January
Homicide squad investigates after man dies in Sale (Staff writers)
DETECTIVES from the Homicide Squad are investigating after a man died and another was seriously injured in Sale on Friday night.Emergency services were called to Hagenauer Street after reports two men were seriously injured about 9.15pm.
A man, who is yet to be formally identified, was treated at the scene by paramedics and transported to hospital but sadly subsequently died.
Another man was transported to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Local businesses hit in the hip pocket as Omicron impact felt (Zoe Askew)
SALE businesses are struggling to stay afloat as the Omicron wave swells COVID cases to an all-time high, washing widespread fear and trepidation throughout the local community.
Since the pandemic’s beginning, many Sale businesses have spent the past 20 months fighting to stay open with the reoccurring lockdowns, continuously changing restrictions and travel limitations.Best Western Aspen and Apartment proprietors Craig and Marianne Caddy revealed that they have chewed through all their savings since the pandemic’s beginning.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the relaxation of restrictions generated an influx of tourism and consumer demand, sparking hope for local businesses.
But just as the return to normality seemed plausible, disaster struck, another COVID variant emerged, Omicron, and within the blink of an eye, Sale businesses were under pressure once again.
February
Murder charge (Staff writers)
A MAN has been charged by detectives from the Homicide Squad following the death of a 25-year-old man in Sale on Friday night. Emergency services were called to Hagenauer Street after reports two men were seriously injured about 9.15pm. The 25-year-old man from Sale was treated at the scene by paramedics and transported to hospital, but later died. Another man, a 26-year-old from Sale, was transported to hospital with life-threatening injuries where he remains in a critical condition. A 30-year-old Sale man was arrested at the scene and was charged on Sunday night with one count of murder.
Save the jetty (Stefan Bradley)
MCLOUGHLINS Beach Residents & Ratepayers Association has started a petition both online and on paper to advocate for the ageing McLoughlins Beach Jetty, in the hope that backing from the community and Wellington Shire Council will push the state government to fund and rebuild the jetty. McLoughlins Beach Residents & Ratepayers Association president Allan Rogers said that Gippsland Ports wants the jetty to remain open, but if it’s not upgraded or rebuilt it may become unsafe and have to close.
“They have indicated that if it gets to the point where they haven’t got the funds to maintain or rebuild the jetty, they’ll have to close it because of their public liability,” Mr Rogers said.
“We understand that, so we’re trying to create public awareness so when we give them the petitions that we got, that might help them when they apply for funding, it’s as simple as that.”
March
Blooming great music festival (Stefan Bradley)
THE 10th Sale Music Festival “Picnic on the Green” lived up to its promise of warm weather, family fun and local musicians on Sunday at the Sale Botanic Gardens. Opening the festival at 11am was Gippsland band The Soultanas, who have been together for 13 years. The band’s keyboardist and vocalist Brett Glover, said he loved playing at the Sale Music Festival and The Soultanas had performed at “most of them”. “We always get great people attending who really enjoy listening and participating in the music,” Mr Glover said. Mr Glover said he wanted to watch and support all the acts at the festival, but in particular, was looking forward to seeing Mick Harrington’s set.
Family violence operation leads to arrests
POLICE arrested and charged 12 people as part of an operation targeting high-risk family violence perpetrators in the Sale area over the summer months.
Detectives from Wellington Family Violence Investigation Unit proactively engaged with 116 known family violence perpetrators who are subject to a Family Violence Intervention Order, and at-risk family members to prevent escalating abuse during the summer period.
Police detected 35 breaches of Family Violence Intervention Orders between December 1, 2021 and January 31, 2022.
April
Family’s battle to stay together (Stefan Bradley)
LOCAL father Gagandeep Singh is within days of being forced to leave his family in Australia, unless he is granted a Ministerial Intervention to stay.
Gagandeep and his family, who live in Sale, have received a letter of support from Federal Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, for a Ministerial Intervention.
If a visa is not given by the Home Affairs Minister or Immigration Minister, Gagandeep will depart Australia by May 11, 2022, and go back to India, depriving his wife Phoebe of a husband and their son Jarro, 3, of a father.
May
Thousands vote then enjoy a democracy sausage (Stefan Bradley)
POLLING day saw foot traffic down as early voting numbers spiked this election season, but the Aussie tradition of a snag after voting lives on.
Cold morning weather in Sale led some to wait until the afternoon to line up to vote.
Member for Gippsland South Danny O’Brien handed out how-to-vote cards for his Nationals colleague Darren Chester at Araluen Primary School.
