Upper Yarra
6-7 Tuesday, 12 November, 2013
A day at the races
12
Mail Covering the Upper Yarra Region of the Yarra Ranges Shire
Powelly celebrates 100 years
A Mail Newspaper Group publication
29-30
Sports of all sorts
Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
Refuge design
FROM $1300 SUPPLIED & INSTALLED *CONDITIONS APPLY
YARRA RANGES GAS HEAT & COOL
Ph: 5966 9999
1077058-RC24-13
SPLIT SYSTEMS
Lotta love, lotta funds
RELAY For Life first-timers ‘Team Thomas’ were a sensation at the 10th anniversary Yarra Ranges Relay For Life on the weekend with team members, including Anthony Thomas and son Mitchell, named top fund-raisers. The Warburton team of family and friends handed over $11,280 after setting their sights on raising $5000 for brain cancer research after Anthony’s father Wayne was diagnosed with a brain tumour earlier this year. See page 28 for Relay story and photos.109942 Picture: KATH GANNAWAY
MASSIVE CARPET CLEARANCE 3 GREAT FASHION COLOURS SOLUTION DYED NYLON EXTRA HEAVY DUTY TWIST PILE
***500M TO CLEAR NOW*** HOUSE LOTS FROM $24 M2 ROOMS LOTS FROM $11 M2 All Prices Are Carpet Only And INC GST
Upper Yarra Carpets SHOP 3/4 THE ARCADE YARRA JUNCTION
andscape
Wattyl Decking Oil
& Ga den 25% OFF
4Ltr $58 10Ltr $120
ALL POTS & WALL ART
Can be Tinted
*for the month of November
Computer Colour Matching OPEN: MON-FRI 6.30am-5.30pm•SAT 8.00am-12.00noon
Tel: 5967 2155
YARRA VALLEY
9737 6833
1100242-HM45-13
oval and the sporting complex had been used in the past, there is no way they could be officially designated. Local resident Dale Cook in a letter to the Mail called for pumps to be installed in the Yarra River that runs along the east boundary of the oval, saying the oval and sports centre provided a ‘refuge’ during the 1983 fires. “A lot of people don’t have a last resort and while you can plan for it, the biggest problem is if there is no warning - if the worst happens and you don’t get that warning,” she said. Unofficially emergency services organisations acknowledge that the Warburton oval will become a gathering place for those who don’t leave and find themselves needing a place to run to. But Ms Wositzky says anyone who finds themselves in that situation will face enormous risks. “For people to go and stand on the Warburton Oval, they will be subjecting themselves to a level of radiant heat that has not been safe enough for a NSP,” Ms Wositzky said. Warburton residents will also have an opportunity to get serious about planning with the Warburton Emergency Planning Group hosting a free bushfire planning workshop on Tuesday, 19 November at 7pm at the Warburton CFA. Co-ordinator Kevin Bargar said the small group sessions would assist in preparing for a range of fire scenarios with hands-on, practical guidance from CFA. Phone 0438 081 252 for further details. The East Warburton refuge will be open from 10am to 3pm. For details phone Yarra Ranges Council on 1300 368 333.
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UPPER Yarra residents need to plan for their own survival in a bushfire. That is the unfaltering message being driven home by the CFA and Yarra Ranges Council as the whole of Victoria, including the particularly high-risk stretch between Millgrove and Reefton, looks ahead to the ‘fire season’. Announcing an open day on Saturday 16 November for East Warburton residents to get to know their new, official, community fire refuge last week, Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley linked the opportunity for those residents to “work on their own bushfire survival planning” as part of the open day. The refuge is part of a pilot project that includes buildings at Ferny Creek in the Dandenongs and at Blackwood near Daylesford opening this year. Mr Lapsley said another fire refuge originally mooted for Millgrove as part of the pilot would not be open, with more work needed on the building located at the local primary school. The Millgrove Recreation Reserve however has been assessed as a Neighbourhood Safer Place - Place of Last Resort, and is awaiting official designation by Yarra Ranges Council. Warburton, however, remains without a designated ‘Place of Last Resort’ with the oval, still seen by many in the community as just that, failing to meet radiant heat and other criteria needed to make it ‘official’. Mr Lapsley and Yarra Ranges Bushfire Shelter Options officer Helen Wositzky say there was no simple answer for Warburton, and while the
1098979-HM44-13
By KATH GANNAWAY
24d John St., LILYDALE
Warburton Highway, Wesburn 3799
5967 1367
Thinking of selling?...call Bell’s Warburton 59662530 - Yarra Junction 59671277 - Woori Yallock 59615277
424643-JL42-10