Cath Hall.

After work on the hotter days, Cath goes down to the Murray River for a proper swim, averaging about 4 kilometres, with fiance Ian Roberts ‘riding shotgun’ from his kayak.

Then at night she works out on the treadmill and stationary exercise bike.

On Saturdays it’s time to hit the road, with a jog around the streets – anything between 15 to 30 kilometres.

And on Sundays, Cath jumps on her bicycle and goes for a ride…usually peddling for 200 kilometres!

Again, Ian isn’t far from her side. As well as being her partner, Ian is the motivator, support crew, drinks carrier, lookout man and most importantly, the first aid man.
Cath, 35, suffers from asthma, moving to Mildura in 2005 because of the warm, dry climate, but it’s still a good idea to have the right medication handy just in case she has a relapse.

Cath knows it could happen at any time, but that doesn’t stop her putting her body through some punishing exercise routines as she prepares for a new triathlon and Ironman season. Cath has been hooked on triathlons since completing her first Ironman event at Port Macquarie in 2006, completing the gruelling swim, ride and run in just under 16-and-a-half hours, despite a chest infection and a stress fracture of the foot.

She set herself a goal of finishing the 2010 Busselton, WA, ironman competition in 14 hours or less, and with that goal accomplished, is aiming for a time of 13 hours or under in the Ironman Asia Pacific championships in Melbourne on March 25. Ironman athletes have to complete a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and a run over the marathon distance – 42.2 kilometres.

And it isn’t just the challenge of competition that appeals to Cath. She uses the big events to raise money for, and awareness of, the John Maclean Foundation, which uses funding to  enhance the lives of young Australians who are confined to wheelchairs.

After nine years in training, Cath is ecstatic to have finally been able to put together a decent road bike, a tough, lightweight model designed specifically for long, fast rides, and she can’t wait to try it out in race conditions.

As if battling an asthma problem isn’t bad enough, Cath found out after her last big competition that she is intolerant of dairy products, wheat and eggs.  “Since dairy used to make up a big part of my diet, I’ve had to make some big changes lately,” she says.

Cath says it took her a while to figure out all her dietary problems…about seven kilos to be exact…but now she’s starting to shed that excess weight with proper eating.

She has also had to switch to a new medication, one that caters specifically for exercise-induced asthma – and says that so far it’s working a treat.

Her triathlon and ironman challenges are a far cry to a decade or so ago, when, as a researcher at the University of California, she found it impossible to go for as run, or climb a flight of stairs with running short of breath and gasping for air.

That all changed when she moved to Mildura nine years ago, with the better climate and exercise routines opening up a whole new world for her. Ironically, she suffers from  exercise-induced asthma, and growing up and later working in wet, humid climates – both in Australia and overseas – had an adverse affect on her health, especially when she attempted any form of strenuous exercise.

It was a condition she tried to control with the puffer – a Ventolin inhaler, while studying for a degree in environmental science, firstly in Warrnambool, then going for her Honors Degree after moving to Brisbane, furthering her career by completing her PhD in New Zealand, and then working as a researcher in California. Her condition wasn’t helped when she developed whooping cough while living in NZ, further damaging her lungs.

But in Mildura, working as a biodiversity officer with Mildura Rural City Council, she doesn’t have any major problems looking after her health, even with a punishing training regime.

FOOTNOTE: Mildura Weekly readers who want to support Cath in her quest to raise money for the Foundation can contact her on 0409980900.

HISTORY was made in Mildura basketball circles on Wednesday night when two father and son combinations took to the court – for the same team – for the first time ever.

Basketball history was made in Mildura this week when Mark Cook and his son James, and Joe Hurst and his son Tremayne, took to the court for Imps Wildcats.

The fathers are two of the legends of local basketball…it’s anyone’s guess how many points they have scored between them…and their boys are two of Sunraysia basketball’s rising stars.

Taking the court for Imps Wildcats in men’s A Grade was former United States college star and Hall of Famer ‘Jumping’ Joe Hurst, 48, and his son Tremayne, 14, and team-mates Mark Cook, 47, and his son James, 17.

And the two veterans showed they can still move around the court, and find the basket, with Joe scoring 16 points and Mark 10, despite limited court time and making returns from injury. The youngsters were also finding form, with James scoring 19 points, and Tremayne chipping in with five on their way to a 118 to 52 scoreline against the Halls Jayco Irymple combination.