Sale & District Specialist School became a polling booth for the very first time, representing a prime opportunity to raise money with a sausage sizzle.
Jetty saved after funding boost
THE historic McLoughlins Beach jetty has been saved following a sustained campaign from local residents.
$1.535 million in funding was allocated by the state government in this week’s budget to rebuild the landmark and preserve it for future use.
Opposition member and Gippsland South MP, Danny O’Brien has welcomed the state government’s commitment, saying he was relieved to see the funds finally secured after years of campaigning.
“The need to rebuild the jetty is an issue that has been dragging on for years, much to the frustration of McLoughlins Beach residents, visitors and fishermen alike,” Mr O’Brien said.
Cal’s Legacy (Zoe Askew)
SALE’S Callum ‘Cal’ Wood, 17, was killed in a car crash on May 21, leaving a hole in the hearts of many and becoming a grim warning to all about road safety.
Cal’s father Paul Wood endured the impossible task of burying his second-born son on Friday, as brothers Riley, Owen and Henry said their final goodbyes.
Heartbroken by the sudden loss of their boy, Mr Wood and his partner Maree Cramp are pleading for drivers to slow down and drive to the conditions, especially on rural Gippsland roads.
Mr Wood described the majority of rural roads “in shocking disrepair”.
June
Busy Eva a real record-breaker (Stefan Bradley)
EVA Clarke set her 17th Guinness World Record on June 4 after completing 6669 shuttle runs over a period of 19 hours, 57 minutes, while also beating her fundraising goal for Beyond Blue.
The Sale-based high school physical education teacher, fitness trainer and black belt, who founded Frontline Australia Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu & Fitness Academy last year with her husband Scott, is no stranger to pushing herself, but this challenge came close to defeating her.
“I didn’t prepare physically for this challenge because I wanted to see what I was capable of and what I would do when I got slapped in the face with the possibility of giving up,” Mrs Clarke said.
Dr Rob Ziffer retiring after 44 years (Zoe Askew)
Dr Rob Ziffer is finally hanging up his stethoscope and switching latex gloves for golf gloves after nearly five decades of providing healthcare services to the Gippsland region.
After 44 years as a consultant physician, specialising in cardiology and a pioneer in Sale Hospital’s critical care services, Dr Rob Ziffer is retiring.
“I have really done a bout of stages. I was working full-time until about five years ago, then I got off the hospital roster because that involved being on call, and I’d been on call all my working life, and that gets a bit demanding,” Dr Ziffer said.
“It was the best part of nearly 50 years on call, so I thought it was time to give that up.”
July
“We won”: Gagandeep Singh finally allowed to stay with family in Sale (Stefan Bradley)
A SALE family has won their battle to stay together after an exhausting four years.
Businessman and father Gagandeep Singh was last week given a pathway to a permanent partner visa, allowing him to remain in Australia.
This paper first broke the story in April that Gagandeep, also known as Gavy, was near the end of the line with his bridging visa. Unless it was extended or a new visa was given, Gagandeep would be forced to leave Australia and go back to India, separating him from his wife Phoebe and their four-year-old son Jarro, who live together in Sale.
The saga has gone through numerous ups and downs, with Gagandeep stuck in limbo as various visas were given and denied, and decisions delayed. The family and their lawyer tried to get Ministerial Intervention under the previous Coalition government, which would allow the Immigration Minister to give a visa at their discretion. The Ministerial Intervention was refused twice.
Fruit & veg costs continue to bite (Stefan Bradley)
PERRY Bridge Farm Fresh Produce owner and grocer Cal Lazzaro has experienced the cost of living crisis first-hand with prices through the roof, and has resorted to opening a nursery to sell seedlings for customers to grow their own food.
Speaking to the Gippsland Times, Mr Lazzaro described the “sudden rise” in the cost of lettuce.
“I paid $9 for each lettuce. And then I got to try to resell them. Lettuce is normally $2. It was a sudden jump,” Mr Lazzaro said.
“I think people are going without lettuce, or they are going with seedlings to grow their own.
“You can buy a bunch of seedlings for $3 and grow lettuce, about six of them, and the timeframe to grow them is not very long.”
1.37 minutes of Mad Max mayhem (Zoe Askew)
THE inside of the Gippsland Regional Sports Complex (GRSC) was unrecognisable on Saturday night, as the stadium was transformed into a world-class stage for Wildfighter Boxing Round 8.
