Land care and tree growing
Newstead and Yandoit
email: lyn.grocke@hotmail.com
Reply
Nikki Marshall
Kerbside rubbish collection: Public meeting Wednesday May 20th 2015, 7.30pm, Daylesford Town Hall (following on from community meeting in Yandoit, April 1st, 2015)
Report from Kerbside rubbish community meeting in Yandoit
Around 50 locals turned up to the community meeting with ward councillors in April to raise concerns about Hepburn Shire’s proposal to introduce kerbside rubbish collection to outlying hamlets including Yandoit, Clydesdale and Franklinford.
Major concerns
Of common concern was the survey approach in which a non- response from residents was counted as a yes vote. This was particularly concerning given a number of residents did not receive survey forms. Survey data across all Shire hamlets shows that 60% responded with 48.5% voting yes and 51.5% voting no. In broad terms this means 6 out of 10 responded, 3 out of 10 said yes and 3 out of 10 said no. In our area 8, which takes in Shepherds Flat to Clydesdale, including Franklinford, Dry Diggings and Yandoit, 241 properties were surveyed with 164 responses. Of those who responded, 76 indicated no and 88 yes.
Hepburn Shire’s Waste Management Strategy 2014 committed to ‘determine community acceptance for extending kerbside collection and extend the service where community support’. Can a 60% response rate with 48.5% approval be regarded as community support?
Beyond the survey methodology residnets espressed the followin as major concerns:
- Impracticability- for many on large acreages and farms transporting bins to the front gate, across formidable terrain, is a challenge. This is especially the case for frail residents and those with health problems.
- Current system works well -residents have set up excellent systems to separate, minimise and transport rubbish to transfer stations;
- Safety and burglary– bins left out on the street is of concern for weekenders and runs contrary to Victoria Police burglary prevention recommendations. Currently weekenders take rubbish back with them and this remains their preference.
- Inaccessibility for trucks- narrow dirt roads are common across the hamlets and these are inaccessible for trucks to turn around;
- Rate rise– additional cost is not welcome to residents who are happy with the existing system and don’t want bins or kerbside collection;
- Green waste: Yandoit has an excellent green waste system in place;
- Increased waste– providing bins where none have existed before has potential to increase rather than decrease rubbish;
- Aesthetics– kerbside collection will encourage location of bins at front gates, not an attractive look in the country. Bins on the street are more liable to be blown over or knocked by animals, creating more litter.
Additional questions from residents to the Shire
- Many residents were unclear as to which streets and homes are included or excluded in the Shire’s plans. Shire Maps have been prepared but clarification is still needed.
- What is the Shire’s motivation? Is it environmental or it is cost cutting?
- Has the Shire factored in repair and regrading costs to damaged and corrugated roads caused by heavy trucks especially after rain?
- Is the shire open to developing other waste management strategies?
- Have alternative cost saving measures been considered and, if so, what?
Suggested strategies for waste minimisation
These included recycling, worm farms, composting, community education and reduced packaging.
Choice
The vast majority of meeting goers confirmed their wish to opt out if, or when, the scheme is introduced.
Community consultation
Residents asked for further discussion and consultation with the Shire before any implementation, including the suggestion that the Shire sample a number of residents to ascertain how rubbish is currently managed and explore potential options for reducing waste and costs.
Another opportunity to put your views:
Public meeting at Daylesford Town Hall, 7.30pm, Wednesday May 20th, 2015
Cheers, Nikki
Note: Creek photos generously donated by local resident (name withheld)
With winter rains, the creek is flowing. Out walking last week there was no stepping over stones to get to the other side. The creek was alive, coursing its well-worn channel, enticed as ever by the laws of gravity towards the Loddon, to join the Murray, to empty into the ocean. I sat and listened. What is it about the sound of moving, bubbling water that so compels, that draws us in? At the creek’s edge there is only the sound of pure music, of water tumbling, cascading between stones, earth, roots, branches. The song of water touching everything in its path. A Psalm reverberating between the banks.
