A look back at 2023

Well awarded

AS is often the case, January was all about recognising some of the region’s best.

Events coinciding with 26 January saw Trevor Strauch named the City of Greater Bendigo Citizen of the Year, while Young Citizen honours were shared by Amelia Leach-Unmeopa and Mitchell Graham.

“I am delighted to congratulate Trevor, Amelia and Mitchell on this significant achievement and their contribution to the Greater Bendigo community,” said mayor Cr Andra Metcalf.

On a national level, Sally Duncan, David Wright, Ashley Donaldson and Margaret ‘Peggy’ Kearin all received medals of the Order of Australia on Australia Day for their service to the community.

Like many recipients, Ms Duncan sought to share the spotlight.

“I’d prefer it to be about the people and the programs I work with, because that’s where the recognition is needed, I don’t need recognition,” she said.

In a different space, 25-year-old horse trainer Tayla French took out the 2022 Haras des Trotteurs Australasian Young Drivers Championship.

“This to keep going a few weeks on, it’s obviously a big success,” she said.

 

Stars shine

Recognition season wasn’t over in February, with the Bendigo Sports Star of the Year taking place late in the month.

Swimmer Jenna Strauch was named the 2023 Bendigo Sports Star of the Year following strong campaigns at the Commonwealth Games and World Championships.

Cyclist, Noel Sens, took the Faith Leech Achievement Award, rising soccer stars Silver Bell Morris and Ryan Kalms received the Maxine Crouch and Cyril Michelsen trust funds, Maiden Gully Marist Cricket Club was the Bendigo Bank Community Minded Award recipient, while Kangaroo Flat Primary School was the Fosterville Gold Mine Healthiest School.

Sandhurst Football Netball Club A Grade coach Tamara Gilchrist was the John Forbes Coach/Manager of the Year, Jordan Korp and Junior Whyman were the Bendigo Health Young Indigenous Awards recipients and local netball legend Caitlin Thwaites joined the Hall of Fame.

Earlier in the month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stopped by the Thales factory in Bendigo North to check out production of the Bushmasters and Hawkei fighting vehicles.

“[Bushmasters are] on the ground making a difference [in Ukraine] each and every day to the defence of that nation,” he said.

 

In session

Then Premier Daniel Andrews came to town to cut the ribbon on Bendigo’s new $152 million court building.

The facility included 11 courtrooms, remote witness facilities, two hearing rooms, two mediation suites, safe waiting facilities, and dedicated jury areas.

Mr Andrews said the building was a significant milestone and development for the region.

“This is an important day for Bendigo, both as a city and as the capital of the Loddon Mallee region,” he said.

“It’s a big spend, a lot of jobs and development, it really locks in the future of justice services.”

On a national level, the efforts of a group of female high school students were highlighted.

Participants of a program at Bendigo Tech School to overall and convert an old Range Rover took their creation to Sydney for Fully Charged.

“The one thing I can’t say enough about this project is how good it is for girls’ self-esteem,” said project assistant Imani Dunne.

“Guys try something and if they’re not good at it they go ‘oh well, I had a crack’. If a girl tries something and she doesn’t do well she goes ‘I don’t like anything in that field’.”

 

Higher learning

April saw celebrations of Bendigo’s 150 years of higher education offerings hit full step, with an academic procession through the centre of town.

The parade included alumni from La Trobe University and Bendigo TAFE as well as forerunner institutions and was led by La Trobe chancellor, former State Premier, and Federal Member for Bendigo, John Brumby.

“It’s super exciting to see everybody here today,” he said. “There are about 300 in the procession.

“It’s a very proud history and it’s just wonderful for me to be here as chancellor of Latrobe, given my history in Bendigo.”

Bendigo has a lot of world-class things but a museum isn’t one of them, and with the region’s rich history, ‘why not?’ was a question being asked by some locals.

The Bendigo Historical Society held an open meeting to pose that conundrum and push for the creation of such a facility.

“Regional collections hold unique objects and images,” said BHS president Euan McGillivray

“There are many aspects of Australian history not well represented in state and national collections.

 

Prize picture

May saw Bendigo’s art community take centre stage, with painter Alanah Ellen Brand announced as a finalist in the prestigious Archibald Prize for portraiture.

Her work, depicting mentor and fellow artist Solomon Kammer – herself an Archibald finalist.

“This is my first entry, and I am absolutely thrilled that it has been selected as a finalist” Ellen Brand said. “This is truly a dream come true.”

Out near Lockington the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation launched an ambitious food and fibre enterprise.

Known as DJAKITJ, the group plans to produce native plants and animals for commercial sale and the site could hold the southern hemisphere’s largest yabby farm.

“This is a significant milestone for us,” said CEO Rodney Carter. “For the first time, DJAARA has invested its own funds, $1.6 million, to buy our own land back so we can set up this exciting business.”

Groovin the Moo returned to the Bendigo Showground and among the locals on stage was singer NAYYETHWEY, selected to take part though the Triple J Unearthed program.

“It was bloody, bloody awesome,” he said. “Honestly, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect set on Saturday.”

 

Voting changes

How, where and who residents and some ratepayers would vote in the 2024 municipal elections became slightly clearer in June and the Victorian Electoral Commission released the final draft of the new single councillor ward structure.

Part of the mandated move by the State Government, long time City of Greater Bendigo representative Cr Rod Fyffe was in favour of the change.

“I’ve always preferred the single wards, simply because the people get to know quite quickly who their councillor is,” he said.

