Media Releases

Bendigo has shared in another round of funding from the Flood Recovery Community Infrastructure Fund.
MP for Northern Victoria Region and Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development, Damian Drum, announced today that seven projects in the City of Greater Bendigo, and nine in Loddon Shire would get more than $200,000.
Projects in the City of Greater Bendigo in the latest round of grants were:
Phoenix FM - Repair roof leaks - $100 (Fully completed)
Aged Care Services - Replace damaged carpet - $8,500 (Fully completed)
Bagshot Hall - Replace damaged floor coverings. Supply crushed rock to driveway to provide access to site - $2,575 + $850 (Fully completed)
Chinese Museum - Repair roof leak. Repair and replace damaged fire indicator panel due to water damage - $178.75 + $2,846.25 (Fully completed)
Dudley House - Repair roof leak - $66 (Fully completed)
Jaara Building - Inspect and dry carpet. Replace underlay - $513 (Fully completed)
Peter Krenz Leisure Centre - Undertake sanding, linemarking and coating to 1/3 stadium flooring as a result of flooding. - $12,174.98 (Fully completed)
More than $180,000 in grants were announced for Loddon Shire projects, mainly to make up for shortfalls in insurance payouts on damage to community facilities.
These included:
Bridgewater Bowling Club - $166,748.49
Bridgewater Public Toilets - $1,686.75
Pyramid Hill Pool Complex - $9782.21
Pyramid Hill Tennis Club - $13,177.27
Pyramid Hill CERT Hall - $33,249.25
Pyramid Hill Preschool - $5,800
7East Loddon Preschool - $3,774
Newbridge Public Hall - $34,165.28
9Boort Gun Club - $8,341

Mr Drum said even though it was now a year since last summer’s devastating floods, many small communities were still struggling to get back to normal.

“The Coalition State Government stands solidly with their communities in that work,’ he said.

Stage 1 works to construct a pipeline to connect the townships of Raywood and Sebastian to the Bendigo water supply has been completed and Stage 2 will be underway next month.

The $5.75 million pipeline project started in October last year and is now scheduled for completion by the end of this year.

Nationals Member for Northern Victoria Region and Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development, Damian Drum, said the 22.4 kilometre pipeline will improve water security and water quality for the townships’ 159 customers.

“This is a long-awaited project and its completion will be welcomed by Coliban Water customers in Raywood and Sebastian.

“The Stage 1 section of pipeline connects to the existing tanks at Raywood and Sebastian, and Stage 2 will connect into the Bendigo system in Eaglehawk,” he said.

He said the pipeline construction was a combination of trenching and boring and 9.9 kilometres was left to do.

Coliban Water’s Managing Director Gavin Hanlon said wet weather and sections of rock had caused delays to Stage 1 construction and approvals from various regulatory approvals for Stage 2 had just been received.

“We’re behind in our timeframes but keen to ensure we have the townships connected by the end of the year,” he said.

Until the project is complete Stage 3 water restrictions continue to apply to Raywood and Sebastian.

“We are continuing to cart water to meet water demand in these towns, but once the project is fully commissioned we’ll be able to lift restrictions and introduce Permanent Water Saving Rules,” Mr Hanlon said.

The community can keep up-to-date on project progress at www.coliban.com.au Major Projects.

Bendigo’s sporting “jewel” is back
Nationals MP for Northern Victoria Region, and Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development, Damian Drum, said it was a delight and an honour to help officially launch the revamped Queen Elizabeth Oval project.
“The QEO is, in many ways, the jewel in the crown of regional sport in Bendigo, and an important hub of the City of Greater Bendigo.
“This project has re-polished that jewel and reinstates its importance in the life of the region.
“For the past two years Bendigo has been unable to hold State league events because of the state of the QEO playing surface and had a dysfunctional and mostly unusable scoreboard.
“It has been a huge task involving massive earth-moving efforts and surface redevelopments, as well as new sporting infrastructure, often carried out under very trying conditions.
“It is ironic that the project started after more than a decade of record-breaking drought, and then had to proceed under record-breaking summer rains.
“From tomorrow (Saturday) we will begin to reap the rewards of that work and commitment.”
Mr Drum said the Coalition State Government had contributed $1 million to the make-over and was proud of the outcome.
The funding will also allow a second netball court to be developed. This will be ready in time for the 2012 season.
“The project will allow Bendigo to regain its position as an exciting home to high profile regional and national sporting events.”
The $2.2M redevelopment of Bendigo’s premier sporting oval – the QEO will be officially opened by Greater Bendigo Mayor Rod Fyffe and Damian Drum.

