Loddon Shire Mayoral Column 8 March

Published on 08 March 2021

Be vigilant against fruit fly

Following a community member’s report of fruit fly having been located in Bridgewater, I’d just like to remind residents to ensure you remain vigilant against fruit fly.

The Queensland fruit fly (QFF) is a serious pest for both home gardeners and commercial growers. QFF attacks a wide range of fruits and fruiting vegetables. One female QFF can lay up to 100 eggs per day.

Because they provide food and shelter, home gardens are an ideal place for QFF, particularly those with a range of different fruit and vegetable varieties which ripen all year round, enabling QFF to rapidly increase in numbers.

When controlling QFF, prevention is the best option. According to Agriculture Victoria, to reduce the risk of attracting QFF to your garden make sure you:

Pick and use fruit or vegetables as they ripen, or harvest the produce early if it will ripen after it's picked.
Reduce the size of your trees so they don't produce more fruit than you need.
Remove any unwanted or neglected host trees and replace them with early-maturing host plants or non-host alternative plants such as local wattles or grevilleas.
Collect and destroy any rotting or unwanted host produce, whether it's on the ground or on the plant.

Don’t put untreated produce in your compost or worm farm, or directly into your rubbish. Rather, to stop the life cycle of QFF and prevent spread to other areas:

microwave unwanted fruit or vegetables to kill any maggots
place the produce in a plastic bag, seal the bag and either leave it in the sun for five to seven days or place it in a freezer for two days.

You can then put the bagged, treated fruit or vegetables in your rubbish bin.

For more information about how you can protect your garden from QFF, visit the Agriculture Victoria website

Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture Group information evening

The Loddon Plains Landcare Network (LPLN) and North Central Catchment Management Authority are holding an information evening to canvass interest in forming a Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture group based on the Loddon Plains.

The information evening will be held on Wednesday 10 March from 6pm to 8pm at the Inglewood Town Hall Hub.

This program intends to support adoption, development and skills in sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices. It will form part of LPLN's commitment to Sustainable Agriculture through its Loddon Plains Sustainable Agriculture Strategy with a focus on community and adoption support.

Community Grants Scheme now open

Applications for Council’s Community Grants Scheme are now open.

Up to $10,000 is available for not-for-profit clubs and organisations based in the Loddon Shire to deliver projects that directly benefit residents. This includes enhancing the provision of activities, facilities or delivery of services to people in our community.

Successful grant applications are funded on a two-to-one basis. This means for every $2 provided by Council, the successful applicants must contribute a minimum of $1 towards the cost of the project. Up to 50 per cent of an applicant’s contribution can be in-kind.

Applications for Council’s Community Grants Scheme close at 5pm, Saturday 1 May 2021.

Please note, applications must be submitted online through Council’s SmartyGrants program. Support is also available to assist with the Smarty Grants process.

To find out more, call Council’s Community Support Team on 5494 1200.

Finance course for Young Farmers

Agriculture Victoria is running a new online express course for young farmers around farm finance.

The course, Farm Finance – Getting Prepared will be run as a series of five 90-minute webinars focussing on farm finance, risk and farm management planning.

Each webinar runs from 7pm to 8.30pm and will start on Thursday 25 March with The Business Case.

The other four webinars in the series are Creating the Cashflow budget (Thursday 8 April), Farm business risks (Thursday 29 April), Business Risks impact on cashflow (Thursday 13 May) and Putting the plan into actions (Thursday 27 May).

More information and links to the webinars is available through Agriculture Victoria.

Anzac Day schools awards

The Anzac Day Schools’ Awards are now open, with this year’s theme ‘what does commemoration look like in our community?’

Hosted by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the awards recognise the commitment of students, teachers and schools to engage with veterans and honour Australia's wartime history.

The national winner’s school will receive $5,000, a trophy and a certificate. There will also be state and territory winners, with the schools receiving $3,000 and a certificate. Winners in the special categories will receive $2,000 and a certificate.

For more information, including award categories, judging, criteria and how to apply visit the Anzac Day Schools' Awards website.

Entries close Wednesday 30 June 2021.