Hurst, who has made Mildura his home after a glittering basketball career, first in the American college system and then with the Mildura Mavericks, said it was a real thrill to take the court with Tremayne, who he said was developing into a talent, with a positive and enthusiastic attitude to basketball.

Tremayne, at 5ft 10ins (Dad is 6ft 6ins), is slowly shooting up, and has plenty of more years of growing. Just into his teens, he is an Under 16 regular, playing in a junior curtain-raiser to Wednesday night’s A Grade game, and is also in the Mildura Junior Heat squad.

Mark, who began his basketball career at 22, also said it was a real thrill to be part of such a historic event…firstly to take the court alongside his son, but also to play alongside one of the all-time greats of Sunraysia basketball in Joe Hurst.

“Playing with James, and supporting Joe and Tremayne, was a huge buzz,” he said. “If you had told me 20 years ago that one day I would be playing in the same team with a son, and also with Joe Hurst and his son, I would have said you were dreaming.

“I’m just happy to be still playing at my age…and happier still to be able to walk out to the car at the end of the game! And it’s good to see James playing with the right attitude and developing into another young Sunraysia talent.”

Mark is a former player with the legendary Mildura Mavericks, and a long-time player and coach with Sunraysia basketball teams, mainly with  Imps Wildcats. Having missed only about 10 basketball games through injury in a 25-year sporting career, and playing domestic winter and summer competitions as well as Mavs and other representative games, it’s likely that Mark has amassed something in the order of 1000 games in local basketball.

And it’s anyone’s guess the number of games that ‘Jumping joe’ has to his credit, firstly in the United States, and then with a lengthy career in Australian basketball. His tally could also be in the region of 1000 games.

A few years ago, Joe joined a select group of elite sports stars to be inducted into an American college Hall of Fame. The honour, from his former Bearcat basketball team at North-West Missouri State University, made him only the fifth Hall of Famer in the University’s history.

Arkansas-born Hurst has had a long and chequered career in basketball, first hitting the court for Missouri under a full sporing scholarship in 1982. In five years he notched up more than 200 games, was all-conference representative for three years, and was MVP in his last two seasons.

Hurst was named in the All-American college team in those last years also. At that time there were more than 5000 eligible basketballers from about 200 universities in the North-West.

After his college career, Hurst left for Australia, playing about 120 games with the Hobart Devils in the National Basketball League before heading for Europe and other developing basketball nations. He had seasons in Sweden, Iceland, Croatia, Indonesia and Portugal before once again returning to Australian shores.

He played with two Hobart teams, Southern Districts in Brisbane and the Gold Coast before being signed to the Mildura Mavericks in the recruiting coup of the decade. Hurst came to the Mavericks as a three-time MVP awardee at top-level basketball in Australia.

It has been estimated he has played around 800 games of basketball. He holds true legend status in the United States with his ‘shots blocked’ record, having blocked 153 shots in four years of college, with no-on else getting past the 100 mark.

His highest score is 59 during an American college game. In Australia his best is 52, while Mark recalls his best score being 36 in a domestic A Grade competition, when he was 33.

These days, Joe and Mark, who stands 6ft 3ins, say they are content to let their boys do the bulk of the work, are more than happy to fill in when they can, and support Sunraysia basketball by way of coaching, and helping develop junior potential as much as they can.

Suzanne Nanney

The two-day slalom tournament will also take on an international flavour with the addition of United States slalom skier, Suzanne Nanney, who’s coming to the end of a two month water skiing holiday in Mildura.

Nanney, who is president and women’s team captain of the University of Georgia Water Ski Team, will fly home to Atlanta, Georgia on Monday, but not before showcasing her slalom skills in the Over 21 Women’s division over the coming two days at Cowra Station.

The 22-year-old, who has been water skiing since she was five-years-old, said spending the past two months in Mildura has been part of a long-time water skiing goal for her.

“I love travelling and have always wanted to come to Australia,” she said.

Nanney spent five months in Spain during her third year of university in the States, where she studied speech pathology, but wanted to combine her loves of water skiing and travel.

“I was definitely looking to go abroad again and I wanted to ski somewhere different and meet more ski people,” she said.

It was through her friendship with Mildura Ski Club’s Nigel Sparrow, who regularly travels to the United States to coach at the prestigious Coble Ski School, that she was able to make her wish come true, while continuing her training on the Murray River in the United States off-season.

Baldwin Boats also got behind the 22-year-old’s trip, offering her work during her stay.
Nanney said her trip to Mildura couldn’t have come at a better time, during America’s winter, and she’s taken advantage of the opportunity, skiing between two and four times per week at the Mildura Ski Club’s Cowra Station slalom course.

