Tuesday, 13 May, 2025
Liberals look for the light in Casey and La Trobe
MotHs celebrate 10 year anniversary
Library staff supporting homeless
Real Estate Liftout Inside
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A Star News Group Publication
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Hills Act By Dongyun Kwon Hills Act Theatre Company successfully brought down the curtain for its first production. The company performed its first production, Breathless by Deborah Mulhall, twice on 27 April and 3 May, right after Anzac Day. Through four different conflicts and the stories of four different veterans, Breathless explores the unchanging cyclic horror of war, the unnatural stress it places on soldiers at the front line and how it bleeds into their civilian lives, traumatically affecting not only them but also all those who love them. Hills Act Theatre Company founder Phillip Stephenson, the director and stage manager of the production, said the journey of the first production was “significant”. “I found some of it very stressful, but overall, I felt that we achieved something that I hadn’t thought we’d achieve, but we did, and we got there better than I’d thought at first,” he said. Turn to page 19 for more
The cast of Hills Act Theatre Company’s first production Breathless. (Dongyun Kwon: 476662)
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“They were just slaughtered, not even eaten. Like it was just a game for fun.” Founder of Yarra Valley Wild Dog Action Group (YVWDAG) Steve Ross witnessed wild dogs wreak havoc over an elderly man’s farm, where in the span of a year, 30 animals were lost to wild dog attacks. The farmer, an 80-year-old man named John, struggled with the aftermath as he euthanised dozens of animals and cleaned up their bodies.
“You could imagine the emotional trauma of that, you know. Every night he goes to bed, he’s just wondering if the dogs are coming back for the rest of his livestock,” Mr Ross said. But a 2023 study by the University of New South Wales found limited evidence of interbreeding between wild dogs and dingoes which meant most animals previously thought to be wild dogs are likely dingoes. Turn to page 9 to read more
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Landowners across the Yarra Ranges have shared their wild dog horror stories revealing the widespread fear that permeates the region. Yellingbo landowner Mandy Sullivan recalled the day she found her German shepherd’s face “ripped up” and her maremma with a tear all the way up her front leg. “We didn’t see them [the wild dogs], but we
heard them and we put two and two together. I’m pretty sure that she’s been attacked or went into a fight defending the property,” Ms Sullivan said. It’s not the first encounter Ms Sullivan has had with wild dogs – she’d lost multiple sheep last year which saw her ram displaced three properties down the road, while her baby lambs were killed. What Ms Sullivan described was a gory aftermath.
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By Oliver Winn