The opening will take place prior to the start of senior match between the QEO’s traditional tenants South Bendigo and Sandhurst.

Works that have taken place as part of the redevelopment project include:-
• Site clearing including removal of 15,000 cubic metres of soil;
• Preliminary earthworks to reshape the oval and provide extra space for spectators;
• Drainage works and installation of an irrigation system;
• Installation of a concrete slab to support three turf cricket pitches;
• Final surface works including the laying of 17,000 square metres of drought tolerant turf;
• Installation of new fencing;
• Construction of player/coaches shelters at the front of the grandstand;
• Construction of new concrete terraced spectator seating for approximately 400 people at the Barnard street end of the ground;
• Upgrade of the ovals lighting system to meet AFL match standards;
• Installation of a new electronic LED scoreboard;
• Resurfacing of the existing netball court; and
• Installation of new perimeter seating to the oval.

City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Cr Rod Fyffe said since 2003 Council has shown a high level of commitment to the QEO with over $7.5m being spent on works including construction of a $4.4 million multipurpose facility to serve both the Aquatic Centre and QEO, a significant upgrade of the grandstand change rooms, installation of match and training lights and connection to the recycled water pipeline.

“The redevelopment of the ground now means that Greater Bendigo has a sporting ground with the capacity to host major sporting events to local, state and national standards.

“The works commenced in late 2010 following ten of the driest years Bendigo has experienced.

“During the works phase of the project we experienced one of the wettest summers for some time and a cooler than average autumn. However despite the weather this project was still delivered basically on time.

“This has been a much needed project which has been funded by a million dollar contribution from the Victorian State Government, a $812,000 contribution from the Federal Government and a $500,000 contribution from the City of Greater Bendigo.

“It’s also been an important joint project between the State and Federal Governments and the City of Greater Bendigo that demonstrates an enormous commitment to local sport and a strong desire to make the QEO one of Victoria’s top cricket and football facilities.

“I believe the new QEO surface and facilities will provide the sporting and general community with long lasting benefits for many years to come and I can‘t think of a better way to open it than with a match between the ground’s traditional tenants Sandhurst and South Bendigo,” said Cr Fyffe.

QEO key user groups include the Sandhurst Football/Netball Club, South Bendigo Football/Netball Club, Bendigo Football/Netball League, Bendigo Bombers, Bendigo Pioneers, Bendigo Cricket club and Bendigo and District Cricket Association.

Rochester ambulance service to stay

The State Government has moved swiftly to quell concerns that flood damage to Rochester’s ambulance station could mean the end of the town’s ambulance service.
Nationals MP for Northern Victoria Region, Damian Drum, raised the issue directly with Health Minister David Davis in State Parliament last night.
He received swift assurances from Mr Davis that Rochester’s ambulance station would be repaired.
“Ambulance Victoria is currently looking for alternative accommodation while the repairs are taking place,” Mr Davis said. “The Government is making a strong commitment to that ambulance branch, to the town and to the supporting paramedics who have made a significant contribution to northern Victoria.”
Mr Drum said he raised the community’s fears with the Minister following discussions with the Member for Rodney, Mr Paul Weller.
Mr Weller had attended gatherings in Rochester where fears were aired about the future of the local ambulance service after the devastating floods.
Outside Parliament, Mr Drum said he was happy to have been able to get a clear commitment from the Minister on the issue.
Mr Weller said the fears about the ambulance station’s future had spread quickly in a community already under severe stress. He said that he, too, was happy to have been able to resolve the issue quickly.

Businesses and primary producers hit by the recent rain and hail storms could be eligible for assistance through the Rural Finance Corporation, Nationals MP for Northern Victoria, Damian Drum, said today.
Assistance measures are also available for the first time for primary producers whose crops were damaged by hail.
“Many farmers in our region are devastated by the floods and storms.
“Many were looking at bumper harvests after more than a decade of crippling drought, only to see their hopes dashed first by floods and rain and then by locusts.
“It is heartbreaking.”
Victorian Flood/Hail Damage Grants are available to eligible primary producers and small businesses through the Rural Finance Corporation which can be contacted on 5448 2600, by email on admin@ruralfinance.com.au or on the internet at www.ruralfinance.com.au.
Help is also available for people whose homes have been flooded in the recent heavy rains.
Applications can be made by telephoning 1300 650 172 or at www.dhs.vic.gov.au/emergency.

