THE work never stops in our shire, as us Hamiltonians know only too well.

From our farms and shearing sheds to Gray Street retail and our industrial estates, this is a part of the world-renowned for its ‘hard yakka’.

Keeping the shire ticking along requires an enormous amount of work from a team of dedicated council workers, as well as a tremendous contribution from the community at large.

However, ticking along has never been our aim - we always want to improve and enhance this place that we are so lucky to call home.

The council manages many assets, and we’re grateful for those who keep us accountable in doing our duty to residents, but it is important to also discuss how some of these assets are managed, and indeed who has a duty of care over them.

Although some land lies within our shire, many important assets are classified as Crown Land, and are therefore managed by a State Government authority.

A good example of this is the campsites in the Rocklands region, including places like the Glendinning Campground, Rocklands Dam and Brodies.

These sites are managed by Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water, which performs maintenance, manages the grounds, and stocks our favourite fishing spots.

Council does try to have some input into the management of these facilities wherever possible.

We have pushed to have extra skip bins provided at Christmas and Easter - the busier times of the year -but the land manager prefers to set a standard whereby campers are expected to clean up after themselves and take their rubbish home with them.

The council does, however, put skip bins at Balmoral at Christmas and Easter to deal with the inflated numbers of campers and to curb some of the worst instances of excess waste.

The road into the Rocklands region has been reported to us on several occasions as being corrugated in parts and potholed in others, but as the damaged road sits just inside state-supervised land, we are therefore unable to act ourselves.

However, we do advocate to the State Government for action on these issues.

There are some sites, such as Wannon Falls and Nigretta Falls that are on Crown land but managed by Council using a small remuneration from the state.

As you can imagine, we are extremely eager to keep these stunning landmarks pristine and they are very well looked after by our devoted Council Works team.

One important takeaway is that many of our roads fall under Crown supervision and therefore sit outside of Council management.

Many of the important arterial roads we use every day, such as the Hamilton Highway, the Henty Highway and the Glenelg Highway are maintained by the state.

Other essential roads, such as the one from Dunkeld to Cavendish, the Port Fairy Road, and the Coleraine to Edenhope Road also fall under the umbrella of State Government.

We are certainly aware that many parts of these roads need review, and while we are not able to undertake repairs on these roads ourselves, we will have always, and will continue to advocate to the State Government for maintenance and investment in this road network.

I take a lot of pride in how close the distance is between the people of the Southern Grampians Shire and their council.

We try very hard to provide a service that communicates well with the people it represents so I consider it of utmost importance to stay transparent and share details as much as possible of the matters that affect you.

To conclude, I’d like to shine a light on the traders along Cox Street. Please remember that they are all open for business and still accessible.

I’m sure they’d be very happy to see you.