Plan group keen to keep community informed

MEMBERS of the Bannockburn Community Planning Group are looking to bring a dedicated news outlet to the town after more than half a decade of dormancy.

One of the key goals of their recently-launched community plan for the town, the group is aiming to revive the Bannockburn and District Community Newsletter.

The first meeting for the project took place on Monday evening where about half a dozen people put their hand up to take part.

Bannockburn Community Planning Group secretary Stuart McCallum said it’s important Bannockburn has its own news outlet once again.

“The newsletter was an essential part of the community for many years,” he said.

“When it no longer continued, it was a big loss for the area, and communication became harder. It was somewhat supplanted by Facebook but it’s nowhere near the same quality.

“We’ve tried for some time to get people interested and now we’ve got seed funding from Golden Plains Shire to do various things around town the community thinks is worthwhile.

“Having a newsletter again is very important for us.”

The project is being allocated nearly $2400 out of the group’s $10,000 seed funding pool from the municipality to deliver the community plan.

Lyell Reeves, who produced the original newsletter, is returning in an advisory capacity.

Mr McCallum estimated the outlet had been a fixture of Bannockburn since the 1970s before its hiatus in 2018.

“We’ll be putting out a slim Christmas edition as a bit of a feeler and promo for it,” Mr McCallum said.

“We’ll get some advertisers and sponsors on there, but we don’t expect to get everyone on board until March next year with our first major edition.

“I’m excited about how it’s coming together. Lyell used to do everything but we want to diversify and give everyone a manageable task.”

Copies of the revived newsletter’s first edition will be available during the Golden Plains Twilight Market and in local stores, as well as Teesdale and Shelford.

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