End of an era

By Lachlan Ellis

A local business will be without a familiar face for the first time in 34 years, with the owner making the decision to sell.

The Ballan Newsagency is currently owned by Ian and Olive Ireland, and has been since 1988, but a handover of the business is planned for 28 November this year.

Mr Ireland said it had been an honour to be a part of the Ballan community for over three decades.

“I think it’s time that we start enjoying life as we get older, our family’s grown up, the commitments are less. It’s a bit sad, we’ve made a lot of friends in the business,” Mr Ireland said.

“It’s been a pleasure serving the Ballan community. The people we’ve met over the years have been tremendous. We’ve seen the town grow, we’ve met new people coming to town from all walks of life to live here, and we’ve seen people move on. We’ve seen families start, and children grow up, get married and start their own families. It’s been great to participate in the Ballan community.”

The building will remain a newsagency, and Mr Ireland believes current staff will remain in their roles if they wish to.

“Our last trading day [Ollie and I] will probably be the Saturday morning [26 November], we’re hopefully going to have all our family members here, because they’ve all been a part of it. We’ll be able to chat with people who come in, but other than that, we don’t have anything extra planned at this stage.

“As for what’s next, Ollie and I will probably sit back, and enjoy Christmas. In the New Year we’ll hopefully go on a couple of little holidays in Australia, places we haven’t been that we want to go to, and just enjoy our little property. And we’ll start to get a few things done at home that we haven’t gotten done, because we’ve been working.”

The Ballan Newsagency was originally located next to the Ballan Hardware store, where Seek Accounting is currently situated, but purchased its current location from the closing Westpac Bank in 1996.