While adept at all three water skiing disciplines – tricks, jumping and slalom – she specialises in slalom and would easily rank in the top 10 open women in Australia if she competed here.

The 22-year-old’s visit provided an insight into the some of the water skiing opportunities in the United States, including collegian Water Ski competitions, where ski teams represent universities.

“I started skiing at five, but really got into it when I went to college,” she said this week.

She was 18-years-old when she started college, but was soon enmeshed in the water skiing culture, appointed captain of the college’s water ski team the following year.

“I’d never really competed until college, which has a really different feel to it than individual tournaments,” Nanney said.

“It’s all team-based, so you’re doing everything for your team. It was a lot of fun, with some partying involved as well, while individual tournaments tend to bring in a little more pressure.”

However, the 22-year-old was able to adapt to both and made it into the regional nationals in the United States, one step below national title contention.

Nanney said living in Mildura for two months has illustrated both the differences and similarities between the two countries.

For a start, Mildura’s proximity to some of the best water skiing areas is something many Sunraysia residents take for granted. Nanney needs to travel for at least an hour to be able to ski in her home city, rather than the usual 15 to 20 minutes in the Mallee.

However she was struck by many of the similarities.

“The wonderful thing about water skiing is that it is pretty much the same no matter where you go in the world,” she said.

“The people are really wonderful, there are always six buoys (on a slalom course), the boat always goes in a straight line, so even though I’m far from home, water skiing is familiar.”

The 22-year-old will round out her time in Mildura by competing in the Mildura Ski Club’s two-day slalom tournament this weekend at Cowra Station, but hopes to return to Australia again in the future, with her sights set on Melbourne’s Moomba Festival water skiing tournament, whether it be as a spectator or competitor.

This weekend’s tournament at Cowra Station will provide Sunraysia water ski fans with a veritable feast of water skiing talent, headlined by current Australian record holder, Nick Adams.

It will also showcase the depth of talent in Sunraysia, including our own Peter Cornale. Cornale is preparing for the ‘Big Dawg’ series, which will run in conjunction with Moomba this year.

At last year’s two-day slalom tournament at Cowra Station, Cornale went within a couple of buoys of the Australian record for his division and will be hoping to reach the same highs this weekend.

Results from this weekend will count towards competitors’ world ranking lists, providing added incentive for skiers to perform.

Competition gets underway from 9am both days.

ONE of international solo speedway’s greatest riders, and certainly among the most popular, has decided to call it a day.

Jason Lyons, who grew up in Irymple and cut his teeth at Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway, was one of those credited with leading what many describe as Sunraysia’s ‘golden age’ of speedway, which saw a large group of Mildura riders set off for international speedway stardom more than 20 years ago – along with names like Jason Crump, Mark Lemon, Travis McGowan and Leigh Adams.

The Mildura Weekly caught up with Lyons to find out what prompted his retirement and to celebrate a glittering international career spanning 22 years.

Motorcycles have been part of Jason Lyons’ life for as long as he can remember.

He can’t remember when he got his first bike – he was too young – but he certainly recalls watching his father, Rod, race speedway at the top level in Australia.

Lyons attributes his entry into speedway to his father’s own interest and success in the sport.

“My dad used to ride himself so I suppose it was in my blood,” he said this week.

“Obviously mum used to drag the kids down to the speedway to watch dad all those years ago, so I guess it went from there.”

While he’d been riding bikes since he was four-years-old, Lyons started racing junior solo speedway at 9-years-old, but it took a while for results to come.

While many who’ve seen the 41-year-old in action may argue, Lyons maintains he certainly wasn’t a natural at speedway and didn’t enjoy immediate success as a junior just starting out.

“No, I think I was a bit of a crasher, and still am obviously,” he laughed referring to the broken leg sustained last year and which was the final straw in his decision to retire, but more on that later.

“Speedway comes pretty naturally to some people while others have to work at it, and I was one of those who had to work pretty hard at my speedway.”

It was towards the end of his junior career that his racing really began to pick up pace, culminating in him winning the Australian Junior Pairs Championship with Leigh Adams.

By the time he turned 15 Lyons got his hands on a senior solo speedway bike, despite still being too young to race seniors, and started getting used to the much more powerful machine.

While these days junior riders can step from a 125cc junior machine to a 350cc machine before making the switch to the full-blown 500cc senior bikes, back when Lyons was in his latter junior years the only option was to make the big jump up to the full senior bike.

