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1 week ago | 
abc.net.au | Fiona Parker |Emile Pavlich
A new multi-million-dollar fire station has sat dormant for months in Bendigo because the water pressure is not strong enough. The opening of the new $5.6 million Country Fire Authority (CFA) Golden Square fire station has been delayed since February following the failure of the water pressure compliance test. Golden Square CFA captain Bryan Greenwood said it was a frustrating time for the brigade. "Everyone's done everything they were meant to do.
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2 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich |Jean Bell
Scores of small and medium businesses are closing amid the pressure of online shopping operations outside the legal commitments of local retailers. One hospitality business operator says it was a death by a thousand cuts before he closed. The federal government will host a roundtable with business leaders,experts and unions in August to discuss ways to improve productivity.
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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Annie Brown |Callum Marshall |Emile Pavlich
Permits for two renewable energy projects in regional Victoria have been approved despite community opposition. Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny approved Mint Renewables' 400-megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy storage system (BESS) at Dederang in the Kiewa Valley, east of Myrtleford. The controversial project received strong objections from hundreds of community members with concerns about risks to amenities, the environment, and bushfires.
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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich |Anna McGuinness
An elderly man and two youths have allegedly stolen a 100-kilogram sculpture that caused outrage in a regional Victorian church community. At nearly 2 metres tall, the statue named Transcendence was carved from a century-old pine tree, and depicts a naked man and woman. It was part of a temporary art installation inside the Catholic Sacred Heart Cathedral in Central Bendigo. Victoria Police alleged the statue was stolen on Saturday, and said there were three suspects.
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich |Anna McGuinness |Sarah Lawrence
Sidney Myer's grandson has urged the Myer Group to refurbish its original store in Bendigo. Residents say the exterior of Myer's 125-year-old Bendigo store is crumbling. The city's chamber of commerce is also lobbying for the store to be renovated. As the Myer retail chain faces a major shake-up under businessman Solomon Lew, residents in the regional city where Myer was born have called on the company to give its original store some love.
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Anna McGuinness |Emile Pavlich
Dozens of Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteers and farmers are travelling to Melbourne ahead of the state budget today to protest against the government's new emergency services tax. Among them is a fire brigade captain who says his station does not need the new truck allocated to it through the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund (ESVF). The Corop West brigade was among the first to receive a new tanker via a $110-million investment in CFA, SES and Fire Rescue Victoria fleet replacement.
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich |Rebecca R. Norman |Shannon Schubert
An open water channel in central Victoria has become a wildlife graveyard. A wildlife carer says a kangaroo-proof fence could protect other wildlife from drowning in the waterway. A local MP and a researcher want wildlife to be better considered during infrastructure and housing development planning. Wildlife rescuers are calling on authorities to build a kangaroo-proof fence around a central Victoria waterway to stop animals from drowning.
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich |Shannon Schubert
Richard De Leon is neatly dressed as he exits the tent he calls home. He has set up camp on "Virginia Hill" — a fenced-off site once home to a notorious public housing estate, now littered with shopping trolleys, concrete blocks, and broken glass. "I've been here maybe a month or more," Mr De Leon said. He chose the site because it was quiet, and he was usually on his own. "I don't want to go with others with the tent," he said.
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich |Rebecca R. Norman |Fiona Parker
A heritage-listed former prison in Central Victoria will become a Montessori secondary school. The organisation behind the purchase says scores of students are expected to attend in the first 18 months of operation. Fees at the school's other campus amount to almost $8,000 a year. A former prison and art studio in Central Victoria will be transformed into a Montessori secondary school amid growing demand for alternative education in the region.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Anna McGuinness |Emile Pavlich |Shannon Schubert
An inquest hears Victoria's prison disability support service has hundreds of inmates on a waiting list. Clinton Austin was an NDIS participant but did not get the support he was entitled to before he died. Crucial medical evidence about Mr Austin's cause of death in custody has been delayed until August. A coronial inquest has heard a First Nations prisoner with a cognitive impairment fell through "a gap" in disability support services before his death.
