Seven sites await volunteers
Moorabool Council has nominated seven sites for Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday. Volunteers can meet at Moon Reserve at 10am to clean up the Avenue of Honour. Other choices: 20 Camerons Road, Bacchus Marsh, at 2.30pm to cover Camerons Road; Gordon fire station at 9.30am; Sundew Avenue Reserve at 9.15am to clean Long Forest Road; 239 Parwan Road to tidy up Parwan Exford Road at 9am; Yendon Recreation Reserve from 9am; and Rowsley fire station at 9am to clean up Glenmore Road. Council chief executive Rob Croxford said volunteers had to donate only a couple of hours collecting and recycling rubbish to make a significant environmental contribution. More details: cleanup.com.au
Two held over station thefts
Transit police have arrested two men after a series of thefts from ticket machines at train stations including Ballan. The men were charged in relation to 40 incidents at 29 railway stations from January 29 until February 16. A Melton man, 32, and a Benalla man, 29, were arrested on February 16.
Fallen officer’s grave dedicated
The Moorabool community will honour a police officer who was killed more than 100 years ago. Constable Charles Hotham Jones was killed on New Year’s Eve 1910 after a scuffle with rowdy revellers. No one was ever convicted. Bacchus Marsh & District Historical Society member and relative Christine Bronchinetti said Constable Jones’s refurbished grave would be unveiled in an official dedication ceremony at Maddingley cemetery on March 16 at 11am.
Pages turned for 40 years
Bookworms will celebrates Bacchus Marsh Book Group’s 40th anniversary with a reunion in April. A mixed group with readers ranging in age from their 30s to the 80s, it’s as much a friendship group as a meeting for page-turners. “We meet once a month to discuss the book; sometimes it’s a book you normally wouldn’t pick up,” member Margaret West said. The group will hold an afternoon tea on Sunday, April 21. More details: phone Margaret on 5367 8868 or Dorothy on 5367 4643