He said that transition was among the biggest in his career.

“It’s a different ball game altogether. You’re a young kid riding against adults,” Lyons said.

“You go straight from a 125cc to a 500cc and a full-sized frame. They’re not heavy bikes, but at 16-years-old they are.”

He said that transition was similar to the jump required to cut it at international level for the first time.

When Lyons entered the senior ranks in Australia he was the young challenger, newly arrived on the senior scene, coming up against riders including the legendary Phil Crump, Gavin Sedgmen, Tim Nunan and Matt McWilliams.

At 16, in his first senior year, he almost immediately started racking up the kilometres racing away most weekends during summer.

“I did a lot of travelling to Adelaide, virtually every week,” he said.

“Mildura was running on Sundays then and we would do North Arm (Adelaide) on Friday, Murray Bridge/Renmark on the Saturday and then Mildura on the Sunday.

“The first couple of years was really just learning – usually the hard way,” he laughed.

“Mum and dad pretty much dedicated themselves to bikes as I was still too young to drive at 16.”

Lyons raced in Australia for a couple of years before he got his big break at Phil Crump’s testimonial meeting in Mildura, in 1990, featuring a host of the world’s best riders, including competitors from the U.K.

“One of the guys from Scotland was there, Sean Courtney, and he had a contract for a young Aussie kid and I had a good meeting on the right day I suppose,” Lyons recalled.
Courtney approached the 19-year-old that night and met with him and his family, again the next morning at Lyons’ parents’ house where the deal was signed off.

It proved a whirlwind few weeks for Lyons. Crump’s testimonial meeting, where Lyons was approached by Courtney, was about mid-February 1990. The English speedway season got underway in March.

Within a couple of weeks he was on a plane destined for the UK and his new life riding for the Glasgow Tigers in the Second Division (now known as Premier League), living with Courtney and his family for that first season.

Read the second half of this two-part series in next Friday’s Mildura Weekly.

THE ARTIST AND THE DICTATOR: Maree gets to meet and have a chat with Fidel Castro’s son, Fidel junior.

The talk, based on her visionary research, collecting and subsequent art shows around the world, followed talks by other world experts on unique art material and displays connected to Afghanistan and the Tibet-Chinese border regions.

In email contact with the Mildura Weekly in the lead-up to her address, Maree admitted to being excited and extremely proud to have been chosen to give the keynote address.

“The Museum of Ethnography in Sweden is very interested in the work I do researching our cultural items from collections around the world, and making up art as a result of this research,” she said.

“Later this month I will be giving a presentation at the Textile Museum in Prato, in the Tuscany region of Italy…I had hoped to make a traditional Possum skin cloak while I was here, but I couldn’t afford the 40 pelts, at $80 each, so I have decided to do some paintings instead.”

Actually, a possum skin cloak might have come in handy for Maree…she tells of going from the harsh Aussie summer to The Big Freeze in Europe, with rivers freezing over, and she’s had to invest in a specially-designed winter ‘puffer jacket’ for the winter.

The Stockholm museum forum is part of a busy and exciting year for Maree, having already spent a good part of last year and the start of 2012 in Italy, and then Cuba, where she attended a unique event that brought together, for the first time, representatives of the 27 embassies in Cuba, along with the country’s leader, Fidel Castro junior.

Maree said she was in talks with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in relation to a collaborative project between Australian indigenous artists and Cuban artists for next year’s Australia Day celebrations in Cuba.

During her overseas studies she is also curating an exhibition at the Central St Martins college of art and design in London, and enjoying a three-month artist residency in Prato, Italy.

She expects to be back in Australia by May…”unless I get offered another residency somewhere in Europe.”

ROSY FUTURE: The dense foliage of Rosie’s garden is in stark contrast to the Thar desert, but that didn’t stop her planting trees like this Acacia INSET, that apparently is still thriving.

And, everywhere she has been, the horticultural adventurer has left a garden behind.
A permaculture devotee, Rosie cannot resist the lure of the soil wherever she goes.

Earlier in her life she did it as a wife in metropolitan Melbourne, and later as a mother of young children on the city fringes and at places like Maldon.

She has had big gardens and small. The one at Buronga that surrounds her modest unit like a living and breathing security blanket is one of the latter. It’s a tranquil setting that provides nourishment for the soul as much as it does for the belly.

Her profusion of plants are happy and healthy… thriving.

The majority of her charges are food producers, and the striking thing about her garden is that much of it is being trained to grow vertically, rather than horizontal.

