Today I spoke with Mark Robinson on Gold Central Victoria radio about what's happening in the Central Goldfields Shire, filling in for the Council CEO.

I've always enjoyed radio as a medium and people tell me that I have a voice for it.

I used to do football previews and reports in Gippsland many years ago. I also helped out the ABC with livestock market reports when I worked for Stock and Land.

Here's the audio:

Transcript

Robbo (pictured): It's 7.14am. Well, yesterday, because of the Telstra thing, which by the way, if you've only just got up, is still affecting trains and that in the area as well, so keep an ear on our news. Tom will have an update for you at 7:30. But the phones yesterday were affected, so it meant we couldn't get through to the Central Goldfields Shire to speak to Michael Gorey, who is filling in for the CEO. Michael, good morning.

MG: Good morning, Robbo, and listeners, and another frosty one.

Robbo: Yes, certainly is that. Hey, there's a really interesting and fascinating display that you've got going, some Mayoral Chains. Tell us about that.

MG: Yes, Maryborough has a rich history, as listeners would know, dating back to the gold rush times and having those magnificent heritage buildings, including the railway station. And we've brought a piece of our cultural heritage back to Maryborough and it's in the Art Gallery on display now. I had a look at it yesterday and that's the mayoral chains from the former City of Maryborough. They date back to the 1950s and they're a really impressive set of regalia, quite valuable also, containing chains and gold links and so forth and they're engraved with the names of the mayors from a particular period of service and they represent a record of Maryborough's history and cultural heritage. Of course when Council amalgamation occurred in the 1990s, a lot of these things were lost to a certain degree. And these particular set of chains were put into storage for over 30 years. And they were most recently at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, and now they've come home. They're on display at the Central Goldfields Art Gallery, and anyone can go in there when the gallery is open and have a look at this piece of local history.

Robbo: Yeah, that is wonderful local history. I love that sort of stuff. All right, moving on now, sort of from the sublime to the ridiculous a bit, but Domestic Animal Management Plan, what's the latest on this one?

MG: Yeah, it's quite a contrast, isn't it, Robbo?

Robbo: Yes.

MG: Look, after extensive period of community consultation, council at its last meeting adopted its new Domestic Animal Management Plan. And like I say, there were over 90 people who shared their views on this particular topic in the most recent round of consultation. And some of the key things to come out of that are that over the next year or so, Council will be investigating and implementing a 24-hour cat curfew like exists in Bendigo, and we'll also be implementing dog on leash orders in public spaces, and there'll be further consultation occurring on those. Of course, Robbo, pets are a hot topic. If you've got one, you love them, normally, and if you're living next door to a barking dog or a menacing dog, then you don't like animals at all. So, this is a real balancing act for the council, and we think we've achieved that through extensive community consultation.

Robbo: Now I've seen the cat one, I'm a bit iffy on that, but I have seen not far from my place, I reckon they must be the best cat trainers in the world because there's about three of them. They all just sit on the veranda and look at you when you walk past and don't come out, don't come outside their property. So pretty good going, I reckon, to get them to do that. That's for sure. Wrangling cats.

MG: That's right.

Robbo: Yeah. Alrighty. Now the other thing we want to talk about are some advocacy issues. Tell us about these, Michael.

MG: Yes, well, Council adopted its advocacy package earlier this year, and in the lead-up to the state election in November, we're talking to political parties, candidates, the government, the opposition about a whole range of issues. And it's important to put it out there, given it's very topical at the moment, about the state of our roads in the Central Goldfields. And I've seen a lot of different media and commentary on social media and so forth in the last few days about potholes on roads, and residents should know that Council is advocating quite strongly for improvements to the state roads that are in our area. That includes the Maryborough-Dunolly Road, the Ballarat-Maryborough Road, and the highway from Maryborough through to Avoca and the other side to Newstead as well. And what we've found, Robbo, over time is that people don't necessarily understand the difference between state roads and local roads because in our community survey this issue always pops up as a hot one. Last year we actually tested it and asked people to identify the roads that they wanted Council to fix and would you believe it, the ones they wanted us to fix were actually state roads.

Like I mentioned a couple of them were the road to Dunolly and the road to Ballarat. So part of this is raising awareness about the difference between state roads and local roads and the other part is letting the community know that we are talking to political parties and candidates about the potholes and the deteriorating condition of the state roads that are in our area.

Robbo: No, fair enough too. Yeah, I've been talking about it on the morning show and also I went down last week to Melbourne, hadn't been for a while, and even the Calder, like I think to use a term, scheiße, with apologies to our German listeners, but it's not great, that's for sure.

MG: Oh look, I've heard the same, Robbo, about the Hume Freeway. It's not in very good shape either.

Robbo: No. I know something's gotta be done, that's for sure. Good on you, Michael. Listen, thanks. Great to chat and look forward to getting back to the regular time next week and we'll have a chat then.

MG: Terrific. Have a good day.

Robbo: Yeah, you too. Michael Gorey from the Central Goldfields Shire on the Wake Up Call with Gold Central Victoria.

• GoldFM/Gold Central Victoria