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Historic Winchelsea - Gateway to Southwest Victoria! |
| The historic Victorian town of Winchelsea, Australia was founded in the middle 1800's as a ford across the Barwon River. Winchelsea has a range of shops, facilities and tourism & leisure activities and its location on the Princess Highway between Geelong and Colac makes it a popular traveller stop and turning-off point for the Great Ocean Road , Surf Coast and The Otways . |
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Business Excellence Awards in town |
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The Geelong Advertiser Business Excellence Awards for 2010 are holding a workshop in Winchelsea, for any local businesses and organisations that may be interested in entering this year's competition. The Business Excellence Awards is a great opportunity to promote and gain recognition of your business and have it reviewed by a panel of independent judges.
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The Upper Barwon Landcare Network has relocated from Colac to Birregurra, to better serve Landcare members. The new offices are located at 57 Main Street, Birregurra, next to the General Store. Visitors are welcome any time. Note that a number of workshops are planned for this year - see ubln.org.au for more information, or read the March UBLN "What's On" monthly bulletin.
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Fresh fruit & veg, cakes for Market |
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Winchelsea Farmers Market now has FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES and HOME MADE CAKES AND SLICES available at each monthly market (3rd Sundays). Stalls still available at a reduced price - phone Tracey on 0427 500 649 for prices.
AND ALSO
sausage sizzle by Winchelsea Men's Shed, Tracey's Gifts, Souvenirs and Garden Ornaments, and local art work and sculpture.
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The Winchelsea transfer station has opened its new $50,000 shelter shed, providing improved comfort for customers and staff. The facility offers rubbish disposal (recycled and domestic waste), now with shelter from sun and rain. Solar panels have also been installed to provide renewable energy for electronic transaction processing, printing receipts and powering other small appliances. |
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In a fairly major shake-up of Winchelsea's medical facilities, the Mirnee Medical Centre (on Princes Highway) will leave Winchelsea and Hesse Rural Health Service will instead operate from its purpose-built facilities. The centre will continue to provide a pathology collection service and the services of a practice nurse.
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Winchelsea Primary School is to hold its annual Swimming Carnival on Friday 19th February, at the Winchelsea Pool. Aimed at including all students in 50m, 25m, 15m or tabloid races, the event features individual and relay team races. All parents and community members are invited to encourage the two house teams, Leigh and Barwon.
The Swimming Carnival begins at 9am and runs to lunch time. Parent helpers are needed to assist in the running of the day - volunteers should contact Marg Reid at the school on 5267 2134. |
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St Thomas Church Restoration Benefit |
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St Thomas Anglican Church is to hold a "Restoration Benefit" dinner & dance - the church is in dire need of funds to stabilise the foundations, and all proceeds from the evening will go to St Thomas.
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See Issue 2 (January 2010) of the Winch House newsletter (PDF). In this edition ;
· Introduction to Health Promotion - new FREE 4 hour workshop see pg 3
· Free TAX advice for small business - you can arrange an appointment for the ATO tax advisor to visit Winchelsea for free and confidential tax advice.
· Coordinated Playgroup - every Friday 10.00—12.00
· Expressions of Interest for an extra day at Occasional Childcare - see pg 4
· Jump into a Story - last Friday of every month 10.00 to 11.30, see pg 3
· New courses - see the course guide pg 6—8 |
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New to the Historic Winchelsea website - a guest book has now been added. Website visitors can leave comments about the website itself, the town of Winchelsea, or any other related subject. Note that all comments need to be approved by the websitse administrator, and require the submitter's email address plus entering a "Captcha" verification. Captcha is a method that aims to defeat automated spammers that would otherwise submit entries for no productive purpose.
Visitor comments (ie. the guest book) offer a means of feedback which could be useful for ongoing development of the site or even to improve the town and its amenities. Any suggestions or ideas received will be passed on to the Winchelsea Business & Tourism Association for consideration. |
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Barwon Park Mansion opens more |
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Barwon Park Mansion will be open an extra day each week over the summer period - now opening Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. A fabulous historic homestead renovated with great attention to detail, Barwon Park is a great day out to go back to the early days of Australian colonisation.