Country football hit with huge water price hikes
Nationals MP for Northern Victoria Region, Damian Drum, has warned that country football throughout the north and west of the state had been hit by a massive leap in water bills.
He has urged Labor Water Minister Tim Holding to come up with a new pricing structure that would not cripple small sports clubs and communities.
During an address in State Parliament, Mr Drum said he had been contacted by a range of football leagues, including the Victorian Country Football League which represents football and netball leagues across all regions, citing examples of skyrocketing water bills.
“Football leagues from the Wimmera, Mallee and North central regions have raised the issue of skyrocketing water bills that have to be paid to maintain their playing fields at an acceptable standard.
“This area has historically been serviced by the old channel system. While that water was at times of poor quality and sometimes lacking in security, most sporting clubs were able to access recycled water from their towns’ stormwater systems.
“But with the introduction of the Wimmera-Mallee pipeline there is a real fear from clubs facing increases of around 2000 per cent.
“One league which had paid $40 a megalitre now faces paying more than $800 a megalitre.”
Mr Drum also chairs the Parliament’s standing Rural and Regional Committee which recently completed a study into the economic outcomes of the new Wimmera-Mallee pipeline.
“This issue of excessive price hikes and uncertainty was the single biggest fear for the business and private sectors as well as agriculture and various sporting clubs.”
Some of the leagues which had contacted Mr Drum represented as many as 20 to 30 areas and towns, worried about the rising water bills and their impact on their communities.
“The Victorian Country Football League has gone to great lengths to point out the benefits the clubs bring their communities and the impact that not being able to get the grounds up to scratch would have.”
Mr Drum said many clubs were already struggling to pay their accounts without having to cope with huge water bills.
He urged Water Minister Tim Holding to meet a delegation of north and north-west not-for-profit sports groups to hear their story and to develop a water price schedule which was fair.


Media inquiries: Damian Drum: 5443-6277, 0407 576 604

June 17, 2010
Bendigo people pay up for Labor’s water mismanagement
Bendigo people now faced huge water bill rises for the very simple reason that the Labor State Government has lost control of any reasonable water management policy, Nationals MP for Northern Victoria, Damian Drum, said today.
He said he was astonished that the Essential Services Commission had accepted the Government’s argument that it needed to massively jack up water prices because of “uncertain and unforeseen” circumstances.
“Those circumstances were simply this: the drought is grinding on, and Bendigo people are being really careful about their water consumption.
“Yet Labor, and its water authority Coliban Water, say they did not foresee that there would be low water supplies and that Bendigo people would heed the calls to conserve water.
“What an outrageous admission. The Government says it did not foresee there was a drought or that people would work hard to use less water – and that means those same people now have to be punished for it.
“In most people’s minds, that’s a disgraceful argument.”
It meant households in this region would pay $110 more per year. More rises were signalled for the next three years.
Mr Drum said Coliban Water was just an instrument of the Government.
“While they were going on with all the pipe and channel photo opportunities, they failed to mention people would pay through the nose for this even though they were getting and using less water. John Brumby, Jacinta Allan and Bob Cameron love being seen in town opening things and issuing press releases, but where are they when people realise the size of the bill they’ve left behind?”
“In 2006-07 Coliban Water notched a $16 million loss. The following year it was $29 million and last year it was $29.5 million. That’s $74.5 million in cumulative losses in THREE years.
“We don’t know how much of our money they’ve sent down the drain this year, but it is now reasonable to expect the tally will top $100 million. We will have to pay for this – and we will have to go on using less and less water.
“Last year, Premier John Brumby assured Coliban water users that all was well, despite the staggering losses. Mr Brumby told the media that these were just “one-off” losses and that the long-term position was that Coliban Water was ‘lowly geared, that is they have low levels of debt, and they are well supported by the Government’.
“We now know that’s a lie. The Government is simply buck-passing the cost of the mismanagement to the men and women of northern Victoria.
“There are disturbing suggestions around now that Coliban Water has thrown many millions of dollars away buying water we will never see.
“For example, Coliban Water bought 6,900 megalitres from New South Wales, but it is understood to have been unable to get much of that water to consumers in Bendigo and Ballarat, partly because people were being so good at NOT using water.
“Under the complicated carry-over water rules, many millions of litres we have paid for will now not be delivered.
“Coliban Water senior staff have admitted this at Water Service Committee meetings in our region.”
“A Coalition Government will not allow this appalling behaviour to continue.”
Media inquiries: Damian Drum: 5443-6277, 0407 576 604