Within hours, Stratford’s Max Reeves would enter the ring in the battle of the undefeated, taking on Queensland opponent Leo Grant. As quickly as you could count to 100 seconds, Reeves secured another Super Middleweight professional boxing title, defeating Grant in a first-round TKO.
A crowd of 1400 buzzed, and the GRSC’s metal walls vibrated in reciprocation. Bright, flashing lights illuminated the ring and oscillated into the spectator’s area. Bubbly drinks from the pop-up bars stickied the polyurethane floor, and the name Max Reeves circled the stadium like Chinese Whispers.
August
Calls for more trains in Wellington Shire (Stefan Bradley and Tom Parry)
LOCAL business and political figures are unanimously calling for additional train services to the Wellington Shire.
Leaders from the Committee for Wellington, Wellington Shire Council and the Sale Business and Tourism Association gathered at the Sale Railway Station last Monday, urging the state government to deliver on a long-held pledge.
Presently, just three V/Line passenger rail services operate daily between Sale and Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station, with local residents having to travel by road to Traralgon for additional services.
The three local leaders noted that Sale has had three services to and from Melbourne for more than 30 years, despite the big population growth in the region.
Loch Sport Kebabs goes global
LOCH Sport has hit the world stage after Syrian-born businessman Elias Saliba’s kebab van was featured on a Syrian morning show broadcast internationally.
“I got a call from a friend in The Netherlands, who said they saw me on Syrian television through satellite TV,” Mr Saliba told the Gippsland Times.
After that, friends and family from Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and all over called Mr Saliba to say they saw the Syrian-inspired Loch Sport Kebabs on Syrian television.
The program and its website had translated the original Gippsland Times story ‘A taste of Syria at Loch Sport Kebabs’ (June 14, 2022), that featured the van.
Zac praised for brave, heroic act (Zoe Askew)
WHEN Zac Kemp woke up for school on Tuesday, August 16, he believed it was going to be just like any other day.
Within just a few hours, he was rescuing an elderly couple from their smoking car.
Liz and Eric Tabuteau were travelling along Macalister Street in Sale around 9am last Tuesday, when smoke began to exude from the bonnet of their grey Mercedes-Benz.
As the driver pulled over in front of Sale Health and Fitness, 18-year-old Zachary Kemp noticed the smoking vehicle.
“I got dropped off by mum and was walking to my class in the library when I noticed this smoking car pull over,” Zac said.
“The driver opened the door, and the bloke had no legs, he had prosthetics, and that’s when I ran over.”
Woodside Pub is back in action (Zoe Askew)
EVERY town has a beating heart. In Heyfield, it’s the pub. In Maffra, it’s the pub. In Rosedale, it was the pub, and in Woodside, who would have thought, it’s the pub.
Erected on the side of the South Gippsland Highway in the 1850s, the Woodside Beach Hotel, also known as the Woodside Pub, quickly became the beating heart of the 53-person township.
The little town was devastated by the deadly 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, incinerating the Woodside Post Office, with another blaze burning down the Woodside General Store later in the year, leaving little more than blackened cindered frames.
Despite suffering so much loss, Woodside began rebuilding, hopeful and with prospects, but reality was not so kind.In 2016, the Woodside Beach Hotel closed its doors after 170 years, taking with it the heart and soul of the Woodside community. Until now.
In November 2021, an 11-person syndicate, including director Clint Hillas, Redd Catt Sale cafe owner Matt Raidal, star player of the Western Bulldogs Josh Dunkley and a clandestine Financial Review Rich-Lister, signed the ownership contract to the Woodside Pub.
September
Darren Chester “alarmed and disappointed” by AGL decision
FEDERAL Member for Gippsland Darren Chester says he is ‘alarmed and disappointed’ by the decision to bring forward the planned closure of Loy Yang A power station to 2035.
Mr Chester said he remained unconvinced the proposed transition to reliable and affordable alternative sources of energy would be in place by that date, and retiring 30 per cent of Victoria’s energy supply 10 years earlier than anticipated raised a lot of questions.
“The decision by AGL to bring forward the closure of Loy Yang A will impact local jobs and I’m unconvinced the planned renewables will offer the same reliability and affordability that Victorians have become used to expecting from the Latrobe Valley generators for the past 100 years,” Mr Chester said.
“Projects like offshore wind have potential but the turbines haven’t been built, approval hasn’t even been granted, and the transmission lines through private property to connect them to the grid remains contentious.
“I’m alarmed and disappointed that this decision has been made before there is any certainty that the national grid is able to make this transition to weather dependent renewables in an orderly way.”
