and under the mostly broken seats.

The committee president has planned further works for the reserve to bring it back to its former splendour when it was known far and wide as one of the best sporting reserves in northern Victoria.

***

Plenty of good reading lies ahead of fireman Richie Lethlean of the Rochester Urban Fire Brigade at the Campaspe Valley News office.

Richie has already spent a number of days reading copies of the old Rochester Irrigator, dating back to 1913.

Next year, 1975, the Rochester Urban Fire Brigade will celebrate its centenary and the purpose of Richie’s research is to gain details of the brigade’s activities over those 100 years.

However, the records of this office do not go back for 100 years and any reader who has any old photographs, publications or records of Rochester Urban Fire Brigade should contact Captain Ken Major or any member of the brigade.

***

It has been decided that from the commencement of 1975, students in Form 5 at the Rochester High School will be granted the same privileges which have been enjoyed by Form 6 students at the school for the past three years.

During these three years the senior students have enjoyed a sense of freedom from the normal restrictions of school life, having their own common room with its special furniture and equipment and endowed with a set of privileges such as the option of attending school assemblies or not, of wearing the official school uniform or not, of participating in weekly sports or not, and so on.

The rationale behind the privileges is to encourage in the senior students, who are soon to leave the protection of secondary school life and enter the freedom of the outside world, a sense of responsibility and the importance of selective choice, the principal of the high school, Mr G. Sayers, said.

25 years ago, September 1999

Rochester celebrated well into yesterday after Sunday’s fantastic win over Shepparton United in the Goulburn Valley League grand final.

The hundreds who flocked to Deakin Reserve to witness the spectacle of Dave ‘Dirty’ Williams and his Tigers team holding the premiership cup aloft then joined the players at Rochester Recreation Reserve to relish the victory — the Tigers’ sixth grand final appearance and second premiership win this decade.

The table tennis pavilion was overflowing on Sunday night as Williams and his players stood on the make-shift stage and led the singing of the club theme song.

The crowd locked arms round each other as ‘’We’re from Tigerland …’’ reverberated around the tin shed.

***

The push for a community bank in Lockington is set to continue after a survey on state election day revealed overwhelming support for the project.

Five hundred and thirty people signed a petition for the establishment of a community bank.

However, the real test of community opinion will be the number of people willing to pledge financial support to establish the bank.

The steering committee requires a minimum of $260,000 in start-up and operating capital for the venture to proceed.

Pledge forms will be mailed out to most residents in the next two weeks, with responses to be returned by October 29.

To allow as many people as possible to contribute, the amount sought in pledges will be a minimum of $100 to a suggested maximum of $5000.

***

Fitted out in full Light Horse Troop gear, four members of the Creswick Blue Light/RSL Light Horse Troop rode in Rochester for an overnight stay during an 800km trek to Canberra.

Laura and Dane Woodward, Mark Hanson and Hannah Aumann took their horses to the Rochester Hostel during their visit, then were welcomed by several Rochester residents at the recreation reserve where they made camp.

Rochester resident Helen Fehring took along a World War I diary and photographs belonging to her father, the late Alec Brooks, who served in the 1st Light Horse regiment in 1917.

The group intends to write a book on the venture and showed interested in information and memorabilia about former members of the Light Horse.

10 years ago, September 2014

When it rains it pours. And at this time of the year that is good news. Rochester and surrounding areas were drenched with as much as 82mm on Wednesday and Thursday, marking the heaviest September rainfall in 110 years.

A downpour that could not have come at a better time, and when it was over you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from local farmers as crops were drying out fast.

Brian Mullane grows wheat, canola, barley and oats, on his 767-hectare property south of Elmore.

The eight-hour pattering on his home’s tin roof was music to his ears.

‘‘We’re pretty lucky, to come this far and know that your crops are going to finish strongly is a great feeling,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s definitely a big financial relief that gives us some breathing room, which is nice.’’

The rain was also welcome news for Elmore Field Days organisers, as the event will significantly benefit from the financial windfall.

***

Rochester teacher Heather Watson recently returned from nine weeks in East Timor teaching English to locals.

Heather made the trip thanks to her connection with the Ballarat-Ainaro friendship group and the program Teachers for Timor.

It was the second time she had taught in Ainaro, a town of 2000 people, after a similar visit in 2012.

Teaching at Rochester Secondary College, Heather used her long-service leave to take part in the program, giving beginner, intermediate and advanced English lessons Monday through Thursday, which were attended voluntarily by locals eager to learn.

The classes were capped at 20 students and ages ranged from 15 to 40.

***

Like the junior footballers he was umpiring in the TAC Cup grand final recently, Daniel Butcher is aiming for the big league.

The footy-mad former Lockington lad sees every game as an opportunity to strut his stuff and catch the eyes of the decision-makers in the world of umpiring.

Last Saturday that opportunity was the final reckoning between the Calder Cannons and Oakleigh Chargers, a game he described as his ‘‘greatest achievement so far’’.

Regardless of the pressure that often comes with being in charge of big games, Butcher just shrugs off the stress.

‘‘I don’t really get nervous,’’ he said.

‘‘I think I definitely run on pure adrenaline.’’

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