SHEPPARTON PASSENGER TRAINS

Dear Editor,

Residents of the Goulburn Valley should be thankful that the Greater Shepparton Council’s CEO, Phil Pearce has supported the campaign for improvements to the Shepparton passenger train service.

Shepparton was excluded from the 2005 Regional Fast Train Project, which included only Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and the Latrobe Valley.

In reply to a letter from Mr Pearce, the Victorian Transport Minister, Mr Martin Pakula stated that there had been little growth in demand for Shepparton services over the past five years.

If he had asked Goulburn Valley residents he would have been told that the, limited frequency, slow speed and poor reliability had resulted in low patronage on weekdays by those with appointments in Melbourne.

On Saturday and Sundays it is even worse, with only one service each way and the passengers who arrive in Melbourne at 9.28am cannot leave to return to Shepparton until 6.33pm, which makes it too tiring for many of the elderly and young children.

Hence business persons and families have found that it is faster and more convenient to go by car, instead of using the train service.

It is now mainly the elderly residents, school children, plus new migrants and young persons without cars who are the major users of the train service.

It is imperative that all Goulburn Valley residents voice their support for improved train services via all news media.

It must be realized that the GST tax that we pay on our food and other purchases goes to our Victorian State Government and we must speak up if we want our share of state taxes to be used for us in the Goulburn Valley.

Regards

Peter Twomey

THANKS

Dear Editor,

I would like to thank John Brumby and his Labor Government.

I would like to thank them for giving all of Victoria a reliable, quality water supply now and into the future, no matter what climate change brings us.

I would like to thank them for giving us a modern rail system, perfect or not, which was and will be far superior to selling it all off for the money that it could raise.

I would like to thank them for the support throughout Victoria that they have shown toward country living and the major country centres upon which the rest of country Victoria relies.

I would like to thank them for giving us a reasonable health system with the help of the Federal Labor Government and solving the problems of the ambulance service as they arose.

I would also like to thank them for the extra emphasis on law enforcement throughout Victoria and for hitting the worst crime areas first, including the road toll.

I would also like to thank all speeding drivers in Victoria who have made all this possible, by paying on time their speeding fines, without whom these achievements would be less likely to have occurred.

Slow down you idiots, it works out that it is a lot cheaper for you personally and for the state government, who have to clean up the mess left by those who do not get fined because they are severely injured or dead.

Thank you John and to all those who have contributed to the cause of good governance in Victoria.

Ken Morehouse.

Wangaratta

HISTORY SEARCH

Dear Editor,

This is a long shot I am taking in the hope you can help me ascertain the name of the second owner of a 1956 Grey Ferguson tractor I am restoring.

The life of this tractor I am told goes similar to this.... Original purchaser of 1956 Grey Ferguson TEA20, I believe was the Phillip Morris tobacco Company, Moorabbin. This tractor was sold somewhere after 1961/ 62 or there abouts to an operator in the Shepparton district after having caused a strike or work stoppage (again allegedly reported in the Sun News pictorial Melbourne)  at the Phillip Morris company as the operators of that day refused to drive it because it had no weather protection and subsequently the strike was broken when Phillip Morris had the tractor delivered to an Ararat firm, A. F. Gason, who built a cabin for the tractor, and once more allegedly, the first Gason cabin built for a Ferguson tractor, and I must admit in my years, since 1948, I have not seen another grey Ferguson with a Gason cabin. ( I am now 80 years old) Of course I have seen many of them fitted to other makes..

Further to the above if you should desire to keep reading, this tractor and cabin was sold to a man near Bacchus Marsh who had owned it for 30 years before I purchased it. When I purchased the tractor it was in a very run down condition needing a complete restoration, which I am presently undertaking. It is not my intention to sell this tractor but to leave it to my family as  a keepsake from their old man. I have written to Phillip Morris and to Gasons but after several weeks have not had any reply, which I must say is very disappointing. I do not intend to use the tractor for any promotion but I am anxious to ascertain its history.

Now this is a request to ascertain whether you could make up a news article from this e-mail and publish it in your newspaper.

Thank you for taking time to read this note.

Kind regards,

Alan Glasson

Ballarat

NEWS VERSUS OPINION

Dear Editor,

How disappointing to read, in recent Advisers, reams of cowyard claptrap seemingly emanating from the city offices of the strangely-named National Party (Putting Locals First) – first from Peter Ryan (photo supplied) and second from Jeanette Powell (photo supplied).

What galls is not so much the gripey tripe, broken record monotony of it all but the one-sidedness of merely copying malcontent media releases and labelling them “News” at the top of the page. Whatever happened to journalistic balance?

Then on top of that we get an anonymous piece (photo supplied) , again labelled “News” (June 30 – Page 15), headlined “Who’s running the country… may we ask?”, bashing the union movement and generally beating-up on the newly-appointed Prime Minister. Forget the use of “is” instead of “are” in the second-last paragraph, just who wrote that so-called “News”?

Please, as two elections draw near, can we have the article authorship acknowledged and the clear distinction made between “News” and “Opinion”?

Yours sincerely

John Gray

Toolamba

PREFERENTIAL FUNDING

Dear Editor,

It was somewhat surprising and more than a little annoying that after being told by Parks Victoria’s management over recent years that they lacked the funding and the manpower to control weeds and maintain tracks etc to find that Parks Victoria could find 30 vehicles and far more employees to attend the lavish opening of Barmah National Park.

It was unlikely that there was or ever will be anything to celebrate anyway. Perhaps Minister Jennings should have opened the new Parks on the steps of Parliament and the Parks employees could have spent their time and the funds saved to actually fix some of the problems in our Parks.

Perhaps if Minister Jennings had come to Barmah then, his time would have been better spent inspecting the disastrous fuel reduction burn at Browns Camp and the burnt and blackened Top Island Park. Unfortunately, if Parks Victoria’s fuel reduction policy and fire prevention management does not greatly improve then Minister Jennings and the Parks employees may soon be returning to hold a wake, as Barmah National Park may likely soon be cremated.

With Minister Jennings’ $38 million in new Park funding, the new rangers and the extra re-employed timber workers, then surely ‘no money’ and ‘no manpower’ can no longer be an excuse for poor Park management. Surely we should no longer have to endure near impossible tracks, areas of invasive weeds should no longer exist and there should be no excuse for rubbish littered campsites.

Yours sincerely,

Graeme Barwick

Numurkah

ELECTION FEVER

Dear Editor

What we have been waiting for happened on the 17th when PM Gillard called the election for the 21st August. For the next several weeks we will be bombarded non-stop with promises and innuendos of what the two main contenders will do for us if elected.

Once again the parties are setting the terms of the election. None of them ever go out to meet the people and find out what the aspirations of the electorate are. Of course, those in high places think they know what is best for the rest of us. It must seem to them that an election is just something that has to be endured to keep us believing, that, we the people have some input into how the country is run.

Abbott wants to concentrate on how Rudd was assassinated by the back room ‘boys’ of the ALP and the untrustworthiness of Julia. There will be other swipes at the ALP re the boat people but not the real issue of immigration and whether or not the flood of immigrants coming in the front door are sustainable for Australia’s future in the long run.

PM Gillard will be focusing on scare tactics of how the Libs will re-visit work choices and other meaningless Lib policies. All their tactics are designed to bemuse and trick the people into entering the sheep fold and once in, slam the door, ready for the devouring wolves.

The polls are predicting a Gillard win but it is early days yet. I wonder if she will wear a red dress on election night. Perhaps that colour is appropriate for the political philosophy she espouses.  

Regards

Jay Nauss

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