Winter heart warmers – July 2019 in review

Long way in a big red car – Thursday, 4 July edition

WHILE The Wiggles were one of the first big acts to play at the recently reopened Civic Hall, there was another story to come out of the event.

One Japanese family, the Satos, took a 16,000km round trip from Inagawa to Ballarat just to see Australia’s most famous kids’ entertainers.

“I have been to Ballarat before and I know this town is very lovely,” said Naoko Sato.

“One day I just checked the homepage of the Ballarat council and I saw that the Wiggles were coming. Then I just wanted to see them and show them to my children.”

The Sato’s didn’t just get to see The Wiggle preform live, when the band found out about the family’s journey, they offered to meet with them.

“I was amazing, I was really surprised,” Ms Sato said. “One guy said, ‘are you from Japan?’ and I said yes. After that they asked us to wait and then he said, ‘we’ll show you The Wiggles because you came all the way from Japan.’

“Simon, Lachie and Emma were so friendly.”

Heart and soul warming – Thursday, 11 July edition

For two years Wendouree’s Judy McCandlish crocheted knee rugs as a labour of love.

Come July she’d made over 100 of them and was running out of room, and that’s when she decided to give them away to seniors across the city.

“I started making the rugs when my mother was living with us and now I do it as a pastime to fill in my days,” she said. “I have crocheted over 100 knee rugs that are perfect for older people, but I don’t know who to give them to.”

She’s already donated 30 of her hand-made blankets to Ballarat Aged Care’s Hailey House in Ballarat North recently and was looking to donate the rest.

Statue a shoe out – Thursday, 18 July edition

News that the City of Ballarat was going to temporally move the Boer War Memorial in Sturt Street for repairs got lost in the quirky fact that the statue’s foot had once been stolen.

However, when it came time to lift the monument out of place conservationists found that it was too fragile to move and the restoration was placed on halt.

The statue is still in its original location in the gardens between Lydiard and Armstrong streets.

Dirty work – Thursday, 18 July edition

Football was well underway across the region by mid-July and regular rain had turned many of the ovals into mud patches.

Not great for fluid football but the conditions made for some spectacular photos, like this one taken by Ballarat Times photographer Chippy Rivera as Creswick’s Patrick Taranto keeps his eye on the ball as he takes a tumble with Beaufort’s Lachlan Murray adding pressure.

Made of Ballarat, the saga continues – Thursday, 25 July edition

Fallout from the City of Ballarat’s decision to end funding for Visit Ballarat/ Made of Ballarat continued.

After a public meeting earlier in the month, where representatives of the tourism body had claimed that visitation numbers were up by almost 40 per cent in five years, then mayor Cr Samantha McIntosh hit back.

“We are spending around $6 million a year on tourism and events for a return of $484 million which is not a good result, when compared to Bendigo achieving a $479 million return on its investment of only $3.8 million,” Cr McIntosh said.

“Geelong, almost double the size of Ballarat reaps $1billion from its tourism spend of $4.9million.

“Our results are nowhere near these two municipalities, so our focus is on the big picture and the proportional response which we are clearly not getting.”