Free Press Flashbacks

The former vice-president was promoted to the top job during the chamber’s annual meeting last week and said she wanted to see Kyabram businesses grow in the face of online and out-of-town competition.

With 77 businesses making up the chamber, Mrs Kitt said she wanted members to become more actively involved, rather than letting the same voices dominate discussion.

“I would love more involvement in not just meetings, but also the general functioning of the chamber,” she said.

“It’s the same members who are helping all the time. I want them to all be more involved, rather than just sitting back and letting a small few do everything.”

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Get behind our bank

Sixty-three pledges is all that stands between Kyabram and its Community Bank.

Sitting on 237 pledges with $880,000 raised, Kyabram Development Committee chairman Vince Curtis said the town needed to provide one more push for the bank to finally take shape.

“Bendigo Bank needs 300 pledges for two major reasons,” Mr Curtis said.

“One, it gives us the legally required amount of shareholders, and two, because it demonstrates the widespread support within the community for the bank, which is just as important.”

In the past year, Mr Curtis said the bank had more than 50 per cent of the town’s businesses get on board and pledge, with the final 63 pledges one of the last important formalities.

“There is so much we could do in Kyabram. We could wait and chirp away at all the politicians and say could we have the money for this and that.

“Or we could say this is what we want to do, this is how we are doing to do it, we are going to put in this amount of money, are you going to come along with us?”

1994

Like father, like son

When Bruce Elborough was elected unopposed to the position of Deakin Shire President on Friday night, a quite unique situation was created — a father and son team at the helm of neighbouring municipalities.

Bruce’s son, of course, is Kyabram mayor and service station owner John Elborough, who was in the Deakin Shire Chamber on Friday night to see the election of his father to the presidential position.

It’s almost a certainty that the Deakin statutory meeting held last week will be the shire’s last a point which was not lost on the new president.

In his own words, Bruce said it was unique for a father and son team to be in charge of two adjoining municipalities, but added they would probably oversee the death of the Shire of Deakin and the town of Kyabram as well.

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Water worries

Irrigation water was flowing into some Goulburn Valley properties yesterday as the irrigation season officially opened — and the worrying dry weather continued.

The abnormally dry winter has hastened demand for water in the Goulburn-Murray area.

Tatura-based Barry O’Donnell Goulburn-Murray Water assistant area manager, said the average start for the irrigation season was September 13, but the continuing dry weather had brought early demands this year for irrigation water.

Mr O’Donnell predicted that if the dry weather continued he expected demands to be heavy by the end of the month, which would mean the season would be in full swing about two weeks earlier than normal.

1974

$20,000 wage loss in strike

An estimated $20,000 in wages has been lost by employees of the Kyabram branch of Containers Ltd. because of a shut down occasioned by the inability to obtain materials from Melbourne, due to picketing of Metropolitan branches by members of the striking transport workers.

When truck drivers employed at Containers were called out on strike by their union, the whole plant was closed down.

Transport workers voted to return to work after a mass meeting at Port Melbourne on Wednesday.

It wasn’t until yesterday (Thursday) morning that plant workers returned to work, after losing two and a half weeks employment and wages,

The plant was shut down at midnight on July 29 because the tin ends required by the industry for can making could not be obtained from Melbourne.

Containers manager Joe Rafter said the strike forced about 100 employees of Containers to stand down for a 12 working day period.

He said the amount of wages lost by the stand down would amount to about $20,000.

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60th wedding anniversary

Just what are Mr and Mrs Albury Cox of ‘Tavistock’ Kyabram looking at in the picture above.

The answer is the photo below ... their wedding photo taken 60 years ago.

Mr and Mrs Cox celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary this week and were the recipients of many congratulatory cards and expressions of good wishes on obtaining their marriage milestone.

Mr and Mrs Cox were married in the Cogill Creek Methodist Church, about 15 miles from Ballarat, on August 12, 1914.

Mr and Mrs Cox moved to Kyabram in 1929, and for the past 45 years have lived at their ‘Tavistock’ property five miles south-west of the town.