Kyabram Fauna Park will become Victoria’s fourth zoo under a deal to make it part of the Zoos Victoria family.
It will join Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary, delivering better staff opportunities, benefiting the wildlife and increasing tourism under a multi-million dollar deal.
Environment and Climate Action Minister Lily D’Ambrosio announced that management of the fauna park would be taken over by Zoos Victoria.
“Welcoming Kyabram Fauna Park to the Zoos Victoria family is a win for tourism and jobs in northern Victoria and our precious biodiversity,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.
It comes after the park was announced as an accredited zoo in April this year, with one of the highest welfare standards in the industry.
Comeback for masks
Masks mandates were touted to return across Australia with the looming third COVID-19 wave and increased influenza cases.
COVID-19 cases in Campaspe were expected to be in triple figures by the end of the week as the region echoes the prevalence of Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 strains found in metropolitan wastewater catchments.
Almost 50 cases were being reported daily in Campaspe as an increase in numbers are reported in Greater Shepparton and Greater Bendigo.
The national response to the latest COVID-19 strain has varied, with Victoria health officials poised to make announcements on the back of hitting 10,000 new COVID cases for the first time in several weeks.
This is on the back of 144,000 influenza cases recorded in Australia to the middle of June.
Salute to Ezio D’Alberto
Tributes from all quarters of the Kyabram, and Campaspe, community were a testament to the amount of lives — and organisations — Ezio D’Alberto impacted as a businessman and individual. He died at the age of 75 on Monday, June 20.
Ezio was born in Chieti, Abruzzo, in Italy and immigrated to Australia with his family at the age of five.
He grew up in, and around, Coburg and in his youth loved cycling — as well as cars, in particular Holden cars.
In 1983, he purchased the Jackson Priest Holden dealership and his family moved to Kyabram.
He was heavily involved in the community, joining Rotary early on and serving for more than 20 years on the Warramunda board.
Ezio formally retired at the end of 2017 after building and running an award-winning motor group, stabling four brands across Kyabram, Echuca, Cohuna, and Deniliquin.
Harley on track for AFL
Tongala football prodigy Harley Reid has set tongues wagging with another polished display for Victoria Country at the NAB AFL Under-18 National Championships.
Reid, who has just turned 17 and will not be eligible for the AFL Draft until 2023, took a game saving mark in Vic Country’s opening round win against South Australia.
He was again in the spotlight with a 23 possession game at half-back as Vic Country was a 33-point round two winner against the Allies at The Gabba on Sunday.
The extraordinary rise to prominence of Reid, a St Joseph’s College student, came in 2019 when he made headlines with a 40 game-155 goal season while playing with both Tongala’s under-14 and under-17 teams.
Reid was one of three Goulburn Valley players in the team, with Kyabram’s Charlie Barnett and Echuca’s Noah Long also part of the opening two rounds of the national championships.
Zobec criticism of strategy
Campaspe Shire Council’s environmental strategy has been criticised by Kyabram-based councillor John Zobec for its alarmist nature and lack of facts attached to generalised environmental statements.
Cr Zobec stood alone in his opinion of the 30-page document at the council meeting, attended by just seven of the nine-member council in the absence of Cr Tony Marwood and Mayor Chrissy Weller.
He heavily criticised the wording in several sections of the strategy, which he said flippantly used terms such as “catastrophic” and “uninsurable”.
The document, which he said did not support its claims with sufficient information, was passed by the council in a 6-1 vote.
Among the major themes of the strategy was Campaspe Shire Council’s commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
“It talks about extreme flooding and there is a lot of misinformation in the draft,” Cr Zobec said.
“I am concerned with the wording ‘uninsurable’.
“The Nicholls electorate is at the highest risk. It suggests the area will become uninhabitable in the most extreme circumstances.”