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proudly serving Sunbury and Macedon Ranges
24 JUNE, 2025
Swap clothes, don’t shop Gisborne ladies are invited to give their preloved clothes a second life at a Fashion Swap. Organised by Kerri Matthews, this event gives you the chance to spruce up your wardrobe, while raising money for Gisborne Foodbank. “It’s a very casual event, we used to just do it with just some friends in the lounge room but we’ve decided to open it up as a slightly bigger event for ladies in town,” she said. “You can just bring whatever clothes you’ve got in your wardrobe that you no longer want and then you rummage through what everyone else brought.“ Entry is $10, including one free bag. Additional bags are available for $5 each, with refreshments available. “This is just something to bless the community, bless the mums in town and bless the foodbank.“ Local Sheridan Earl who runs a monthly pre-loved clothing sale is assisting the event. The Fashion Swap is on Friday, July 4 from 6-10pm, at Faithworks Christian Church, Gisborne. To secure your ticket, visit facebook. com/events/1230968455164717 or contact Kerri, 0403 321 227 Lexi Lethborg, Sheridan Earl, Shelley Farrugia and Kerri Matthews are ready to swap their clothes. (Damjan Janevski) 484523
Great rates debate By Georgia Tacey A last-ditch effort to introduce a rate freeze in the Macedon Ranges council budget was knocked back after a lengthy debate. During council’s June 18 meeting, Cr Daniel Young proposed slashing rates across the shire. Council’s draft budget proposed an average rate rise of 3 per cent for 2025-26, but Cr Young proposed council freeze rates instead. He estimated the move would save
ratepayers more than $1.5 million, equating to about 1 per cent of council’s total budget. “I really want to stress that we have an opportunity for council to hold the line on rates,” Cr Young said. “What we’re talking about here is out of the $120 million of expenditure that we have in our entire budget, the amount of rates I’m trying to reduce passing on to the ratepayers is a measly $1.5 million that we then get to go and have a look at and try to find that in savings.”
Cr Kate Kendall and Cr Alison Joseph both spoke in support of the motion, with all other councillors firmly against, taking issue with the riskiness of the proposal. Councillors also raised concerns that the proposal could delay the implementation of the budget by up to three months while council established a committee to review possible savings to accomodate the rates freeze. “I do want to be quite clear with the public that the amount of money that’s being returned to the household on average will
be $55 per annum. That represents $13.75 per quarter,” Cr Christine Walker said. She said this rate increase is essential to council operations. “I think we have to be very careful to not take a wrecking ball to our budget and to our council,” she said. “We have to be very cautious at this point in time, and we don’t want to get started into some radical cutting exercises that may deliver less to the community and cause us harm.” The motion was lost, with the original proposed budget adopted.
Enrolments Closing Soon Enrolments for Year 7, 2027 close on 25 July, 2025 (students currently in Grade 5). Visit the Enrolments page of the College website to start your online enrolment application, or scan the QR code provided. 12779120-CV25-25
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