THRILLED to surpass last year’s fundraising efforts was the Hamilton contingency of the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday appeal this year.

THE new Australian Biosecurity Protection Levy passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday and was immediately met with a chorus of criticism from farmers, agricultural groups and the Federal Opposition.

FOUR men aged between 20 and 55 were arrested last week in Coleraine after a successful police raid uncovered more than a dozen illegal plants grown across several properties.

IT is no exaggeration to call volunteers with St John Ambulance community heroes.

A ‘CALL to action’ meeting of CBD business owners will be held tonight to discuss the recent installation of new parking meters, with associated restrictions, claiming the new installations were “having a major impact on (sic) trade”.

REMOVAL of the Evie Networks Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station from its present site was again on the agenda for the Southern Grampians Shire Council’s (SGSC) latest ordinary meeting at Coleraine on Wednesday night.

LOCAL CFA crews were responding to a fire on Monday afternoon at Dunkeld as the result of a blown tyre when CFA crews were once again called to another suspicious fire on a day of Total Fire Ban at Gazette.

OPPONENTS to the Victorian Government’s proposed Port of Melbourne tax said it would be passed on to rural and region truckies, farmers, and Victorian families who will pay more for goods and force regional truck companies off the road.

A THIRD suspicious fire was lit at about 5.30am on Monday morning on the side of Mount Napier Road at Gazette around 20 kilometres south of Hamilton.

THE Southern Grampians Shire Council (SGSC) announced this week that with the one-month grace period coming to an end, paid-parking rules in the Hamilton CBD will be officially enforced as of yesterday, March 1, with fines up to $96.