Jun 6, 2015

Hands for Earth Hands for Earth are a group of people who have started cleaning up the native bushland just because they love the bush and want to do it.   Bill and Michelle go out the day before and peg off a small section and check the wildlife involved in the pegged area. The next day (Sunday) everyone meets at the railway dam and go off for a casual stroll around the bushland. Michelle Marks of Western Wildlife Rescue leads the way and tells us about the wildlife and tracks we find along the way. The walk generally takes about an hour and they head back to the railway dam and enjoy a bush breakfast of yoghurt and berries, fruit and cereals with hot tea or coffee (gold coin donation please). Breakfast all done they put on the gardening gloves and head to the previously pegged area and start picking up rubbish. It only takes around 30 – 40 mins and the area is clear and you look at it and feel rewarded that you did something for mother earth.   There are some remarkable videos of why they do it, and the progress so...

May 15, 2015

local woman fires scathing attack on Destination Merredin Advertising.   The Destination Merredin meeting at The Shire offices, was a lovely and considerate get together to thank everyone for their amazing efforts during the ANZAC and Destination Merredin weekends. The Deputy Bec McCall formally thanked the town for their hard work and enormous effort preparing for and during the events and acknowledged the closeness of the community. We were in awe of the statistics she shared… 6,600 poppies of various mediums were made 400 people were involved in making these poppies. Some groups are still making poppies for next year. It calculated to over 2000 hours work by our community, if each poppy took an average of 20 minutes to make A teacher from the college mentioned that the students had showed a lot of excitement and were very proud of their town and the display of poppies. One lady, in a scathing attack complaining that Quote “No one, No one, absolutely no one knew anything about Destination Merredin.” She went on to say that “advertising on websites and facebook were a complete waste of time, no one saw it”. It seemed a strange comment and said with such fury. It could only be an unjustified personal attack on shire staff who gave their heart and soul for this event.   This is only my opinion and observations of the advertising for the event: I saw it advertised in the Mercury several times. Courtney also supported it with online features with The Mercury. I heard it on the radio lots of times, Anthony was amazing. It was on Destination Merredin website It was on The Shire website The Shire facebook pages sometimes more than every day for at least two weeks. Destination Merredin Facebook. ‘Merredin Today’ Website and event calendar. Merredin Today Facebook advertised the events daily from the calendar of events. It was on The Shire big sign on the road. It was in the notice board on the main street. I also saw material sent to my letterbox.   That’s just the advertising that I noticed, there is probably lots more as well. The person also complained bitterly that the big sign on...

May 14, 2015

Super IGA Merredin sold after 27 years. Brett and Rhonda and family are saying goodbye to serving us after 27 years. The supermarket has sold and the new owners have taken possession. The McNabb family have supported this town for a very long time in many different ways going back nearly 30 years, they, with others in the town were instrumental in supplying fresh produce to locals. They taught our teens good work ethics during their introduction to working life and earning money. They have always supported staff members being part of emergency services and causes, allowing them to leave whenever was needed. Sporting clubs were never refused assistance with sausage sizzles, raffles and food for fundraising dinners and competitions ran for years giving money back to shoppers every week. Like many people in town, I have worked for the McNabb family and found them to be very business smart bosses with many different sides to their approach. They were tough at times especially when protecting their business practices, wouldn’t put up with people who didn’t work hard for their pay and held excellent customer service to the highest regard. It really wasn’t difficult to work out what they wanted in their staff, and you give them that, in return they were loyal, kind, supportive and compassionate employers which I personally hold a lot of respect for them both. Whether you knew it or not, Brett and Rhonda were the customers best friend, you were always right. Thank You Brett, Rhonda and the McNabb family for the past 27...

May 10, 2015

Destination Merredin 2015 Wartime in the Wheatbelt   The Destination Merredin crew from the Shire of Merredin have done it again. They have pulled off another remarkable 4 day event for our entertainment with the theme ‘Wartime in the Wheatbelt’ and combined it with Mother’s day celebrations. It started on Thursday with kite making workshops from the kiteman Michael Alvares of Kite Kinetics  who has joined us for the past two years and Friday night was a return of the diggers dinner at the Grandstand bar. Our local hockey club catered for this dinner. Saturday at noon the main street was closed, the tents went up, tables came out, the band played, dancers danced and a rationed lunch in the street was on. Jasmin from Crazy Fun Amusement Hire brought some giant chess games which the kids loved to play. William Last of Four Seasons lofts held a display to show the important role messenger pigeons played during the war. In fact one of the pigeons in the display is a direct descendant of pigeons that were used during the Second World War. Drew Zweck and Amy and Patrick Rose of Moorine Rock helped put the messages on the pigeons. 12 pigeons carried messages and were released to fly back to the barracks (home) and Sheree and William went to meet them. As they arrived, William took the messages from the pigeons and Sheree text the messages to Anthony Tilli who read them out to the rationed diners who were delighted with the messages back in town. A fashion parade hosted by Kirsty Mackenzie featured beautiful dresses and outfits with the war time theme. The outfits worn by the Destination Merredin crew were all made by Kirsty. A quick dash home, shower and get ready for the night of your life. Dine and Dance at the Cummins Theatre was a real treat. The tables had been set up beautifully by “I’ll make it” I wanted to mention this in particular because the table centerpieces were stunning but easily made and simple which I thought was exactly how things were done during the tough Wartime. The Military band was one of the very best bands I’ve...

Apr 27, 2015

ANZAC Day 2015 A brilliant day in town, starting with an early morning rise to get to the dawn service. The service was awe inspiring. I usually go to the mid morning march but I thought because this was a super special ANZAC day I would get out of bed and join the early one. It was cold, the gentle breeze was almost icy and I was tempted at that stage to run back to my warm bed, but when the march started I quickly filled with anticipation. The military cars and the firies, police and returned servicemen proudly marched and then the cadets and the crowd followed at the end of the line. I wanted some photo’s of the ceremony for this post but I was really struggling to get through the crowd. There was at least 600 people attending this march. The service was beautiful, wreaths were laid, the last post was played loud and clear and then a respectful minutes silence…just perfect. All the while, the army cadets stood with the flags and didn’t move. Well done cadets, you must have been really cold. Straight after the service the fire brigade had cooked some bacon, sausage and poached eggs for us all together with a nice hot coffee. Everyone was in the spirit of things at this point and you felt ready to attend the next service which was equally as emotional. Once again they served us a light lunch afterwards of tea, coffee and sandwiches and then on to the variety show called Entertaining the Troops. At the show we were treated to local talents singing, dancing and entertaining us and they put on a superb show. Through marches, entertaining us, feeding us, photographing us, making and planting poppies, every member of our community was involved in ANZAC day Lest we...