That is something that has been forced upon her. There is not a lot of room, out front or out back, so Rosie has had to adapt her permaculture practise to suit.

All available space is used wisely. She has pumpkins, for example, growing on garden arches. It is certainly a novelty, but it all makes sense when she points out that the large leaves provide abundant shade for herself and her animals, and that the young pumpkins dangling in mid-air seem none-the-worse for the experience.

She is also growing marrows the same way.

Then there are the edible herb and crop plants in myriad pots of all sizes. I spotted  capsicums, figs… even dwarf citrus!

The secret to her success, Rosie reveals, is the compost she feeds to her charges… that and rabbit and guinea pig poo. Her two pet rabbits and the guinea pigs are important ‘cogs’ in her permaculture regime, recycling kitchen scraps that they turn into poo that enriches her compost.

She also captures all water used in the kitchen sink, using it to moisten her many pots.
Rosie sees her garden as a little oasis in the larger oasis that is Sunraysia.

She was attracted to our area from Adelaide by the Murray River, and the promise that Mildura was home to a large number of carob trees.

While she admits having been a little disappointed by the sparse number of carobs, the river, on the other hand,  was all she could have hoped for, and spent her first few weeks here living by the mighty Murray at Apex Park.

“It was wonderful,” she said. The cool waters of the Murray were in stark contrast to the prevailing drought at the time.

Rosie arrived in Sunraysia just before the abundant rains of late 2010/early 2011, and got a taste of the decade-plus long drought we had been experiencing.

While she acknowledges that could have been a tough time for people not used to having so much water literally on tap, the drought here was a pale imitation of what she experienced living with the desert people of India.

In the late 1990s, Rosie said she had been “lonely and very disillusioned with Western society.”

Her marriage was over, and her four children, now grown up, had gone their own ways.

“Being free I set off to find somewhere to plant another garden, somewhere I could live my own life but in the middle of a lot of children and gentle country people,” Rosie said.

“And, it had to be somewhere cheap because I had very little money.”

After nearly two years of travelling, including time in Nepal, Rosie arrived at Sam, in the Thar desert, 45 kilometres west of Jaisalmer, in far west Rajasthan, in far west India, very close to the Pakistan border.

“There, for the first time, I found whole families of peaceful, quiet, innocent people,” she recalls.

“In the Muslim families of the desert, where there is no electricity, no TV, no cars and very little literacy, there is also no alcohol, no drugs, and the children are all polite and well behaved.

“In 1999 that looked like heaven to me.”

For the next three or four years, Rosie funded and planted hundreds of trees (for goat fodder), pasture grasses and a vegetable garden. Unfortunately, gardening and forestry are not part of the culture for her previously nomadic, goat-herding hosts.

“They did not see the advantage of caring for trees, and today the survivors of my efforts to ‘green the desert’ is about 10 acacias.”

While her gardening efforts were not as successful as she hoped, Rosie said the real bright light of her desert experience was meeting the man that was to become her second husband – Mathar.

And she was to be his second wife.

Mathar is one of 10 children, born to a sheep and goat herding family, and living in an area previously called Sindh.

He is also a camel boss, coordinating camels and their drivers for camel riding and camping tours for tourism.

When Rosie meet him, and because of the boom in tourism, Mathar was fairly rich by local standards but still lived the simple life of his nomadic ancestors – in a grass thatched hut, surrounded by his sheep and goats, camels and chickens and with a small herd of bony Brahmin cows coming and going as they grazed on the desert grasses.

However, the tourism trade has ben in rapid decline for some years. To the modern, well-heeled tourist, camels, a grass hut and the empty, dusty desert are simply no longer attractive.

But they were, and still are, for Rosie. She recalls: “I took a camel tour, and when I was on his farm I told Mathar I was looking for somewhere to live, somewhere to plant a garden,” Rosie said.

“He spoke very little English, and had no idea what a garden was, but largely because I had a little bit of money that I was willing to share, I was rapidly welcomed as a member of the family.

“I eventually married Mathar, and ended up living in the desert with he, and his family… and animals, for many years.

“We lived on almost nothing – twice a day we ate flat bread made from wholemeal flour cooked on a twig fire with a little dish of yoghurt on the side made from the cow milk.

“Five or six times a day we had tea boiled together with lots of sugar and the rich milk from the goats and sheep and every few days I would go into Jaisalmer and buy fruit for the whole family – bananas, mandarins.