Closure shock for Maffra families (Zoe Askew)
QUEEN Street Uniting Early Learning Centre in Maffra will permanently close its doors after 60 years of providing care and education to children in the Wellington Shire region.
The unexpected announcement has sent local families into a spiral, leaving parents apprehensive, frustrated, confused and others scrambling with the nearly impossible task of finding alternative kindergarten arrangements for 2023.
When approached about the closure of Maffra’s long-standing Queen Street Kindergarten, Uniting Victoria Tasmania ensured that all children enrolled at Queen Street Kindergarten for the coming year would be transferred to Glassford Street Kindergarten.
“Following an extensive review, we have made the decision to consolidate our two Maffra early learning services from January 2023, which includes closing Queen Street Kindergarten,” executive officer Early Learning Uniting Victoria Tasmania, Fiona Balsillie, said.
“All children enrolled at Queen Street Kindergarten for next year will be transferred to our Glassford Street Kindergarten, which is just 1.5 kilometres away.
“As well as being a newer facility, our Glassford Street service provides a range of other benefits for children and families, including two large program rooms and a bigger playground.”
Ms Balsillie confirmed that all staff from Queen Street Kindergarten are included in the amalgamation and would move across to Glassford Street.
October
Pandemic Declaration is over (Stefan Bradley)
THE state government has announced that from 11.59pm on Wednesday October 12, the pandemic declaration will end.
Victorians will no longer be required to isolate after testing positive to COVID-19, with isolation for positive cases now strongly recommended.
Requirements for close contacts like continually testing negative on a rapid antigen test will become strong recommendations – joining the strong recommendation to wear a mask indoors, which will remain in place.
Two years later, show goes on (Zoe Askew)
After a two-year hiatus, Gippsland’s oldest agricultural show, the Sale Agricultural Show, made a welcomed return over the weekend, as thousands of show-goers inundated the Sale showgrounds despite the inclement weather.
Strong winds ripped across the Sale and District Agricultural Society showgrounds on Friday morning as the 157th Sale Show got underway, but that didn’t stop crowds from filing through the gates to see what the 157th Sale Show had to offer.
Groups of schoolchildren donning their respective school colours moved through the Pavillions gawking at the incredible artistic creations, stunning locally grown plants and produce and the large variety of poultry.
The national carrot cake competition was one of the most sought-after exhibitions at the 2022 Sale show, with masses of entrants conjuring their best carrot cake for judges Debra Tadday and Valerie Georgopoulos.
November
Libs church saga
THE Liberal-endorsed candidate for Eastern Victoria, Renee Heath, and the Sale-based City Builders Church are in the national spotlight after an exposé on 60 Minutes and in Nine Entertainment newspapers.
Both Ms Heath and the Church are denying allegations after an eventful weekend which saw Ms Heath dumped from the Liberal Party by Opposition leader Matt Guy, after reports alleged that Ms Heath is an “agent” to advance an ultra-conservative political agenda, and that the Church practises gay conversion therapy.
Election: No major surprises ultimately (Stefan Bradley)
IT was a surprisingly straightforward election.
Just a few hours in, we knew that Labor had won a majority once again in the lower house. No miracle win for the Liberals. The ‘Greenslide’ didn’t happen, and the ‘Teal’ independents didn’t make their mark. No chance of deals with independents to form a minority government, especially when all the independents were wiped out. The Nationals as a party performed exceptionally well and have dramatically increased their representation in Parliament.
December
Federal government in Seaspray to declare Gippsland for offshore wind (Stefan Bradley)
ALL three levels of government were at Seaspray on Monday with the local community and industry to formally declare the Bass Strait off Gippsland as Australia’s offshore wind zone.
The federal government also awarded Major Project Status to the Star of the South Offshore Windfarm Project off the Gippsland coast.
Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, was joined by his colleague the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic. Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources, Lily D’Ambrosio, and Wellington Shire Council Mayor Ian Bye were also present at the press conference outside the Seaspray Surf Life Saving Club on Monday morning, ironically with noisy wind drowning out everyone’s words.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen said Gippsland’s declaration was a crucial step towards affordable, reliable and secure energy and new economic opportunities for Australia.
Young Family facing uncertainty (Zoe Askew)
HEARTBREAKING for a young Loch Sport family, after spending close to $70,000 for renovations; their home is now facing demolition.
The future of a Sanctuary Road residence is yet to be determined following works by Darcy Wheildon of Wheildons Excavation & Home Maintenance, almost all of which allegedly violate the Building Act 1993 and associated regulations, including illegal building work from an unregistered or unlicensed practitioner.
