50 years ago
The Express, February 18, 1976.
Chair attack
A TRARALGON man has been sentenced to three months’ gaol after being convicted of hitting a hotel bouncer with a chair. John Charles Butling, 23, was convicted of unlawfully assaulting Neale Maxwell Mooney on December 19 last year in the bistro of the Royal Exchange Hotel in Traralgon. The incident, which happened at 10.15pm, occurred when three men sitting together in the bistro were asked to leave by the manager of the hotel, who was accompanied by Mooney. Mooney was hit with a chair, sustaining a cut forehead, badly bruised forearm and a smashed watch. Traralgon Magistrates’ Court awarded Mooney $15 costs and $21.84 damages
30 years ago
The Express, February 20, 1996
Lucky escape
AN eight-year-old Moe boy was lucky to escape serious injury on Sunday when a one-and-a-half tonne electricity pole rolled onto his leg. Karl Mutke had been playing on a vacant block near his Griffin Street home at around 9am on Sunday when the pole, which had been lying on the ground, rolled over. “I was sitting on the log and got up to go see my friend and the whole log knocked me over and ran over my leg,” Karl said.
His 12-year-old friend Shane Welsh stopped the pole from rolling any further by placing a shovel under it. Karl was pinned under the pole until neighbours, Ray and Nellie Coad, managed to push it off his leg. Karl’s father, Gerhart Mutke, warned residents to check any poles in their own area. “In a lot of areas there’s a lot of poles lying on the ground,” Mr Mutke said, “If they’re moveable there’s the potential for tragedy.” Leonie Mutke, Karl’s mother, was angry the pole had been left unsecured on the ground. “It should never have been left the way it was.” Karl suffered severe bruising and possibly tissue damage in the accident. X-ray results were expected last night. Since the incident, Eastern Energy has placed the pole into a cradle to stop it moving. Eastern Energy is investigating the matter.
10 years ago
The Express, February 18, 2016
Service station demolition extension rejected
A PUSH to delay demolition of a long-unfinished Traralgon South service station has been quashed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The building, which sits at the gateway to the town on Keith Morgan Drive, has a 30-year history of appeals and extensions since the original application to build a shop in 1984. VCAT last year ordered the owner to demolish the building by 7 December, and Latrobe City Council resolved to tear down the structure itself if the owner did not. The owner failed to remove the building, instead lodging an application with VCAT to extend the demolition deadline, with a view to completing the project, citing changed circumstances. But on Tuesday, VCAT issued an order refusing the owner’s applications. Latrobe City chief executive Gary Van Driel said in a statement council was pleased with the outcome. Attempts to contact the property-owner were unsuccessful.
