Minister's visit
Longerenong College welcomed a visit by the Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation, Jacinta Allan . She was here to open the ‘Farming with Pipes' Expo and have talks with Horsham Rural City and the Wimmera Development Association. As a member of the WDA, I was able to participate in discussions and asked her some questions regarding the decision for the long term lease of the facilities. The delay in the decision is so the minister, who has only been in this job for little over a month, can explore the opportunities and get the decision right for all campuses. While no time frame was put on this decision, we are hopeful it will be made in the next few months
Campus visitors
Not only the Minister, but also the Victorian No-till Farming Association held their annual conference at Longerenong College this week and we had Birchip Cropping Group and the Grains Research and Development Corporation visit us and use our facilities as well. With the Wimmera Biodiversity Conference a week or so ago, it seems as though our association with these bodies means greater exposure of Longerenong College and a bright future.
An inconvenient truth
La Vergne Lehmann , our coordinator of the Conservation and Land Management courses, will be trained as a presenter for former US vice-president Al Gore's ‘An inconvenient truth' presentation. This is based on his documentary and goes to the next step of disseminating the message and strategies for tackling climate change. La Vergne is one of 170 selected out of 1900 for this course and it is run in conjunction with the Australian Conservation Foundation. See the web site http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=1282
While the media tend to concentrate on government initiatives or lack of them, the grass roots movements are where much of the good work is done. Congratulations to La Vergne on her selection and I will be interested in what she learns.
The last channel run
Last year I reported that we had had our last channel run of water to fill our dams. We thought we would be connected to the Wimmera Mallee pipeline in about October this year. I was wrong and we are having our dams filled now. I am told we will be connected to the pipeline in the first half of 2008 as part of the trunk up to Warracknabeal and Hopetoun. The pipeline will come to where the water metering wheel is and then we connect it to our tanks beside the pump house.
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