“I think that that also makes it more manageable for the councillors themselves. When I had a single ward, I had 11 square kilometres, and I went to just over 1000 square kilometres.”

However, with large parts of the municipality not in the metro region of Bendigo, there was fear some outlying areas could miss out.

“Overall, I think that a redesigning might be interesting, I’m not quite sure how single councillors would go over large areas in terms of their connection to community,” said president of Advance Heathcote, Peter Maine.

 

Not fun and games

Touted for more than a year as something the whole state could look forward too, the dream of a regional Commonwealth Games came to an end in July and their Premier Daniel Andrews pulled the pin on the event citing cost blowouts.

“When the numbers add up, and they are so much more than we budgeted, then there’s really no choice but to proceed straight to all the legacy benefits,” he said.

“Housing, stadiums, tourism and major events funds. It’s a big package all within the original budget, as opposed to a Comm Games for 12 days that costs $6 or $7 billion.

“At this time, but perhaps at any time really, you can’t justify that.

In a good sports news story, top NBA draftee and local product, Dyson Daniels returned home after this first season in the bigs.

He was in town to run basketball clinics at Red Energy Arena.

“It’s surreal still, and it does feel like yesterday I was just out there, running around, playing juniors on these courts,” he said.

“Now I’m here, running camps with kids buying my jerseys, wanting autographs, photos and stuff like that, so it’s special.

 

Who’s the boss?

While the departure of long-time City of Greater Bendigo CEO Craig Niemann was announced late in 2022, the search for his replacement got underway in August with the engagement of Melbourne based recruitment firm Davidson leading the hunt.

Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf said she expected a competitive recruitment process as the municipality Bendigo has earned a reputation as a successful local government organisation.

“We are looking for an authentic leader, with a people focus,” she said. “They will need to be a strategic thinker and have a track record in delivering timely outcomes.”

In the end the answer would be found pretty close to home…

A century-and-a-half of service to the community was marked with a formal reception for the Kangaroo Flat Brigade’s major milestone.

Captain James O’Brien said the cutting of the cake was representative of the past, present and future of the brigade.

“It was a remarkable occasion for our brigade,” he said. “We had an ex-member reunion where we had members that I’d never met.”

 

Allan’s accession

While Premier Daniel Andrews’ resignation would have come as a surprise statewide, his sucessor had a lot more meaning on the home front.

Late September saw the Member for Bendigo East, Jacinta Allan, become Victoria’s second women Premier, the first female from outside of Melbourne to hold the job, and the first person from the regions to lead the state in more than a century.

“It is such a deep honour and privilege to be in the position to be heading to Government House and to be sworn in as premier of Victoria,” she said.

“Twenty-four years ago, almost to the day when I walked into this place as a much younger woman from regional Victoria, I never expected to have this length of service or indeed to be able to have had the honour and privilege of serving the Victorian community in various ministerial roles.

“I pledge to continue to work incredibly hard as I have done each and every day.”

 

Go local

Remember how the City of Grater Bendigo hired a recruitment company to find a new CEO?

Well turns out perhaps they didn’t need to as the job was filled internally with the director appointed to oversee the local Commonwealth Games effort, Andrew Cooney, appointed to fill the role in October.

“The beauty of being able to come from within the organisation, you get the chance to continue what we’ve already got going,” he said.

Mr Cooney officially started in the job on 18 December.

For the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bendigo Show returned!

Over two days, the event attracted thousands of people to the Prince of Wales Showground and agricultural society executive officer Ian Furze.

“It’s always great to hear the screams, you know they’re having a good time,” he said.

The show wasn’t the only major ag news going on with the announcement that the town was also going to play host to Meat and Livestock Australia’s annual conference.

 

Fight for service

Ongoing maternal and intensive care services at St John of God Bendigo were in doubt at the start of November, with an internal review questioning their future.

If they were to close, it would have left Bendigo Hospital as the only birthing service in the region able to handle complex cases.

It was a possibility one young mum was fighting against.

“Significant stuff happened which has changed my course of life,” she said. “Being told too that you’re going to possibly have a hysterectomy before at the age of 30 and getting told your husband has to see you before you go into surgery because you might not [come out].”

For the first time in history, development club the Bendigo Pioneers supplied the AFL with the number one draft pick.

Eighteen-year-old Harley Reid was taken by Wast Coast, an oncome he couldn’t have been happier with, rejecting pre-draft noise he wasn’t happy heading to Perth.

“It was pretty annoying at times when they say it and they really haven’t even met you,” Reid said.

“It [the Eagles jumper] is on me now, so hopefully that puts a bit of word out there that I’m keen to go over there and get stuck into it.”

 

 

 

Giving back

Another Bendigo sports star returned to town in December with professional golfer Lucas Herbert donating his prize money from winning the 2022/23 Bendigo Sports Star of the Year award to young up and commers in the sport.

“I’m at a stage in my career where I’m set up pretty well financially and I know what it was like to be in these kid’s situations,” he said.

“If that keeps them in the sport a little bit longer and gets them going, I feel like I’m giving back to the community that’s given me a lot.”

In an outcome for many had hopped for, the push to save maternity care at St John of God Hospital has a positive result, with hospital management continuing service.

Executive officer Michael Hogan said partnerships with Bendigo Health would help the unit’s viability while plans for the future are made.

“We think there are quite a number of women with private health insurance who are delivering their babies in the public system because of the out-of-pocket,” he said.