Thousands of bales destroyed in St Arnaud hay shed fire
AprApril 2021 at 6:52am
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Nearly 5,000 bales of hay have been destroyed and a production shed plant narrowly escaped serious damage in a fire in western Victoria.
Key points:
Production is halted but company says contracts will be honoured
The cause of the fire is still under investigation
The blaze started at the Gilmac processing facility in St Arnaud on Sunday.
Mark Heaslip, the company s operations manager for eastern Australia, said the shed would be demolished and rebuilt.
Date Time
Large fire at hayshed and fodder processing plant
25 firefighting vehicles have turned out to a large fire at a hay shed and fodder processing plant near St Arnaud.
CFA was notified at 07:12 to reports of a shed fire in the area, with crews finding a shed of approximately 150mx50m with around 8000 large square bails well alight, with the fire spreading to a production shed of approximately 50mx50m.
State Duty Officer Peter Lucas said crews were fast to escalate request for assistance following the initial reports.
“Very early on, we asked for 20 tankers and FRV assisted with some specialist equipment on top of that from as far away as Bendigo,” said SDO Lucas.
Date Time
Helping to bring resilience to students in Northern Grampians
Northern Grampians Shire Council is pleased to announce a partnership with all the schools and kindergartens in the shire to fully fund the Resilience Project 2021 in our region.
The Resilience Project delivers presentations and programs to school communities to help build mental-health resilience among students, staff, and the wider school communities.
The project aims to make talking about mental health accessible and provides practical activities that make looking after the wellbeing of students, teachers, and school communities fun.
The project focuses on Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness (GEM) and Emotional Literacy as the key strategies for resilience using these techniques to give participants the tools they need to build a strong foundation for good mental health now and into the future.
Date Time
Regional Jobs Fund open for more applicants
A new round of the Regional Jobs Fund was launched with the release of updated guidelines, making more money available for businesses to help country towns become even better places to live, work and invest.
This fund, part of the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund, is designed to support community projects and help councils to build the infrastructure locals and visitors need.
Today’s launch was during the opening of a new hay processing facility at St Arnaud, constructed due to a Regional Jobs Fund grant under the previous round.
The facility is hay processing and export company Gilmac Pty Ltd’s sixth Australian production site and its second in Victoria with a site in Goornong, north east of Bendigo. The funding allowed the company to create 17 new full-time equivalent roles for St Arnaud.