For the brave (very brave!), Ghost Tours are now available too. Long felt to be haunted, Barwon Park is not a place for the faint of heart after dark falls. Bookings can be made online via Australian Ghost Adventures. |
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Winchelsea "Carols by the Barwon" |
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The evening of Saturday 12th December was fine, warm, sunny if occasionally a bit breezy - a great evening for Winchelsea's annual Carols by Candlelight event. With a raft of entertainment by the the banks of the river, hundreds of people gathered to enjoy singing along to the carol favourites brought by the Colac City Band, Geelong RSL Pipes & Drums, and Tiffany Eckhardt & Dave Steel.
The beautiful night was cool enough for everyone to really get into the spirit of this Christmas celebration. Santa came along early and spoke to every child brave enough to see him on the stage, with a chocolate gift for each one too.
The program included ;
- Winchelsea Playgroup
- Saxaphone duo Lachlan Brown and Jonnie Evans.
- Helen Mary Kininmonth Kindergarten
- Colac Rock and Roll Dancers
- Geelong RSL Pipes & Drums with Maureen King
- Madison Smith, Adam Stocks, and Lachlan Baulch
- Colac City Band with Maureen King
- Jayne Johns
- Sara Dixon
- Veronica McDonald
- Bec Campbell
- Tiffany Eckhardt and Dave Steel
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Princes Highway Duplication |
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The Princes Highway between Waurn Ponds (Geelong) and Winchelsea is scheduled for a major upgrade, to convert the highway to "M" Road status (two lanes in each direction). Funding has been set aside, and construction is due to start in late 2010 if planning approvals go to schedule. The project is expected to take three years to complete.
Official information is available from the VicRoads 'Roads and Projects' section - see the "Princes Highway Duplication - Waurn Ponds to Winchelsea" article. Note also the Update Bulletin which indicates the status of the project, with surveys and air-quality impact assessment completed and environmental assessments now underway.
There does seem to be confusion regarding the next stage of the overall highway improvement project ie. through or round Winchelsea town itself. No official position has been declared.
Residents of Winchelsea and properties between Winchelsea & Geelong, and also regular travellers of the section of highway affected, are urged to stay up-to-date with the project and VicRoads activities, and in particular to take advantage of any opportunities to provide feedback as part of VicRoads community consultations. To date, the consultation processes have been decidedly one way. |
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Lions Club "Light Up Winchelsea" Competition |
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The Lions Club of Winchelsea is again holding a competition with prizes for the best Christmas lights and decorations in the Winchelsea township. Lions judges will tour the town close to Christmas, at dusk or after, to pick out the top three efforts according to the impressiveness of the display - not necessarily the most lights!
Winners will be contacted and awarded their gift certificates at a ceremony in January. A total of $300 is being donated by the Winchelsea Lions for the best decorated houses or business premises.
The competition aims to encourage the festive season and community spirit in Winchelsea, and bring the crowds back to Winchelsea to see the displays as has happened in the past. |
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Kilwarrie Cottage Roses Open Garden |
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Over 100 years old and situated on the edge of the Barwon River, Kilwarrie Cottage is a locally-quarried bluestone home surrounded by River Red Gums. There are more than 450 varieties of roses in the rose garden, with many potted roses available for sale including new-release varieties as well as the favourites. Home-baked morning and afteroon Devonshire Teas are available in relaxing surroundings.
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Winchelsea Primary School has launched a newly revamped website - http://www.winchps.vic.edu.au/. The website makes use of a "content management system" which allows easier updating, similar to this Winchelsea.vic.au website, however as a part of the "sponsor-ed" program the School can generate funds according to the number of clicks (visitor activity) on the website.
The website is provided free to Winchelsea Primary School, and displays limited advertising down the side. Local businesses are able to advertise on the website with carefully targetted campaigns managed by the operators of the website infrastructed. Find out more about the sponsor-ed program at their website.
Winchelsea Primary School is aiming to keep the website regularly updated, and to turn into a central reference point for information about the school and its activities. |
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