50 years ago

HAMILTON City Council believes it may have to spend $800,000 on industrial development between 1974 and 1978. This is the amount it has budgeted for in an outline of the city’s projected loan program. But council’s first task will be to find more than $1 million it needs to carry out all facets of its loan program for the coming financial year. It needs $293,000 to meet commitments encountered in the current financial year. Projects included in this are: Art Gallery extensions $36,000, Senior Citizens’ Clubrooms $6000, the city’s housing scheme $85,000 and roadworks amounting to $86,000. Additionally, it needs loan finance to carry out its proposed 1974-75 loan works program.

A MISSING nomination form has prevented Regal Vista from racing in the Muntham Handicap at tomorrow’s Casterton Cup meeting. Regal Vista has not won a race since it was ‘rung in’ at Casterton two years ago and won the Muntham Handicap under the name of Royal School. Mrs Gail Lehpaner, who entered Regal Vista for Casterton, was disappointed when told the gelding could not start as the VRC had not received the entry. Two years ago, The Spectator broke the story of how Royal School was in fact the smart Melbourne sprinter Regal Vista. The ‘ring-in’ became the biggest sensation in Australian racing for years, and led to the VRC disqualifying the owner, trainer and rider. It was not until a court hearing last year over the ownership of Regal Vista that Mr. Rick Renzella admitted having purchased the horse just for the purpose­ of racing it as Royal School.

25 years ago

A CONTROVERSIAL naturalist is seeking to buy up to 4000 hectares (10,000 acres) in the Hamilton area to establish a sanctuary to help save the endangered eastern barred bandicoot. Dr John Wamsley already has eight areas around Australia controlled by his company, Earth Sanctuaries, where he claims many endangered species have been saved. He would like to see the same Earth Sanctuary development here – although he recognises the difficulty of buying such a large amount of land in one parcel. “What we have to do is to get 3000, 5000 or 10,000 acres (which are) suitable here and build the (bandicoot) numbers up so that instead of having a few hundred you have 10,000 or 20,000 of them,” he said during a visit to Hamilton this week.

WESTERN Border Football League will enter its first Booze Less Country Championship match next weekend without its star full-forward. North Gambier’s gun forward, Glen Goss, was suspended for three matches by the league’s independent tribunal on Thursday night. A disappointed Western Border coach, Peter Sims, said yesterday that the loss of Goss would be hard to cover. “He is the in-form forward in the competition and has kicked a lot of goals in the opening four rounds,” he said. Sims said no new players would be added to the squad and Goss would be replaced in goal square by either Dean Lane, Scott Carberry or Nick Forster. “We have a few options there so there is no need for the selectors to add another player to the Squad,” Sims said.