January 2022 21st and 22nd. Lions Club Skin Cancer Checks

FREE SKIN CANCER CHECK AND AWARENESS UNIT TO VISIT INVERLEIGH FRIDAY & SATURDAY 21st & 22nd JANUARY 2022 – 9am to 3.30pm

This unit will provide a free skin screening service to local people. It is operated by fully trained, certificated, volunteer dermoscopists. The unit will also be a valuable resource for local people to access not only the skin check, but valuable and timely information about skin care and selfchecking techniques. We know early detection of skin lesions potentially saves lives, so this visit will be a timely support and reminder to local people of the need to take care of their skin. Following the skin check, visitors will be issued with a referral to their GP if there are any suspect spots or lesions. The Unit is not a medical clinic, so diagnosis or treatment requirements are not discussed – it simply provides the skin check and alerts the visitor to skin lesions that require further checking and attention: a great first step in ensuring urgent needs are addressed. The airconditioned van has three fully equipped screening rooms and an entry foyer, as well as a disabled lift and entry at the rear. Members of the Lions Club of Inverleigh-Leigh Valley will be responsible for scheduling appointments with the unit. Bookings will be available from December 16th –contact Lion John Crowe 0414 674 156 email john.crowe1@bigpond.com

16 Leigh News GEELONG LANDCARE NETWORK Platypus search in the Mid Barwon Catchment-

connecting the dots in the largest continuous survey for this iconic species in the state.

Around 60 community members in total gathered at 2 COVID safe events at Fyansford Common and Inverleigh on Sunday the 10th October to take part in a survey to detect the presence of the elusive platypus at over 30 sites in our local waterways. Great feedback was received by the enthusiastic participants, of all ages, who dodged a couple of rain showers to learn about platypus, water bugs and the health of our local rivers. The project was initiated by the Friends of the Barwon (FOTB) with funding and support from the Tucker Foun- Josh Griffiths from EnviroDNA explained how a plentiful platypus dation, Bendigo Bank, Barwon Water, population is a good indicator for the overall health of a river system. Surf Coast Shire, Golden Plains Shire, City of Great Geelong, Geelong Landcare Network, Corangamite CMA (CCMA), and Upper Barwon Landcare Network. FOTB are keen to collect data to build a picture of the overall health of the Barwon River system, and identify where improvements can be made. Josh Griffiths from EnviroDNA explained how a plentiful platypus population is a good indicator for the overall health of a river system. After demonstrating the sampling technique volunteers went out to take water samples for eDNA analysis from sites stretching across the mid Barwon river, the Leigh river and the Moorabool as well as some of the smaller tributaries feeding into these river systems. To complement this, Deidre Murphy from the Waterwatch team at the CCMA showed participants the myriad of waterbugs living in our local waterways, which are a food source for platypus and the many other creatures living in the rivers and creeks. EnviroDNA will now analyse the samples collected by our volunteer citizen scientists to detect the presence of platypus in the waterways. Results of the sampling will be communicated back to the community in the form of a report and webinar in the coming months. The data collected will complement surveys already completed in the Upper Barwon Catchment and the Upper reaches of the Moorabool River catchment, giving us an overall picture of distribution of platypus over a large portion of the catchment. “This survey will connect the dots and tell an overall story which will cover the largest continuous area recorded in the state” Josh Patrick from Inverleigh searching through a said. myriad of waterbugs from the Leigh River. If you are interested in the outcome of the survey please contact project coordinator: Andrea Montgomery on "glnplatypus@gmail.com" for further information.

POLICE REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2021

Hello all, I have had a busy time recently with increasing mental health and family violence tasks in the cluster which can take multiple hours to complete, especially mental health tasks which can require me to accompany a patient to the Geelong hospital and wait there for several hours until assessment. I also recently worked a demonstration in Melbourne which was a very long day. People might not see me about in Inverleigh for a while and assume that I am not working but often I am attending to tasks and activities in other parts of the cluster. For those that don’t know I work in a cluster with the Bannockburn and Meredith Police stations and do regularly attend to tasks in their response zones and they do in mine when I am not rostered. I can always be contacted when I am working on the station phone number 5265 1211 which diverts to the mobile phone I carry. If I am not working the phone will not be answered and will divert to Bacchus Marsh (24 hr station) or the message bank. Jobs can be rung through to 000 for police attendance or the Police assistance line on 131444 for not urgent matters. I am still seeing some youths riding bicycles around town not wearing bicycle helmets and riding in the dark with no lights on their bicycles. The fine for each offence is $227. Tonight (Friday) I spoke to two youths who in the dark were ambling across the Hamilton Highway into Peel Road with no lights on their bicycle. I am still getting motorists coming over that crest into town in the 60 zone doing excessive speeds who would have little chance of seeing the youths coming over the crest. Around the time I detected drivers doing 81, 86, 77 and 75 km/h. On occasions I still get motorists doing around 100 km/h and even more in that area. Please ensure your children wear their helmets and if they are going to be out in the dark they need lights. The older youths should also be setting an example to the younger children in the town. If the behaviour continues I will start issuing the fines so be warned. The rural areas around the division had been suffering from a spate of thefts of and from vehicles, sheds and residences but detectives from Moorabool Criminal investigation unit processed a male recently after being apprehended fleeing a crime. He has been charged with some of the incidents and the crime spree now appears to have stopped. Please remain vigilant as to suspicious persons and vehicles and report unusual activity to Police. Now COVID restrictions currently require people to be vaccinated to attend certain businesses like the hotel, restaurants etc and the government is getting the businesses to check on customers vaccination status (usually with the government app). Please comply with the regulations and do not give the staff or owners grief about it, they have not made the rules. Some businesses have been through a difficult time without being able to be open and now they are re-opening I am sure they do not need any aggravation from agitated patrons attending without being vaccinated or not wanting to be asked or having to prove the fact. Lets all be really understanding and support the business owners and staff and try to comply with the government regulations and the business requirements for entry as they do not want to be fined themselves for allowing patrons against the regulations.

Keep safe Chris