“Contrary to expectations, sheep and goat herders do not normally eat their animals. “A breeding sheep is worth almost a month’s wages and not many people are rich enough to squander that sort of money on a single meal.

“They live a symbiotic existence, the people helping the animals, the animals helping the people.

“In a drought there, when animals and people were dying from thirst and hunger, I saw Mathar’s mother give her own food to her favourite goat.

“And yet, for all the nothing that we had, our life was socially and emotionally rich beyond anything I have ever experienced elsewhere.

“Many things happen in the desert. Things that make you cry.  It’s a hard, uncomfortable life, and people do die of hunger.   It may be for this reason people are exceptionally attached to each other.

“No single person or family unit is self-sufficient so their life, food, income and society depends on sticking closely together.

“This closeness was like soul food for a misfit, eccentric middle-aged Western person,” Rosie recalls.

Even now, when she leaves the desert to live in the relative comfort of places like Sunraysia, Rosie admits to often feeling lonely and longing to return to the desert.

“But I am 60 now, and I am finding the hard desert life increasingly difficult,” she said.

For many years, the Internet allowed Rosie to take her work, as a specialist medical typist, with her wherever she roamed, even into the desert of northern India!

But the sand (and the goats), did not do her lap-top a lot of good.

She ended up buying a run-down house in Jaisalmer, splitting her time between there and the desert.

Buying the house was another story in itself. Suffice to say she is the first Westerner to own a property in the old fort town, and the effort involved was monumental.

“I would work when I was in Jaisalmer, and once I had earned enough money to live on for a while, I would go back out into the desert with Mathar,” she said.

For the past decade and more, Rosie has split her time between the desert, Jaisalmer, and Australia visiting family including her mother.

She does not know how long she will remain in Sunraysia – the desert, and her life there, still call to her.

But, as long as she is here, she will continue to work via the Internet, tend her garden and save her money to fund another trip abroad some time in the future.

Then she will be gone, and all that will be left will be another garden with her green thumb prints all over it!

WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE; This existing regulator, in Chalka Creek near its entrance with the Murray River between Colignan and Wemen, will be upgraded.

At least 18 of the 21 lakes in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, covering around 5583 hectares (13,800 acres) will be flooded on a regular basis, averaging three years every decade, by either natural, or introduced and controlled environmental flows, from the nearby Murray River.

The flooding of lakes, wetlands and flood-plains will be made possible with the construction of a pumping station, three regulators and three large artificial ‘stop’ banks, upgrading the existing Little Hattah regulator, excavating silt build-up from a 1.3km length of Chalka Creek, and installation of a high voltage power line.

The project will take up to 12 months to complete, at a projected cost of around $32 million, and parts of the park, including main access roads and tracks, will be closed to visitors for varying periods. The River Track will be closed to all but work traffic for up to 12 months. Some access tracks leading to the River Track will also be closed. Parks

Victoria’s Brendan Rodgers says this is for public safety, due to the expected extra activity of heavy vehicle and equipment traffic constantly on the move for the duration of the project. He said provision would be made by contractors for mutually-agreed access to four privately-owned properties within the park – Sexton’s, Oatey’s, Messenger’s and Kulkyne Station. It is hoped that a long-established eco-tourism and corporate motivational training complex at Sexton’s will not be affected. There are ongoing talks between all parties involved.

The extensive works, funded through The Living Murray program, is a joint program by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, Mallee Catchment Management Authority, Parks Victoria and Goulburn Murray Water.

In departmental ‘environment-speak,’ the idea is “to help restore a more natural pattern of flows to the iconic lake system by efficiently delivering environmental water to maximise ecological outcomes, while maintaining the beautiful environment at Hattah Lakes for the community’s enjoyment.”

In simple terms, the lakes have been drying up too often due to drought conditions and strict regulation of river water for irrigation, so management authorities decided to do something about it using environmental water. It is one of six projects ear-marked for environmental works under the Living Murray program.

The concrete and steel regulators, complete with rock banks for erosion protection, will be built at three Chalka Creek locations referred to as Oatey’s, Cantala and Messenger’s. Two of them will include fish passages. The pump station will be constructed at Messengers Bend, where Chalka Creek meets the Murray River. The seven pumps, drawing water from an excavated part of the river, will have a combined capacity to pump more than 1000 megalitres of water a day into the Chalka Creek system. The pumping station will be above the high water mark, recognised as Victorian territory.

