Walk for the People
Ninety-seven-year-old Trudy Tomlinson was among the first to cross the new Echuca Moama bridge on Sunday, bringing back memories of the stories she was told about her grandfather.
Her grandfather, Charles Allen, was a timekeeper on the original iron bridge in the late 1800s.
Echuca’s Federal Band was at the front of the hundreds of people who charged through the gates once the Walk of the People started from the Victorian side of the bridge.
Paddlesteamers and other boats formed a flotilla underneath, where from the deck of The Amphibious Echuca Reverend Phil Zamagias officiated a blessing of the bridge.
Nursing promise
Federal Member for Nicholls Damian Drum has said he will “scramble around” to find federal funding for a $26 million nursing school in Shepparton which Goulburn Valley Health hopes will increase retention.
La Trobe University has committed to expanding places in courses in Shepparton should the facility, which has been proposed by GV Health, be built.
The proposed facility would sit on the car park on the corner of Graham and Monash Sts, Shepparton, land GV Health already owns.
New memorial
A new memorial in the Soldiers’ Memorial Park in Numurkah was unveiled on March 26 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Murray Valley Soldier Settlement Scheme.
It was the largest such scheme in Australia, stretching from Yarroweyah to beyond Nathalia and from Strathmerton to Numurkah.
It included 519 irrigated dairy or fruit growing farms and covered 25,500 hectares. The first settlers moved on to their farms in 1947.
The memorial project was developed by Numurkah Rotary, Numurkah RSL and Numurkah Historical Society.