A look back at previous editions of the paper 50 and 25 years ago.
50 years ago
HOUSING and home building in Hamilton will get a $200,000 capital injection with the formation of another co-operative housing society in the city. The new society, the city’s 11th, will provide finance for about 23 homes. Hamilton’s allocation is a large slice of $900,000 made available to societies in Victoria by an insurance company. The money will be made available by the City Mutual Life Assurance Society at an interest rate of 6 3/4 per cent. Secretary of the Hamilton Co-operative Housing Societies, Mr. Val Clayton, said yesterday a meeting would probably be called in mid-January to form the new society. “If people are interested in the new society they will have to come along to the meeting because we don’t keep a waiting list,” he said.
THE Hamilton Amateur Athletic Club is to be re-formed following a public meeting held in Hamilton. The club, which will compete in the old HAAC colours of white with blue trimmings, will initially have only male athletes competing. However, the club will cater for both men and women members, but the women will not be able to compete until the club obtains information from the Victorian Women’s Amateur Athletic Association. At a public meeting called to re-form the Club, Hamilton College teacher, Mr. Terry Cavanagh, said there should be provision made for women members as there were several interested in joining an athletics club in Hamilton.
25 years ago
HAMILTON and the farming areas of Southern Grampians Shire have accounted almost totally for the slump in the shire’s population of 747 over five years. Surprisingly, most of the shire’s small towns held their population – Penshurst even increased its population by 30. And the blame for Hamilton’s alarming drop can be largely laid at the feet of State and Federal Governments. Shire figures show about 500 public service jobs have been lost in the corresponding five years, almost exactly matching Hamilton’s loss of 505 people between 1991 and 1996. Hamilton totalled 9248 people at the 1996 census count, while Coleraine still had more than 1000 people. The shire had 17,103 residents – a drop of 4.2 per cent since 1991.
BESSIEBELLE Football Club will remain a part of the South West District Football League after a committee was appointed at what has been described a ‘successful’ annual general meeting on Wednesday night. Former Bessiebelle coach, Wayne Bell, will lead the club from the sidelines as president next year and will have a supporting cast of 14 who have volunteered to fill the remaining positions on the committee. The AGM was third since the end of the 1997 season as the two pervious meetings had failed to see a committee appointed. Bell said he had not attended any of the previous meetings but had applied for the position because he did not want to see the club fold, especially with the involvement of many aboriginal players.