Goulburn-Murray Water has awarded the construction contract to the Melbourne-based Comdain Infrastructure, a company with 50 years experience in the gas and water works construction and maintenance field. The project will be co-ordinated from Comdain’s Echuca office, and it is understood that local contractors will be employed where possible.

Project spokesperson, Mallee CMA board chairperson Sharyon Peart, said that river regulation had affected the frequency, duration and extent of natural flooding at the Hattah Lakes, and the 2012 project would enable a more natural water regime to be restored to the lakes, using both natural floods and managed watering.

Mallee CMA’s Living Murray co-ordinator Nicholas Sheahan expects that each flooding event, whether natural or pumped, will involve about 50,000 megalitres of water.

Ms Peart said community consultation regarding the Hattah Lakes Living Murray project started in 2008, with the formation of a Community Reference Group, media coverage, stakeholder meetings, group tours and talks with indigenous groups.

Ms Peart encouraged Sunraysia residents and visitors to the region to keep up to date with the progress of the construction works. “Hattah Lakes is beautiful part of the Victorian Mallee and attracts thousands of visitors each year, so it’s important that people know exactly what’s going on,” she said.

“Access to the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park will be affected during construction, with a
number of roads, including the River Track, closed due to public safety. However, visitors will still be able to access the Hattah lakes, most camp grounds and walking tracks.”

One of the most important aspects of the project is to lower silt levels in Chalka Creek, which is the main inflow point for the Hattah Lakes. With silt removed, water will flow into the creek when the river inflow threshold is 20,000 megalitres a day, instead of the current threshold of 37,600 megalitres.

Mr Sheahan said the excavation works in Chalka would cover about a kilometre of creek-bed, and mainly consist of removing ‘humps’ to allow better passage of water. There will be extensive excavation work where Chalka meets the river, near the new pumping station.

Project engineers have opted for electricity to power the pumps and regulators, being more environment-friendly and cost-effective than natural gas or diesel, and an extensive report on the project details the need for removal of some trees in the area, along with upgrading of tracks and roads to accommodate heavy equipment carriers. Large piles of rocks have already been delivered on site.

It is obvious from the number of pegs and pink-flagged areas inside the park, that the bulk of the project survey work has already been carried out. Some pegs on the River Track indicate where the track will be re-aligned and improved near the bridge crossing. Rows of other flags identify small areas of indigenous cultural heritage that are to be protected.

The report stresses that only water ear-marked for environmental use will be diverted to the Hattah Lakes, and has given an assurance that irrigation entitlements won’t be affected. The water will come from special release from upstream storages. Once the lakes are filled, regulators will be opened to return water to the river at the rate of 1500 megalitres a day.

Regular updates will be available during the construction phase on the Mallee CMA
website www.malleecma.vic.gov.au; the Parks Victoria website at www.parks.vic.gov.au;
and the Hattah Lakes Twitter page @HattahLakes. More information about the Hattah Lakes project is also available by phoning the Mallee CMA on 5051 4377.

“The updates will include images of progress and alerts on any road closures or access
limitations as a result of the construction works,” Ms Peart said.

The Living Murray program is a joint initiative funded by the New South Wales, Victorian,
South Australian, Australian Capital Territory and the Commonwealth governments,
coordinated by the Murray Darling Basin Authority.

NEW AUDIENCE: Cameraman with popular Singapore lifestyle program, ‘Food Source,’ Sieu Leong Bernard Lai and head chef at Stefano’s Restaurant, Mildura, Jim McDougall, take a break during filming in Mildura this week. The feature on Mildura will be seen by more than 650,000 viewers in Singapore from June this year – a new market for Mildura Tourism.

The film crew was in Mildura shooting footage for the country’s highest racing lifestyle television program, Food Source.

The visit was an initiative of Tourism Australia and the International Famils Program.

“Tourism Australia initiates these types of initiatives, working in with state tourism offices, which in turn put forward ideas, for example, to consider Mildura as a possible location,”

Mildura Tourism chief executive Rod Trowbridge explained yesterday.

Mr Trowbridge said the filming this week, featuring Sunraysia’s food and wine, comes at a time when Mildura Tourism is making inroads into the Asian market.

“The last couple of years we’ve noticed increasing interest from Asia, so this is a real bonus for us,” he said.

“At the moment the Asian market is a small market for us – not one of our dominant markets, but we’re getting interest and taking a softy softly approach to developing that market.

“Developing international markets is a long-term, very sensitive program. You can’t just turn around and attract an international market overnight. It has to be very strategic and very consistent.”

The Murray River and Sunraysia prime produce were among features captured by the film crew this week.