I have entered a sacred world. Everything is animate. I am mesmerised. A blue superb wren joins the song. Ears alert to the chatter of buff-rumped thornbills darting in and out of callistemon, once again thriving along the creek. My eyes dip beneath the water’s surface, watch the lively dance of refracted sunlight and shadow on stones. Out of their warm casings come my bare feet, slipping into the cold wet rush, testing for steady footholds. From inside the creek bed I survey the landscape: branches of woolly tea-tree, stands of phragmites further downstream, the vertical camber of the western bank, the shade of river reds, a paddock of kangaroo and wallaby grass, a stone wall skirting the hills, in the distance along the fence line the gnarled rough trunk of eucalyptus melliodora, yellow box, statuesque, those same branches outstretched for who knows how many years, clusters of delicate leaves bunched together like heads of broccoli.
I try to imagine what the creek has witnessed, this ancient meandering gathering place, this spring-fed life source, this bountiful commons for flora, fauna and humans alike. Like a goldminer prospecting, I am besieged with possibilities in the form of questions: what companions has the creek nourished and what visitors hosted? What passages has it enabled and what crossings forded? What flows has the creek carried and what landscapes carved? What depths has it reached? What minerals flushed out? Who’s thirsts have been quenched? What images reflected? What losses has the creek borne and what revivals has it welcomed?
Memory keepers Don Morrison, Fleur Smith (nee Staley) and Maurie Gervasoni.
Don Morrison and Maurie Gervasoni
In the beginning-it’s raining stories and laughter
At our first session in August 2013 the hall overflowed with people while voices of story tellers competed with downpours on the roof. We opened with intimate details of creating home and garden, described by Margaret Morrison in an 1856 letter encouraging her Scottish sister to join them in ‘this beautiful valley’ of Yandoit, ‘about half a mile long and not quite so broad’. Listening to Kay O’Connor reading her great, great, great, great grandmother’s letter we saw the creek through a new settler’s eyes ‘running down one side of the valley with almost every description of flowers, beautiful shrubs, and good large trees in bloom growing on its banks’. We learnt of land ploughed to sow oats and wheat and were invited to imagine this ‘mixture of all nations’, this locale which inspired the new minister to remark: ‘I never knew there was such a pretty place’. We appreciated skills passed down through the generations: ‘what a baker I have become’ writes Margaret, ‘making bread, baps, scones and fancy cakes’. Her descendant Kay has a reputation for making the best scones in Yandoit and hers were among many batches generously baked for our ‘words in winter’ history in story café.
We want to encourage locals to use the website in a more interactive way. John Ross has set up our yandoit.net website with lots of options for information exchange. There’s also the possibility of changing the name to be more inclusive of Franklinford and Clydesdale which would require registering a new domain name. We will be calling a meeting of those interested in the website in the near future. Please contact John if you’re interested.
Yandoit ‘words in winter’ café
Yandoit history in story
Saturday August 3rd, 2013
4.00pm to 6.00pm at Yandoit Community Hall
Saturday August 3rd marks the first in a series of oral history events presented by Yandoit keepers of memories and stories. This first session will focus on Yandoit’s main street, High street and will bring together Don Morrison, Maurie Gervasoni and Fleur Smith, nee Staley. Don and Maurie are both descendants of original Yandoit settlers, and Fleur grew up in Yandoit Hills and attended the local school.
Don, Fleur and Maurie will share stories associated with the main street including the school, the hall, the store, the guest house and the dairy farm. We will have the opportunity to ask questions and be part of the discussion.
The first of many
This first Yandoit oral history and story-telling event coincides with Daylesford’s Words in Winter festival, and reflects the festival’s theme: ‘hidden treasures’. We envisage more oral history events being held over the next 18 months, stories told by local people including: Yandoit Hills’ stone houses and vineyards, Yandoit and the creeks, the churches, and the mines of Yandoit.
The beginnings of a Yandoit Archives
Stories, old letters, photographs and slides will be shared, passed on by our story tellers to the community. The event will be filmed and contribute towards an oral history archive for Yandoit.
Café Yandoit
Yandoit Hall will become a café for the afternoon as we sit around tables with locally made scones, jam and cream.
If you have questions, suggestions or are able to help in any way please contact Nikki Marshall on 0432 232073. A gold coin donation will contribute to the cost of the hall.