50 years ago,
September 17, 1975
Morwell to seek a ‘family court’
MORWELL Chamber of Commerce will fight to get a “family court” for Morwell. The new courts will be set up throughout Australia under the recently passed Family Law Act. Labor Party candidate in McMillan, Mr Bill Rutherford, last month promised to seek to have one of the courts established in Morwell. Chamber of Commerce secretary, Mr Jim Bush, said this week the chamber’s first approach would be to McMillan member, Mr Arthur Hewson. Mr Bush said there was nowhere in Gippsland where there were facilities as good as in Morwell, particularly following the recent addition of a new courtroom.
30 years ago,
September 15, 1995
Kennet critical of LRH
VICTORIAN Premier Jeff Kennet this week entered the debate over the Latrobe Regional Hospital, criticising the hospital’s administration. Speaking on radio from Italy this week, Mr Kennet was discussing the high salaries paid to hospital administrators when he was asked if it was justified when a campus of LRH may be forced to close from a lack of funds. The Premier denied the hospital’s claim that it would be forced to consolidate services onto one site. “The hospital at the Latrobe Valley is making that as a claim because it hasn’t administered its own affairs well,” he said. “Most hospitals have, and their administrators have done a good job.” LRH chief executive officer John O’Neill yesterday admitted the two hospitals (Moe and Traralgon) had a previous history of poor management but said the hospital’s current record “stands for itself”. He said LRH had reduced the cost of treating patients by 48 per cent and reduced waiting lists by 68 per cent.
10 years ago,
September 21, 2015
Former Valley journo shaken by earthquake
A LATROBE Valley man caught up in last week’s 8.3 magnitude earthquake in Chile has described the experience as “nerve-wracking”. Former Express journalist Jarrod Whittaker said the Santiago building in which he was teaching at the time shook for about five minutes during the earthquake. “I was in the middle of class on the 13th floor”, Mr Whittaker said. “The building was moving quite strongly in both directions, and you think it’s going to stop, and then it continued”. He said he was put at ease by the tranquil reaction of the Chileans who experienced an 8.8 magnitude quake in 2010. The earthquake epicenter was more than 200 kilometres northwest of Santiago, and dozens of people were killed or injured in last week’s event.
