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Spectacular talent show
Aydin will perform in the Victorian State Schools Spectacular this year. (Damjan Janevski) 351387_05
A Hillside boy is among 2000 students preparing to wow audiences at the John Cain Arena on September 9 for the Victorian State Schools Spectacular (VSSS). The VSSS is a proud tradition in government schools and offers students the opportunity to take part in a performing arts showcase. This year’s show, Happy Travels, will follow an intrepid group of hapless tourists as they traverse the globe in a cavalcade of circus mayhem. Aydin, 14, is a year eight student at Copperfield College who will be taking to the stage as a principal dancer for the show, and he said he is feeling pumped about it. “It is going to be an amazing experience that I will remember forever, I didn’t expect for something this big to happen so early,” he said. “Practice is going really good for me and the whole team... The whole show just looks super epic. “I love being able to express my feelings and emotions through dance and I really love the art of dance.”
Fears over pool funding The federal government has announced Bacchus Marsh will be eligible to apply for funding for its indoor pool under the new Thriving Suburbs fund, but Moorabool council is concerned it’s still a funding dry-up. Council has been seeking $15 million in federal government funding for several years, to match its $15 million commitment and $10 million from the state government for the Moorabool Aquatic and Recreation Centre in Taverner Street, Bacchus Marsh. Moorabool council was a part of what used to be known as the Building Better Regions program, under which council could apply for federal funding for infrastructure projects
like the indoor pool. This year the program was replaced with the $600 million Growing Regions program, however the new fund considers Bacchus Marsh a part of greater Melbourne and therefore ineligible. Instead, Bacchus Marsh is eligible for another new fund, the $200 million Thriving Suburbs fund. Hawke MP Sam Rae said he’s heard “loud and clear” that locals in Bacchus Marsh need an indoor pool. “This program presents an opportunity for Moorabool shire to apply for funding from the Albanese government for important projects like this,” he said. However, council has expressed frustration
at the change in zoning for Bacchus Marsh, with Moorabool mayor Rod Ward telling ABC Radio Melbourne that a town competing against larger areas for less funding is “manifestly unfair”. “If you asked anyone in the Moorabool shire we’d consider ourselves very much regional … Bacchus Marsh has a population of 8000 and even if you include the surrounding areas of Darley and Maddingley it’s still only less than 20,000,” he said. “Competing against Parramatta and Hume for funding is not, to use a boxing analogy, fighting in our own weight division.” A spokeswoman for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King said
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decisions about eligibility are based on the Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSA) as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Moorabool council chief executive Derek Madden said council would work with the federal government to ensure funding is received for the pool. “We feel our project stacks up but it will no doubt be more difficult within the smaller pool of funds allocated within the new Thriving Suburbs Fund,” he said. “Moorabool Shire is proud to be a regional shire and we feel the basis of identifying Bacchus Marsh as metro needs to be revisited.”
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By Liam McNally