Mr Trowbridge said Food Source attracts about 650,000 viewers in Singapore.

“This season will start in June and run for the rest of the year. It’s the third series of this program, so it’s well established and been around for a while,” he said.

Yesterday’s filming included Stefano’s restaurant head chef, Jim McDougall, cooking on board a houseboat moored on the banks of the Murray River.

The six-person crew, including a celebrity presenter, spent four days in Sunraysia this week and made stops at the Garreffa family’s table grape property, Belvedere Avocado Farm and Thurla Farms.

Concept drawings of the new Langtree Mall shade pavilion

While a large shaded area was an integral component of the mall redevelopment, it had to be put on hold as funds earmarked for the project were diverted to improve Sunraysia’s storm water infrastructure following last year’s record rain and flooding.

It was a move that prompted criticism from the public, particularly in the heat of summer.
Mildura Rural City Council said foundation works for the proposed shaded pavilion went in with the rest of the ground work for the redevelopment, however there weren’t enough funds for actual structure.

A successful application for more than $600,000 in funding for the project late last year meant work could go ahead on the pavilion.

Buronga-based engineering firm, APK Engineering, have been building the structure off-site in recent weeks before it is moved into the mall in sections over the next six to eight weeks.

The new pavilion, which will cover the open area between Prints Charming and Surf Crew in the mall, measures 20 metres by 30 metres, and will be six metres high.

One third of the pavilion will be weather-proof  while a lighting system will also be installed.

Mildura Rural City Councillor and Langtree Mall Redevelopment Project Steering Committee chairman, Mark Eckel, revealed late last year that at one point there were plans for a smaller pavilion in the wake of ongoing criticism over the lack of shade in the mall, however he said this week, the wait for the original shelter would be worth it.

Cr Eckel said the plan was to have the pavilion installed in time for the massive Easter Powersports weekend, which attracted thousands of visitors to the area, and to the central business district in particular, for the traditional Good Friday Show and Shine.

He said CBD shoppers would see the first signs of action in the mall in the first week of March, when barricades would be erected to allow the shad pavilion structure to be brought in and set up.

Cr Eckel said while it was important to have the pavilion completed before the Easter weekend,  it would provide long term benefits, some of which were already being felt.

“It’s not only good timing for Easter, but also in regards to our total retail plan because word has it that there’s a number of empty shops that will be taken up by new tenants and this is due to the injection of funds spent by Council, not just on the mall, but the CBD generally,” he said.

“I believe there are other shops that have also been looked and I know of two new national chains that are coming into the mall.”

WENTWORTH Shire residents could see their power bills drop as soon as mid-year following moves to abolish western New South Wales’ status as a non-contestable area for electricity.

Member for Murray Darling John Williams

At present Shire electricity users are charged more or less for their electricity based on how far they are from where the power is generated in New South Wales.

Most of New South Wales’ electricity is generated out of the Hunter Valley, the central coast and central west.

Given the Wentworth Shire’s distance from these regions, Shire residents pay much higher prices for electricity than other users in the State because of the perceived cost of transmission losses over such a long distance.

Making matters worse, many Wentworth Shire residents aren’t even using power generated in NSW. They get their electricity from the Victorian grid.

Member for Murray Darling, John Williams, has been fighting for a more equitable system, which he said would more evenly spread the cost of transmission losses.

In a letter earlier this year to New South Wales Minister for Resources and Energy, Chris Hartcher, Mr Williams described the situation as unacceptable.

“I personally find the situation unacceptable as the western areas that fall into the non-contestable category are deriving the bulk of electricity from Victoria which in effect negates the allowable transmission losses which are created with a view that power is supplied to western NSW primarily from NSW generators,” he wrote.

Speaking from NSW Parliament yesterday, Mr Williams told the Mildura Weekly the more remote areas of NSW were “pretty badly disadvantaged” by the current policy.

Mr Williams used Murray Irrigation as an example of how the current system was disadvantaging electricity users.

“When they made the decision to put a pipeline in instead of channels, it was determined at that time that to supply power for that network would cost about $750,000 to meet their needs,” he said.

Mr Williams said that once the additional cost of transmission losses were added to this figure under the non-contestable rules, it would cost about $1million to meet the power needs of the piped system.

However, he said there was light at the end of the tunnel for Wentworth Shire residents with work already underway to change the existing system, which should result in a lower power bills for Wentworth Shire residents.

“We can certainly expect to see some changes announced and carried out by about mid-year,” Mr Williams said.