The tragic decision by farmers in the Campaspe Irrigation District to sell their water rights and decommission the irrigation system was partly forced by a chronic mismanagement of water above Lake Eppalock, Nationals MP for Northern Victoria, Damian Drum, said today.

About 70 per cent of the 153 farmers in the district voted to sell their water licences at a community meeting recently. They had received no water in four of the past five years.

Mr Drum said some farmers would now opt to find alternative ways to get water to their farms while some would just walk off the land.

“No-one can blame them for taking this very grave decision.

“Farmers at the northern end of the Campaspe are at the end of a very long and often very wasteful chain,” Mr Drum said.

And they are the victims of accumulating poor decisions.

“For example, the State Government knows there are at least 8000 small dams in the Lake Eppalock catchment alone. The Government knows this, because that is the Government’s own estimation.

“It estimates those dams, many of them not much more than decorative water holes for small rural holdings, collectively hold more than 23 BILLION litres of water.

“Every time it rains and we get any run-off at all, it is these little dams which get the first 23 BILLION litres.

“Over the long term, it is estimated these dams catch more than 11 per cent of the run off in Eppalock’s catchment.

“Eppalock has been almost dry for years because of the failure of rains, and the failure of any significant run-off.”

Mr Drum said the State Government and its agencies should have been far more pro-active in making sure more of the billions of litres captured by lifestyle and hobby farm dams was available for productive farming.

March 5, 2010

DRUM PRAISES HAZELDENE’S FOR CANCER SUPPORT

Nationals MP Damian Drum has praised local firm Hazeldene’s for their generous support of the OTIS Foundation for cancer sufferers.

Mr Drum was part of a four-man team of Nationals MPs to take part in the Murray Meander - a week long ‘tinnie’ trip from the historic Port of Echuca to Mildura in February.

Funds raised from the event were donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and the OTIS Foundation which provides retreat accommodation in Echuca, Bendigo, Towong, Thredbo and Chewton for women with breast cancer.

“I would especially like to acknowledge the strong support that Hazeldene’s provided for the OTIS Foundation through the Murray Meander,” Mr Drum said.

“We were staggered by the support.

“It is great to have companies such as Hazeldene’s on board, and their generous donation will have a direct benefit for the people using the OTIS facilities.”

3 March,, 2010
Labor taken to task over wasted stormwater

The State Labor Government has been given a poor mark for its continuing disgraceful performance in stormwater harvesting, Nationals MP for North Victoria, Damian Drum, said today.

“The Infrastructure Report Card 2010 by the independent organisation, Engineers Australia, has awarded Labor a C- on the subject of stormwater.

“It criticises Labor for ‘no substantial improvement in the widespread exploitation of the stormwater resource’.

“The highly detailed report vindicates the stand I have taken for more than four years to try to get the Government to act on wasted stormwater, both in Bendigo and in Melbourne,” Mr Drum said.

The C- given for stormwater was the same it gave the State Labor Government five years ago, showing Labor had simply not been listening.

Mr Drum said Engineers Australia said that the stormwater run-off from Melbourne’s roofs, roads and hard surfaces was about 537,000 megalitres of water a year – more than the 400,000 megalitres of drinking water the city consumes in a year.

“I and my Coalition colleagues have been begging Labor to look at this wasted opportunity and to look at other ways of saving Melbourne water instead of sucking northern Victorian water down the North-South Pipeline.

“Water Minister Tim Holding and Premier John Brumby have repeatedly scoffed at the idea.”

In its assessment of Labor’s stormwater laziness, Engineers Australia said: “Stormwater has considerable potential as a new water source … a challenge will be to maintain the focus on identifying viable stormwater projects.”

Mr Drum said the Government should have taking his 2006 Discussion Paper on stormwater harvesting in Bendigo more seriously.

‘While I don’t pretend to have all the answers on stormwater harvesting, at least the Coalition is prepared to investigate the issue.”